Organizational Diagnosis; Assignment 1

Name: Venkata Satya Ajay Y; Sec: D

The topic selected for action research is Should B-Schools release their Placement information? Three students (ID-1, ID-2, ID-3) from different backgrounds and work experience have been selected for the action research and I acted as the researcher. Brief student profiles ID-1: Mechanical Engineer from a regional engineering college and has five years of work experience. ID-2: Computer science graduate from IITB with no work experience. ID-3: Law graduate from a Law school in Bangalore. He has two years of working experience. The action research Plan All the three students have read the action research reading and hence knew all the steps involved. The three students have decided to state their opinion upfront and then discuss on each ones views. Only ID-3 was against the release of Placement reports. ID-1 then suggested that they should weigh the pros and cons of releasing the placement data and then come to a logical conclusion. Both ID-2 and ID-3 have accepted on this framework and moved forward. Act (Summary of the points) ID-1: He was in favour of releasing placement reports. He said the pros of releasing placement reports would be the authenticity of data for the outside world. He said there will be several rumours without the actual data and it will be difficult for aspiring students to know the factual data and evaluate the institutes. He said he doesnt see any negative side of this issue. ID-2: He was against the release of placement information. He said he shares the same view as ID-1 for the pros and for the cons, he argued that no engineering college release their placement details and same should be the case with the B-schools. He also talked about different rankings which include various parameters other than ranking in evaluating an institute. He also raised the issue of media which go over the board in reporting pay packages. The issue digressed for some time on to the work ethics of media and how their acts affect the society at large. ID-3: He was also in support of releasing placement reports and explained how the latest amendments in reporting structure by IIMA will improve fairness in reporting. He also said that the recruiter himself might want to look at the institutes placement record to estimate the industry trends and the average compensations. Observe The points given by all the three students were substantiated through examples from real life. Majority of the points were built upon the points raised by others and hence the process was more cyclic. The plan to discuss all the pros first and the cons later, was followed only for the first round till everyone got a chance to voice their opinion. All the panellists points were more directed from the point of view of IIMs and not B-Schools in general. Reflect I gave my observations to the discussion panel and also asked the participants to reflect on their discussion so far. They were happy for the fact that no single student dominated the entire discussion and also thought several good points came up which could have been discussed much more in depth.

2nd Cycle Plan The plan now is to discuss about the issue from the perspectives of different stakeholders the institute, the recruiters, the media, aspiring students and the current students. Act The discussion was more intense and focussed this time. ID-1 started out with the perspective of institute, to increase its visibility amongst the student community, especially if it is a tier-II and tierIII B-school. ID-2 also discussed on the need of common reporting standards from all institutes. He also noted how placement reports can give information details on specializations in MBA and how much demand exists for each specialization. ID-3 addressed the issue of raising stress among the current students to get higher and higher pay packages in order to look competitive in the societies world, and how this could hamper their individual choices. However, he accepted the fact that the pressure would persist irrespective of the release of placement information. The process was carried forward for three cycles, and the panellists have unanimously decided on reporting placement information to the outside world. However they identified the need for standardizing the format. Key Learning I was able to see the impact of observing and reflecting very clearly in the 2 nd cycle. There was a need of urgency to decide on the issue at hand, and it had a much better focus. The points covered have taken all the stakeholders into consideration. The students were also able to understand the reasons behind their stand and how the different view points helped in making better judgements. Majority of the arguments were built in response to other panellists arguments which was typical in an action research. Planning helped in forming a base for discussion for all three cycles and determined what was going to be discussed for the next 15minutes thereafter. The two way reflection helped a lot for the participants. One was from the third party observer, while the other was self reflection. This helped in identifying and resolving issues which were hindering the process of discussion from utilizing the time efficiently.