Professionalization of Management - Essay Example

Running Header: Professionalization of Management Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Institution: Course Code: Date of Submission: Professionalization of Management In the contemporary society, professionalism has continued to gain recognition by practitioners from various fields, i.e. management, engineering, medicine, law and many more. Perhaps this is because of the role it plays in changing how the management perceives issues and gets them done for the good of the business. Professionalism can be described as a behavior or conduct that demonstrates certain attributes that are not common but specific to certain groups (Govindarajan & Gupta, 2001). Professionalism can be defined to mean more than just getting appropriate training according to Mintzberg (2004). It includes the way one presents himself/herself before others. Professionalism is expected to cause inspiration among other people by example. Professionalism is characterized by a number of attributes such as character, attitude, excellence, competence and conduct. Professionalization of management involves the trend of moving towards certain believes, values and perceptions that are expected by a certain group. Take the example of the engineering profession; each and every member in the team must meet a certain level of competence and qualifications that are universally accepted. In the same respect, professionalism of management aims to build common standards and practices that are accepted by all managers irrespective of the position or region. In other words, professionalization of management aims to ensure that the actions and behaviors of managers are drawn from certain set of principles (House et al 2004). In addition, professionalism seeks to ensure that irrespective of the environment one is operating, he/she is expected to demonstrate expertise in the area of operation and the desire to know what is good for the customer. The development of professionalism management Management as a serious academic discipline is relatively new compared to other fields such as medicine and engineering. Peter Drucker is one of the earliest and most renowned scholars who have made significant contribution to the field of management. In his managerial book, “Concept of the Corporation” (1946), for which he received much scholarly attention and accreditation, he showed how critical management is important in any given organization. While he argued that management is a profession, Drucker (1946) also identified management as a role in itself. In addition, he argued that management is a function-based role, i.e. identified management as social role rather than the technical role, as well as demonstrating that managers are expected to be part of these groups (Drucker 2001). What differentiates managers from the rest of the social grouping is the status and additional responsibilities that have been assigned to them. According to Khurana et al (2005), management is very critical in enhancing public trust. Management is also important in ensuring proper functioning of the economic factors within the organization, showing that it is a profession like any other, especially since it draws from the same concepts and sources of knowledge founded on well recognized and accepted theoretical base. Khurana et al (2005) added that there was need therefore to make management a profession. This requires that individuals posses certain qualifications before getting to be recognized as members of any management-regulatory body, i.e. the standardization of the management principles ensures that those who practice management are committed to making good use of their knowledge to ensure profit maximization for the companies that they work for (Ghoshal 2005). Professionalization of management is also important in ensuring independency and autonomy thus allowing those practicing to develop their codes of ethics with the inclusion of certain provisions that will be used to monitor compliance levels and thereby making it easy to deal with those managers who do not adhere with the requirements. However, the process of professionalizing management is headed for a bigger challenge. Various colleges today form sources of managers. But many question the ability and capacity of these institutions to offer working managerial education (Goshal, 2005; Mintzberg, 2004; Bennis & O’Toole, 2005). According to Trank and Rynes (2003), making management a profession fails the test given that it does not meet the criteria that other professions have. For instance, the profession does not have any explicit membership policies that can prohibit those that are unqualified from joining it as well as lacking professional guide and the access to general knowledge that can enable one to adjust to any environment irrespective of the circumstances (House et al 2004). Professionalization of management is seen differently by different management associations. However, the general view is that the development of the professionalization will help standardize the management principles and thus empower practitioners to become competitive globally. One of the key premises for this stance is that the standardization of the profession will be able to address global concerns with regard to management (House et al 2004). Positive and Negative Aspects of Professionalization of Management Different business schools are moving towards recognizing the wider scope of management in the society. Management is seen globally as a strategy for promoting sustainable development on the global economy by ensuring compliance to management principles and practices. Professionalization of management is therefore very important in addressing global issues based on principles and practices. Professionalization allows for the development of a practice that allows for systematic address to those issues that have led to business failure. According to Khurama et al (2005), proper practice of management is likely to reduce business failures significantly. If properly practiced, i.e. undertaking appropriate and relevant strategies depending on context, management