Liberal Arts Education Revisited: A Key for Successful Management Practice

While deciding what college to attend, I realized that the most significant challenges that society faces cannot be solved by using hyper-specialist knowledge. I recognized that the humanities are the foundation of western thinking, and of all activities we pursue. So, I decided to attend college at a rather small-sized liberal arts college. They promised a rigorous liberal education, anchored in the Socratic based method of discussion, to delve into the greatest minds of western civilization. The educational program is centered on the study of the great books, with no textbooks. As an international student, I thought a hard science-based career would fit the needs of my society. However, after studying some of the classics in high school, I decided that developing critical thinking skills would provide a leap start for the job of the future, the "knowledge worker."

Even though a liberal arts degree provides crucial skills for today's world, I thought that humanities majors are facing today, the challenge of adapting to the business world. Companies are requiring applicants who have a STEM background, hinging on the promise that major technological revolutions will improve our world. However, some recent Harvard Business Review (HBR) articles show that businesses are increasing their demand for humanities graduates.[1] Society is facing a plethora of challenges, which include fast-paced technological improvement, an unstable job market, and, most importantly, a lack of generalist knowledge. Ghoshal proposes there are some positive assumptions about human nature, especially the role of ethics and morals, that management theory should help implement in organizations.[2] Drucker takes up the challenge of revising management theory and practice and shows how managers can produce the best results when they apply knowledge, including ethics and morals, to work.[3] Following on these contributions, I propose that the liberal arts provide managers with unique tools to understand the purpose of their organization, improve corporate culture, and deliver the best results. This description fits the ideal "renaissance manager" (a term coined to portray the man with knowledge of many sciences) which society needs today.

I shall divide this essay into three sections. In the first, I will revisit the assumption that a liberal arts education is fundamental to tackle the challenges managers are facing today. In the second section, I will show that the managers should benefit from the skills that a liberal education provides to create value in their organizations and deliver the best results. In the third section, I will give some insight into how a manager could shift the center of gravity and focus on harmonizing the aims of the stakeholders of a company, "including organization, people and society."[4]

Liberal Arts Education and the Challenges of Management

Society faces the critical challenge of integrating long term goals for sustainable development and the theory that would support this mission. New ventures are expanding to capitalize on the pressing demands for improving living conditions, such as ONG's and B- corporations. To provide efficient solutions, managers should be equipped with the following tools to realize their organizational purpose effectively. In this sections, I will consider how business schools, which are at the forefront of education for future leaders, should provide a more humanist education to solve these issues.

Business schools have a narrow model of education that focuses on maximizing profit and places self-interest at the center-stage.[5] This is mainly due to the curriculum design which entails that

"…there could be a significant disconnect between how business schools frame their purpose–this is, as dedicated to pursuing 'perceived legitimate outcomes,' such as social awareness, responsibility, and developing students who can be team players (Palmer and Short 2008)—and the underlying worldview that is built into their curricula [based on the self-interest model]." [6]

Business schools should teach what goes beyond profit maximization, such as having an awareness of what society needs, being responsible in the decision-making process, and working as a cooperative unit. The tools required to accomplish these things efficiently are what we call the "soft-skills," the skills necessary to build trust and cooperation in any organization. Thus, Business schools should re-think their curricula to align their purpose with the underlying worldview, which should foster humanist skills.

During my liberal arts education, I was constantly faced with the challenge of reading often obscure texts and analyzing the implications of someone's belief over his actions. Cicero, with his earth-shattering orations, showed Rome that he was a true patriot, destined to speak against those who opposed the empire like Catiline. Or Aristotle, who placed the desire for excellence as the goal we should all have. This applies especially to the education of future managers: "… in addition to gaining technical knowledge and growing their professional networks, and students should experience personal growth which, following Aristotle, we define as growth in "excellences, virtues or character strength." [7]  When reading about these and many other historical figures, I realized that striving for excellence fosters in us the character and strength to face a complex situation. I believe that learning from the classics leads us on this journey of growth.

In the case of businesses, sometimes it delivers a valuable product but forgets that managers deal with both markets and people. Consider ars digital , which produced "community- backed database websites." It had "grown to 80 people and generated annual revenue of 80$ Million. However, there was one crucial oversight. Philip Greenspun, the manager, did not know how to divide managerial duties in the company adequately. Before going broke, the company acquired additional VC funding and appointed a new CEO, who ended up with the same problem as the founder; he could not handle people successfully. Since the hostility between the VC's and the board escalated, Ars Digita collapsed.[8]  So, an initial managerial problem leads to disastrous conclusions. If Greenspun had read the classics carefully, he might have been more sensitive towards people's needs. This is one of many examples in which bad Management is linked with inefficient management practice combined with a lack of knowledge.

