Constitución

Management knowledge is essential for effective practice and is broadly accepted as learnable through formal management education (Badawy, 1982:18). Formal education, in the realm of the body of knowledge of management, would call for the imparting of “what managers should do” based on the science of management developed by management

knowledge would pertain to the scope of management activity, managerial tasks and partially to the roles of management. For example, general managers are responsible for the operations of a more complex unit such as an organisation or a division of it and should have a broad range of well-developed competencies to do their jobs well (Hellriegel et al. 2008:9- 11). While functional managers usually have a great deal of experience and technical expertise in the operations they supervise, such as human resources, sales, finance, marketing, or production (Hellriegel et al. 2008:9-11), the finance function relies largely on knowledge available from the disciplines of Accounting, Theory of Finance and Statistics. Their success as managers is due in part to their own, detailed knowledge about the work being done by the people they supervise, the problems those people are likely to face, and the resources they need to perform well (Hellriegel et al. 2008:9-11).

In many higher education institutions management education curriculum and syllabus (for example undergraduate courses, MBA programs) are structured according to what is known as the content of management. In other words, courses and programmes are naturally classified into distinct functional areas divided into courses such as strategy, accounting and marketing and are designed to improve the technical competence of managers and managers to be (commerce graduates) (Burchell et al. 2001:11-20). The offering of management courses affirms Badawy’s, (1982: 18) contention that management knowledge is fundamental for effective practice and can be acquired through formal management education. Even though the body of management knowledge or content of management is functionally organised for analytical purposes, it should be noted that in practice a holistic, integrated, cross-functional perspective is required (Louw, 1999:19).

Against this background, the question arises what the specific content of the body of knowledge taught at HEI’s offering commerce and business related degrees is. The question was raised in Section 1.4 of Chapter One, which courses, should form the basis of the body of management knowledge in the Commerce curriculum? In response to this question, core courses were identified from the Selected HEI institution’s general prospectus. These courses were then grouped together based on the general management functional areas, secondary sources on management, as well as on distinct similarities and insights. The classification of these core courses used in the current study, is as follows (Selected HEI institution Prospectus 2010):

• Accounting, which includes the following modules: “accounting cycle; presentation and disclosure for financial statements; adjustments; accounting for receivables and payables; inventories; cash and cash equivalents; partnerships; companies; cash flow statements; consolidations; equity accounting; income taxes; foreign exchange; forward exchange contracts; accounting policies; earnings per share; provisions and contingencies and financial instruments (excl. derivatives)”.

• Auditing, this includes “the nature, definition and objective of an audit, qualities and qualifications, duties and responsibilities. It also includes requirements of relevant legislation; the Companies Act and Auditing Profession Act. The audit process; internal controls; compliance and substantive auditing of the major business cycles; audit reports and computer auditing”.

• Ethics, which includes “modules in general ethics; ethical decision-making; macro- ethics; stakeholder theory and corporate social responsibility; management and organisational ethics”.

• Management Accounting, which includes “modules in cost classification (job order costing, process costing, JIT, ABC); Cost behaviour (CVP analysis, standard and variable costing); valuations; capital budgeting; working capital management; credit policy; current asset management; leasing and sources of finance”.

• Taxation includes “modules in principles of income tax; practical application of the income tax act; and the value added tax to financial; commercial transactions and donations tax. The course also includes other relevant acts; court decisions; and Inland Revenue practices; calculation of tax payable; estate and tax planning”.

• Financial Management, which includes “modules in capital budgeting; valuations; working capital management; credit policy and current asset management; sources of finance; leasing and other selected topics”.

• Human Resource Management, which includes “modules in the human resource management function (planning, staffing and compensation); organisational behaviour; labour relations; leadership; organisation development and interventions; organisational diagnosis; learning organisations and knowledge and intellectual capital”.

• Marketing Management, which includes “the marketing concept; an introduction to the marketing mix; marketing research; business markets; business buyer behaviour; market targeting; market positioning; international marketing; brand management; relationship marketing; services marketing; e-marketing and marketing communication”.

• Strategic Management, which covers “the principles of strategic management in accordance with the constraints and opportunities imposed by both internal and external environmental factors; stakeholders and strategic direction; strategic analysis; strategy development and formulation and strategy implementation.

