Developing leaders through postgraduate education

Professor Dr Ong Fon Sim of Universiti Tun Abdul Razak shares the value in postgraduate degrees – the MBA in particular – in self-development that will also pave the way towards becoming a leader in your chosen career.

 

Strong leaders are believed to be able to take organisations through difficult times such as the 2008 global financial crisis that besieged the economy of many countries. It is often believed that businesses fail because leaders fail. 

In many ways, the past few years have seen a renewed focus on training and development to transform managers to be effective leaders who can be depended upon to ride out the waves of turbulent times. In Malaysia, as elsewhere in the world, leadership and succession issues which cut across industries and types of business organisations are not new. Coupled with the brain drain that Malaysia is experiencing, leadership and succession planning poses challenges to the private and public sectors. 

 

Attracting, motivating and more importantly retaining talents are critical to organisational performance. As such, leadership and succession planning have become the top priorities among many organisations. 

 

Due to the human capital ‘crunch’ it is widely recognised that there exists a gap between the present echelon of leaders and the future ones. Closing the gap is crucial both for the future growth of businesses and the nation. How do we nurture and grow leaders? The answer lies with education and training for which universities in Malaysia can play a big role in producing the required human capital. 

 

Although much has been debated and argued about the relevance of MBA qualification and the value that can be derived from the programme, we believe that there are significant benefits to be gained. The simple question that one frequently asks about the MBA qualification is: ‘What benefits can the MBA qualification offer?’ 

 

The answer has to be viewed from the perspective of the employers and individuals. What do employers look for when hiring someone with the MBA qualification? 

 

To an organisation, the  ‘right’ candidate with a MBA qualification is expected to have the skills, knowledge and the right attitude. Conceptual skills, communication skills (oral and written), and people skills are most valued. These skills could be developed through a formal MBA programme that usually adopts a variety of pedagogies such as the case study approach, group field projects, assignments, management games, examination etc. Attitude could also be shaped and changed. Students should be put through the ‘pressure cooker’ that challenges them to take the pressure of a very tough environment so that they can rise to the demands of their job when they enter the job market. 

 

As for knowledge, we know that all MBA programmes address the cognitive component of learning. However, it can be said that the MBA programmes offered by universities are becoming more generic and it is no longer easy to differentiate programme A from programme B in terms of curriculum. 

 

With this challenge, many business schools are looking towards offering programmes in niche areas for specific industry sectors or by discipline or both. 

 

Whatever the focus, the fundamental attributes sought by industry remain rather stable over time: conceptual skills, communication skills (oral and written), and people skills as well as competency.

 

In a survey conducted in 2009 by CarringtonCrisp along with EFMD and the Association of Business Schools on prospective MBA students, leadership emerged as one of the top three most valuable content sought as part of an MBA programme. This clearly indicates individuals would like to learn to be effective leaders. Apart from this, individuals would value a programme that equips them with the necessary skills and knowledge. In other words, through the MBA programme, individuals expect to be nurtured and developed into leaders of tomorrow. 

 

There are many postgraduate programmes that are designed to focus on leadership development. A cursory search on the Internet will direct us to various programmes offered in different locations. However, programmes that are tailored towards leadership development usually offer courses that emphasise the skills discussed above. In particular, today the field of leadership focuses not only on the leader, but also the followers, peers, work environment, and organisational culture, among others. Therefore skills that involve leading people are as important as skills required for leading the organisation especially in cross-cultural management situations. 

 

The target market for postgraduate degree programmes that focus on honing leadership skills are all who aspire to move up the career ladder and even people who aspire to venture out to establish their own business. These postgraduate programmes are not discipline-biased. In fact, they are highly suitable for the technocrats who would like to learn more about skills that could ‘connect’ them with people. After all, people skills are essential in our daily activities, let alone activities that could take us to the path of success. 

 

 

This article first appeared in postgradasia 2011, Issue 1.