Holistic Management Education at Tanzanian Rural Development Planning Institute

Introduction

Management education in the developing countries such as Tanzania is offered in numerous higher learning institutions. The purpose of management education in developing world is to prepare human resources who are capable to manage and lead the social, political and economic sectors. Management educators in various parts of the world stress on the need for Business schools and other management educational programs to adopt holistic management education (Preet, 2014; Quatro et al, 2007). Traditionally, management education has been constricted to analytical spheres of leadership and management. It has not been able to address the inclusive expectations of the business stakeholders and business risks in society (Quatro et al, 2007). This criticism forces management educators to adopt holistic education.

Business organizations in the developing world including Tanzania have been operating in multiple challenges such as competitive global economy (Kaul, 2011), innovation (Segal, 2010 as cited by Neville & Lindsey, 2011) and fast pace of technology (Solis, 2011 as cited by Neville & Lindsey, 2011). Management education has to develop a holistic approach integrating these issues in the curriculum. It could help in preparation of holistic leaders and managers who can manage the whole rather than orienting knowledge to management functionalities and technicalities (Khurana, 2007 as cited by Neville & Lindsey, 2011). According to Bolton and Galloway (2014) one of the best ways to realize holistic management education is to develop shared understanding of the complex challenges among management educators and stakeholders. They argue that a situation like this has benefits because ideally it results into collaboration in the architectural design of studies and pedagogical strategies. Eventually it liberates management education from confinement to specialty, and subsequently addresses the actuality which confronts the business systems. Holistic management education is a relevant approach for B-schools and other institutions offering management programmes in the 21^st century. Therefore, the objectives of this chapter are: to examine holistic management educational benchmarks in Bachelor Degree Programme of Human Resource Planning and Management at Institute of Rural Development Planning (IRDP) and determine the holistic management educational laggards in the respective programme.