Management Rebranding

Management Consulting Project

Client: Dr. Joe Wallis

MGT314 - Ms. Linda Mcloughlin

By

Muhammad Danish Azad - 44334

Ibrahim Foda - 42861

Hassan Ibrahim - 43609

Alaa Jomoa - 42112

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Table of Contents Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 3

Methodology....................................................................................................................................................... 4

Findings ................................................................................................................................................................. 6

Trends/Patterns:........................................................................................................................................ 6

Causes of problem: .................................................................................................................................... 7

Culture:........................................................................................................................................................ 7

Beliefs: ......................................................................................................................................................... 7

Perception of the marketplace: .................................................................................................... 7

Recommendations:......................................................................................................................................... 8

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Executive Summary

The management major is a firm foundation for a broad range of future business

careers. However, to many, it suffers a lack of attention as opposed to other majors

ranging from misconceptions about what it teaches to its intricate value. This report

encompasses the attempt to identify the trends regarding the major, the underlying

beliefs and perceptions that cause these trends, and some recommendations on how

the situation could be dealt with. The report follows a simplified framework based on

Heifetz and Linsky’s (2002) adaptive leadership change model to better encompass all

the parameters of this project. Thus, the report is broken down into Observation,

Interpretation and Intervention.

Firstly, the Observation (methodology) stage entailed, interviews with the client, in

depth interviews with three focus groups (MGT201 students, management majors,

non-management majors), and observing the current situation and trends. During the

client interview we identified that the need is to view the management major as a

popular major and attract more students. “Getting on the balcony” helps us perceive

the roots of the problem, identify players and underlying forces causing the trends.

The Interpretation (findings) stage included making multiple causal connections in the

observations, analyzing the data, and categorizing it to show how they play into our

current situation and shed light onto what could be done to reach the desired state.

Interpretation has revealed causes including the culture and values that is projected by

the major, beliefs/perception about the nature of the major, and assumptions of the

career opportunities it brings.

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The Intervention stage talks about recommendations that can be applicable on basis of

our understanding of the problem. This also discusses elements of the change

intervention process that should be kept in mind to ensure successfully achieving our

desired state. Some recommendations include revamping the MGT201 course, which

is the first exposure of SBA majors to management to be a more practical approach to

help clear misconceptions. Additionally, some initiatives that could be pursued by

The Management Initiative are also suggested on basis of our research.

Methodology

The methods used to gather and analyze information about the management

department involved observation as the first stage. Observation was useful to notice

student’s interaction with the faculty in the management department. The first

leadership capacity required for any change initiative is Observation (getting on the

balcony). This stage involved data gathering, talking to all the different stakeholders,

noticing trends while keeping in consideration insights provided by Dr. Joe Wallis.

Furthermore, as the client requested, we avoided surveys in order to gain more in

depth responses that we could use to enhance the management department. Also, as

requested, we focused more on the students and their reviews.

Our first interview with Dr. Joe Wallis discussed the current situation in

management and what is the desired outcome of the management department in the

coming years. For instance, a more flexible and friendlier interaction with the students

and faculty is what he is aiming for. In addition, he also desires to attract more female

students and diverse backgrounds. The current situation described by the client,

frames the management as a formalized and generalized major that doesn’t attract

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students with limited perceived value. The desired state defined by the client

encompasses the new informal spirit of management that inspires leadership,

communication, creativity and produces well-rounded individuals.

A basic understanding of the current situation easily shows that it is an

adaptive problem. This is for the reason that, the problem is difficult to identify,

requires change from different angles, and involves changing culture and values,

hence, changing the hearts and minds of people. Also, solutions entail testing and

usually applying solutions takes a long time. Due to that fact and our client

preferences we chose in depth interviews of three main focus groups: MGT 201

students, management, and non-management students. For instance, we were given

ten minutes of Prof. Ahmad Al Assadi’s Management 201 class to conduct a group

interview discussing the student’s point of view in relation to our project.

The drive of the group interview was to collect sufficient and reliable data

about their experience of the first management course. Moreover, the purpose of in

depth interviews of management students was to learn about they think they are

learning, test their awareness about the opportunities available for them in the

workplace, and if they feel challenged for being a generalist major. In addition, the

interviews with non-management students were for the purpose of learning the

perception about management on a college level scale, their point of view about the

major, and why it is not a popular choice as opposed to accounting or finance.

