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Horwitz, who has taught management for two decades... What exactly did he teach? It doesn't appear he learned very much about "management". Imagine a manager

by edw519 11y ago

Horwitz, who has taught management for two decades... What exactly did he teach? It doesn't appear he learned very much about "management". Imagine a manager firing all 30 of his direct reports. What would you suspect was the problem, the manager or the workers? Same thing here. Perhaps Professor Horwitz should get a real management job. Then he'd learn how easy he'd had it for the past two decades.

jerf 11y ago
"What would you suspect was the problem, the manager or the workers?" Well, "the manager's manager" is an option here too. "Mismatch of responsibility and authority" is certainly a fundamental problem that schools at all levels from kindergarten to university have been struggling with as our society goes through its social changes, as we keep loading responsibilities on to the teachers even as we strip away their authority. Whether or not this is the case, I don't know. As others have observed, there isn't anywhere near enough info to conclude anything here.
VLM 11y ago
Thats covered in the article by a quote: “The administration is all about passing these kids through and making as much money as possible,” he said.
dragonwriter 11y ago
> Imagine a manager firing all 30 of his direct reports. What would you suspect was the problem, the manager or the workers? Failing isn't like firing, its more like giving an maximally unsatisfactory performance review (and, really, more like being doing so as one of a panel of reviewers .) Professors, generally, neither admit nor dismiss students from the university (which is the nearest parallel to hiring and firing), and don't generally act as "supervisors" in other respects (except in the case when a faculty member has an "advisor" relationship to a student, particular a graduate student, but that's different than the relationship of an instructor to students enrolled in a course.)

by edw519 11y ago

jerf 11y ago

"What would you suspect was the problem, the manager or the workers?" Well, "the manager's manager" is an option here too. "Mismatch of responsibility and authority" is certainly a fundamental problem that schools at all levels from kindergarten to university have been struggling with as our society goes through its social changes, as we keep loading responsibilities on to the teachers even as we strip away their authority. Whether or not this is the case, I don't know. As others have observed, there isn't anywhere near enough info to conclude anything here.

VLM 11y ago

Thats covered in the article by a quote: “The administration is all about passing these kids through and making as much money as possible,” he said.

dragonwriter 11y ago

> Imagine a manager firing all 30 of his direct reports. What would you suspect was the problem, the manager or the workers? Failing isn't like firing, its more like giving an maximally unsatisfactory performance review (and, really, more like being doing so as one of a panel of reviewers .) Professors, generally, neither admit nor dismiss students from the university (which is the nearest parallel to hiring and firing), and don't generally act as "supervisors" in other respects (except in the case when a faculty member has an "advisor" relationship to a student, particular a graduate student, but that's different than the relationship of an instructor to students enrolled in a course.)