Thinking, analysing, negotiating and decision-making skills: "Negotiation and competitive decision-making" is the title of a training programme, offered by Harvard Business School.
In this programme, participants learn to understand their thought processes regarding negotiation, to compare rational and intuitive decision-making strategies, and to identify common mistakes made by even the most experienced professionals.
By focusing on competitive environments, the programme draws on some of the most advanced concepts from the emerging areas of behavioural economics, behavioural decision research, and behavioural finance.
We should benefit from valuable contributions on these topics by contemporary writers like Norman Vincent Peale and Edward DeBono, but we should also develop indigenous programmes in consonance with our cultural milieu and lessons from the Holy Quran and traditions of the Holy Prophet (PBUH).
Case studies play a significant role in developing analytical skills. Here again, we do not have enough Pakistani cases.
We need to revive Pakistan Case Clearing House, which was set up in 1968 with active participation from IBA Karachi, IBA Dhaka, NILAT, NIPA, PASC, PIM and WPMA, but ceased working in 1971, after publishing about 100 case studies and two annotated bibliographies.
With participation from a large number of private universities, public-private partnerships among educational institutions, business organisations, research institutes, government agencies and professional bodies, we should organise regular training programmes and workshops to develop skills in case-writing and teaching through case method.
SOCIAL SKILLS Education is more than just academic learning. It should provide students with the skills to make moral and ethical decisions, help prepare them for active participation in a democracy, and allow students to fully access and engage in the economy and live as responsible citizens within a community.
Employers seek to minimise their risk by hiring candidates who possess a specific combination of skills, experience and industry knowledge.
Social awareness, social reforms, social marketing, corporate social responsibility and social entrepreneurship are some of the issues that have become the focus of attention in recent years.
Growing popularity of the World Social Forum, as an alternative to the World Economic Forum, supports this hypothesis. Acquisition of social skills not only helps business graduates in meeting social and environmental needs of the stakeholders, it also helps in turning these needs into business opportunities.
BUSINESS ETHICS In 1970s, Harvard Business Review undertook a study of ethical conduct in business organisations. With the creation of the Center for Business Ethics (CBE) in 1976, Bentley College has continually promoted a sense of ethics and social responsibility through teaching, research, and corporate and community relations for the past three decades.
A survey of about 1500 managers and chief executives was conducted by American Management Association in 1983. It revealed a close link between personal and organisational values; compatibility between the two being essential for organisational and personal effectiveness.
In 2003, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), a standards-setting body which has all the top business schools among its members, introduced new rules on teaching ethics in their curriculum. Some business-school academics want the AACSB to go further and make teaching a course in business ethics compulsory for accredited institutions.
Ethics Education Resource Center has recently published a report (2004) on Ethics in Business Schools. Harvard and Stanford are among those business schools that have introduced regular courses in ethics.
At Tuck, a top-ranking school at Dartmouth College, MBA students are taught case studies of moral dilemmas by members of seven different faculties, including marketing, strategy and finance.
The Leadership and Values Initiative, led by Harvard Business School students, in partnership with faculty and staff, integrates ethics and values into the student experience at HBS.
We have yet to make an effective beginning toward encouraging business students and teachers to think reflectively and critically about ethical aspects of business administration. Indigenous textbooks, based on teachings of the Holy Quran, Ahadith and traditions of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and his companions, ethical standards of a just monetary, economic and social system, moral values of an egalitarian society, and writings of learned scholars must be developed in right earnest.
TEAMWORK AND LEADERSHIP According to Peter Grazier, CEO of Teambuilding, Inc, "many of the problems we see in workplace teams are directly related to our early programming that teaming is for play and not really meant for real work." If we can bring home to our students that as managers they will have to take the lead in understanding the subordinates' needs and situational demands; and in making adjustments with them.
Business schools, training institutes, researchers, writers and publishers in other parts of the world have made significant contribution to literature and training material on teamwork, leadership and teambuilding from the initial stage of forming to the final stage of performing.
Institutions like the Center for Creative Leadership, offer a wide spectrum of specialised services, customised solutions and continuous support to leaders and potential leaders in different parts of the world.
These include: books, handbooks, guides, workbooks, articles, research studies, publication alerts, excerpts, case studies, training programmes, conferences, seminars, workshops on different aspects of sustainable leadership, community groups, team and organisational assessment resources, self-assessment instruments, certification, research awards, grants, strategic partnerships, comprehensive leadership development programes, professional journals and interactive websites.
