Contingency Theory of Academic Leadership

 I know, unlike Trump, I shall not be nominated for a Nobel for this, but it's still worth trying to put my thoughts out. At least, they will not cause wars.. maybe a war of words, at most.

Academic leadership is different from its corporate version, in my view, after having been in 3-4 such situations. The top institutions in any discipline have motivated faculty who only need opportunities, and autonomy to thrive. Some incentives can help. But if you try too much to assert yourself as a leader, it has the opposite of the intended effect- they lose their motivation. They are put off, and stop excelling. They may even quit.

Of course, every institution may not be the same, so you may need to tweak this a bit based on the situation - the contingency part of the theory. But in general, the corporate version of push, push till the subordinate performs- or drops dead (I am not kidding, it happens)- will not work too well in academia. 

Which is why, I think Publish or Perish is a bad idea. Incentivise publications, or case writing, or whatever is your organisational goal, but also recognise teaching excellence. Faculty can innovate in learning methodologies instead of publishing for its own sake. That could be incentivised too. Admin. work usually goes unrecognised. For me, a placement chair or an Alumni affairs chair who does well in a B school is also valuable, just like a guy who publishes a good paper. Or teaches well consistently, and in tune with the times.

Academic Life and Its Perks

 I had a colleague, Madhu Karmakar, who neatly divided his life into two parts- academic and non-academic.. while being a prof. But what I am talking of is a life in academia versus in any other profession, particularly the corporate life.

Pluses of Academic Life

You can read a lot. It's part of your job too.

You are your own boss-in the class if you are teaching. Outside the class too, when you are ideating, writing a case, or a research paper. After writing, if you want to publish, there are some hurdles..

You can travel, if your institution supports this, for conferences, or faculty development programs, etc.. I have been fortunate.

You meet more intelligent people - students in higher ed. particularly, colleagues, and so on, many of whom are smarter than you. So you learn a lot.

In some countries, there's no retirement age.. even otherwise, part-time activity can continue for a long time..

You can have a social life, if you wish..

Negatives

The Publish or Perish menace is all-pervasive. 

So is documentation, with all sorts of accreditations up for grabs. AMBA, AACSB, EQUIS, NBA, what have you..

Teaching loads are high in institutions which are not in the top few, autonomous variety. Also in many private colleges and B schools. 

Some institutions treat faculty shabbily, with workplaces that are like corporate cubicles, or worse.

Why Academic Types Are Boring

Why are we academic types so boring? And I am not talking of in-class boring or droning on.. just regular boring. 

Many of us don't have hobbies. We rarely socialise. We only travel to go to conferences- if our institution funds them. 

We don't have a favourite author. If we do, we rarely talk about that author. 

If we write, it's a research paper, most of the time. 

We are not big on social media-though that is changing. 

We rarely have an interesting perspective to share on anything other than the routine office politics, or the weather, or our commute.

Is there a cure for being boring? No idea, I am too bored to find out. 

Reflections From Academia

 Just as corporates have their learnings from the company they keep (or the company that keeps them), academics have our own.

When can one call an academic successful? When he publishes a huge amount of papers? When he earns a lot? 

Practically, I would say, in order of ranks 1 to many, these could measure his success-

1. Touching lives of students in some way- inspiring them or showing them the path to self-discovery.

2. Treating the students with respect- lots of teachers fail on this count.

3. Blending practice with theory or concepts in the same course, in a trimester or a semester.

4. Doing contemporary projects with or without industry cooperation. Case writing could be one kind.

5. Bringing his/her experiences into the class. Therefore, getting those experiences too..

6. Using innovative learning methods, experimenting with many.

Research Shows- 4

 My research shows that there are people who feel entitled in all walks of life.

First, are politicians at all levels. Few exceptions.

Bureaucrats, sometimes even more. Few exceptions.

Corporates high up in the hierarchy. With social media on the loose, sometimes even lower down the hierarchy. Not just in India. 

Academics who think they have killed it, but haven't. Lots of them around, if you look for them.

Students from rockstar colleges - read IIMs. There is an inverse correlation with the ranking of the college, in many cases.

Employers with no empathy, for whom employees are cogs in the profit-earning wheel. Both in academia and the corporates.

Employees who think the company/organisation revolves around them. It might not, except for a day or two.

Promoters-popularly known as Lalas in India, who micromanage stuff and run all good things into the ground, sometimes over decades, sometimes a lot faster.

 

Toxic Culture at Workplaces

 A recent death of a young worker at an Accounts/Audit firm has brought the culture of overtime work into focus. Mostly, this is unpaid labour, and therefore unfair.