can be diligently applied with a specialized level of knowledge to provide solutions to those issues that seem to be very complex. This will significantly reduce the ultimate effect of business failures may have to the organization and the people working for it. Professional management can also be very instrumental in ensuring proper allocation of production resources in order to achieve optimization in service and product delivery to the customers, i.e. societal prosperity. The idea of professionalism may not be as new as many may think, argue Govindarajan and Gupta (2001). Professionalization of management is aimed at good service delivery by addressing the issues of the stakeholders and shareholders by creating value for their investment. This is because professional management reaffirms the importance of creating value for the investor. However, the effort to professionalize management also has its limitations. For instance, its aims to standardize the practices for all the members. Unlike the other professions, management systems may not be the same across the globe in relation to differences in the prevailing micro and macro-environmental factors. In some occasions, different countries have their own policies with regard to management (Bennis and O’Toole 2005). This greatly affects the process. The aim professionalization of management to provide a definite framework of requirements that those who want to practice must adhere to creates certain implications. For example, the managers who have been in business for long would need to undergo further training in order to acquire the standard knowledge and skills. These managers, perhaps about to retire, may not take this well (Ghoshal 2005). Regulation of Management Body Professionalization of management may prove to be a very complicated process since, for instance, it may require setting a body which would be responsible for regulating the entry of individuals to the profession. National or regional bodies for regulating management will be expected to work with other bodies from other countries in order to work on the standards and develop one single association that will be responsible for determining and setting the criteria for entry into global management practice. The work of the national and regional associations is to ensure that the profession code of practice is followed and adhered to by the members of their region. In ensuring that the profession gets the right people to practice as members, several international bodies have embarked on a journey towards monitoring and determining the quality of content that its members get access to (Bhagwati 2004). These bodies have gone further to investigate the quality of management programmes that are offered by different learning institutions. The organizations that have embarked on overseeing the impartment of appropriate knowledge to the managers include: the Association for the Advancement of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) from the United States and the European Foundation of Management Development (EFMD) (AACSB, 2005). These associations have become very instrumental in providing reference for other regional bodies based on their accreditation process. According to these two institutions, they regulate the entry by looking at the content of the curriculum offered by different institutions, the qualifications of the lecturers and the processes followed in the management of the operations of the respective schools of management as presented in AACSB Internacional (2005). Many managers today abide by academically promoted key principles of management. However, ethics do not bear such universal acceptance as basic requirements of management. Multinationals have faced obstacles in the differences in ethics and legal frameworks. It can thus be said that standardization of management has succeeded as far as management principles go. But as far as ethics go, multinationals, for instance, still wonder which ethics to operate by, those of home or host countries. This dilemma is compounded by a lack of universal framework of ethics. Conclusion Finally, good management practice is expected to address issues such as distinctive expertise that is necessary in creating value for the organization and the shareholder’s investment. Learning is a process and a good manager is expected to develop the desire to learn issues with regard to management. In addition, effective and good management advocates for the need to attain certain formal qualifications that are necessary in enhancing one’s knowledge and sharpening the existing skills. Further, the professionalization objectives are important in ensuring morality and self discipline at workplace. In general, professionalization of management can be applied to ensure that individuals are committed to good corporate governance practices. References AACSB Internacional (2005). Eligibility Procedures and Accreditation Standards for Business Accreditation. London: Macmillan. Bennis, W.G. & O’Toole, J. (2005). How business schools lost their way. Harvard Business Review, 2(1), 90-123. Bhagwati, J. (2004). In Defense of Globalization. Oxford University Press. Connolly, M. (2003). The end of the MBA as we know it? Academy of Management Learning and Education, 2(4), 365-367. Drucker, P. F. (2001). The Essential Drucker. New York: Harper Business Govindarajan, V. & Gupta, A.K. (2001). The Quest for Global Dominance: Transforming Global Presence into Global Competitive Advantage. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass. Ghoshal, S. (2005). Bad management theories are destroying good management practices. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 4(1), 75-91. House, R. J., Hanges, P. J., Javidan, M., Dorfman, P. W. & Gupta, V. (2004). Culture, Leadership and Organizations. London: Sage. Khurama, R., Nohria, N. & Penrice, D. (2005). Management as a profession. In J. W. Lorsch, L. Berlowitz and A. Zelleke (Eds.): Restoring Trust in American Business. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Mintzberg, H 2004, Managers not MBAs. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. Read More