Management education in India: avoiding the simulacra effect

Abstract

About 10 years ago, I reflected on the challenges of management education in India and argued that there was a need to protect it from the damaging effects of rankings by media (Ojha in Decision 32(2):19–33, 2005). A request to revisit and update the paper provided me a chance to examine the developments in the last decade to assess how things had evolved, and also an opportunity to anticipate some of the problems that the field might have to face in the future. I have chosen to examine the impact of accreditations of prominent management institutes in India, including the Indian Institutes of Management, by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) on management education in India. Continuing the spirit of my earlier reflections, I caution the leadership teams in management institutes to guard against losing control over the agenda and relevance of management education for India as they pursue global aspirations. Drawing on Baudrillard (Simulacra and simulation. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1994), I argue that unless management educators are alert to the long-term implications of externally driven accreditations there is a real danger that management education in India may be reduced to “Simulacra” that has no relevance to the issues and problems of our society, even as attempts to mimic management education in the USA may lead to an elusive mirage. Finally, as I did a decade ago, I appeal to the prominent management institutes, including the IIMs, to work together to develop and protect management education that is relevant to India.