Analysis of challenges for management education in India using total interpretive structural modelling
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/QAE-07-2013-0030 |
| Date | 01 February 2016 |
| Pages | 95-122 |
| Published date | 01 February 2016 |
| Author | Ritika Mahajan,Rajat Agrawal,Vinay Sharma,Vinay Nangia |
| Subject Matter | Education,Curriculum, instruction & assessment,Educational evaluation/assessment |
Analysis of challenges for
management education in India
using total interpretive
structural modelling
Ritika Mahajan
Department of Business Sustainability, TERI University, New Delhi, India, and
Rajat Agrawal, Vinay Sharma and Vinay Nangia
Department of Management Studies, IIT Roorkee, Roorkee, India
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify challenges for management education in India and
explain their nature, signicance and interrelations using total interpretive structural modelling
(TISM), an innovative version of Wareld’s interpretive structural modelling (ISM).
Design/methodology/approach – The challenges have been drawn from literature and validated by
an empirical study conducted through questionnaires administered electronically and personally to 250
management graduates. TISM has been applied to 14 nalised factors.
Findings – All the identied factors, except accreditation, were found to be important. Ineffective
regulatory bodies and ineffective leadership emerged as the biggest roadblocks. Several signicant
interrelations were found which were sometimes not revealed by plain observation.
Originality/value – The existing literature has discussed the challenges for management education
but not their interrelations. This paper uses TISM to demonstrate the relationships between different
challenges and to explain the logic behind the relationships. The results would be useful for the owners
(or managers) of management institutes faced with the same challenges.
Keywords Challenges, India, Modelling, Management education, Management institutes,
Total interpretive structural modelling
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Management education in India has witnessed signicant growth and transformation
since its inception in the 1950s. With the industrialisation of the economy, investments
in capital-intensive industries like steel, fertilizers, machine tools, hydro projects and the
advent of multinational rms, the demand for management professionals grew and
management programmes became a popular choice for young adults because of the
bright prospects (Jagadeesh, 2000). This led to a proliferation of institutes in the country.
In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, an average of only four management institutes was set up
every year. By the year 2000, the number of new institutes increased to a yearly average
of 169 (Dayal, 2002). Consequently, the quality spectrum of the institutes became
extremely wide. At one end, there are a few elite institutes that have state-of-the-art
infrastructure with a global ranking, while, at the other end, there are a large number of
institutes grappling with various challenges. The extant literature has discussed these
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
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Total
interpretive
structural
modelling
95
Received 4 July 2013
Revised 11 September 2014
12 November 2014
Accepted 7 April 2015
QualityAssurance in Education
Vol.24 No. 1, 2016
pp.95-122
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0968-4883
DOI 10.1108/QAE-07-2013-0030
challenges but not their interrelations. These interrelations can help to explain the
relative importance of the individual challenges as well as their combined impact.
This paper identies several challenges for management education, their
interrelations and interprets those relationships using total interpretive structural
modelling (TISM). TISM is an advanced version of Wareld’s (1976) interpretive
structural modelling (ISM). It explains not only the nature and interrelations of elements
like ISM but also explains the logic behind the relations. These explanations would be
useful for addressing the challenges.
The paper begins with a review of literature on management education to identify the
challenges. Then, the TISM methodology is explained followed by the results,
discussion and conclusion. It is to be noted that the term “management education” has
been used for post graduate management education only and the term “institute or
business school” stands for all types of institutions including university departments,
standalone institutes and private institutes running post-graduate degree or diploma
courses in management in India. The paper is written in the Indian context, but it takes
into account challenges common to management institutes all over the world.
2. Literature review
Part I of the review describes the signicance of management education for an emerging
economy like India and part II explains the challenges for management education across
the world. The emphasis on these challenges has kept on shifting over time (Pfeffer and
Fong, 2002). Table I presents a snapshot of 14 challenges identied from 46 research
papers in the management education literature written between 1989 and 2014. An
online research database managed by Elton Bryson Stephens Company, popularly
known as EBSCO, was used in the literature search. Only full-text English language
papers, written by Indian as well as foreign authors, with “management education”,
“MBA”, “problems” or “challenges” as keywords, were considered. The number of
papers was restricted to 46 because the next hundred papers referred in the database did
not discuss any new challenge. In the literature, some of these challenges are exclusively
written to the Indian context. These relate to placements, regulation and growth in the
number of institutes.
2.1 Signicance of management education for emerging economies like India
According to a report published by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of
Business (AACSB) (2005), a leading international organisation for accreditation of
management institutions, the value of management education to individuals,
organisations and society is almost immeasurable. It provides considerable economic
benets to students, acts as a source of signicant talent to manage organisations and
promotes the economic development of society. The importance of management
education is also reected in the Global Competitiveness Index by the World Economic
Forum, where the quality of management schools is one of the parameters to assess the
competitiveness of the economies (Global Competitiveness Report 2012/2013). It might
seem paradoxical to discuss management education for countries where poverty is
rampant but, alternatively, it can play a role that affects the social and economic
development of such countries (Napier et al., 2008). International initiatives like the
Global Business Schools Network (GBSN) under International Finance Corporation
(IFC) encourage business schools to develop managerial talent in emerging economies to
QAE
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