Diversity, a key component of management

Updated on: Monday, June 14, 2010

“Diversity is key to effective management. Intelligence is about seeing things from multiple perspectives,” says Debashis Chatterjee, director, IIM-Kozhikode. And he has presided over the implementation of this idea at his own institute, where, for the first time in history, 30 per cent of the intake of students is girls.

“Usually girls form 25 per cent of those who write CAT but only around 10 per cent get through to the last stage. This happens though women tend to be good managers and their soft skills are really valued in industry,” he says, talking to The Hindu Education Plus while on a short trip to Chennai.

As this trend has been blamed on the focus on analytical skills, Prof. Chatterjee says the institute decided to give importance to consistent academic performance and soft skills. “Using only objective criteria that matter in management, we found that 30 per cent of those who finally qualified for admissions were girls,” he says.

Prof. Chatterjee says the institute was also one of the first to implement the OBC quota after the government announced it. He says the diversity brought in by these measures actually reflects in the environment at the institute, so much so that he is confident other institutes will follow IIM-K's lead in the near future.

A regular coach at ‘Leadership Clinics', he also emphasises the need to change the way management education is currently done in the country, with a focus on Western techniques and methodologies.

“The wisdom is the same but Indian thought that leads to the universal wisdom can be a powerful tool, especially in management systems in the developed world,” he says.

He cites the example of a senior party leader who participated in a training programme for political leaders during his stint at IIM-Lucknow.

“That leader has now shown skill in effective management of resources,” he says. The focus should be on making sure that along with the bottomline, other aspects of management are also handled, including the satisfaction of employees and stable organisation structures.

Holistic approach

He says the key to management education in the coming years will be this holistic approach that also includes the environment in its consideration.

There is a need to balance all factors and not just basic profit and loss, he says, adding that ensuring diversity is one way this new perspective is achieved.

“Everybody is a stakeholder in development now and only by accommodating representatives from all sections can we ensure a fair process of development,” he says.

Diversity, a key component of management

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