In 2002-03, about 20,000 students, including some executives from Citigroup, Nokia, Unilever, Xerox and American military, took classes at five campuses of the Center for Creative Leadership in United States, Brussels, and Singapore.
What we have done so far leaves much to be desired.
GLOBALIZATION AND INTERNATIONALISM According to the former prime minister of Malaysia, WTO and GATT were used to promote the idea of globalisation and internationalism, which is seen by the West as an opportunity to break down the barriers brought about by dissolution of their empires and emergence of myriad independent countries, aiming at reverting them to the colonial status.
According to the Rector of International Islamic University Malaysia, globalization is having a profound impact on education. Higher education is now part of the global market place.
"Commodification" of higher education would affect the way teachers perceive their role. Conflict is bound to arise between the humanistic goals of education and the materialistic ethos involved in the new educational enterprise.
It is generally believed that the negative implications of globalisation, especially for the poor and weak nations, outweigh the positive impact. Violent protests against globalisation in different parts of the world also speak volumes about the long-run repercussions of this phenomenon.
We need to do our own research and develop our own literature on globalisation to supplement, or complement, or contest the views presented by the rich and the mighty.
CHANGE MANAGEMENT Development and change are closely interrelated. There can be no development without change. In progressive organisations, change management is a conscious, proactive and continuous process. Those who resist change are left behind.
Those who make adjustments and adaptations to changing views, values, opinions, beliefs, perceptions, mindsets, attitudes, habits, relationships, alliances, structures, plans, programmes, ground realities and competitive strategies, are the ones who reap the rich harvest.
We should teach our students to act as catalysts and change agents; to anticipate and welcome change; to make preparations for adjusting, adapting and responding to change; to adopt the proactive approach of initiating, facilitating and sustaining change; because change, as Shakespeare put it, is the order of the day. Luckily, there is no dearth of literature and teaching material on this topic.
The University Press (Dhaka) has published 51 papers presented at the 3rd Academic Conference of AMDISA on Management of Change in South Asia (1994). These and scores of other books, articles and research papers offer a rich source of material for teaching change management.
ENQUIRY, INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP Organised research and writing assignments undertaken by faculty and students of Nanyang Business School (Singapore) have resulted in production of over a dozen different books, published by reputed international publishers.
According to a recent issue of the on-line journal from Teachers College. Columbia University, during the last decade, scholars, non-profit practitioners, donors and policy makers have increasingly focused on the work of social entrepreneurs.
By actively developing opportunities for social innovation, social entrepreneurs have taken on prominent roles in the field of development. Their work has been highlighted at the World Economic Forum, and its "alternative" counterpart, the Social Forum. Organisations and foundations are providing a wide range of resources to enable social entrepreneurs to create social change.
Additionally, an increasing number of academic programmes around the world are promoting research and training on the subject.
TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING Many students in developed countries, including some of our Asian neighbours and some Pakistanis too, now use a variety of sophisticated gadgets of information technology and mobile communication.
In many cases, their technical skills are more advanced than those of their teachers. In the developed countries too, "there are still many traditional teachers who resist learning new computer skills and do not want to bring computer-based technologies into their classrooms".
On the other hand, there are institutions like the College of New Rochelle in New York, which is converting all classrooms, libraries and public areas into a wireless workplace so that students and teachers can access the Internet and each other all the time. In Pakistan, according to Muhammad Ahmed, CEO of A.L.M. Consulting, nearly all business schools require at least two IT related courses; ie, Introduction to IT and MIS.
However, most of the business courses do not integrate the technological impact. He insists that IT should not be treated as an isolated component of the curriculum. Instead, it should be diffused in the entire curriculum of a business school.
Fortunately, organisations like International Society for Technology in Education (www.iste.org), ISTE--Pakistan (www.iste.org.pk), Intel Education (www.intel.com), The Foundation for Independent Higher Education (www.fihe.org), RAND Institute of Education and Training (www.rand.org).
The Chronicle of Higher Education (www.chronicle.com), FPCCI Standing Committee on IT, Catco International Pakistan (www.catcointernational.com) and kalpoint.com (facultypk.com), are extending a helping hand to teachers who want to make use of the latest technology to improve the scope and quality of their teaching methodology.
University of North Carolina assists educators in integrating information technology tools into teaching with the help of Technology Source archives (http://technologysource.org).
The process of integrating technology into teaching is not without pangs and problems, but "instead of asking how technologies might fit in the current situation, (we should explore) how education might be most profitably restructured to exploit the technology" (www.rand.org); lest the taught may retort: Teacher, teach thyself!
(Concluded)
Comments
Comments are closed.