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Findings

After conducting the research and the Observation stage, the results will be used to

interpret the change process of the Management department. The Interpretation

process will be based on our observation we will try to link them to their causes and

their multiple sources, to gain a deeper understanding of the problem so we can be

adequately prepared to move on with the appropriate interventions and actions. The

student population is not yet aware of the areas which the Management major covers

and what job opportunities are available for them in the market. The perceptions

students have about the Management major are what discourage them to enroll in the

major. Through our close observations and monitoring of student behaviors and

student enrollment, we came to notice that the Management department needs to

improve its reputation. While conducting our research we saw many trends, patterns,

and some beliefs towards Management as a major.

Trends/Patterns:

1- Students tend to enroll in more quantitative majors, as they are seen as more

valuable and have more job opportunities.

2- Universities tend to build a stronger image for majors which students seem to

be more attracted to.

3- Students who enroll in Management majors are often ones who are aiming for

an easy major simply to get a degree and join the family business.

4- Reputation of the Management major is falling, due to the misinterpretations

of the true essence of Management.

5- All majors evolve, but the Management major is seen as going through a

complete transformation. All fields are covered in Management 1- Risk

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management, 2- task management, 3- project management, 4- sustainability

management, 5- management consulting)

6- Events and campaigns organized in SBA are usually administrated by

quantitative majors rather than qualitative majors.

Causes of problem:

Culture: As noticed during our interviews with some students from SBA, we saw that

student's perceptions were affected by how culture, values, and tradition played a role

in the major they pursued or chose to enroll in. Some of the cultural perceptions

would be: 1- Parents encourage their children to enroll in majors such as: - Finance,

- Accounting, - Economics, - Management information systems, and exclude

Management from their priority list, 2- Students tend to follow the footsteps of their

guardians, rather than pursing what they truly want, 3- Basing major on the value

perceived by the culture they are surrounded by, (Management will take you

nowhere), 4- Looking at the major as a course, rather than looking at the essence of

the major.

Beliefs: Through our research and observations of SBA we realized that students have

certain beliefs of why they wouldn’t enroll in a Management major and why they

would enroll in any other major. Some of these beliefs are 1- Management will take

them nowhere in their careers, 2- Management is all about behaviors, traits, and skills;

nothing to do with a true career, 3- Management is not a complete major, 4-

Management major is seen as boring and theory based, thus not practical for the real

world, 5- Enrolling in a qualitative course leads to the destruction of your future

career, no benefit seen in qualitative majors.

Perception of the marketplace: The marketplace is highly demanding nowadays and

students tend to choose the most popular majors which are seen to be the essence of

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the marketplace. The perceptions we saw through our interviews were: 1- There is no

industry that calls for management majors for example banking for Finance, 2-

Finance and Accounting are

the majors which pay well in the

future, 3- Individuals with

quantitative degrees are seen as

more valuable, appreciated, and recognized in society, 4- Management majors will

find a difficulty finding job opportunities and getting hired.

Recommendations: Observation, Interpretation and then comes Intervention. Intervention is where we

come in to advice our client on what to do and how to achieve the results, they are

looking for. In our case we will be dealing with change, with change comes

resistance. This resistance may be caused by habits, cultures, beliefs and many other

reasons. The are ways to push change, by creating a problem in the status quo causing

the players to believe that change is the best option at that point. While pushing

change, you need to create a productive stress level. Having a productive stress level

Students demand less theory more practical

work

Preparation for the real world.

Improve overall image and reputation

Increase variety of courses offered

Perceptions individual students have

Limitations in Faculty members

Accumulated costs of improvements

Concerns with attracting students

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is between the limit of tolerance and the threshold of learning. The atmosphere of

change will “require requires disturbing people—but at a rate, they can absorb”

(Heifetz & Linsky, 2002, p.3).

To help change you also need to identify the players, the spectators, victims

and the cynics on a matrix of energy and attitude (See Appendix 1-4). We need

convert the resistant or passive stakeholders into partners for the change (Heifetz &

Linsky, 2002). Our field of play includes all the stakeholders that may affect our

adaptive change initiative and the underlying stakeholder behind the primary ones. In

our case these stakeholders include professors, deans, heads, the department, students

with underlying actors such as parents of students etc. Identifying and understanding

all the forces/actors of the process while managing the stressful change environment

will help carry on the following recommendations to our desired future goals.