Employees have a life beyond work, so if they do their fair share, they don't deserve extra work being dumped on them, unless it's a once-in-a-long- while exception. That may not have been the case here. 

Managers need to use empathy, especially while working with a new inductee. I have heard stories from some ex-students about work culture, and some are not so great. Some also want to know how to switch from corporate jobs to academia, in the hope that that will provide a better balance of work and life. True, mostly.

Events at Prestige University

 We recently invited members of our Board of Studies and a couple of other committees to the campus for deliberations on current curricula and future directions.

We had some stalwarts from companies such as Ernst and Young, KPMG, and some academic heavyweights who came from IIT Delhi, IIM Bangalore, IIM Indore and so on. 

We got a few good ideas, and intend to work on them. Our 5-month internship for MBA students was roundly applauded. Also our emphasis on industry interaction at all levels, and our innovative pedagogy.

Some pics from the event. 

Some members also enjoyed a visit to Mandu.

Dinner at a rooftop restaurant, and 

below, a photo op in a classroom.

Some of the deliberations that went on...

CEOs and Me- The Difference

 I could have been a CEO of a corporation, if I had really worked on it. Is that a regret?

No, you got me wrong. I am just stating a fact that could have been.

But seriously, I have all the perks-well, most and then some, even though I ain't one. For instance, I eat well, and healthy, which is what CEOs my age do, presumably. I play Golf, which any CEO worth his salt would do by this time in his organizational life cycle.

I have a driver who drives me around.

I also have a great circle of friends, who want to meet. Not sure if CEOs have any real friends. I am discounting sycophants, obviously. 

I also have people who want to listen to me at times- well, that's called a faculty meeting now, rather than a class. Do they really want to listen? Ok, your guess is as good as mine..

Stars of the Academic Firmament

I am trying here to classify certain (stereo or mono) types of faculty. Any resemblance to people living or non-living is entirely due to your over-active imagination.

1. Halley's Comet. Visible, but rarely.

2. North Star. Rock solid, and will take the same position regardless of any change in the environment/curriculum/student group/peer group. Hasn't heard of  the maxim- Change is the only constant.

3. Great Bear. This guy/gal is equivalent to a constellation of stars, single-handed. Tough to handle. You've got to grin and BEAR them.

4. I, Me, Myself. This one is easy to recognise, because the three words mentioned here are used frequently. Empathy is absent from their vocabulary. Monologous, if that's a word.

5. Rock stars. They are worshipped for their craft, and they know it. Strut around in suitable postures/outfits/hairstyles.

6. The Also-rans. They are like the minions who do the grunt work, with or without-mostly without- getting the credit.

7. The I-told-you-sos. They never have any contribution or idea upfront, but always claim they-told-you-so after the fact.

Visiting Faculty

Visiting faculty are of many kinds. This is my observation based on "years of experience" with them.

1. The humble, do my job and get on kind.

2. The arrogant, I know it all kind-usually from industry

3. The crowd-pleasing types, equivalent to the populist politicians (both from industry and academia)

4. Extremely boring but technically proficient in a narrow field

5. Full of war stories-boasting about what they did (many of these are a result of wild imagination rather than fact)

6. Good blenders of theory and practice (many with modest experience of both industry and academia)

7. Good researchers with lots of publications to their credit, with little idea of how practicable any of their research is (academicians, of course)

8. Good communicators, and little else- they can speak on any subject under the sun.

That's all for now. Will be back when I can remember other types.

India Goes Global

It is no secret that Indians have been doing well in the U.S. universities for many years now. But it is now becoming very obvious that U.S. universities want to engage with India in a big way- if the Foreign Universities Bill finds its way, maybe through setting up a few campuses here as well.

I am at a conference organised by a newly formed Academy of Indian Marketing at Delhi. Some global biggies of Indian academia abroad are here, including Jagadish Sheth of the famous Howard Sheth model in Consumer Behaviour, and many things including research on CRM since. Also here is Rajan Varadarajan, an immensely prolific academic researcher and journal editor, and many others.

But what is remarkable is that the Academy of Marketing, USA is also here and intends supporting this association in some of its initiatives. So is the Marketing Science institute of the U.S. These are the big names in the business of academia, and it signals that India is arriving in some ways. There will be increasing opportunities for Indian academicians in India to do their bit, publish their work with original research done here, write cases and so on.

A depressing statistic though is that the number of Indians applying to the U.S. for Ph.D in management or marketing has dropped over the years. Korea and China have taken the lead by a large margin. Anyone listening? We need a lot of good Ph.D.s.