Cyclical economic fluctuations are normal and an appropriate intrinsic means of ensuring that needed and efficient organizational entities thrive and others who have served well but which are no longer efficient or needed are changed or discontinued. The severity of the situation that we are currently facing is forcing a critical and important re-examination of many long-established practices. One area of examination is that of management. An article by Rakesh Khurana and Nitin Nohria published in Harvard Business Review opens with the statement: “Managers have lost legitimacy over the past decade in the face of widespread institutional breakdown of trust and self-policing in business” (pg 70). The authors continue on, making the case that management should become a profession with all of the responsibilities of a profession including codes of conduct, and a governing body that will oversee strict compliance. Managers will therefore be obligated to conduct themselves with the highest standards of professionalism.

Business in today’s increasingly complex and global environment requires well-educated and broadly experienced managers who have the personality to lead. Of utmost importance is managers conducting themselves with the highest standards of integrity; re-establishing society’s trust. Perhaps this may need to be backed up with a license to practice; common to other professions such as medicine and law.

What do you think? Would professionalizing management benefit business and our society?

Further Reading

Rakesh Khurana and Nitin Nohria. "It’s Time to Make Management a True Profession," Harvard Business Review, 86(10): 70-77, October 2008. www.hbr.org

Carolyn Nicholson et al., "Teaching Ethics and Social Responsibility: An Evaluation of the Undergraduate Business Education at the Discipline Level," Journal of Education for Business, 84(4): 213-218, 2009, www.heldref.org/jeb.php

Other Bytes

Here are some of the things going on in and around the engineering community:

• Enterprise education is learning that develops skills, competencies, understandings and attributes which promote the ability to be creative, innovative and self-reliant. It provides an appreciation for lifelong learning and the adaptability to generate, recognize and seize opportunities that will facilitate career and personal success. In “Measuring Enterprise Potential in Young People” [Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 33(2): 481-500, March 2009, www.baylor.edu/business/ETP/], Rosemary Athayde discusses a research instrument that is designed to measure “enterprise potential” in young people using attitudes associated with entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurial companies contribute to a diverse, adaptable and dynamic economic environment that create new employment opportunities. They are the backbone of the economy.

• The results of a survey examining students’ interest in entrepreneurship are provided in “Entrepreneurship Education: Attitudes across Campus” [Journal of Education for Business. 84(3): 151-158, January/February 2009, www.heldref.org/jeb.php]. Rachel Shinnar, et al. surveyed more than 400 students and faculty at a comprehensive public university. Key findings included: differing views on entrepreneurship between faculty and students; an interest among non-business students in learning entrepreneurship; and no significant differences between male and female students regarding interest in entrepreneurship.

• Joyce Gioia and Roger Herman as work force futurists provide their insights on career planning and potential job opportunities in “Career Planning for the New Century” [Career Planning and Adult Development Journal, 24(2): 81-89, Summer 2008, www.careernetwork.org/career_journal.html]. How do you prepare for jobs that do not even exist today? The authors suggest a liberal arts education combined with skill and specialty development. A broad inter-disciplinary background will provide you with the mix of soft and hard skills that will provide you with the “educational rigor” to be successful.

• As an employee or manager you will likely experience change at any time. Two articles in Strategic Communication Management [13(1), December/January 2009, www.melcrum.com/products/journals/scm.shtml] discuss skills necessary to manage change successfully. Liz Wiggins, in “Managing the Ups and Downs of Change Communication” (pp. 20-23), and Teresa Sande, in “Taking Charge of Change with Confidence” (pp.28-31), discuss, among other things, communications skills necessary to be an effective change manager.

• John Kao, in “Tapping the World’s Innovation Hot Spots” [Harvard Business Review, 87(3):109-114, March 2009, www.hbr.org], discusses four distinctive innovation models that provide novel approaches to innovation strategy. The market for talent, capital, and tax credits for setting up research and marketing innovation is global. The authors suggest that management should examine different national approaches to innovation and take advantage of them when considering strategy for their organization.

• René Stulz advises practicing sustainable risk management as a mitigation strategy to avoid failure. Managers should not focus on the probabilities of catastrophic risk. Managers should create scenarios for such risk and design strategies for surviving them. [“6 Ways Companies Mismanage Risk,” Harvard Business Review, 87(3): 86-94, March 2009, www.hbr.org]. The author describes six paths to failure of financial risk management, many of which are exemplified in the current economic crises.

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