Faculty Management
I found
faculty the easiest to manage, for some reason, in my few years as head of
various institutions. According to me, the key is to treat the faculty as an
equal unless you have some reason to exert your authority. I am not suggesting
that this is the same as abdicating your responsibility or not thinking
problems through. For example, assertiveness is required in some situations.
For instance, I have had to sack faculty in exceptional circumstances too, but
they were exceptional. I was also forced to take a call on performance
evaluations at times, in unpleasant ways, but did not shy away from it.
But in the
normal course of events, faculty are your biggest assets, and should be
respected as such. They will actually go beyond the call of duty, and do, if
their basic need- respect- is given to them by the bosses and the management
(owner/promoter). This can happen in any level of school, not just in the top
ten or fifteen. Sometimes, even the reverse- better in lesser known B schools.
How do you
gain the confidence and respect of a faculty member of your team and help them
perform better? First, you need to convince them that their development is
aligned with the name and fame of the institute. Philip Kotler is an asset to
Kellogg’s and not vice-versa. Srikant Datar has brought fame to Harvard with
his book on Rethinking the MBA in recent times. Parasuraman of SERVQUAL fame is
better known than his university, in fact. So, a faculty
member can actually play a major role even in branding his institute. But above
all, he/she must contribute more than just good teaching. He could develop his
training skills by teaching in Management Development Programs, or publish
scholarly work in journals of repute, or write a text book (where would Kotler
be without his famous text?).
Value-added
Activities
I call these
value-added activities, and these are as important as teaching. Of course, your
students will remember you if you teach well, but the whole world will salute
you if you do more in different forms suggested above. You could also lead a
Ph.D. program or at least be a guide to some doctoral students, or start a
journal for your institution, or do some more innovative things- for example,
consulting. Faculty need to excel in at least two of these besides teaching.
And then you will automatically become a much sought-after person in your field
of expertise.
Setting
Expectations
At PESIT,
Bangalore, I first set out my expectations that every non-PhD faculty would get
a PhD. To their credit, every single faculty who did not have one, enrolled for
one, and we had 100% faculty who either had one or were registered for one-
including a 58 year-old! It helps to set out expectations in terms of teaching,
research, Ph.D., training, and academic administration.
Let me
tackle some of these. Academic administration is the toughest. Most faculty
members ask, why should we do this (unpaid labour)? My answer is, I expect you
to be a Dean or a Director of a B school in a few years. These are valuable
experiences along that path. I was once a placement chair in an institute. Not
a very good one, because my selling skills were weak. But I learnt about how to
handle students and placement chairs after that stint, which was to prove
useful to me later on. I was also an MDP
chairperson at another school, and a research chair at IIMK, in addition to
coordinating admissions and the Post Graduate Program at various stages in my
career. All of these were useful stints, and helped me grow. I think one of my
major successes-appointing the right people for the right job, in some of my
later stints as head of an institution-came out of these admin roles I
performed.
Teaching
Load for
teaching needs to be defined, and not exceeded beyond a maximum. It is an
exhausting process when you include preparation and evaluation (in an
autonomous school the faculty does this himself), particularly when class sizes
are large. Therefore, to find time to do other things that are important,
teaching hours need some control. Unlimited teaching may produce a good teacher
incapable of adding value to himself or the B school over a period.
Publication
Either
empirical research or case study writing/publication is a must to prove that
you are pursuing current knowledge. Contribution to the profession is also
measured through publications. Accreditation agencies and ranking agencies
evaluate a B school on the basis of their faculty’s publications. Therefore,
for various reasons, publishing your work is crucial. Training and hand-holding
of new faculty may be needed to help them achieve this goal. Journal lists of
potential journals to publish in must be generated and updated. You could start
an institutional journal. Research seminars by internal faculty can be
organised regularly for sharing of work in progress.
Conferences
Conference
papers are more easily accepted than journal papers, but do need effort. They
can be co-authored with faculty from other B schools or your own. The
presentation of papers is a break from routine, and can expose you to new ideas
as well as new peers. I have found a co-author at one conference and it led to
a decent international publication.
Industry
Interaction
This can
take several forms. If the budget allows it, faculty must get industry speakers
to come in to their class for a couple of sessions in a course. This builds a
network with industry, and exposes the faculty to some industry jargon and
events. Also, consulting or training opportunities may come as a result of
these interactions.
Industry
seminars on a theme that is current or trending, can be organised as a day-long
event, with the help of student interest groups. This may create leads for
placement or live projects.
Evaluation
of faculty
Usually a
mix of criteria, that include teaching quantity and quality (measured through
student feedback and other criteria such as novelty, etc.), publications, and
service to the institution through academic administration are used in
evaluating faculty contribution. You can devise a method that suits the goals
of the organisation. But this needs to be clarified many times orally and in
writing. Goal-setting for the institution also needs repeated discussions with
individual faculty and in groups.
International
Exposure and Development
You need to
handle faculty with care, as an important resource. Their developmental needs
can be met through exposure to training, foreign teaching, and networking
opportunities. Future leaders can be groomed through such exposure.
