Posted on May 24, 2011
Administrator

This Action steps are written by Gabel landis . This raises the questions he posed for the panel. Exactly how might you operationalize the changes you think necessary at your school? What management instruments are relevant? How will you change them?

 
Our conference on responsible management in Africa is now history, and if it is to prove a success, it is because many of you who attended are thinking about changes you hope to make at your school now that you are back home. But how will these changes be brought about? Directors of business schools really have little direct power. They do not typically have the power to dictate to their faculty what research projects to pursue. Nor to they control what goes on in the classrooms. Directors’ power is indirect: if they want to make changes, those changes must be operationalized by action steps at the level of their schools’ policies, procedures, and practices which in turn influence the research and teaching of the faculty and the learning of the students.
 
 
To focus the discussion, I listed a number of these instruments, and I have added here a few examples of what I have in mind.
 
1. student admissions criteria (example: if you do not already do it, will you insist that all MBA applicants be interviewed?)
 
2. curriculum: courses, syllabi, materials, and the pedagogy (example: is it better to have a dedicated course on ethics, elective or required, or should all ethics material be integrated into other courses? If the latter, how will you be sure the faculty embrace the change?)
 
3. programs (example: might you launch an executive course on ethical leadership? Is there a market for that?)
 
4. faculty selection criteria (example: would your objective be better met with a more academic or a more practitioner faculty profile? If the latter, would research suffer?)
 
5. faculty mentoring, development, and evaluation
 
6. faculty compensation and reward system
 
7. student career counseling
 
8. research funding
 
9. your school’s own administrative practices
 
This list is surely not complete, and you should feel free to extend it.
 
It is important to think hard about how these concrete action steps because Deans, as change agents, face a couple of obstacles.
 
First, as noted above, they have little direct power over what their faculty do in their research and teaching.  
 
Second, not all faculty may agree as to what constitutes “responsibility” and to whom management owes it. This is not because they favor irresponsible management, but rather because intelligent and ethical people may have legitimate disagreements regarding management’s obligations to shareholders vs. other stakeholders.

 

 


Posted on October 27, 2010
Administrator

This paragraph was written by Guy Pfeffermann.  As African Business Schools - what are our thoughts on this?

Some top business schools are opening up branches in Africa. What is their likely impact on business education on the Continent ?

CEIBS, the China Europe International Business School, the highest-rated in China, established a branch in Accra, Ghana (see:http://www.economist.com/whichmba/ceibs-in-ghana). Other international business schools have established beachheads on the Continent or are looking into Africa's market potential. This new trend was a major subject of discussion at a joint conference of the European Foundation for Management Development and the Association of African Business Schools (Building a Business School in the XXI st Century - the Africa Case - http://www.efmd.org/index.php/conferences-learning-groups/1424-efmd-joint-africa)

One set of issues has to do with quality assurance, as some of the foreign schools turn out to be "fly-by-night". The more interesting discussion revolved around the following questions: do foreign schools contribute to strengthening local management education capacity ? What is the likely impact of these schools, which tend to target the "top of the market", on the local business schools, many of which are still in their early years of development ? How might branches of foreign schools contribute most effectively to the development of local management education talent ?

 

Tag GBSN, AABS, CEIBS, Business Schools, Management Education, EFMD,

Posted on October 15, 2009

My most exciting teaching moment can be traced back to 1980 when I was working as a Tutorial Assistant under one Dr. Kadumula Khan who was teaching a course “Financial Management” to third year finalist Bachelor of Commerce students at the University of Dar es Salam.

It was mandatory for me, as a Tutorial Assistant, to attend all classes conducted by Dr. Khan and help him with cleaning the blackboard (by then there were no power point projectors and no white boards) and I had to conduct tutorials and seminars.

One day the Dean of the Faculty, Prof. Ken Edwards asked Dr. Khan to give me opportunity to give a lecturer on any one of my chosen topic from the syllabus. I found this to be quite challenging since I had never in my life time faced an audience of about 150 people, leave alone presenting an academic lecture. I chose a topic which was close to the last topics on the course outline so that I could have enough time to prepare myself.

When the great day came, my biggest surprise was that not only Dr. Khan, my mentor, was in the lecture hall, but also the Dean of the faculty. It had been widely publicized that I was the one presenting a lecture that day, hence the lecture hall was fully packed with students.

Although I had over-prepared myself for the lecture but as the lecture day came closer I felt less and less confident and nervous. At the beginning of my lecture students were unusually attentive and as I began introducing the topic the whole lecture hall was dead-silent such that even a drop of a pin could have been heard. This made me feel even more nervous. I started sweating, but fortunately I immediately gathered confidence and started the lecture.

I had prepared my lecturer to last one hour and I had rehearsed three times to test my self on the timing. To my big surprise at the end of the lecture, I got such a big applaud of appreciation from students which I never expected, particularly because students at University of Dar es Salam had a culture of booing at any presenter who sounded boring to them. I had made it!!

When we left the lecture room students surrounded me expressing their appreciation of my presentation, something that left sweat dripping all over my body. The Dean immediately invited me to his office and poured a lot of praises on me. He even offered me a cup of coffee - something a Tutorial Assistant could never expect from the Dean. I had to take the coffee, much as I was still sweating profusely.

After all this that is when I realized that I could also be a lecturer. The secret was that I had prepared myself adequately. Since that time I have always believed, and I think it is true, that good teaching is mostly a function of adequate preparation.

What is your most exciting teaching moment?
 

 

Tag teaching

The Impact of AABS Video

"The impact of AABS Video" was filmed at the Gordon Institute of Business Science, Johannesburg and at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, Cape Town during the AABS Members Meeting and Conference 2011.

 

View The Imact of AABS Video

AABS is proud to announce our new project: African Agribusines Network (AAgri.net). Visit the website.

Reports on the AABS Members Meeting 2011 and Responsible Management in Africa Conference 2011