An Exploratory Study of Key Performance Areas and Competency Requirements of Young Management Graduates

The study aimed at exploring the nature of activities and tasks performed by young management graduates and the skills (human, technical and conceptual) required to perform them effectively. Forty four management graduates from 34 organizations (private sector, public sector and multinational companies, banks, family-owned business and professionally-managed organizations etc) were interviewed for the study. Analysis of the interview data has yielded the following: 1. A comprehensive list of key performance areas and competency requirements for marketing, finance, production, personnel and systems jobs in different settings. Though the performance areas show tremendous variation across different jobs, the following competencies have been stated to be indispensable for effective performance of any job: Man-management skills, innovativeness and ability to plan and execute diverse activities. 2. Certain issues which have significant implications for improving the quality of management education in India. Most important of them is faulty curriculum. A large number of readings and cases being used are written by foreign authors based on Western settings. These have limited relevance to the realities of Indian organizations. Consequently a fresh management graduate is not well prepared to meet the challenges of work life. The case discussion and exercises conducted in the class hinge around the role of Chief Executive in the organization. This gives rise to false expectations among students. They expect to do the kind of things i.e. policy planning and strategic decision-making, which in reality may come to them only in the later years of their career. In order to avoid this rude shock and frustration to the graduates, more and more Indian cases and readings highlighting work life of lower and middle level executives should be incorporated in the curriculum. 3. Recommendations for future management graduates to help them adjust to the work environment during the formative years. They have been advised to rely on the feedback from their seniors, rather than on placement talks, while making the choice of job and organization; more weightage should be given to the job content rather than the salary at this stage; they should not have “MBA hang ups” and mix freely with people as interpersonal skill is the most important ability for effective performance on any job.