1. Teaching note
July 2010
“What Companies Want”
Graduate education needs in a global labour market
BIANCHI Paolo
ANDERSEN Solveig
GAGLIARDI Marcello
GUERIN Julia
VLEUGELS Jenneth

2. CASE DESCRIPTION
Lots of changes are taking place in the world. Economic development, globalization, demography,
technology and corporate social responsibility with its increasing importance, are tremendously
modifying the global scenario.
This case describes the challenges Luiss Business School (LBS) faces willing to adapt to the changing
external factors. As a consequence of the recent events and trends in the external environment
surrounding the organizations, executives and managers are searching for new routes to value
creation and growth; at the same time companies are experiencing new requirements in terms of
managerial competencies.
Since the companies are the direct clients of LBS, as employers for LBS´s students, LBS needs to adapt
to their changing needs.
LBS is aimed at offering managerial education to variously sized companies, whose needs in terms of
managerial competencies are changing, so LBS needs to understand exactly what these new needs
are, in order to adapt its educational offer.
Therefore there is a main research question for this case, and a practical task to be accomplished.
The research question is the following:
“What are companies’ needs, influenced by the global changing environment, in terms of present and
future managerial competencies?”
The practical task is to provide recommendations for the ideal MBA program.
STUDENTS ASSIGNMENTS
Students can compare different methods in order to analyze the needs of the companies and give
recommendations for the LBS’ MBA program. We suggest one method in the following paragraphs,
but others may be developed as well.
An analysis of literature and the conduction of semi structured interviews with real managers could
be performed by the students. A survey may be conducted as well, using web-based questionnaires.
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3. The analysis of the literature could provide a first insight into the global changes in the environment
surrounding companies nowadays, and provide also the basis for the construction of an interview
guide to be used with managers and/or a questionnaire for a web based survey.
If the time given to the students to solve the case is compatible with conducting interviews and/or a
quick survey (a couple of weeks or a month), the students could prepare an interview guide and/or a
questionnaire, identify a list of managers to be contacted, conduct interviews or a survey with them
and analyze the interviews and/or the results of the survey afterwards.
If the time given to the students to work on the case is just a day or two, they should just use the
interview summaries in appendix one: then they should analyze the new competencies and skills
that are mentioned by interviewees.
When the results of the analysis of the interviews (conducted by students or from appendix one), as
well as the results of the survey (if performed), become available, students could produce a first
output consisting of a list of competencies and skills that nowadays companies expect their
managers to have: “what companies want”. The next step could be to compare the outcome with
the structure of the present MBA (see appendix 2) at LBS, in order to assess if the competencies
managers should have are being developed during this program or an intervention is required.
A consistent final output, along with the list of competencies “companies want”, should be a list of
recommendations for the new MBA program, in terms of competencies that need to be developed,
suggestions about how to develop them and new subjects to be taught. Students could recommend
to LBS , for instance, to foster group working or increase the frontal tuition as well; to organize
business competitions/simulations; to introduce more case studies, etc.
TEACHING OBJECTIVES
-
Provide students with a better insight into the changes in the global external environment
affecting companies.
-
Provide human resource management students with practical knowledge about the changing
needs of the companies in terms of managerial competencies. This could be useful for two
reasons: firstly, it might be relevant for their future careers, when they will be asked to select
and recruit the right people (managers) for the right positions, keeping an eye on the future
needs of the companies. Secondly, it might be relevant in their own process of becoming
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4. ready for the labor market. Students can indirectly get an insight into the managerial
competences needed by companies, so that they can reflect on the competencies they
possess as well, performing a form of self-assessment.
-
Improve the information processing capability of students; improve their analytical skills in
skimming relevant information from non-relevant ones.
-
Give students the opportunity to gather more knowledge and experience in performing both
qualitative and quantitative research.
-
Improve students’ networking and soft skills, allowing them to contact managers to arrange
and conduct the interviews, so that they can interact with the interviewees and build
relationships which might be useful for them in the future.
ANALYSIS
In order to get an insight into all the aspects of the research question, different research aims can be
identified:

