As part of the faculty development programme, IIM Indore organised a guest talk by Prof Abhinandan K Jain, of IIM Ahmedabad. He spoke on the topic “Becoming a Management Academic”.
Prof Jain, asked the participants what they understood by the term ‘management academic’. The participants, shared their views on the definition of management and academic and noted that managing a place, person or an event can be called management — which is mostly context-driven.
Prof Jain agreed, pointing out that even the context has been changing drastically. “We need to prepare ourselves for the changing context in a manner which enables our students to prepare themselves for the future in a better way,” he said.
Learn, unlearn, relearn
“Remember the concept and the context of a thing, understand it, develop ideas to apply the concept, analyse and evaluate it. These tools will help you become a better learner,” he said.
Discussing the dramatically changing technology landscape, Prof Jain said teachers today need to figure out a way to help students learn the kind of techniques they need to become future-ready and employable. “Even seasoned professionals need to learn, unlearn and relearn in order to remain updated with the changes taking place and help our fellows become receptive to new things, adapt to them and become competent,” he said.
Academic-workplace learning
Jain noted that advancement in teaching does not just come from technology or digitalisation but also by connecting academic learning with workplace learning, learning about one’s discipline, while absorbing inter-disciplinary learnings, learning from groups that involve both teachers and practitioners.
“Research projects which are cross-cultural, involve both the faculty and students from multiple disciplines help manage the knowledge gap by understanding one another’s perspectives,” he said.
The event ended with Prof Jain conducting a workshop on case methods in which he shared insights into the importance of case writing.