At 06:46 AM 8/16/2006, Mark Hahn wrote:
only mail client in use. these approaches are often
justified as "putting the uni on a sold, business-like footing".
The situation you describe is not endemic to "big-A" but rather to an
administrative person failing to understand the environment they are
administering. The "one mail client to rule them all" may be entirely
appropriate in certain business environments (eg. non-technology
companies). It is the wrong approach (again, in general) for a university
or heavy research environment. Not understanding this difference is a
failure of the person, not the position.
I guess I've had the misfortune to run into people with an MBA, who wield
it like a hammer (to whom everything looks like a nail).
MBAs (and all advanced degrees (or knowledge) in general, regardless of
field) are like chainsaws. A powerful tool in the right hands, disastrous
in the wrong.
There is a tendency in some MBA programs to inculcate a feeling that "all
management is abstract, and domain specific knowledge is immaterial,
because you can manage by the numbers". I think this was more popular in
the 80s, because certainly now, it's changed a lot.
You can get good and bad managers (or researchers) anywhere. Probably the
notable thing is that the amount of "pain" that a bad manager can cause is
greater.
Jim
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