diverse subjects in popular management courses like MBA?

Management expert Jagannath Rao Dasigi tells DNA that management graduates could benefit from exposure to other subjects which complement the skills they possess. Developing the right perspective in potential B-school graduates is what a business school should focus on doing. We teach our students to respect ethics and values, which goes a long way. We have inculcated the concept of Power Triad in our B-school curriculum, which focusses on three dimensions, including knowledge, skills and perspective-building. This provides MBA students a realistic idea of what the industry has in store for them. His or her understanding must not only come from a particular domain but also draw from other areas. I mean to say, seek solutions from rather unconventional sources. Sharing your experiences with others gives you an insight into handling complex situations at a later stage. The skills required by a manager for a job are vital to the ultimate success of the business. India is a source for global talent, followed by China, Africa, Latin America and Russia. We believe businesses should be ethically conducted. I think it is a great idea to introduce humanities in B-schools. I strongly advocate liberal arts be included in any course programme. One starts a job and builds it from the ground; the requirements include managing and interacting with people. It is good to appreciate others views because it tends to open your mind to other possibilities. Work towards your strengths instead of your weaknesses. Working towards a common goal and accepting people for who they are is the key to anybodys success.

DNA

We live in a brave new world where business schools face the challenge of preparing not just good financial engineers or accomplished management technicians, but also global citizens. Thus education delivered at business schools can and should be a personal transformation process. And this implies a constant state of learning. Against this view, some people might argue that it is impossible to learn or develop basic traits of character beyond a certain age. This tenet is based on outmoded Freudian theories in which personality features are acquired

and fixed prior to adolescence (more extreme versions claim they are formed in the womb). But a growing number of contemporary education theorists and psychologists accept that many skills and traits can be learned and developed in maturity if the necessary attitudes are cultivated. In fact, business schools' success is based on the idea that education and training can transform the lives of managers throughout their careersand that this in turn will positively affect the performance of their companies and society at large. Two of the most promising avenues for deepening the transformational nature of management education are the systematic training of management students in what might be called the "managerial virtues" and integrating the study of management and the humanities. Regarding the first, developing virtuesunderstood as habits or routines that form our characterhas been a core aspect of teaching in all societies throughout the ages. Virtues are operative good habits that are not innate but achieved through constant exercise. It is never too late to start practicing or perfecting these good habits, and they can make management education a transforming experience.

MARBLE LIBERATION
How can business schools help their students cultivate virtues and competencies? To answer this question, the best analogy, frequently used, is taken from the great artist Michelangelo, who believed that the job of the sculptor is to free the forms already inside the stone. The job of teachers can be interpreted in a similar way: i.e. freeing students' potential. Indeed, business schools provide a valuable platform for the cultivation of a series of virtues such as hard work, endurance, self-organization, sociability,

curiosity, modesty, and common senseall basics for good management. To help students develop their managerial virtues, business schools should combine general teaching methods such as classes, with personalized attention to students through individual learning solutions: one-to-one sessions, tutorials, coaching, and mentorship. This personalized approach identifies weaknesses and builds strengths in students by targeting the professional development of each person and drawing out their virtues where necessary. This focused attention requires classes that are smaller than the current standard of more than 80 students; ideally, classes should include no more than around 50. Interestingly, high-quality "blended" programs that combine face-to-face contact with on-line methodologies have an enormous potential to foster student's skills and competencies. They make a truly diverse class possible and require students to interact in a variety of mediums. My second proposal is to integrate the study of humanities into business programs. The structure of contemporary MBA programs has turned specialized, extremely so in some cases, falling into what is commonly known as the silo syndrome. The symptoms of this illness: academics working only with same-subject colleagues, and students gaining only a narrow perspective on knowledge. Making humanities a core part of all degrees will cement the learning experience and develop open-minded and wellrounded graduates.

ART THAT PROMOTES REFLECTION

This spirit inspires our new executive MBA program launched jointly by IE Business School and Brown University. We believe that by teaching modern art, for example, we nurture such skills as perception and

observation, typical of artists and architects, which may help the traditionally action-oriented manager be more reflective while assessing risk. Courses on foreign cultures may help them lead cross-cultural teams better in global companies. Modules on critical thinking may be of use to question unethical decisions imposed by their bosses in the future. Indeed, it is time to bring all the benefits of classical education to business schools. Likewise, given that management is all-pervasive and affects all social and professional activities, I suggest that it be taught across all degrees at universities. Behind every good professional practice is good management, although we notice this only when things don't work. Doctors should be able to run hospitals efficiently and provide patients with quality care. Architects should be capable of completing projects on time and under budget. Indeed, good and sustainable management should permeate all new university offerings if we want our graduates, regardless of their degrees, to improve the world.
Topmba

The Queen of England noted in November 2008 how awful the financial crisis was becoming and then asked the economists, "If these things were so large, how come everyone missed them?" It seems clear to us now, with hindsight. However, some commentators have gone a step further than the Queen and described the current financial crisis in more florid terms as the bankruptcy of the intellectual capital of Wall Street.

