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With the world becoming a global village, business education needs to focus on sensitivity to different cultures as a key communication skill.
This was Manipal-based T.A. Pai Management Institute’s (TAPMI) Director, R.C. Natarajan’s, reply to Business Line ’s query on how his institute keeps pace with the dramatic changes in today’s business environment.
He said that changes take place in product and information flow. “But if you ask me whether skill sets have changed dramatically, no, they haven’t. You still need people. The only thing is that you will have to be highly tech-savvy and have good communication skills”.
Broadly classifying communication skills into two kinds, Natarajan said verbal and written communication skills form the first kind while sensitivity to cultural differences falls in the second category.
“Since the globe has shrunk now, one has to understand how to talk to different people and how you should not get influenced by a (single) culture too much,” he said.
The institute is redesigning its curriculum with communication, leadership and ethics at its core. Communication will be tested in every subject possible. All technical and functional subjects of management are woven around these, he said.
The institute wants to teach its students about the cultural aspects of different countries through collaborations with foreign institutes.
“What can be learnt in our classroom, I don’t want them to go abroad for. What cannot be learnt in the classroom are the cultural aspects of society and business. I want my students to learn that. I am looking for collaborations for students in those areas,” he said.
To a query on the institute’s research culture, Natarajan said TAPMI took this aspect seriously. Research is given incentives depending on the quality of the journal it is published in and points are assigned. “Once you meet the minimum number of points with your regular work, the excess points are monetised. Around 70 per cent of my faculty have monetised their points,” he said.
TAPMI also awards research grants of ₹1.25 lakh a year to its faculty. “This is not an amount that lapses. You can carry over, or sometimes you can even borrow from the following year’s grant,” he said.
In addition to these, consistent research over three to five years by a junior faculty member gives him a better shot at promotions, he said.
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