31 March, 2022
Image Credit: Abhishek Donda at Unsplash
The development of management as a formal discipline can be traced to the late 19th century. The concepts and theories evolved over decades, and the underpinnings were derived from various fields, including psychology, sociology, anthropology, mathematics and law. When it started, people believed that management could not be taught in the classrooms because it must be based on experience. Since then, management education has come a long way.
In 1908, the first management program started by the Harvard School of Business was called the MBA (Master of Business Administration). Eventually, this abbreviation became globally popular even though it includes only ‘business’ and ‘administration’ and not ‘management’ in the nomenclature.
The Rise of the United States
In the 1950s and 1960s, Europe became weak after the Second World War. Japan was almost destroyed and the United States (US) became very powerful compared to the rest of the world. Globally, attention focused on the US. It was much ahead of the other nations in economic development. Out of the different reasons behind this status, one was management education.
The first management program in the world started in the US. In the first few years, there was skepticism. Eventually, as batches graduated and joined the industry, the perception started changing globally. India was no exception. Due to colonial history, the primary and secondary schools are modelled on the English system, but the Indian business schools followed the American models. There is a remarkable dominance of these models to this date.
Nehruvian Vision for Industrialized India
Management education in India started in the 1950s. The foundation was laid by Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s vision to create a talented workforce to manage industrialization. Although he didn’t come from this background, he insisted on management education of the kind that existed in the US. The existing commerce colleges and few other courses were not comparable to the programs in the US.
Launch of the MBA program
Initially, short term programs were started to impart management training. Then, full-fledged programs began being offered. The Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management, Kolkata and XLRI, Jamshedpur were the pioneers. The University of Delhi was the first among universities to start a three-year part time PG Diploma program for working professionals in 1955. It was offered by a business management cell under the Delhi School of Economics at the University.
Setting up of the first two IIMs
Then, the Government of India invited Professor GW Robbins, Associate Dean of the Graduate School of Business Administration, University of California, Los Angeles, in 1959 to study and suggest the development of management education in India. It resulted in the setting up of IIM Calcutta in November 1961 and IIM Ahmedabad in December 1961 in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard Business School (HBS), respectively. Both took different paths, also documented by Hill et al. (1973). Several people like Mr Chandiramani, Education Advisor, Ministry of Education, Dr MS Thakker, scientist and member of Planning Commission, Mr Ensminger, representative of Ford Foundation, Dr Vikram Sarabhai and Mr Kasturbhai Lalbhai played important roles. The IIMs were set up outside the university system based on the recommendations of Professor Robbins. He concluded that the university system was rigid and discouraged experimentation and innovation.
The IIMs were based on a profound effort to create institutions where several disciplines could be brought together - there could be degree and executive programs, and there could be research and consulting. A different and much bigger vision was packaged. As IITs were to engineering education, IIMs were to management education. To date, the IIMs remain more popular than the universities as far as management education is concerned.
References
Hill, Thomas, Haynes, Warren and Howard Baumgartel. (1973). Management Education in India: A Study of International Collaboration in Institution Building.
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