Utopian B-School Classroom Where Expectation Meets Reality

Author(s):  
Sonali Lakhera

The supremacy of some business schools like Harvard and IIMs in the ranking ladder makes them desirable to the students as compared to the clusters down the ladder. The result is a greater number of admissions in the former category as compared to the latter. The question that arises is, What makes the top-ranking institutions a class apart? The answer is, the creation of the product that is a class apart. The chapter discusses various means including the pedagogy and curriculum to make the business school classroom a conducive environment to create an elite class of future managers and entrepreneurs. The main objectives of this study are to understand the differences in the students and the need for reinventing the pedagogy as to suit the needs of individual student thus converting the conventional classrooms into utopian classrooms for them. The chapter also explains the importance and attributes of a good curriculum in a business school.

Author(s):  
Sonali Lakhera

The supremacy of some business schools like Harvard and IIMs in the ranking ladder makes them desirable to the students as compared to the clusters down the ladder. The result is a greater number of admissions in the former category as compared to the latter. The question that arises is, What makes the top-ranking institutions a class apart? The answer is, the creation of the product that is a class apart. The chapter discusses various means including the pedagogy and curriculum to make the business school classroom a conducive environment to create an elite class of future managers and entrepreneurs. The main objectives of this study are to understand the differences in the students and the need for reinventing the pedagogy as to suit the needs of individual student thus converting the conventional classrooms into utopian classrooms for them. The chapter also explains the importance and attributes of a good curriculum in a business school.


2021 ◽  
pp. 135050762110058
Author(s):  
Jerzy Kociatkiewicz ◽  
Monika Kostera ◽  
Anna Zueva

The aim of this article is both a pronouncement of doom and an offer of hope for the Western business school. Both come from the recognition that business schools are haunted and that the haunting spectre is none other than the capitalist ideology. We ground our thinking in the established rich ‘ghostly’ academic literature where the metaphor of the ghost is used to reveal the powerful agency of the unspoken-of and the unseen. Using three fictional ghostly tales as interpretive lenses, we make three arguments. First, we argue that capitalism is a ghost in the walls of the business school. Second, we suggest that capitalism’s ghostly nature prevents the business school from offering a curriculum that serves more than the growth of financial capital. Third, we propose that naming of capitalism is integral to the exorcism of its ghost and the creation of curriculum that engages with the social and environmental challenges of our times.


Organization ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 135050842110209
Author(s):  
Martin Parker

In this review I consider the 20 years that have passed since the publication of my book Against Management. I begin by locating it in the context of the expanding business schools of the UK in the 1990s, and the growth of CMS in north western Europe. After positioning the book within its time, and noting that the book is now simultaneously highly cited and irrelevant, I then explore the arguments I made in the final chapter. If the book is of interest for the next two decades, it because it gestures towards the importance of alternative forms of organization, which I continue to maintain are not reducible to ‘management’. Given the intensifying crises of climate, ecology, inequality and democracy, developing alternatives must be understood as the historical task of CMS within the business school and I propose a ten-point manifesto in support of that commitment.


2007 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 497-515 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue Shaw ◽  
Catherine Cassell

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide a piece of empirical work that examines gender differences in how academics make sense of performance within university business schools in the UK.Design/methodology/approachThe research reported draws on data collected using a life history and repertory grid methodology with male and female interviewees from two university business schools.FindingsThe findings are discussed in relation to how academics understand what is valued about their role and what they believe the organisation rewards and values when it comes to promotion. Gender differences are shown to exist in the ways women and men define the academic role and in what they think is important both to themselves and the institution.Originality/valueThe paper presents original data on gender differences within a business school context.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd Bridgman

This article considers the possibilities of, and threats to, the performance of a critical public role by business school faculty, based on an empirical study of UK research-led business schools. Its reference point is a recent debate about the 'relevance' of management education to management practice-a debate which has become polarized around nodal points of 'critical' and 'engaged' with the implication that engagement with external constituencies requires the suspension of critique and conversely, that critique of received wisdom is of little relevance to stakeholders. The notion of a critical engagement with the public asserts that business schools can serve a valuable democratic function as scrutinizers of organizational activity. This role is largely marginalized in prevailing conceptions of an increasingly commercialized business school, but the empirical study suggests there is some cause for optimism. The demonstration of 'relevance' does not have to involve the pursuit of a narrow commercialization agenda where the business school propagates a strictly managerialist view of the world. Copyright © 2007 Sage Publications.


