Paving the Road to Prosperity [antikvár]

Preface The purpose of this study was to survey, evaluate, and analyze management education efforts in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland since 1989, and to render my findings and recommendations. These will start off this report, followed by the body of the analysis and evaluation. This summary, then, is followed by individual reports on the state of management education in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland. The study concludes with a survey of the major management education efforts, by universities and centers, in the above four countries. I view this as a modest beginning, representing a one-person attempt - certainly with a great deal of cooperation - over a period of about fi ve months. My recommendations suggest scope for further action. From the outset I had to confront two major issues: what criteria should be used (a) to select institutions or centers to visit and (b) to evaluate those I selected. Visiting all institutions was out of the question as there are approximately 150 each in the Czech Republic and Slovakia (combined) and Hungary, and 300 in Poland. Calling on the "major" ones was alsó beyond my reach; of these there are 43 in Hungary alone. I aimed, therefore, for a stratified sample, making certain that I included institutions that provided undergraduate, MBA-type, and executive education. Somé of these were university-affihated and somé were not, somé were heavily externally financed and somé were not, somé were public and somé priváté, somé in capitals and somé in régiónál areas, somé were generalists and somé specialized in agriculture or industry. Given the time constraint, I think I was reasonably successful. Selecting the criteria for evaluating the management centers was less difRcult than I anticipated. As I traveled through the four countries one overwhelming economic need was evident: to raise individual, corporate, and national productivity. Economic reforms and management education go hand in glove. As reforms progress, countries need managers who can operate •« Vll