The Challenge to Western Management Development

International Alternatives

Julia Davies, Mark Easterby-Smith, Sarah Mann, Morgan Tanton, Julia Davies, Mark Easterby-Smith, Sarah Mann, Morgan Tanton

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781351251143
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Originally published in 1989. Given the increasing amount of economic competition at a global level, the quality and provision of management education is coming under very close scrutiny in a large number of countries, both in developing countries where management is relatively new, and in developed countries where it is more established.

This book aims to enable debates within any one country to be placed within a wider context. It is based on eighteen contributions from experts in countries around the world who review the state of management education and the problems and priorities that are currently faced.

Anyone concerned about the future of management education in any one country – whether they be policy makers or workers within the system – will find this book of particular value. It will also be extremely useful for the discerning clients of management development not because it gives a guide to individual institutions or courses, but because it contextualises many of the key issues and choices involved in the provision and use of management education.

Part I

The historical context

1

Is the Western view inevitable? A model of the development of management education

Morgan Tanton and Mark Easterby-Smith

Centre for the Study of Management Learning, University of Lancaster

Introduction

Two years ago we were commissioned to carry out a short investigation into the training needs of management teachers around the world.¹ The study was based on data received from fifty-five management teachers in twenty-one countries² who had been asked to describe what they thought were the main problems for management education in their own countries.

Our analysis quickly showed some common patterns. In over half of the countries surveyed the following were identified as the major problems:

1. lack of academic recognition of management education;
2. lack of funds and facilities;
3. lack of suitably qualified teachers;
4. lack of relevant national literature; and
5. lack of industry-university collaboration.

Given the prevalence of these problems it is likely that they are not easily solvable. Our data gave us little guidance about what could, or should, be done, so we decided to delve further. After a while we found patterns emerging. There were similarities in the problems encountered in several groups of countries. These could be linked to the structures and methods of management education in each case, and to some extent to the wider economic circumstances of the country.

We grouped countries with similar management education systems into five main developmental stages. In doing this we were influenced by the economic development model of Rostow (1960) which claims that national economies can be classified according to distinct stages, and there is a kind of inevitability with which a country will, over time, ‘develop* from one stage to the next. This assumption of inevitability has been strongly criticized in various quarters (Chase-Dunn, 1975) and we too do not suggest that movement of management education from one stage to the next is necessarily inevitable. We shall return to discuss our misgivings and the limitations of the model nearer the end of this paper, but first we would like to present the model and explain some of its immediate implications. In doing this we hope to demonstrate that there are very different patterns of management education around the world and that the problems in any one country may be a function of the stage of development of each national system. Thus the kind of solution that works in one country may be quite wrong in another country. In addition we hope to provide a general framework against which some of the contributions in this book may be located.

Developmental Stages of Management Education

We have given the following labels to the five main phases: starting up, growing, establishing, consolidating, and integrating. In this section we will illustrate each of these phases with examples drawn from different countries. We emphasize that it may be unhelpful to try to classify national systems as a whole within one phase or another. The model is intended as a ‘generalized ideal type’ rather than as an accurate description of any particular systems. Thus we only intend that the different features of a national system should cluster around a given stage. In the third part of the paper we will discuss some ways that the model may be used, before reviewing its main limitations.

Phase 1 - starting up

The characteristics of this phase are that small family businesses dominate within the national economy. These family businesses rely upon a set of values and ethics based on emotion and family. The need for management education programmes is not recognized by these families. The practical application of rational methods is difficult because the successful business-owners are unable to see the necessity of academic training. In this phase there are very few business schools and those there are, are constrained to teach subjects with easily visible skills, such as accounting and finance. At this stage of development the institutions rely on the lecture method and the student’s role is passive, studying techniques which apply to organizational structure and systems rather than considering personal development.

An example of a country at the beginning of this phase is Botswana. The majority of its people are subsistence farmers. In 1980 the sole university in the country, the University of Botswana, introduced a Bachelor of Commerce degree programme for the first time, enabling those interested in management to major in this area, although to a limited extent. Most of the students of business studies now choose to major in accounting or finance since these two areas offer good job opportunities.

Phase 2 - growing

As businesses develop, products become more complex and organizational competition increases and therefore more sophistication is required to cope with the growing demands. At this phase, for the first time, an international perspective is introduced as products are bought and sold in new markets; the administrative systems are recognized as unsatisfactory and the previously productive short-term goals are seen as inadequate. Similarly, managers who coped with the businesses’ needs until this time of expansion begin to reflect the stress of their situation.

At this phase a demand for management education grows and new institutions open. Many of the institutions are private, non-academic schools which teach skills and subjects necessary for young, inexperienced managers. The courses taught are seen to have immediate application and again the emphasis is on organizational methods and structures. In order to cope with demands for courses, where possible, programmes are imported from more developed countries and the help of experts is brought in from abroad. Managers who have been successful in business are transferred to business schools although they have no experience of teaching methods.

Pakistan provides an example of a country located in this phase. Management courses are offered by institutions other than universities, such as the Ministry of Production. Public and business management are still being run by non-professionals. Even in the public sector and in a few private large enterprises there are limited numbers of people who have received adequate management education, whereas in small business organizations there is hardly anyone having received even basic education. Pakistan still uses many foreign experts.

