Addis Ababa University Department of Management

Addis Ababa University Department of Management

Addis Ababa University Department of Management – Check Below:
The Department of Management is one of the oldest departments in AAU, established under the then College of Business Administration of Addis Ababa University. The Department is currently under the College of Business and Economics located on the former Faculty of Business and Economics campus. The Department is under the leadership of the College Dean, Dr. Fenta Mandefro.
The Department of Management has recently completed a major curriculum revision process on general management. Several circumstances impelled the need for an intense review of the existing programs, and resulted in changes to the curriculum that had essentially been unchanged for some years.
The main factor that led to the revision and development of the current program was an interest in providing a curriculum that would meet stakeholders’ needs. An additional factor was an expressed interest on the part of Universities and the government to maintain or increase enrollment on an aggregate basis. This naturally trickled down through the various universities’ organs and was reflected in this response.
With the implementation of the new Education Policy of the country, starting in the 2003/2004 academic year, a three year curriculum has been developed and is being offered to students who are admitted to universities after completing their preparatory programs.  In the preparation of the curriculum, as per the instruction given by universities and the Ministry of Education, discussions were held with universities that train students in the field of management.
When the current management curriculum was designed, attempt was also made to incorporate suggestions from various stakeholders. Suggestions from these sources indicated that new courses emphasizing computer skills, human resource management knowledge, communication skills, and leadership skills would be desirable.
The rationale behind developing nationally standardized Management curriculum was thoroughly explained as follows.
Firstly, Management is a crucial element in economic growth of a country. It brings together the factors of production: money, machinery, men, methods, markets and material to enable the country to experience economic development. A country with enough capital, manpower and other natural resources can still be poor if it does not have competent managers to combine and coordinate the resources.  In the words of Drucker “without management a country’s resources of production remain resources and never become products”.
Management is important for a country for many reasons. To begin with, our society depends on specialized institutions or organizations to provide us with goods and services. These organizations are guided by managers who allocate resources and have responsibility and authority to manufacture safe, to declare war or peace, to build cities, to keep the environment clean. Secondly, managers create jobs on the one hand and products and services on the other.
It is taking this into account that the present curriculum was designed. The contents of this curriculum have been determined on the basis of previously done curricula,  a survey conducted for this purpose, bench marking and inputs gained from sources provided by the Ministry of Education on curriculum development ( especially, Bologna countries).
Among the lessons acquired through bench marking is the development of curriculum by using the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) Model developed by Kaplan and Norton (1996), and curriculum design based on the Association to Advance College Schools Business (AACSB) requirement.
The BSC addresses four value drivers of organizational performance which graduates are expected to manage in the future, namely:

1. Financial Perspective
2. Customer/Stakeholders Perspective
3. Internal Process Perspective
4. Learning and Growth (future) Perspective

Program objectives
Through its programs the department has the objective of producing:

• Professionals  who are capable of planning, organizing, directing and controlling activities of private, public, non-government and government organizations;

• Professionals who can competently manage marketing, finance operations, human resource, materials, information resources, etc.;

• Professionals who are responsive and effective in working with and through others as well as capable of making and implementing decisions;

• Professionals capable of searching and developing opportunities as well as tackling problems;  and

• Professionals who are able to face the challenges of today’s and tomorrow’s highly complex and competitive environment.

Professional Profile
The Department is engaged in enabling students to acquire both theoretical knowledge and practical know-how pertinent to the management profession so that they will be competent nationally and internationally. It works towards helping students transfer employability skill in an ethical manner that can be mirrored through their cognitive ability, interpersonal skills, numeric skills and research skills.
Program Profile
The program prepares students to become professional managers capable of executing Human Resources Management, Information System Management, Marketing Management, Operations Management, Materials Management and Financial Management and other managerial functional areas. The program will:

• Equip students with a realistic overview of major principles and techniques of human resources management systems;
• Develop the students’ ability and skills to identify the sources of the information they need and how to utilize the information obtained efficiently;
•  Introduce students to the development and operation of markets-local, national and international-for resources, goods and services;
•  Provide students of management with a sound understanding of the concepts techniques, and applications of production and operations management;
• Equip students with entrepreneurship and ethical concepts; and
• Equip students with the methods and techniques of acquiring, utilizing, and issuing material resources.

Graduate Profile
The program is aimed at producing graduates that are equipped with adequate knowledge, skill and attitude towards the application of management concepts. Specifically, graduates of the Department are expected to be able to:

• Make rational decisions to solve organizational problems and manage conflicts;
• Take initiatives and bring about innovations;
• Be critical and independent thinkers;
• Analyze the organization as a total system and align with its environment;
• Search and develop opportunities as well as track problems, and face and respond to the challenges of today’s and tomorrow’s highly complex and competitive environment;
• Plan, organize, direct and control the activities of all types of organizations;
• Competently manage the marketing, human power, finance, operations, materials, information resources, etc. of organizations;
• Be responsive and effective in working with and through others by developing an understanding of common goals;
• Conduct research and consultancy services in management and related areas and offer training for those who need it;
• Understand the legal, social and ethical responsibilities associated with the management of all types of organization;
• Use information communication technology in managing organizational resources; and
• Use and maintain professional commitment required in the area.