Liberal education provides managers those necessary tools to tackle today's problems. According to Drucker, Management is a liberal art for the following reasons: "liberal" because it deals with the fundamentals of knowledge, self-knowledge, wisdom, and leadership; "art" because it is practice and application." [9]  This is closely related to the Athenian based model of education that business schools should use, according to Murcia et al. (2018), which  "…was about endowing the person of a genuinely human character by means of holistic training, that is, the development of the mind, body, and imagination, aimed at preparing the individual to exercise citizenship." [10] This applies directly to managers. They should strive to integrate people in an organization. Workers have a broader skillset today more than ever, and for this reason, Drucker coins the term "knowledge worker." Managers should identify and enhance those skills in order to push the organization to its maximum potential.

This educational proposal applies directly to the values enterprises are seeking: "…holistic thinking, global perspectives, international experience, multilingual capabilities, technological familiarity, entrepreneurial mindset, creativity, and ability to deal productively with complexity and chaos." [11] It would be desirable to find managers, and employees, with those attributes, since: "Many corporations already say they cannot find the type of employees they need, so we must begin acting now to transform our business schools." [12]  These schools should teach managers how to think about the fundamental problems that make an organization last in time. If a company seeks to maximize profit, it should also consider how it will sustain the customer base by innovating. For example, Amazon survived the dot.com crash precisely because it sought long- term profit. Bezos continues to innovate and acquire businesses because he has the capabilities that enterprises value most.

So, business education should foster in leaders the fundamental values that shape a successful citizen in order to tackle critical corporate challenges successfully. 

Creating Values in Organizations Through Liberal arts Skills

The liberal arts cover a broad range of disciplines, and they deal with the most general principles of each of the sciences. Managers also must deal with complex problems in their organizations, which stem from scientific and human issues. Drucker acknowledges that this is an issue, as he states in this passage:

"Management… deals with action and application, and its test is its results. This makes it a technology. But Management also deals with people, their values, their growth, and development—and this makes it a humanity. So does its concern with and impact on social structure and the community…  So does its concern with and impact on social structure and the community." [13]

These are the most critical issues to improve the practice of Management:

i)  Management deals with both technology and people.

ii)  Its goal is to generate sustainable social impact.

iii) People are necessary assets to deliver adequate results.

Therefore, the first issue raises the critical idea that Management lies at the intersection between the "hard sciences" and the humanities. This follows the logic of human behavior. We are scientific beings, insofar as we can use materials at hand to produce advancements in any field. However, Drucker emphasizes the importance of people for an organization. They are the principal motors of growth, since they can generate new ideas and, most importantly, they can create a cooperative environment where the capabilities of every employee are important.

The second issue states the primary goal of an organization; to generate social impact. I will add that the impact an organization creates depends on the needs of the client, regardless of whether it is social, environmental, or technological.  Consider the motif of the recently developed B corps certification, which recognizes companies that balance purpose and profit by producing an impact in clients, stakeholders, and the environment. For example, Patagonia is a sports outfit company, which manufactures sports clothing, which is simple and has an appealing design. It limits ecological impact by creating recyclable fabrics, protects nature, and continually innovates.[14] The quality of the product depends on the material and human resources. B corporations like Patagonia are more gratifying for people since they are contributing to a real cause.[15]  This fulfills Drucker's' assumptions that managers- and thus, organizations- should be agents of transformation, and knowledge is indispensable to accomplish this goal.[16]

The third issue emphasizes that people for an organization. A company can accomplish this successfully if the manager is successful in dealing with employees.  Since humans are relational beings, cooperation should be the norm if businesses are to succeed: "…cooperation will take place both within, and crucially, outside the 'islands' of highly skilled professionals such as research and development scientists. It will move from a relatively narrow domain to the whole organization." [17] Technical skills are necessary. However, they are useful only in the perspective of the entire organization. Drucker emphasizes the following:

 "Management brings human effort from all disciplines together in a single organization and therefore, has become a new social function. As such, the discipline and practice of Management is important to the effectiveness of all of society's institutions. In carrying out its function, Management relies on knowledge from the humanities, social sciences, and technology." [18]

Human beings increase the value of a company insofar as they can improve organizations from different angles. Thus, the manager should foster the values that help people cooperate to generate sustainable impact.

So, to create value in organizations, managers should create a cooperative environment where the skills of every employee are an essential asset. To generate sustainable impact, managers should successfully align people, technology, and environmental impact. This is the primary source of organizational value, the sustainable impact it generates in people's lives.

           

Implications for the Practice of Management

Drucker proposed a radical shift in business education and placed the liberal arts as the key for successful management practice: "management is a liberal art in the truest sense and a discipline wherein the liberal arts find relevance and usefulness." [19] However, some people might question the effectiveness of business theory over practice, since there seems to be nothing theoretical about doing business. However, Ghoshal said that "… if the trend of management theory is to be reversed, only business school academics can do so." [20] The new theory should emphasize the importance of maximizing stakeholder value in order to generate the impact that Drucker was continually seeking.   

So, I propose that the following Druckerian assumptions that would help managers to improve the main assets of their company, which are the clients and employees:

i) "Continuing innovation has to be part of the work, the task and the responsibility of knowledge workers. 

ii) "Knowledge-worker productivity requires that the knowledge worker is both seen and treated as an "asset" rather than a "cost." [21]

These assumptions will allow managers to realize that people create the true value of an organization. Consequently, they should focus on "maximizing stakeholder value."