Shareholder value principle

Wall Street, of course, is associated with financial innovation, financially engineered managerial incentives, assumptions regarding rationality in economic life, efficient markets, the shareholder value principle, quantitative risk management models, corporate governance metrics and so on. These topics are very familiar to MBA students and academics. Therefore, the business school community faculty and alumni together- should turn this crisis into an opportunity to re-think some of the core assumptions in MBA curricula. After the Enron and WorldCom corporate scandals, business schools responded by introducing or increasing courses on business ethics and corporate governance. This current crisis also calls for re-visiting the curriculum. Business schools have always been responsive to business trends and changes in the economy and do not wait for a crisis to happen to self-examine. Globalization, for example, has transformed both pedagogical and epistemological aspects of business education because managers have started to operate in a qualitatively different and much more uncertain business environment. This current crisis is too big and too complicated to be ignored by business school curricula. Although each school will respond in a uniquely different way I believe there are some common lessons to be learned. Since this crisis highlighted a disconnectedness of a highly interconnected finance industry from its customers and the society at large, business schools need to introduce elements to their programs where the social value of business is as visible as shareholder value principle. This should be done in a much more intellectually robust manner than it is currently observed on various courses on business school curricula. New business school initiatives like courses on social innovation can be further developed to play such central role in MBA teaching.

Social value
In addition to introducing the concept of social value into the curriculum in various innovative ways to counterbalance the shareholder value principle, business schools need to strike an academic balance between utilitarian objectives and critical, out-of-the box thinking. What this crisis has shown is that MBA education as a postgraduate degree has had very little, if any, self-doubt in its curriculum. Of course too much self-doubt leads to indecisiveness and inaction. But unchecked and self-righteous certitude can bring us down as it lacks a critical balance, which was amply in evidence during this crisis. There was almost religious belief in the markets ability to deliver solutions to complex economic problems. Recent financial innovations such as synthetic securitization, credit default swaps, and managerial remuneration packages were believed to be universally applicable scientific solutions to the problems of finance. Business school teaching needs to examine the limits of what the market economy can deliver to all stakeholders and reflect this in research and engagement with business. In the eyes of the society at large, bankers with large bonuses who brought down their banks and caused a historical economic crisis are currently being scapegoated for the worlds current financial and economic problems. Though this seems unfair, it is not, however, unfair to ask the question whether it was a lack of critiquing of the claims of modern finance and management that played a major role in the current crisis.

Managerial relevance
It is not incorrect to say that most business school teaching instills certitude and is prescriptive in most subjects from strategy to finance. In many ways this mode of teaching is suited to the vocational aspects of MBA educationand serves the interests of all MBA constituencies well. Of course the managerial relevance of MBA teaching is important and the MBA is not a research degree that leads to an academic career. Nevertheless there is a tendency to cloud business school teaching with scientific discourse mostly borrowed from physical sciences. However, most business school subjects have affinity with humanities subjects rather than science, where knowledge is usually treated as historical and contingent. Therefore the so-called Faustian pact of business schools with self-interest can and should be broken by introducing to the curriculum subjects like history of science and history of business. Also the emphasis on markets needs to be balanced with considerations about the broader social context of business.

Social responsibility, ecological concerns and social innovation are already on many business school curricula but more investment in these areas is needed. Method of thinking is equally important. Business schools should introduce critical thinking on the curriculum for students to be aware that what they learn may not be applicable to all situations at all times. Students should be encouraged to apply critical thinking on all courses and must be made aware of the normative nature of most social science based courses to which MBA courses belong. Students should be intellectually equipped to deal with complications rather than trained to simplify complex business issues. One such simplification that has dominated most MBA teaching is the assumption that shareholder value is something that is achievable and can solve the problems of economic efficiency, prosperity and growth all at once. We have seen ample examples of corporate misbehaviour and excessive remuneration in banking that encouraged risky behaviour justified by shareholder value rhetoric. Business school teaching that is based on shareholder value maximization can easily turn it into an ideology where truth becomes a victim of good intentions. This crisis has shown that the vocational and professional priorities on MBA courses that form the basis of educational objectives need to balanced with critical and reflective thinking habits.