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NEWS AND CURRENT AF FAIRS | OPINION | 73
Being a distinctive and hence 'different' business school is very much like the crowd in the film, Life of Brian who are told that they are all individuals and must think for themselves. The irony being the crowd responds as one to this statement – and not as individuals. The same is true for business schools who seek to be different but in reality, end up being derivatives of each other. This is not unusual and indeed mimicry can be seen as a compliment. In addition, the discipline, science or pedagogic stance of any reputable business school means quality must be a benchmark. There is not a business school in the world that does not want to provide quality management education. Thus adherence to accreditation and quality standards from national and international bodies and organisations is, of course, paramount to ensure the 'right' knowledge is transferred to students seeking to become future leaders. But in this sense, quality tends to lead to conformity wherein one business school’s MBA can hardly be
Prof. Amir M. Sharif
DIFFERENTLY THE SAME: DISTINCTIVENESS IN THE BUSINESS SCHOOL SECTOR
By Prof. Amir M. Sharif, Acting Head of Brunel Business School
discerned from another as each seeks to emulate, and meet the expectations of a 150+ year legacy of management thinking, education and research. Regardless of all the debates around
the later topic and about the nature of management and leadership in general, the topical field of management seems to have changed very litle. Eternal debates and treatise about the dawn of new business models continue where there is always a need to maximise value, engage with customers, identify core competencies and strategise until competitive advantage is achieved. However, if we consider that the core
foundation for management education is broadly the same based upon the tenets of strategy, leadership, marketing, human resources and operations management, there may be some room to expand and meet the 'higher aims' of management as a profession (as Rakesh Khurana implored the sector to do in his book of 2008). So how can a business school be different
to its peers, whilst conforming to the expectations about what a business school
is? The answer is prosaic but I contend has five key elements. Firstly, and as identified by the ABS in 2013,
the academic stance of a business school needs to be clarified. Is it, as Julie Davis and Toni Hilton identified, purely business or purely school – or a ratio of both? Secondly, and closely aligned to this, is the core aspect of funding and the business model itself that propels the entity along as Peter Lorange, Howard Thomas and Janglish Sheth identify. If the basis for funding can be understood, then thirdly, the structure of the teaching and learning impact can be identified. This not only means quality standards being met, but also the wider impact upon communities, societies and the 'global village'. The final two aspects are very closely tied and respectively need to address how a business school can provide employability skills to its students (as a fourth construct); and to then identify its role not only within the sector but also to others (as a fifth construct). Only by doing so will there be an opportunity to begin to differentiate not just on reputation or curriculum alone but most
The views and opinions expressed are personal and that of the author, and are not those of Brunel University
importantly on actual personal development outcomes of those wishing to progress into business careers. Brunel Business School has taken this
challenge up in such a manner – not by necessarily seeking to differentiate itself per se, but in seeking to understand the actual needs of students and employers and then crafting an associate programme that sits alongside the expected curriculum. This is known as the Brunel Business Life initiative which has been running for over three years and seeks to identify and provide recognised employability skills that are required by employers in the workplace to students in order to increase their chances of career progression. Coupled with an increasing focus on mentorship and coaching to its MBA students, the School is seeking to maintain a complementarily different approach to business education. Until business schools can identify and
address these elements in partnership with the people and organisations that support them, the differences may continue to be the same for all. UB
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