• Economics, which covers “modules in microeconomics (the study of production and consumption by households, firms and industries), macroeconomics (the study of the economy as a whole, including monetary and fiscal policy; national income accounting, unemployment and inflation; international trade; public finance; money and banking and international finance; economic history; environmental economics; mathematical economics and econometrics”.

• Information Systems, which includes “modules in the development, application and management of information systems in organisations and the technology used in these processes; corporate communications; decision support systems; IT project management tools; computer programming; information systems theory; end user development; accounting information systems; information systems security and control; computer assisted audit techniques; information systems design; advanced data manipulation; e- business and software engineering modules”.

• Computer Science, which includes “introduction to ICT problem solving with computers, introductory programming, computer skills; machine organisation; design principles; designing for windows systems; database theory and query languages; modelling; software engineering techniques; data communications and computer networks; functional programming; web 2.0 technologies; XML; AJAX; mobile web technologies; social networking; multiplayer / network game programming and development frameworks”.

• Mathematics, which includes “modules in introductory calculus; discrete mathematics; mathematics literacy; differential equations; foundation of mechanics; mathematical modelling; transformation geometry; algebra, applied and complex analysis; linear control, numerical analysis; quantum mechanics; and real analysis”.

• Statistics, which includes “modules in theory of finance, mathematical statistics, linear models and probability theory; survey methods and sampling techniques; sampling distributions; point and interval estimation; tests of hypotheses; design and analysis of questionnaires; time series analysis; limit theorems; Bayesian inference and financial statistics”.

• Commercial Law, which includes “introduction to the nature of law; interpretation of statutes; contracts of sale; partnerships; close corporations; registering companies; labour law; commercial agency; letting and hiring; property law statutes; mortgage loan and lien; carriage of goods, surety ship, marketing law; arbitration; insurance; insolvency; negotiable instruments; administration of estates and property transactions”.

• Legal Theory includes “modules in foundations in law; legal interpretation; customary law; law of persons; administrative law; competition law; constitutional law; environmental law; insolvency and winding up of companies; law of life partnerships and trusts; law of patents; designs and geographical indications; law of succession and administration of estates; international trade law; law of trademarks and copyrights; law of tax and estate planning; legal accounting; negotiation and mediation; legal practice and legal skills”.

• Philosophy, which includes “modules theory of knowledge; theories of human nature; theories of mind and society; moral and political philosophy; metaphysics; history of philosophy; philosophy of religion; philosophy of science; epistemology; African philosophy; continental European philosophy; ethics; social philosophy and philosophy of religion”.

• Psychology, which includes “clinical and counselling psychology, educational psychology, organisational psychology, developmental psychology and learning, social psychology, biological psychology, personality, psychopathology and psychotherapy, and industrial psychology”.

• Theory of Finance, which includes “studying the value of money under the following headings: linear growth, exponential growth, serial growth and calculus”.

The above mentioned core courses or major disciplines are analogous with the curriculum content and educational standards that should be provided by HEI’s as provided by Higher Education South Africa (HESA) and Council on Higher Education (CHE) in South Africa. The Commerce curriculum, generic to most universities include Accounting, Financial Management, Strategy, Human Resource Management, Marketing Management, Economics, Commercial Law, Information Systems and Management Accounting (Rhodes, 2010:1; University of Cape Town, 2010:1; Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2010:1; Stellenbosch University, 2010:1; University of Pretoria, 2010:1). Criticisms of Commerce graduates and the curriculum were the rationale behind this study and also to obtain the

views and the perceptions of graduates and employers on which new courses should be added to the Commerce curriculum in line with contemporary issues and needs in practice.

The classification of the core courses according to subject disciplines at the selected HEI is illustrated in Table 2.4. These courses form the basis of the Commerce curriculum classification criterion for both the Commerce graduate and employer surveys.

TABLE 2.4: Classification of core courses at the selected HEI

Discipline Courses Accountancy • Accounting • Auditing • Management Accounting • Taxation • Ethics

General Management • Financial Management

• Human Resource Management • Marketing Management • Strategic Management

Economics • Economics

Legal Law • Commercial Law

• Legal Theory Information Systems Management /

Information Technology

• Computer Science • Information Systems Quantitative methods and data analysis • Mathematics

• Statistics

• Theory of Finance

Social Sciences • Philosophy

• Psychology (Source: Researcher’s own construction)