Each of us who've completed the MBA program (or others who prepared for MBA entrance tests) are familiar with the selection process that includes Group discussions and personal interviews post written-tests. People are trained on "how to speak in GDs" and "How to prepare your interview answers?" etc by professional trainers and that's an industry in itself. Thousands of applicants each year get to know the nuances of clearing these selection rounds and then get final admits into the b-schools.
According to me, they are all being a part of a broken system and one that is invalid in today's working environments, challenges, and other related factors upon which the selection processes are modelled.
If one of the major objectives in a GD is to check how one will perform in situations that involves groups, and tackle issues like group-think etc, then we are addressing challenges that existed 30-40 years back. In today's organization culture, people rarely work in such large groups and at most times team members work with each other from remote locations. The whole structure of GD and the way of selection (or rejection as many point out) was based on the industrial/manufacturing revolution that happened many years back. I don't think it will be wrong to say that the entire MBA curriculum in many places and countries (like India) is predicated on those lines to satisfy Industrial revolution requirements.
The challenges of today and the future are different. I don't want to use a system that broken and invalid to select people into my curriculum for meeting present and future challenges. What will test them for through a GD? Why should I subject someone to a 20-30 minutes jabber and then take a call on that?
Same goes for the PI. If I am to believe that b-school selection process reflects the requirements of the corporate world, then a single PI is not the norm of selection anyways in any large corporation for jobs worthy of MBA graduates.
Some of the best companies to work-with and the ones that are changing the rules (to be followed by others soon) are not hiring based on 1 interview or 1 essay. There are multiple rounds, tasks, etc which are lined up to test the skill sets of individuals. No longer are people getting promoted to their level of incompetence. There are proper systems in place in the corporate world, but let's understand that its all dynamic and prone to deviation and changes towards betterment.
Whats really sad is as Professors, academicians, and that lot- nothing is being worked out to get to better solutions. Selecting through GD-PI is as good as selecting people at random - both are broken systems and will not yield the best results. Some might argue that through GD-PI the fittest survive and then get admitted. Then we are making the MBA curriculum represent entirely differently, and some of the best minds will get rejected only because they could not speak in a fish-market-GD or could not convince some doubting-thomas during the PI. Please note that people who are part of these panels are also products of that previous generation who see fitment to match perceptions according to their Jurassic work-ethics and culture.
A system-wide change is required to revolutionize the entire process. Maybe some anthropological study can be conducted across the industry spectrum to understand today's work-ethics and ways and then reflect the same in the selection process accordingly.
According to me, they are all being a part of a broken system and one that is invalid in today's working environments, challenges, and other related factors upon which the selection processes are modelled.
If one of the major objectives in a GD is to check how one will perform in situations that involves groups, and tackle issues like group-think etc, then we are addressing challenges that existed 30-40 years back. In today's organization culture, people rarely work in such large groups and at most times team members work with each other from remote locations. The whole structure of GD and the way of selection (or rejection as many point out) was based on the industrial/manufacturing revolution that happened many years back. I don't think it will be wrong to say that the entire MBA curriculum in many places and countries (like India) is predicated on those lines to satisfy Industrial revolution requirements.
The challenges of today and the future are different. I don't want to use a system that broken and invalid to select people into my curriculum for meeting present and future challenges. What will test them for through a GD? Why should I subject someone to a 20-30 minutes jabber and then take a call on that?
Same goes for the PI. If I am to believe that b-school selection process reflects the requirements of the corporate world, then a single PI is not the norm of selection anyways in any large corporation for jobs worthy of MBA graduates.
Some of the best companies to work-with and the ones that are changing the rules (to be followed by others soon) are not hiring based on 1 interview or 1 essay. There are multiple rounds, tasks, etc which are lined up to test the skill sets of individuals. No longer are people getting promoted to their level of incompetence. There are proper systems in place in the corporate world, but let's understand that its all dynamic and prone to deviation and changes towards betterment.
Whats really sad is as Professors, academicians, and that lot- nothing is being worked out to get to better solutions. Selecting through GD-PI is as good as selecting people at random - both are broken systems and will not yield the best results. Some might argue that through GD-PI the fittest survive and then get admitted. Then we are making the MBA curriculum represent entirely differently, and some of the best minds will get rejected only because they could not speak in a fish-market-GD or could not convince some doubting-thomas during the PI. Please note that people who are part of these panels are also products of that previous generation who see fitment to match perceptions according to their Jurassic work-ethics and culture.
A system-wide change is required to revolutionize the entire process. Maybe some anthropological study can be conducted across the industry spectrum to understand today's work-ethics and ways and then reflect the same in the selection process accordingly.
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