Management as a Whole: Puzzles, Bridges and Prosperity.

Out of the management classes that I've taken, I've been able to see two distinct methods of teaching with each having their own goal. I've taken one class where the students were taught to calculate ratios, analyze a company's financial standing and adjust journal entries. The goal of that class was to be able to see which companies turned a profit and which ones made it seem like they did (this also taught students indirectly how to falsify our numbers for our selves). This course was completely number oriented, even the qualitative component asked that students write about the numbers. In this current class students are learning about new managerial concepts, discussing about benefits, other than profit, that a corporation can generate, as well as amplify the element of human inter-relations while doing so. The goal of the class is to discover new principles, better management and better ourselves. Although learning how to reach these two goals is essential to management students, they are still quite detached from one another. What is lacking is an overlapping element that bridges all the goals we must accomplish during our undergraduate studies. It is not to say that the element is not already there, but that it is perhaps neglected or diminished. 21st century management education should go towards a state where there is no gap between subjects. Where some subjects integrate into one another and others are tightly related to each other; this would enable us to see the bigger picture. By doing so we might be able to stop perceiving the goal of management education as the pursuit of money, but see it as the pursuit of prosperity. Money of course fits into that category but the goal is much broader now and encompasses more people. Money and people would not be two separate concepts anymore, they would fit together. The 21st century management education system should move towards a more global stance. Bridge the gaps in management education to seek not only numbers and money but prosperity for not one but all.

The ideal management course would integrate all of the components necessary to reach the goal of global prosperity. This class is of course giving us some of the tools to do so but it is very hard how to fully accomplish the task based on only one class; it is not to say that this class is not ideal just because it cannot accomplish everything. I believe that we already have ideal management classes and we have to strive for the ideal management program. This program would incorporate elements from every course and empower us to create change. The program would be inspiring and promote new ideas and methods through understanding. It would be composed of ideal courses which give us the tools for change. Each course would provide us with the component essential for change whether it pertain to finance, accounting, etc. The ideal courses would be pieces to our global jigsaw puzzle.