English

B-SCHOOLS

Management Education: An Overview Using McKinsey's 7-S Framework

-- R Alamelu

Senior Lecturer, Department of Management Studies, 

Fatima College (Autonomous), Madurai. 

The author can be reached at balaaravind2002@yahoo.com

The shift of a manager's role in the 21st century provides the context of the quality challenges faced by management schools. There are several challenges of management education, which require change in the character and structure of management education and integration of management education with the corporate sector.

Quality improvement is a highly desired objective for the fiercely competitive international business world. In recent times, Indian firms have been subjected to the demand that the quality of products and services need to be improved to match the level of their superior counterparts in foreign countries. Post liberalization, has led to the setting up of a number of industries which has brought about a competitive business war in India. Quality management practices are the key source to competitive advantage.

As we enter into third millennium, organizational environment is characterized by technology, globalization, competition, change, speed and paradox. World-class organizations build readiness to the new era, by creating a new dimension of organizational culture like knowledge and information-sharing, innovation and creativity, teamwork, project orientation, diversity and strong core values.

According to Tetenbaum, the roles of 21st century managers would change to:

• Manage the transition, leading people through the transition from the industrial era to the information era.

• Build resilience, helping people to increase their capability to adapt and to absorb change and their capacity to bounce back, no matter how intense the speed or complexity of the changes.

• Destabilize the system, creating an environment that elicits, supports, and nurtures creativity by deliberately upsetting...