Why I'm not convinced about 'general' Management
-
The operative word in the title is 'general'
-
People find it surprising when an MBA (ok there's another 9 months to go :-)) expresses this opinion. But I have my reasons, and mind you, all MBAs are not 'general' MBAs , irresective of what the format of our final degree says.
When you are superficially skimming a surface, you gain sufficient knowledge only to see the difference. Dive into the depths and you'll gradually see it's all the same. Only when you know the full depth of atleast one thing will you be able to see the underlying unity in all things, not visible to the supeficial eye.
'General' Management by its very nature (currently) doesn't allow this dive. In 'general' management, you move out as soon as you begin to gain expertise (up and as a promotion of course) ending up as a 'jack of all trades and a destroyer of all'. The profession by its very nature does not allow you to explore the full depths of anything, and this reality of the profession gets reflected in the courses in this field as well.
It's the same concepts in Graph and Network theory, I read it since I have to design those SCM algorithms, Kaushik dada uses it in his hardcore database research, ma's colleagues might apply it in their organisational psychology study, baba's friends in their remote sensing and photo interpretation research and musicologists use to create sonatas....you can feel the unity only when you're deep into it.
I'm not saying one has to officially do only research to gain this depth... no not at all. No 'institutional' tag is required to dive the depths, and the depth can be in any field. Many people find it in fields totally unrelated to their profession, maybe music, maybe writing.
But it's always easier if your profession itself gives you this opportunity, and always difficult if your profession is designed not to allow you this.
As I see it, the best potential managers are specialists. Though it might take such people some time initially to relate what's going on around to their framework of specialisation (and similarly for people around to relate to them) , once that happens, the possibilities that will emerge will be impossible with those 'jack of all trades'. Diving the depths does not take away your 'street-smart, intelligent, living in the real world' kind of qualities. It just provides you the additional ability to feel and make best use of that underlying unity in the overall scheme of things.
And that's why I'm not convinced when somebody says he/she selected management because he/she was not cut-out for a technical job...another aspiring addition to that 'jack of all trades, destroyer of all'.
Ok, now maybe even you are confused as to why I am doing an MBA (though it should be apparent if you think). Well I'm not clearing your confusion immediately, learn to be patient :-)...
Don't worry, it will be the subject of some future post...keep reading my friend.
The operative word in the title is 'general'
-
People find it surprising when an MBA (ok there's another 9 months to go :-)) expresses this opinion. But I have my reasons, and mind you, all MBAs are not 'general' MBAs , irresective of what the format of our final degree says.
When you are superficially skimming a surface, you gain sufficient knowledge only to see the difference. Dive into the depths and you'll gradually see it's all the same. Only when you know the full depth of atleast one thing will you be able to see the underlying unity in all things, not visible to the supeficial eye.
'General' Management by its very nature (currently) doesn't allow this dive. In 'general' management, you move out as soon as you begin to gain expertise (up and as a promotion of course) ending up as a 'jack of all trades and a destroyer of all'. The profession by its very nature does not allow you to explore the full depths of anything, and this reality of the profession gets reflected in the courses in this field as well.
It's the same concepts in Graph and Network theory, I read it since I have to design those SCM algorithms, Kaushik dada uses it in his hardcore database research, ma's colleagues might apply it in their organisational psychology study, baba's friends in their remote sensing and photo interpretation research and musicologists use to create sonatas....you can feel the unity only when you're deep into it.
I'm not saying one has to officially do only research to gain this depth... no not at all. No 'institutional' tag is required to dive the depths, and the depth can be in any field. Many people find it in fields totally unrelated to their profession, maybe music, maybe writing.
But it's always easier if your profession itself gives you this opportunity, and always difficult if your profession is designed not to allow you this.
As I see it, the best potential managers are specialists. Though it might take such people some time initially to relate what's going on around to their framework of specialisation (and similarly for people around to relate to them) , once that happens, the possibilities that will emerge will be impossible with those 'jack of all trades'. Diving the depths does not take away your 'street-smart, intelligent, living in the real world' kind of qualities. It just provides you the additional ability to feel and make best use of that underlying unity in the overall scheme of things.
And that's why I'm not convinced when somebody says he/she selected management because he/she was not cut-out for a technical job...another aspiring addition to that 'jack of all trades, destroyer of all'.
Ok, now maybe even you are confused as to why I am doing an MBA (though it should be apparent if you think). Well I'm not clearing your confusion immediately, learn to be patient :-)...
Don't worry, it will be the subject of some future post...keep reading my friend.
posted by Ayan Bhattacharya @ 3:00 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home