Mending A False Paradigm Model In the 2004 publications “Can Malaysia transit into the K-Economy?” Dr David Abdulai pointed out the second arm in the international dependency model calling it the “False Paradigm Model”.
David described the leading university intellectual, “unwittingly acquired alien concepts and theories which are inapplicable to developing country situations to whom they may eventually return…….thus contributed unwittingly to the underdevelopment of their various countries”.
Bearing this in mind, when three years ago, no lecturer wanted to teach the subject “Public Sector Management” (part of twinning syllabus with a UK university) in a local university college, as Dean of the Business Faculty and with my public service background, I had no choice but to take up the subject myself. After going through the syllabus, I wrote to my counterpart in UK for permission to contextualize the entire course to the Malaysian environment. My proposed amendments to the syllabus were approved.
Students were divided into teams to evaluate a selected government agency from two perspectives: quality of delivery and future enhancement. These group tasks not only livened up the subject it enhanced student interest into the means and ways for citizens to get what they wanted.
Lenses of the Young
MS’s experience in East Malaysia before she came to Kuala Lumpur to pursue the degree course is still fresh in my mind. She suggested that the Government should close down the data provision centres in her home State as “they could not even provide out-of-date information”.
I was not at all surprised when one of the students outlined how an Act of Parliament was passed. What surprised me were the proposals to cut down the steps for efficiency and the introduction of a pre-gazette trial phase.
This experience of avoiding a false paradigm was so rich that I often told politicians that politics was no longer their prerogative. They should see through the lenses of the young.
Cultural impact on business
Avoidance of such a phenomenon should be in the minds of entrepreneurs as well. The classic example was when China first opened up and production plants were relocated by nuts and bolts into China. Upon re-assembly, the smaller built of the Asian workers were found to be unsuitable to efficiently handle the machinery designed for westerners.
Such a cultural embarrassment could have been avoided if a selection of workers from China had been sent to inspect the production plant before making the relocation decision.
Mr. Chin (not his real name) told me he needed to spruce-up his factory before deciding whether to accept a visit by a group of MBA’ers from Europe. I told him to look at the event positively. Indeed, it would be an opportunity for his workers to spring-clean the factory. I requested Mr. Chin to share with the students his business development experience: the process of a small start-up from just one shop lot expanding to the next and then the next… and so on. I commented that he might be surprised at the similarities in business development of entrepreneurial start-ups between the two countries – one in Malaysia and the other in Switzerland.
The MBA’ers came as learners. The visit was under the stewardship of a master strategist and change management guru. Each student would be expected to present his observations from many facets and approaches. Such input might be invaluable to Mr Chin. Not all feedback would be useful.The significance of the incident was the willingness that the industrial sector opened up to share knowledge and to participate in 2-way learning opportunities with the education sector.
Internship
In undergraduate internship programmes lasting between 3 to 6 months, the student can earn between 3 to 12 credits for his degree. Accounting and engineering students may differ as their practical attachments could be part and parcel of the syllabi. Internship programmes for business students can bear the same rigour.
Interns are usually despatched to operation units in an company, such as in a hotel, the front desk, house-keeping and F&B, procurement, back office ... etc. Perhaps, students should be allowed to identify the areas of concentration in the discipline they wished to major.
One intern was allowed to follow through the steps in the opening of a new resort. Much to the delight of the Human Resource Department, she joined the company upon graduation thus reducing the training period for her to pick up speed.
I personally took on a business school student to conduct a competitive advantage analysis of a company. The student’s analysis and queries based on Michael Porter’s theories were found to be useful in future planning of the organisation. However, this could only happen if sufficient access to data was given to the intern.
In another case where the intern became the minutes-writer for meetings, the student became disillusioned. I could only explained it as the organizational myopia. Bosses of companies participating in internship programmes should be aware that final year undergraduates can perform more than mere apprenticeship work. They have learned the theories and cases studies in textbooks. Their input could bring new light to some old practices within an organization. Wherever possible, interns could be looked upon as input for innovation and creativity.
CSR in Knowledge Work
What I have highlighted here are examples of CSR in knowledge work that companies are encouraged to involve in. Knowledge creation is another area where industry can work with education institutions. Research has proven that formal networking is not as important as informal networking in an organization’s quest for innovation. (Soo, Divenney, Midgley, 1999). This is particularly so when the young consumers form a major portion of an organisation’s business turnover.
I had always wished someone would examine the amount of food wrappers disposed inside a school compound. Observations of the behavior of students during recess time may revolutionise more than the design of crockery. Perhaps suppliers of snack food would consider separate packaging methods specially for school canteen consumption. The multiplier effects from the outcome of such a research could contribute tremendously towards the creation of clean school environments.
Small thoughts these may be. What is important is instilling into oneself the willingness to embrace change in the way we do things. Knowledge creation almost always displaces some old habits which we may find reluctant to let go.
* This is 7th and last in the series of Entrepreneurial Frolics.
