LIM (ABOVE) presides over a discussion (left) on cross-disciplinary programs.
DO SPECIALISTS need some generalists’ skills to survive in an interconnected and almost integrated world?
Representatives of some of the world’s leading business schools sat down recently at Asian Institute of Management (AIM) to discuss if there were skills outside of their disciplines that specialists, particularly technology-minded people like engineers, would need to enhance job performance.
During a session on “Cross-Disciplinary Programs: Making a Place for Design, Engineering, Humanities and Science,” moderated by Dr. Ricardo A. Lim, AIM professor, participants focused in particular on how—or if—a Master in Business Administration (MBA) degree would be useful to, say, an engineer.
The session was part of the Global Business School Network’s Annual Conference that AIM hosted. Over 70 of the world’s leading business schools discussed how educators in the developing world were innovating around resource constraints and providing new opportunities and experiences for people and markets.
Lim stressed that cross-disciplinary programs should allow “those who want to continue in science” to remain where they were. Such programs should be a “crucial educational fusion of liberal arts and management.”
One participant said people should be able to proceed with their own specialization but acquire management skills. “Some specialists want to be entrepreneurs and start their own companies,” he said.
He pointed out that many University of the Philippines (UP) Engineering alumni successfully started their own firms, having acquired the necessary leadership skills while in school.
Lim said it was the academic sink-or-swim environment at UP that steeled the resolve of those who really wanted to make the most of their education.
He said many specialists felt they needed to improve their communication skills. One participant said specialists also had to acquire entrepreneurial skills. “They need the components of how to think as a businessman,” another participant stressed.
One delegate said many Filipino engineers “are not trained to become leaders, but trained to become workers. They are too much into thinking inside the box.”
While a double-degree program—a specialist’s education and an MBA, for instance —might be worth considering, one participant said schools should select students who had the commitment to begin with.
Others said programs should be adapted to people who would pursue another degree only on a part-time basis. Many young people would rather work first and continue their studies later.
Several MBA students were working. Others preferred to focus on their jobs first and save money to pay for a graduate degree later.
One participant suggested “layering” programs. “Engineers can get management training and learn other skills over time” not as full-time students, she said.
It was pointed out that sometimes it was not so much the additional knowledge from an MBA degree that students sought. “It may not really be the content but the prestige and assurance of advancement,” he said, that prompted people to go into a graduate program.
On the other hand, representatives of Philippine schools said they had been asked to develop programs tailor-fit to specific needs of certain government agencies. The Bureau of Internal Revenue, for instance, wanted a taxation-focused management training package.
Lim said AIM had also been asked by the Supreme Court to draw up a management program for the judiciary.
The discussions stressed the need for interdisciplinary dialogues and multisectoral collaboration. “We cannot just put together programs” unless certain conditions are met, Lim said.
Participants stressed the need for the different faculties to talk and work together. “There could be institutional, internal problems. Disciplines do not talk to each other,” one said, while another added, “It is necessary to prompt people to talk to each other.”
Programs have to be explained. “Some people do not like new programs. They want everything to look like the existing programs,” one participant noted.
Lim said there were other institutional barriers to contend with. “New programs will be scrutinized. [Changes] cannot happen overnight,” he said. Somebody said the approval process in the Philippines for a new program was “difficult.”
Asian participants said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations integration also posed other challenges and new demands.
But it also presented enormous possibilities, they said.
The group also stressed the need for industry partnership and support. Industry needs have to be identified and addressed.
In his summation, Lim listed what the dialogue identified as the desired components of cross-disciplinary programs. These are negotiation skills, communication skills, crisis management, geopolitical understanding, project management, ethics and sustainability, leadership, critical and out-of-the-box thinking, business modeling and entrepreneurship, and financial understanding.