The General Management Paradox in Management Education
| Published date | 01 July 1982 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb057263 |
| Date | 01 July 1982 |
| Pages | 2-6 |
| Author | Gordon Wills |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
The General Management Paradox
in Management Education
by Gordon Wills
Professor of Customer Policy and Director of the Crarifield Management Resource
Cranfield School of Management
There are times when I wonder how University Schools of
Business ever got involved in offering "general manage-
ment programmes". I wonder even more when I hear col-
leagues tell me: "We're a General Management School." I
think my puzzlement stems from a lack of understanding
of what others might mean by general management
anyway.
Most of the well subscribed general management pro-
grammes (GMPs) I know teach the same very wide range
of topics at an appreciation level. Even when the study
programme stretches to a full calendar year in an MBA
degree, or even two academic years, I still find it hard to
perceive what is essentially the focus for a GMP. I am not
seeking to be obtuse; and I am aware of the syllabi that are
put together. But the clarity with which Fayol or even
Mary Parker Follett summed up the "principles" of
management is nowhere present. In its place we have con-
fusion, no coherence at all; Pandora's box. Instead of
teaching what a general manager's job involves we teach
him the several functions and techniques. And having
fragmented the world of a business we suggest its integra-
tion in concepts of corporate strategy and business policy.
Why did University Schools of Business
ever get involved in offering
"general management programmes"?
We teach functional knowledge at an appreciation level
rather than skills of managing. Within the universities we
do not see skills training as broadly appropriate. I suspect
we do not often even turn our attention towards it. Whilst
I have no intention of challenging the university's role in
developing and teaching knowledge in all fields of manage-
ment, I sincerely wish to query how far the current percep-
tions of appropriate knowledge are indeed appropriate for
general management tasks. The most suitable but almost
always overlooked place to begin looking is within enter-
prises at the nature of the general management tasks con-
fronting the customers.
I will attempt an elementary taxonomy of general
management tasks based on a rising manager's career
path. This is shown in Table I, and is obviously a very
crude formulation. Its major oversimplification is in the
assumption that individual managers will necessarily rise
through some or all of the levels sequentially. A young per-
son of 28 inheriting a family business, or setting up in
business on his own, may well concertina levels 2-6 into the
space of three months. In doing so several of the general
management tasks may not apply because of the size of the
enterprise—this can obtain anywhere in a small or medium
size firm. Equally, the nature of the business, e.g. retailing
or bauxite extraction as opposed to manufacturing brain
scanners will affect the levels.
Level 1: New Graduates
The New Graduate and the Company Strategists have in
common a vital need to understand the business the enter-
prise is in. In the first case it is to remove naivety about
day-to-day aspects of life at work; the second it is to
remove naivety about where the business is going in the
future. Hence the New Graduate's general management
task is to ensure and understand why the business is in
business—not how but why. If he is an economics graduate
at work in a chemical company he needs to understand
what the chemicals are doing. If there are manufacturing
processes to be comprehended that too must be done. If
Table I. An Elementary Taxonomy of General
Management Tasks
Role
1.
New Graduate
2.
Constructive
Subordinate
3. Specialist
Section Head
4.
Specialist
Department
Head
5. Co-ordinalor
of Several
Specialist
Department
Heads
6. Company
Strategist
& Board
Member
Incumbent's General
Management Tasks in the
role
Understand what business you
are in overall and your own
particular "functional" role
within it.
Understand how the work of your
section and department is
managed so that you can contri-
bute constructively thereto.
Practice the management of your
specialist section within the
overall functional department
and understand how the
department is managed.
Practice the management of your
specialist department through
section heads and understand
how your department's work
dovetails with other functional
activities within the company.
Practice the management of
several specialist departments in
one of which you have expertise
and the others only general
understanding. Understand how
your work relates to company
strategy and boardroom issues.
Audit company performance
overall, and practice the arts
of leadership and organisation
of the company overall.
Current style of
CMP offered
MBA, MSc,
(full-time)
MBA, DMS
(part-time).
3-weeks Young
Managers Courses
10/12 -week
Executive pro-
gramme, MMA in
company degree
6/8-week Senior
Management pro-
gramme Sloan/
Individualised
Development
3-week Top
Managers Course
Forum/
Workshop/
Colloquia
2 INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT + DATA SYSTEMS
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