The first management course you take on The American University of Sharjah

is Management 201. This course either attracts students or repels them. After

interviewing students we found that Management 201 was pushing students away and

giving them the wrong image about management as major. Unlike the three hundred

level courses where it starts to become more practical, management 201 was all

theory and memorization, that made students believe that the major is dull and not

interesting. After discussing this issue with our client, he agreed that the problem is

related to this course, which made us come up with a few recommendations related to

this problem.

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One is to relate the course with real life firms to help the students relate the

material to the course. By doing so, it will show the importance of this major. Another

is to provide project work that includes dealing with these firms, by interviewing the

company and learning the theory by actual work. This will help the students gain

interest in the course and the topic in general. The players in this solution will be the

professors and the students. The students will be the most affected because this will

be new to them, the professors will have to find a way to implement this change while

teaching the material in a different more interesting way. The professors may resist

the change and argue that teaching the theory and building bricks of the course. By

showing them the results of the new recommendation, it might persuade them to use

the technique. Otherwise, the dean will have to add some stress to this issue, either by

forcing a new syllabus on all the management professors or create some sort of

awareness.

The first step that the management department took to solve this issue was

creating the major club. They created a club called The Management Initiative. This

club hosts events and grabs attention for the major. They took a step forward but they

still need to do a lot a work. We recommend that the club give speeches to students by

students that are studying in this field and share their experience. Through these

speeches, the students (players) will change their perception of the major. Changing

the perception of the major is the most important aspect to achieve that will help

attract new students. The club should also give some sort of incentives for the

students to attend the events they create either by giving out rewards or showing

improvements. Another important step they can take is to contact companies and

have students visit and actually learn through shadowing senior positions in the

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company and watch how management is implemented in real life away from all the

books and theory they do in class.

The biggest way to grab attention or interest is through the professor, which

has the key role in this case. He/ She can create a lecture that students will be

interested in or create a lecture that students will fall asleep in and not grasp the

information being taught. In this scenario, the best way is to make sure that the

professors are interested in the topic. They have to enthusiastic about the course they

are teaching and include the students either through class activities. Professors are the

main cause of a student liking or disliking a course that is being taught. Through the

attitude and through the ways of teaching that can make the course interesting or

make the course horrible for the students.

The perception of the major in terms of what it prepares one for in the market

place is also an area of concern according to our research. Students often tend to find

management unfavorable stating that it is generalist major and lacks the competitive

functional edge provided by other majors but this is a misguided perception. While

management may have a relatively general focus, in the dynamic business world of

today this can actually be an advantage not a drawback. Employers are looking to hire

well-rounded employees with high adaptability, leadership potential, and

teamwork/communication skills thus we more than often find fresh graduates working

outside their major’s function because employers often care little for that and more for

the 21st century skills (Bissonnette, 2010).

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In response to that, it is imperative to communicate this reality to new SBA

entrants as part of communicating the value of the major. A recommendation to

achieve this feat could be the inclusion of course projects, especially at the 201 level

which include students interacting with employers and the outside business world. An

experience doing projects in the business world provides exposure to what the market

is really looking for in its candidates. Such sort of exposure also targets the

misconception of students that management majors do not have jobs in the

market/industry that require their specific expertise for e.g. like finance is required for

banking industry. Real world exposure needs to be integrated in the management

major as means to highlight the significance of the expertise it teaches as well better

prepare its students.

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References

Bissonnette, Z. (2010, November 3). Your college major may not be as important as

you think. The Choice - The New York Times. Retrieved from

http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/03/major/

Heifetz, R. A., & Linsky, M. (2002). Leadership on the line staying alive through the

dangers of leading. Retrieved from http://www.actmissouri.org/wp-

content/uploads/2014/08/Leadership-on-the-Line-Staying-Alive-Through-the-

Dangers-of-Leading.pdf

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Appendix

Appendix 1-1 : Non-Management majors:

Appendix 1-2 - Management Major: Student # How will

MGT help in Do people have misconceptions

Is your major undermined by being

How could the perception be changed?

What is your perception of MGT after taking some courses?

Have you taken MGT courses?

What do MGT majors learn?

Is MGT Useful? Student #

It can be good general info.