Phase 3 - establishing

In the third phase government policy recognizes the need for formal training if businesses are to compete with overseas trade, and industries begin to question the relevance of management training for their employees. In this phase, high priority begins to be given to funding and resources become available as grants are given by both governments and large corporations in an effort to improve output.

As government support is given, universities establish management education programmes and the subjects and courses offered increase to new levels. Young academics, having obtained training overseas, return with new methods and knowledge and difficulties may arise in the institutions as the young, newly qualified teachers struggle to express their new thoughts and adapt the new techniques within the environment of the older generation of teachers who may feel threatened by the influx of new ‘foreign’ information.

As the young, newly trained academics return to their own countries, they produce relevant academic material and research develops in their own culture. In this phase insufficient courses are offered in some subjects although large numbers of courses are offered in general business skills courses by numerous institutions. Teachers become mobile within their own linguistic and cultural regions.

An example of a country largely in this phase is Singapore. The situation there was encapsulated by one respondent in the following terms: ‘Manpower is the only resource therefore the government is investing in programmes such as management development. This has caused the number of courses to mushroom and there are too many courses competing for students.’

Phase 4 - consolidation

In Phase 4, the number of courses offered continues to exceed demand and the competition between course providers leads to greater sophistication and a higher quality of programmes. As the less competent teachers retire and some schools close, others are able to consolidate and focus their resources more efficiently to achieve a higher level of management teaching and academic recognition. In this phase new methods of teaching are sought and traditional methods are rejected. A split becomes apparent between trainers who focus on skills and behaviour, and educationalists who aim to provide a broader understanding of the techniques and processes of management. The latter may become dominant. Thus the demands of abstract analysis and the generation of ideas and concepts may take priority over technical skills transference. The development of the individual becomes an acceptable goal.

Handy (1975) described contrasting philosophies of management education from the ‘instrumental view of learning to the ‘existential’. It is largely in this phase that the transition takes place with the deductive, subject-based lecture method changing towards the individual-centred programmes where teachers lead individuals to develop their own ideas and concepts with the goal of drawing out individual talents.

In this phase the Government may start to withdraw funding (in the UK this has been fairly continual since the late 1970s) and cost-effectiveness may be questioned by industry. Small companies begin to accept the need for management education, but evaluation becomes a major concern and business schools attempt to justify their courses in terms of financial return.

In this developmental phase, most new staff will have obtained their qualifications in their own country, and will, therefore, show a marked preference for using locally developed materials. Experience-based teaching methods, with role play, training games, workshops, projects and group work will become established, and training programmes become more complex as their design and planning progress to an organic participative model.

Phase 5 - integrating

In this, the most diverse phase, industries recognize management education, not as an unrealistic cure-all, but as a collaborator. Conferences and workshops are held with the two forces meeting to exchange and develop ideas. A global approach is accepted and teachers and trainers recognize that learning can cross national barriers, in both directions. Consultants pass from nation to nation as methods and techniques are sifted and disseminated.

Table 1.1 Five-Phase development model of management education(ME)

International networking is dominant in this phase and recognition is given to tailor-made programmes, particularly for senior executives, and post-experience courses become a norm for all competitive companies. The topic of change is tackled as a vital subject of study, as new problems and technological dilemmas are regularly introduced. In this phase the development of the individual is recognized as a necessary element for successful business and human skills are given priority using the culture of the nation as a basis for appropriate exercises.

A high quality of student is attracted to management education, and innovation increases as these students research and create new concepts, thoughts and ideas. It is possible that in this phase, diversification is also greater, and management education is seen as vital for the efficiency of new, alternative areas, i.e. trade union management and co-operatives, as well as within the public sector.

It is possible to regard some facets of management education in the US as being within this phase. This is indicated by the increasing emphasis placed on human skills and the attempts to re-design management education to cope with the rapid changes which are taking place. But much of management education in the US is still firmly rooted in earlier phases. Similarly, there are pockets of industries in the UK with management development practices that would fit well into this fifth phase. But recent research by Mangham and Silver (1986) shows that these companies of excellence in the UK are regrettably still in the minority.

The main features of these five phases are summarized in Table 1.1. We hope that this will enable people to see their own situations in a broader perspective, and that it will also provide a framework from which experiences may be exchanged and compared.

Implications and Applications

Perhaps the strongest use of the model is to help those responsible for management education to clarify the choices involved and to anticipate the problems that may result from future policies. For example, we can take the case of China which might be plotted in between Phases 2 and 3 at the present time. Strong Government approval and support has been given to management education in recent years. All managers are now obliged to take courses, but Chinese management education is nearer to Phase 1 in terms of teaching methods. Almost all teaching, even to senior managers, is based on the lecture method. Lectures are long and are rarely combined with discussions or practical work. However, experts from overseas are being brought in, in substantial numbers, to develop the country’s management education system quickly, and they are also introducing large numbers of language teachers to enable their communication to be improved quickly in line with the need for an international perspective.

According to this model, as China moves into Phase 3, teaching methods are likely to include greater emphasis on case method, and appro...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• PART I The historical context
• PART II The challenges generated by cross-cultural transfer
• PART III The challenges generated by social and political change
• PART IV The challenges generated by questioning current practice
• Basic statistics
• Index