MANAGEMENT COURSES

The terms 'management' describes a function rather than one particular career, a function carried out by people with widely varying qualification and experience. Throughout industry and commerce many managerial, executive and supervisory posts are held by men/women with professional or technical qualifications, e.g. accountants, architects, economists, engineers, lawyers, office managers, personnel managers, scientists, statisticians supply managers and technologists. Indeed practically all the professions are represented in the business world today even medicine and teaching, so that the path to managerial & executive positions may lie in one or the other professions. Such specialists may acquire their professional of technical qualification by full-time study and enter industry and commerce directly at executive level, others may acquire than while employed in industry and commerce as articled clerks, apprentices or trainees.

During the last several years, we have seen a gradual shift in the recruitment policy of Indian business houses. While formerly fresh graduates/post graduates were considered suitable recruits for management training programmes, now the required qualifications often include M.B.A./Chartered Accountant/B.E./B.Tech.etc. Here we shall be mainly concerned with the M.B.A. courses, which are 2 years courses after graduation. Admission is given only after an objective type entrance test, group discussion and interview and is highly competitive, proficiency in English is necessary. Employment opportunities for M.B.A. graduates is good. A warning should be sounded her against the mushrooming of many private teaching institutions which offer M.B.A. or similar courses by correspondence and privately. Students should carefully make enquiries about the bonafides of such institutions and the recognition of their diplomas. Affiliation to a recognized University ro recognition by the All India Council for Technical Education is essential.

The curriculum and course contents for MBA/PGDBA programmes differ from institution to institution depending upon their objectives. Over recent years, the “classic” MBA course has undergone a process of steady evolution in order to match the dynamic nature of management itself. The topics typically covered, however, may be grouped into four broad categories:

1. Foundation courses which include Economics and Social Environment, Managerial/Business Economics, Accounting and Finance, Quantitative Techniques, Organisational Development/Behaviour,
2. Application courses such as Computer and Information Technology, Operations Research. Management Control and Information System,
3. Integrative courses such as Business Policy, Business and Government, Strategic Management, Technology Management, Management of Public Enterprises; and
4. Specialisation in at least two functional areas such as Marketing Management, Industrial Relations and Personnel Management/Human Resource Management, Financial Management, Production/Operations Management.

Human Resource Development Management: In this area four types of courses are available viz., Human Resource (Development) Management, Personnel Management, Industrial Relations, and Labour Management. Many courses are also offered at P G Diploma level. The Department of Personnel Management and Industrial Relations of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (Mumbai-400088) is well-known for its MA (Personnel Management & Industrial Relations) programme in Personnel Management (DPM).

Financial Management: Courses in this area carry two labels, viz; Master of Financial Management (MFM) and Master of Financial Control (MFC). Besides, there are also stray courses in Investment and Portfolio Management. In this area many P G Diploma Courses are also available.

Marketing Management: The courses in this area have such labels as Master of Marketing Management (MMM), Master of Marketing Economics and Management (MMEM), Master of Marketing Technology (MMT), Master of Marketing Administration (MMA). There are also a small number of courses in marketing of specific products. A large number of PG Diploma programmes are also offered. Some of them also cover sales management.

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