Author(s):  
Todd Bridgman ◽  
Stephen Cummings ◽  
C McLaughlin

© Academy of Management Learning & Education. Although supportive of calls for business schools to learn the lessons of history to address contemporary challenges about their legitimacy and impact, we argue that our ability to learn is limited by the histories we have created. Through contrasting the contested development of the case method of teaching at Harvard Business School and the conventional history of its rise, we argue that this history, which promotes a smooth linear evolution, works against reconceptualizing the role of the business school. To illustrate this, we develop a "counterhistory" of the case method-one that reveals a contested and circuitous path of development-and discuss how recognizing this would encourage us to think differently. This counterhistory provides ameans of stimulating debate and innovative thinking about how business schools can address their legitimacy challenges, and, in doing so, have a more positive impact on society.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd Bridgman

This article considers the possibilities of, and threats to, the performance of a critical public role by business school faculty, based on an empirical study of UK research-led business schools. Its reference point is a recent debate about the 'relevance' of management education to management practice-a debate which has become polarized around nodal points of 'critical' and 'engaged' with the implication that engagement with external constituencies requires the suspension of critique and conversely, that critique of received wisdom is of little relevance to stakeholders. The notion of a critical engagement with the public asserts that business schools can serve a valuable democratic function as scrutinizers of organizational activity. This role is largely marginalized in prevailing conceptions of an increasingly commercialized business school, but the empirical study suggests there is some cause for optimism. The demonstration of 'relevance' does not have to involve the pursuit of a narrow commercialization agenda where the business school propagates a strictly managerialist view of the world. Copyright © 2007 Sage Publications.


Author(s):  
Phani Tej Adidam ◽  
R. Prasad Bingi ◽  
Birud Sindhav

This study uses the relationship marketing theory of commitment and trust as a framework to investigate the issue of student retention in business schools. Structural equation modeling was used to examine relationships specified by Morgan and Hunt's (1994) theory of relationship marketing.  Students' commitment to the business schools were determined by perceived benefits of attending the school, perceived similarity of values between the school and the students, and trust between the professors and the students.  Commitment increased intentions to remain at the business school.


2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 238-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Starr-Glass

Purpose This study aims to reflect on the dominance of a narrowly focused analytical approach within business schools, which provides an artificially fractured and disjointed understanding of the contextual complexities and interconnectedness that students will encounter in the future. This approach unnecessarily constrains sensemaking and inhibits creative response to future social and organizational complexity. As business schools and their graduates come under sustained scrutiny and criticism, it perhaps appropriate to reexamine and reframe their analytical bias. Design/methodology/approach The central direction taken in this study is that of critical reflection on the present author’s practice and experience in teaching undergraduate economics and accounting. Although the analysis may have limited generalizability, it is hoped that it may prove of interest and value to business school educators. Findings The preferential business school reliance on analytical perspectives suggest that they fail to appreciate the nature of business, its embeddedness in broader society and the competencies required by undergraduates and graduates. This study argues that an emphasis on holistic systems, synthetic fusion and an appreciation of complexity – rather than a reductive analytical agenda – might benefit business schools, their graduates and society at large. Originality/value This study provides an original, albeit personal, insight into a significant problem in business education. It offers original perspectives on the problem and presents faculty-centered suggestions on how business students might be encouraged and empowered to see quality as well as quantitative perspectives in their first-year courses.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-33
Author(s):  
Sazzad Parwez

This paper is based on the premises of economic development through the creation of economic enclaves across the region-seeking industrialization in the context of India. The study suggests that Special Economic Zones policy has attracted a considerable amount of export-oriented investment and production, employment creation, and technical know-how. However, the policy has not met the desired results considering the objective of economic development. Assessment leads to understanding that competitiveness of domestic firms and linkages with foreign affiliates can be strengthened by the adoption of institutional re-structuring to create the conducive environment for further industrialization. It may lead to related spillovers to have positive impacts on the overall economy.


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