Management Education: retrospect and prospect

Abstract

Confining its scope to management institutes that offer two-year full-time programmes in India, this paper traces the genesis of Management Education, its growth, current status and future directions. In the last decade, MBA has gained significant attention by the career seekers, parents, and corporate recruiters and the unprecedented surge of management institutes has played a catalytic vital role. Classifying the existing management institutes into three clusters, an attempt has been made to explain how one cluster is following the other, on three critical aspects that contribute to the success, viz. y Input, Throughput and Output. Explaining the constituent factors in each of these aspects, their convergence and divergence across institutes, an objective assessment of them has been attempted. The roles of stakeholders' perspectives, ambitions and resultant social pressures have been highlighted. The lacunae existing in the present status of management schools have not only been identified but also strategies and responsibilities lying with various stakeholders are suggested. The faithful followership of premier schools like 11 Ms in emulating their western counterparts in the philosophy, design, pedagogy and evaluation of the MBA curriculum has been critically looked at. The conditions that are resulting in socially induced pressures to conform as experienced by non-IIMs and other institutions have been elucidated and their implications explained. The collective social responsibility and integrative role of management institutes irrespective of their taxonomy, with the explicit support from other stakeholders like students, parents, recruiting corporates and policy makers has been highlighted as the agenda for future.