Investigate the main changing environmental factors

Understand how the environmental factors affect the companies

Explore new companies needs as regard future managers´ competencies
After having identified these aims, students can analyze them in different ways.
The first aim can be analyzed doing a literature review about the main important changes in the
external environment. In order to do so, students can use several literature databases and search for
the following terms: economic development, globalization, entrepreneurial thinking, corporate social
responsibility, demography and technology. More specific issues can be investigated as well: cultural
mediation, global understanding , cultural awareness may be some of them.
To structure such a literature review and therefore achieve a complete understanding of what is
going on in the world, students may refer to factors taken from analytical approaches such as the
PESTLE (political, economical, social, technological and legal factors).
The understanding of how these environmental factors affect companies, the second aim, can be
achieved referring to the literature review already performed.
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5. Besides the analyzing techniques used to get answers about all the aims of the research, students
can get more deeply and more thorough into the existing features and characteristics of LBS, in order
to understand which of the gained information can be relevant for LBS. Hence, identifying
companies’ new needs which LBS could never adapt to, would be useless for LBS (even if it might be
interesting for the student to know).
Third aim: firstly, students can analyze the summaries of the three interviews reported in the
appendix to the case study. By doing so, they will get a first insight and something to build their
further research on. Besides, to get much more insight into the dependent variable in the research
question (the managerial competencies) students can investigate what managerial competencies
might be important for companies now and in the future. Existing data can be used for this purpose,
such as lists of competencies1 commonly used for assessment procedures. An interesting source
might also be job advertisements by multinational companies. These companies need to adapt to
worldwide changes and developments, and these advertisements would provide a very clear insight
into what they might need and expect from their future managers.
In order to understand what will be different in the future (the different expected competencies) a
more thorough analysis might be needed. Conducting interviews can be helpful in order to
understand the relationship between the influence of the changing needs of companies influencing
their expected needs of managers.
As already written above, if the time given to the students in order to solve the case is limited, this
last part can be ignored.
THEORY
PESTLE
As explained in the paragraph concerning the suggested analysis methods, to conduct a PESTLE
analysis might be useful to structure the investigation about the external environment. Therefore the
following model might be helpful for students to be used:
1 Bauman (1998)
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6. Factor
Likely to include
Political
What are the key political drivers
of relevance?
Worldwide, European and Government directives, funding council
policies, national and local organisations' requirements, institutional
policy
Economic
What are the important economic
factors?
Funding mechanisms and streams, business and enterprise directives,
internal funding models, budgetary restrictions, income generation
targets
Social
What are the main societal and
cultural aspects?
Societal attitudes to education, particularly in relation to government
directives and employment opportunities. Also general lifestyle
changes, changes in populations, distributions and demographics and
the impact of different mixes of cultures
Technological
What are current technology
imperatives, changes and
innovations?
Major current and emerging technologies of relevance for teaching,
research or administration
Legal
Current and impending legislation
affecting the role
European and national proposed and passed legislation
Environmental
What are the environmental
considerations, locally and further
afield?
Local, national and international environmental impacts, outcomes of
political and social factors
Source: http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/tools/pestle-swot
Weick’s Sensemaking model
Furthermore, in order to use the information gained from the explorative interviews put in the
appendix of the case study, students can use Weick’s Sensemaking model.
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7. This model explains why the task of interpreting an environment is a highly ambiguous one. Weick
states that managers, in order to maintain a stable level of performance within the companies, must
decide whether the changes in environment are important enough to deserve some adaption in the
organization’s strategy or design2. The main point that can be taken from the model is that
managers, in order to understand the environment, need to scan, analyze and interpret the
environment3.
This model can be used in two ways. Firstly, it can be used to interpret the data from the explorative
interviews. In this way some sensitivity needs to be added to the conclusions drawn from this data.
As in all the phases highlighted by Weick there will be elements of human judgment involved,
students also need to be sensitive in generalizing the results from the interviews. Hence, there will be
data belonging to only three interviews, and it will be based on human (managerial) judgment.
Secondly, the model can be used by students to understand their own process of interpreting the
environment, especially when researching the first aim of the research.
2 Weick (1987)
3 Daft & Weick (1984)
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8. Mintzberg's Ten Management Roles
Source: http://www.lmcuk.com/management-tool/mintzberg-s-ten-management-roles
This model represents a categorization of different roles a manager should fulfill in order to be
successful. Thanks to this model, students can be oriented in considering the general needs of
companies in terms of managerial competencies. Some guidance in the investigation is provided: for
example the ´interpersonal role` in the model could imply the need for managers to have soft skills,
such as: taking care of relationships, be communicative etc. This deliver to the students the idea that
managers having soft skills is important for companies.
ADDITIONAL READINGS
The case and its references can be supported by many different readings about the external
environment, with all its changes and features. In the case study this part is divided into the following
factors: economic development, globalization, entrepreneurial thinking, corporate social
responsibility, demography. Since the case-study provides some general facts about what is
happening in these areas, and the provided information on some factors is quite limited, additional
information might be useful.
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9. Therefore, for increasing understanding in the factor globalization and also corporate social
responsibility, the following articles might provide a better insight:
-
Bauman, Z. (1998). Globalization. The human consequences. Polity Press-Blackwell Publishers
Ltd., Cambridge-Oxford.
-
Markovic, M. (2008). Managing the organizational change and culture in the age of
globalization. Journal of Business Economics and Management, Serbia and Akamai
University, USA.
In these articles the influence of globalization on companies is explained, as well as its consequences
for society, in terms of how companies are reshaping communities. In this way the influence of
globalization and CSR are linked as well as the increased importance of CSR is explained.
To get a better insight into Luiss Business School as a company, the website of Luiss Guido Carli
University could be uesefull: (www.Luiss.it).
Additional information can be found in several articles, but also the website of OXFORD University.
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10. REFERENCES
Bauman, Z. (1998). Globalization. The human consequences. Polity Press-Blackwell Publishers Ltd.,
Cambridge-Oxford.
Daft, R., & Weick, K. (1984). “Toward a model of organizations as interpretation systems”. Academy
of Management review, 9, 284-295.
Weick, K. (1987). “Organizational culture and high reliability”. California Management Review, 29,
112-127.
PESTEL analysis of the macro-environment source: http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/tools/pestle-swot
Mintzberg’s 10 Management Roles, source: http://www.lmcuk.com/management-tool/mintzberg-sten-management-roles
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