Management Course OR Mis-Managed Course

MBA degree is one of the most sought after degree these days. And when we ask the important question -WHY?? we get answers such as it teaches management of operations, finances, human resource, sales etc of an organization (apart from the primary answer of handsome pays) . But the irony is that course which expected to teach management is itself mismanaged.

Sleeping in classes, spending zillion man hours for a few hours’ event, plagiarism, inadequate teaching infrastructure, cheating in exams, outdated teaching pedagogy and the list goes on and on. The issues are both from the management side as well as the students’ side. Students have developed the habit of calling meetings for anything and everything without realizing the importance of conducting a meeting. Only few of the expected attendees would turn up for meeting and even fewer on time. The sad part is that even after passing out, these habits would stay in their work-life. If getting late to the classes is allowed, then they will never try to be on time to work. Meetings would never be taken seriously unless something major is at stake. They will try to find an easy way out (as they have been used to cheating), rather than the best way and even for the concepts taught in class, they will end up googling.

Is only management at fault? Not fully. Apart from them, the students are also at fault. The seniors proudly pass over the trend to the next batch, who in majority of cases does not think before repeating the mistakes. It should be understand that “Only change is constant” and hence keep on improving the system so that students end up making the most out of this course.

Then what’s the solution: I won’t give recommendations here as a consultant but would just say that effort is required from institute, teachers and students. Students are at the loosing end because of these inefficiencies. Even “Cheating” is against their well-being. People who don’t cheat end up loosing more and hence, sooner or later, they too enter the world of cheating. I have witnessed such a case where one of my friend who gave up cheating later on realized that he was loosing too much and hence to maintain the grade, he was again sharing answers in the examination hall. And when all students start cheating, then they all are once again at par. Or should I say, no benefit in relative terms.
Till the time efforts are put in to remove these inefficiencies, I don’t think the cost in terms of time, money and effort would match the benefit realized from such a course.