Want to be a Professional manager?

Let’s try to understand what you really want. The following are some questions that you need to address to have clarity on the same.

• What does the term manager mean to you?
• What attracts you to this Role?
• What is your understanding of a Profession?
• Is Management a Profession or a Practice?
• Is there a base qualification required to be a Manager?
• Can’t I be a manager without an MBA? or PGDM?

It is natural that on the verge of pursuing a profession, one is faced with a flurry of questions and in a way it is good that one addresses these concerns before attempting to do a higher education in a specific profession.

Let us then try and take a deeper look into this “Profession” called management.

Business schools these days attract a good amount of talent who would have earlier opted for a career in Engineering, law or medicine. These students may also have a professional undergraduate degree and consider their pursuit of management as “Professional”. This is an integral part of their identity and Self-image. A profession is anything that has the possibility of work resulting in advancing the public good.

A profession then is part of your identity, sense of self, and conviction. Determines your attire, and behaviour and is a calling that gives you a sense of purpose. Professional Managers have a huge opportunity to create value for society and some of the most impacting problems. A professional Manager should realise and be proud that by upholding professional conduct in his /her daily duties and delivering their duties in the most effective manner they are doing a service to the society.

Characteristics of a Profession

• Professionals possess specialized knowledge based on extensive preparation. (The body of Knowledge)
• Professionals undergo ongoing training and development. (Continuous growth)
• Professionals accept responsibility. (Accountable)
• Professionals have a sense of ownership of their work. (Commitment)
• Professionals maintain a networking spirit outside of the organization. (Camaraderie)
• Professionals maintain high standards of ethics and integrity. (Values)
• Professionals maintain high levels of performance. (Excellence)

There is a counterargument that management is not a “true“ profession, the differences cited are in comparison to the traditional professions of Medicine, Law etc.

Criteria for calling an occupation a bona fide profession, as per Rakesh Khurana, Nitin Nohria, and Daniel Penrice, “Is Business Management a Profession?” HBS Working Knowledge February 21, 2005, are:

• a common body of knowledge resting on a well-developed, widely accepted theoretical base;
• a system for certifying that individuals possess such knowledge before being licensed or otherwise allowed to practice.
• a commitment to use specialized knowledge for the public good, and a renunciation of the goal of profit maximization, in return for professional autonomy and monopoly power;
• a code of ethics, with provisions for monitoring individual compliance with the code and a system of sanctions for enforcing it.

System for certifying the knowledge: Management does not possess a unique/uniform formal educational degree nor a system of examination and licensing for members. MBA or its variants like the PGDMs etc has been a sought-after graduate degree for the past few decades, however, it is not a precondition for becoming a manager. There is no requirement of passing a standard exam before being admitted to the practice or profession of Management.

Self-governing professional body: There is no single professional Body that forms the apex body of the professionals who become part or members of this profession

An Oath on graduation: This again for whatever value an oath takes is a reflection of an open commitment to the society and more important is the written down code of ethics and a process to monitor and audit the same.

Peter F Drucker in his book “Why Management Consultants?” states that there is “management science” and there is “art in management”. But management itself is a practice”, just as is law and medicine.

Further, “a professional needs commitment to the client cause but he must stay free of involvement. This is what a management consultant brings to the practice of management what a professional requires: Detachment. He makes it possible for management to be a practice and yet be a profession and a Discipline.”

The current set up of University awarded degrees brings in a lot more focus on MBA as a Professional degree than a skill or utilitarian certificate. The syllabus, content and coverage, of Management schools under universities are more or less uniform and the pedagogical improvisations are what differentiate the MBA schools.

Well, the question of whether you need an MBA to manage is like asking if you need a law degree to argue or a medical degree to take a home remedy. But yes you need to be professionally qualified and trained if you are to be a “Professional” and in this case a Professional Manager. Here you are hired for your capabilities, understanding, and skills be it as a management consultant, a functional or general manager. It is also important that the managers realise their importance in the larger context of good to society and the ethical and legal dimensions of their profession.

Author: Dr. Jayasankar Prasad (Director – DCSMAT Trivandrum Campus)