Globalization and Management Education in Developing Countries

The globalization process is significantly affecting the economic and commercial life of nations. With increasing global competition and the rapidly advancing technologies, the business organizations and business models as well as management systems and practices are undergoing continuous change. To cope up with these changes, the management education is also being restructured and refocused. For one thing, the leading business schools in the more economically advanced countries are moving from producing ‘functionally skilled’ managers to ‘business leaders’ capable of operating in the competitive global environment. The trend is to make the management education more flexible and broad based in both content and approach. The situation in the developing countries is substantially different. Although most of the developing countries are being integrated into the Global economy to various degrees, yet the relative share of local businesses and the public sector/non-profit organizations is very significant. Judging by the market demand, the need to prepare managers for specialized jobs is still great. But, at the same time, the imperatives of globalization require the managers of the twenty-first century to cope up with the new developments, which are taking place in global business and related management techniques and practices. The purpose of this paper is to identify some of the elements of globalization, which affect business and management strategies and practices, and to examine the extent to which management education needs to be restructured in developing countries. Some suggestions are made in the context of MBA education in Malaysia.