Management as profession
Last week the HBS Working Knowledge newsletter pointed to an article called Is Business Management a Profession?. Of course is is, but what they’re really asking is whether management ought to become professionally recognized in the same way that the fields of medicine and law are recognized. The reason for the question is that the authors suppose that if management were a licensed profession, there may be fewer opportunities for unethical folks.
This doesn’t seem like an entirely bad idea to me, but I just don’t see how it can work in practice. Most managers don’t/can’t enter their first management jobs as experts. They need lots of coaching before they become good managers, and lots of practice before they become excellent managers. Relatedly, businesses can’t exist without low-level managers. I can’t see how you’d have two managers with the same "license" and one gets paid a fourth of what the other does. Sure, you could create tiers of licensure, but you’ll still end up with over-licensed managers who are underpaid, or overpaid and under-licensed managers.
Some folks would argue that an MBA is the defacto licensure for managers. Well, kinda. From my perspective, licensure comes with an obligation to continually update skills. According to the article, MBAs are the least likely to pursue continuing education–what a depressing statistic. I’m all for getting an MBA–if it’s clearly a practical step in your career path. However, my bet is that there are more good MBA-free managers than there are good MBA-laden managers.
Of course, I may be taking this way too literally. From my perspective, virtually anybody may end up with management responsibilities. It isn’t reasonable to require licensure of everyone with management responsibility. However, if all we’re talking about are senior-level managers/executives, then I’m more likely to get on board. First, it would be a step of good faith for a stock-buying public that has grown tired of overpaid executives who are unfamiliar with the word "ethics." Second, licensure at the executive level would give young managers, who aspire to such work, a more clearly defined path to the corner office. Working on a weighty license, over a lengthy period of time will show commitment to the profession and a genuine interest in managerial matters. Seems like elements of the licensure might be integrated with MBA programs as well, but I’d want to see an emphasis on continuing education.
Okay, stepping off the soapbox now…
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5 opinions for Management as profession
jason pettus [metafeed]
Mar 1, 2005 at 11:08 am
Should “management” be a licensed profession?
Business blog “Slacker Manager,” which all small-business owners must add to their RSS readers right this second, wrangles today with the issue of whether the field of management should be turned into a licensed profession. The advantage:…
ManageWithoutThem.com Blog
Mar 1, 2005 at 11:19 pm
Slacker manager talks about the license to manage
Referring to ‘Slacker Managers’ discussion of a HBR article on the possibility of making management a licensed profession. I’d argue for other advances in corporate governance before I argued for a ‘license to manage’.
Martin
Mar 2, 2005 at 11:55 am
Problem is, management is not a technical skill. Sure, law isn’t entirely a technical skill either, but ever-so-slightly more so than management will ever be.
IMHO, management can only be learnt through experience. Sure, having a management qualification helps, but my Masters’ only laid a very thin foundation for what I’ve actually learnt about management in practical terms so far. That’s where the problem comes in: If you can’t certify someone as being competent (and I don’t think an MBA necessarily shows competence), you’re going to end up with many chancers who claim expertise, whether they have it or not… I dunno, just my opinion - I could be way off! :-)
Matthew
Mar 2, 2005 at 3:06 pm
This come back to the issue of a standard body of knowledge. It doesn’t exist.
But also - what happens to a lawyer that isn’t competent? Nobody uses them. And nobody works for them. A law practice is still very close to the market. Not only that but a lawyer running a practice has other lawyers working for them. So it’s very obvious when the lawyer isn’t competent.
Management doesn’t have that kind of feedback. In fact management is largely immune to that kind of feedback. Any system that attempts to give that feedback to managers (360 degree assessments etc) turns out trite.
I’ve got this theory that mandatory manager blogs would be more effective than a license system. If every manager must have a corporate blog what do you call a manager whose blog has no subscribers? Hmmm?
Management Craft
Mar 7, 2005 at 4:16 am
Your Management Craft
Christopher over at the Alchemy of Soulful Work offers an interesting post called, Developing Chaordic Confidence. Here’s a snipet: ”But, then Chris took it deeper and discussed chaordic confidence, the idea that we have the ability to stay in chaos