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Some programs (i.e., Villanova, Telfer School of Management) also introduce students to process management and lean concepts. The rationale is that process measures can help to identify opportunities for improving efficiency at operational levels in organizations. Moreover, while many of the organizational performance management frameworks in the popular press tend to address strategic issues, process management focuses on the important operational level tactics key to organizational success.
Integration
Recognizing that organizational performance draws on many different functional areas (strategy, finance and accounting, etc.), most programs tend to integrate course material across these functional areas, challenging students to make better use of systems thinking to resolve organizational problems. This is accomplished in a number of ways. In some situation courses are team taught by professors from different functional areas. In addition, integrative cases are used making use of data sets that span different levels of the organization as well as a variety of functional areas. Furthermore, some programs are taught in a blended format: a combination of in-class and online modules that allow students time to reflect on the connections between modules from different organizational functions.
Conclusion
Recent trends in management education programs include creating approaches that avoid courses taught in “silos.” Given the emphasis on managing performance in most public sector regimes around the world, and the fact that budgets continue to be tightened in most of these regimes, emerging programs on business analytics and performance management provide a sound foundation for managers (both in programs and through executive education offerings) to sharpen their analytic skills to make better decisions in a context characterized by large volumes of rapidly changing information.
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