Organizations depend on continuous innovation to remain inside the market. Fortunately, the skills required to accomplish this are creativity, imagination, and an understanding of the situational demands, critical thinking skills. The leader should be 'obsessed' with improving performance, not in terms of the top-down management model, but by using a more horizontal management path.  Employees are knowledge workers. The manager should allow the employees to discuss their ideas freely- create a culture of innovation-[22] and detect the individual strength of each employee and convert it into a "force for good." [23]  Once the leader creates this work environment, innovation will drive the companies to further levels of success.

Drucker taught that the manager should define the mission and purpose of the organization, and therefore oversee many areas of the company. This requires additional help. When the manager can successfully integrate each employee into his/her decision-making process, he is fulfilling the assumption that employees are an asset. Creating a culture of innovation and being open with employees- a horizontal management culture - brings together all the chains of command in an organization:

"those organizations that already attach great importance to innovation and cooperation – in their strategies and their way of organizing – invest very heavily in lengthy, interactive selection processes, frequently involving both senior managers and peers with whom recruits are likely to work and often with an informal social dimension." [This generates a culture of trust which] "… has been defined as the belief that the 'results of somebody's intended action will be appropriate from our point of view' [24]

So, treating employees as an asset allows better communication flow between managers and peers and consequently fosters trust among all levels of the organization.

Thus, in order to maximize stakeholder value, managers should build a culture of cooperation and trust. When the parts of the organization foster self-confidence in the individual's skills to innovate, organizational performance improves.  

Concluding remark on the Renaissance Manager

Drucker emphasized that managers and employees should work together to produce a more significant social impact. Managers should have enough knowledge to at least understand the concerns of each employee. This is where the ideal of the "renaissance manager" is essential. A Druckerian type of manager should realize that knowledge and cooperation create opportunities and therefore generate impact.

The liberal arts should play a distinctive role in shaping managers. In this essay, I provided some literature that intends to diagnose and find ways to tackle the pressing issues organizations are facing. Society needs leaders who can generate impact and sustainability over-time. There is a growing awareness that management models need to change to realize this dream effectively. The new "Renaissance Manager" should be able to create a culture of cooperation and trust to innovate and, therefore, better serve the customer.  So, I hope that those who read this essay and especially the leaders of today's organizations would follow Peter Drucker's insight:

"People, alone of all resources, can grow and develop. Only the directed, focused, united effort of free human beings can produce a real whole. When we speak of growth and development, we imply that the human being himself determines what he contributes." [25]

 

                                                                               

           

 

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[1] Some recent articles show that liberal arts majors are in increasing demand. See for example: https://hbr.org/2018/11/business-does-not-need-the-humanities-but-humans-do

https://hbr.org/2017/07/liberal-arts-in-the-data-age

[2] Ghoshal, S. (2005). Bad management theories are destroying good management practices. Academy of Management learning & education, 4(1), 75-91

[3] Cf. Drucker, P. F. (Ed.). (2003). A Functioning Society: Selections from Sixty-five Years of Writing on Community, Society, and Polity. Transaction Publishers. p.167

[4] Cf. Murcia, M. J., Rocha, H. O., & Birkinshaw, J. (2018). Business schools at the crossroads? A trip back from Sparta to Athens. Journal of Business Ethics, 150(2), 579-591, p. 584

[5] For an alternative proposal to the self- interest model, called self-love, cf. Rocha, H. O., & Ghoshal, S. (2006). Beyond self‐interest revisited. Journal of Management Studies, 43(3), 585-619.

[6] Cf. Murcia, M. J., Rocha, H. O., & Birkinshaw, J. (2018). p 581.

[7] Ibid., p.8

[8] https://www.managers.org.uk/insights/news/2015/september/four-companies-that-failed spectacularly-and-the-lessons-of-their-premature-demise

[9] Drucker, P. F. (2008). Management Rev Ed. Zondervan, p. 25

[10] Murcia, M. J., Rocha, H. O., & Birkinshaw, J. (2018). p.583

[11] http://www.efmd.org/images/stories/efmd/GF/2014issue2/Issue__2_2014_greattransformation.pdf

[12] Ibid

[13] Drucker, P. F. (2008). p. 24

[14] https://bcorporation.net/directory/patagonia-inc

[15] https://www.forbes.com/sites/jlim/2016/05/31/when-being-a-b-corp-is-better-than-just-a-company/#4dfdeaec3e35

[16] Cf. Drucker, P.F (2008). p. 25

[17] Nahapiet, J., Gratton, L., & Rocha, H. O. (2005). Knowledge and relationships: When cooperation is the norm. European Management Review, 2(1), 3-14, p. 6

[18] Cf. Drucker, P.F (2008). p. 25

[19] Cf. Ibid

[20] Ghoshal, S. (2005). P. 87

[21] Drucker, P. F. (2003). P. 172

[22] https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/282664

[23] Ghoshal, S. (2005).

[24] Nahapiet, J., Gratton, L., & Rocha, H. O. (2005). pp. 8, 10

[25] Drucker, P. F. (2008), p. 28