MGT 201 How to deal with all types of firms. Team work skills.

No, general understanding and communication.

1

Not interesting and boring.

MGT 201 About theories and procedures.

No, general knowledge

2

Very interesting and diverse.

MGT 201 MGT 360 MGT 301 MGT 303

How to run a business and manage it.

Yes, vital for a firm, provides strategies and insight; leading a firm to success

3

Highly diverse and has influence in the marketplace.

MGT 201 MGT 360 MGT 406 MGT 301 MGT 302

Study of workplace, HR, strategies, and the environment in firms.

Yes, development of skills, not gained in other majors.

4

Less demand than other courses, a lot of fun, but some topics can get boring.

MGT 201 MGT 360 MGT 406 MGT 301

How to lead, succeed, and have an influence on followers.

Yes, as MGT has many areas in it (Project MGT, Risk MGT…)

5

Other majors are more interesting and appealing to students.

MGT 201 MGT 360

How to manage a company.

No, as MGT has no place in the market.

6

Too much theory and extremely repetitive.

MGT 201 MGT 360 MGT 301

How to be an effective manager and influence followers.

No, as everything taught in MGT is learnt through experience.

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your future career?

about what is learnt in MGT?

considered a generalist major?

1 Will help with joining family business, help run the company.

Yes, as they view it as a theory based major with a lot of memorization.

Yes, as companies underestimate the abilities of MGT students and prefer other majors.

Brining awareness, showing important accomplishments of MGT majors.

2 It is a major which requires a whole brain.

Yes, they think it is just easy and based on theories.

Yes, as MGT covers many areas and should be more accepted as a major,

By showing the importance of MGT major in the real world.

3 Develops leadership, teamwork, and critical thinking.

Yes, they think MGT majors learn about business in general, rather than skills which lead to success.

Yes, it is a generalist major, but it makes me a better-rounded individual.

Evidence from employers that they are looking for MGT majors and better-rounded leaders.

4 People should be able to know how to manage people and companies

Yes No More awareness of the core elements of a MGT major.

5 Manage people better and have the skills required for leading.

Yes Yes I don’t know

6 It will help me obtain top-level positions.

Yes, they think it is easy.

Yes showing off the skills we gain from being a management student

7 It is useful, gaining skills.

No essence in

the major.

Yes Events and MGT clubs

Appendix 1-3 - MGT 201 Class: (Dr. Ahmad Al. Assadi)

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Student # What is your impression of MGT as a field of study before MGT 201?

How will MGT courses help your career?

Why wouldn’t you enroll in MGT as a major?

1 Very crucial major Provide me with required tools to understand behaviors.

MGT major

2 Focuses on how components of an organization function.

Teach how to work in teams and how to deal with peers.

Because finance is more interesting.

3 How to manage a company.

Maintaining high efficiency and effectiveness.

MGT major

4 Thought it would be an interesting course.

Learnt many things related to MGT that I had no idea about.

MGT major

5 Very demanding and interesting.

Understand managerial situations better.

I would take MGT as a major.

6 How all members of a firm are involved.

Better perform in work environment.

Not interested in MGT

7 MGT is a course to help employees and managers

Accomplishing organizational goals.

Finance is my aim

8 Very interested and excited.

How to manage a company.

A lot of memorization

9 Taught me the basics of MGT

How to deal with and motivate employees.

MGT major

10 Easy and not much studying

Manage projects and improved teamwork.

CAAD student

11 Managing a business and ways of managing

Understand managers position better

Heavy material

12 Easy common sense course

Help with steps and procedures

Markets require specialists in Finance and other majors

13 General knowledge Help in problem solving

Depends on what each individual is passionate about

14 A big bundle of complicated theories

Acquire required skills

Never crossed my mind

15 Interesting new field Important in all careers

CAAD student

16 Less theory Applying different strategies

MGT major

17 Interesting field Deal with other co-workers

MGT is too much for 4 years

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18 Simply owning a company

Dealing with different people and how to motivate people

More interested in numbers

19 Wasn’t sure How managers should deal with people

Other interests

20 Interesting Help with working with family business

I would take MGT as a major

Appendix 1-4 – Energy/Attitude Matrix

ENERGY

ATTITUD

E

Spectator Player

Victim Cynic

- +

HIGH

LO

W