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The next force behind the business changes is the demographic shifts. It involves population growth,
diversity, a new workplace, and familiarity with technology Friga, Bettis Sullivan 2003. A
greater number of the population, especially at the productive age, increases the level of competition
in searching of jobs. Moreover, issue of diversity, especially
with regards
to gender
more opportunities
for women,
age, race
and nationalities, has also increased the competition
amongst employee. However, businesses become increasingly benefited since they have chance to
redefine and tighten the job requirements in order to get the best work forces. In addition, the
changing of business has also resulted in a shift of job type and workplaces. The biggest change is the
reduction in the need for large numbers of unskilled or semiskilled manual workers to operate factories
and industrial production lines. This mostly occurs in the developing countries. Market seeks for more
people to work in knowledge-based industries, for instance in high-tech sectors such as computing,
telecommunications, and biotechnology, and in service industries, such as financial services,
health, entertainment, hospitality, and tourism. Consequently, there is a much greater need for
highly educated workers.
Deregulation is another driven factor for business changes. Business operation is certainly influenced
by local government’s policies. In this case, the government regulation and deregulation related to
trades and economies have a significant influence on the business of life. Understanding the authority
of the government and its relationship with the industries or businesses is essential for managers in
developing strategies and in achieving the objectives. In some cases, deregulation from
government is beneficial for business, but on other
cases it conflicts with businesses’ objectives and creates an uncooperative relationship between
business and government.
4. CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES
It is clear that the major challenge faced by most management and business education institution
worldwide is “relevance”. In this context, management educators are charged to not only
teach students how to think about business but also how to practically manage and conduct business.
Relevance is an important requirement for
achieving business education’s goals. As stated in its ostensible purpose, management and business
education is a professional education which aims to graduate skilled workers who technical mastery of
business and have a strong sense of their responsibilities as businesspeople Khurana 2007;
Schoemaker
2008; Yusuf
2012. Thus,
management and business education institutions should be characterized by their applied nature and
being relevant with business world will maintain the professionalism Birnik Billsberry 2008. To
ensure that management and business education is relevant with the contemporary business world as
well as deal with global, technological and market changes, this paper suggested two major strategies
need to be considered by management and business education institutions.
4.1. Redesign the curriculum
As the world becomes a global village, management education institutions should be ready
to compete in the broader area, globally. It means that
management and
business education
institutions are not only challenged to improve their graduates to be more ready entering the work
world, but also need to equip them with higher level of competencies and better skills. Therefore,
it is imperative for business schools to use appropriate curricula and course materials what is
being taught knowing that are not only up-to-date but also internationally competitive Datar, Garvin
Cullen 2011; Dhillon 2009. Management educators need to incorporate a global perspective
in all aspects of their curriculum. However, although the management and business knowledge
has been dominated by Western business practices, being global and international does not mean
referring to the Western style. Rather, Cornuel 2007 suggested that the design of curriculum in
management and business education need to pursue an equitable balance between the transfer of West-
East and East-West knowledge. Inserting two perspectives of knowledge West and East enables
business education institutions to keep in touch with the local environment without losing the
global perspective as well as maintain the areas of specialisation that are in demand, both locally and
globally. Further, the no significant borders amongst places and amongst institutions prompt
that the design of curriculum in management and business education institutions need to embrace
topics related to culture, diversity management, governmental
relations and
international developments. Yet, it has to be noted that the topics
should not only be taught at conceptual level, but should be as part of student skill and competence
development Datar, Garvin Cullen 2011. The curricula should also consider the additional
subjects, such as business technology given the globalization impacts on the increasing demand of
job specializations across a variety of fields Cornuel 2007.
The importance of ICT as a driver of business change is also impacting the strategic options of
higher education business schools Friga, Bettis Sullivan 2003. ICT introduction and dissemination
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has come quickly in business education and it expands on a daily basis. Channels for faculty and
student communications have been expanded through email and other tools. In this context,
management and business education institutions need to pay special attention to the integration
between curriculum and technology use. Scholars argue that integrating ICT in business education
curriculum is a key resource to re-design teaching and learning practices that meet current and
upcoming business requirements Alavi Gallupe 2003; Leidner Jarvenpaa 1995;
Seethamraju 2007; Tamim et al. 2011 .
4.2. Redesign the pedagogical strategies
