MANAGEMENT AS A PROFESSION

The criteria necessary for professional status are as follows:

- An acceptable level of competence in a specified field of knowledge.

- T he interests of society are placed before personal interests in carrying out functions of the profession.

- A code of conduct as behavior imposed upon members.

If we examine the field of management in light of these characteristics, what shall we find out?

There is no question that management as a discipline has developed a body of knowledge. Research in the field shows promise of making even more signi­ficant advances in the future. More and more academic institu­tions offering business programs are devoting their primary attention to graduate education in the area of management, with a particular emphasis on both theoretical and practical research. A growing number of business schools are making efforts to integrate faculty move closely with members of the business community so as to apply research findings to actual business problems.

With respect to the second criterion of professionalism, that of placing the interest of society before personal interest in the conduct of activities the issue is much less clear-out. Businessmen in general recognize that the role of management does include the responsibility of devoting business resources to the common interests of society. One difficulty facing the manager, however is determining what is meant by the "interest of society". Many corporations fear to allocate significant resources to social and ecological programs because stockholders would complain that such allocation is not consistent with their own financial interests. Corporations that fail to allocate stockholder resources for social and ecological programs receive criticism from political and civic groups accusing them of being interested only in profits. But we should admit that corporate management is indeed becoming more involved in the problems of society, whether because of self-interest or concern for others.

It is in the third criterion of professionalism that the case for management is perhaps the weakest. Let's consider an example taken from the Harvard Business Review. Executives were presented with the following hypothetical situation: "The mi­nister of a foreign nation where extraordinary payments are common in order to lubricate decision making machinery asks you as Marketing Director for a $ 200,000 consulting fee. In return he promises special assistance in obtaining a $ 1million contract which would produce a $ 5 million profit for your company. What would you do?" 36 per cent of these executives said that they would pay the fee, feeling it to be ethical in the moral climate of the country; 22 per cent said they would pay the fee but felt it was unethical though necessary to insure the sale; and 42 per cent said they would refuse to pay the fee. This simple example shows that each person in business looks to his or her own personal code of ethics to determine acceptable behavior in a given situation. There is a wide varie­ty of behavior, since individuals view a given situa­tion in different ways, as their personal values and principles dictate. We recognize that each member of our society must answer ultimately to his or her own conscience. But it remains for the field of management to develop a position that is consistent with the professional, ethical status of its members.

1. What are the criteria necessary for a professional status?

2. Why do business schools try to integrate academic education with members of the business community?

3. Why is the issue of ‘placing interests of society before personal interests’ less clear-out?

4. Why is ‘a code of conduct’ the weakest point?

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