Management Education – Pedagogy Matters!

Management education has evolved to suit the needs and requirements of the ever-changing and dynamic business world. The most important parameter for a business school is whether it is futuristic or not. Being futuristic is the utmost important parameter of a progressive business school. A futuristic business school will develop future managers and future leaders.

A futuristic business school gives lots of importance to the teaching-learning process. The pedagogy needs to be such that it not only develops the concept, but also an attitude of decision making with relevant analysis of the data. The out-of-the-box thinking and a thought process which is outcome-driven is developed by a refined pedagogy.

One of the pedagogy a business school uses is role play, which develops in the student the understanding of a particular role in a particular situation. This helps in developing the understanding of the purpose of a certain role and the ability and skill required to carry out the said responsibility. This is a very interesting pedagogy when the decision-maker is at the crossroads since now the decision-making acumen will matter the most. Developing a decision-making mindset by putting our feet in the shoes of the decision-maker, eventually making the student understand the 360-degree approach of a role or a position in a certain scenario.

The second very interesting pedagogy is the use of a case study method. This method develops the students’ reading, understanding, and communication skills. A case helps in developing the ability to extract subjective and objective data, based on which a certain decision or line of action is discussed. This method is very popular in all management-related educational programs. This pedagogy also brings the risk of sometimes layering the solutions, which can bring complications at the end of the outcome. For this same reason, the case study method is operated under tight parameters of the sector and as the methodology is less than using as little lucky geography. In short case study is success full in a framework format.

The pedagogy of a case study needs to be futuristic in the sense once the understanding is built, a similar or a scenario of the students’ choice needs to be developed by the students themselves and presented so that the understanding can be cross-functional though still be in the framework.

The futuristic pedagogy won’t be complete unless and until the classroom delivery in terms of lectures does not inculcate a global mindset amongst the students’ understanding. The term ‘business’ needs to have a uniform understanding amongst the students. The development of the concept needs to be global in nature. The glocal (global + local) concept of business is very helpful for future managers and leaders. In the future, the change in technology, the change in work cultures and environment, and the change in mindsets need to be inculcated with the right pedagogy.

The pedagogy is a differentiator since the curriculum would be more or less similar in the business school. Eventually iterating that the quality of the faculty members is an important parameter for the selection of a b-School since they are the ones who decide on the pedagogy for the course delivery.