Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/62201
Moving Forward In many ways, change has become as much a given in busi- ness schools as it is in business. Understanding and acting on the forces and factors that are likely to have greatest impact on business schools can help us move ahead at full speed. I submit that our most critical, current issues lie in the areas of internationalization, integration of disciplines, learning and practice, and societal responsibilities. Internationalization. Not so long ago, only large organizations were international. That scenario has changed. Every day, a growing number of small- and mid-sized firms are becom- ing more globalized so that they can create and maintain competitive advantages. In the international arena, companies may find themselves in confusing, self-governing environments where regulations may be vague or nonexistent. None of the legal or cultural guarantees to which the managers are accustomed may be in place. To operate in such an environment, exceptional man- agers are needed. They must be capable of interpreting high- ly complex political, cultural, and economic variables; and they must be capable of holding their own in the face of ambiguity. They must be sensitive to differences and know how to adapt themselves to different environments. This kind of mind-set can only be developed in educa- tional environments with a markedly international slant in terms of participants, faculty, vision, and content. These environments must be truly multicultural and diverse, where participants can immerse themselves, question and be ques- tioned, and give and receive, all at the same time. Only in such settings is it possible to develop the skills required to handle complex intercultural situations. Creating these kinds of managers and environments is a critical challenge for business schools. Integration of Disciplines. I agree with Mintzberg when he says that management is a transdisciplinary and integrative pro- fession. In practice, however, we continue to divide our curricula into watertight disciplinary compartments. The professor of finance may translate one business case into discounted cash flows; the strategy professor may see it relating to the development of core competencies. The marketing professor may see it as a question of brand build- ing, and the human resource professor as a process of cul- tural transformation. The reduction of problems into disci- plines obviously makes them more manageable, but at the 40 Simulators, interactive cases, collaborative and constructionist learning methods, and mixed teaching models will replace many of our current methodologies. cost of dangerously restricting the space where we look for possible solutions. Management training should help participants explore the limits of their particular specialities, find and define problems, and understand the spaces where available solu- tions lie by looking at them from the perspective of other disciplines. Some schools, including our own, are experi- menting with different models of multidisciplinary integra- tion; but this kind of exploration—which I consider to be essential—still has a long way to go. Learning and Practice. The classroom has proven to be a good place for reflection, for getting away from the pressures of the moment and for learning. Sometimes, however, the result of this learning process is too far removed from the realm of professional practice; and that distance can limit the real value obtained from investment in training. The distance could be physical, temporal, or, in the worst of cases, cultural. BizEd MAY/JUNE 2003