People in unison around the world have had a pandemic-inspired revelation: the corporate career is perhaps no longer what we aspire to.
People’s outlook on their relationship with ‘work’ has significantly shifted. Likewise, the students enrolled in management courses will want to shape their futures to align with new values. They are the next generation of small business owners; the drivers of ‘start-ups’; the entrepreneurs.
When Associate Professor Tui McKeown presents the facts to her students – Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Australia account for over 98% of all enterprises – her students are shocked. She has observed that this single fact gives students permission to chase their dreams – they start to realise starting a small business is a real option.
As lecturer and researcher within the Monash University Business School, Assoc. Prof. McKeown shares below the benefits of incorporating small business, entrepreneurship, and intrapreneurship, in management courses.
Tui McKeown
Associate Professor of Management at Monash University
Why incorporate entrepreneurial small business content?
Given that most students may well land in SMEs and self-employment, let’s actively incorporate it into our education. Instructors teaching Business Management have the opportunity to frame their lectures and tutorials to align with these types of employment and forms of business.
The Student Perspective
- A growing number of students are realising that ‘corporate’ is not what they want, especially if they are the type who think outside the box.
- Students observe other graduates’ experiences and realise the competitive nature of the corporate market.
- When students don’t know what they want to do, corporate careers are still a default option – but now often used as a stepping stone to build skills for when they want to ‘go out on their own’.
- Millennials and Gen Z intend to shape their future and customise their career. It’s natural that they’ll need SME and entrepreneurial skills as graduates.
The Education Perspective
- In an unpredictable pandemic-influenced economy, universities have a new role in workforce preparation. Let’s educate students according to the shifting world of careers and employment.
- The entrepreneurial mindset gives rise to other graduate skills – problem solving; discipline spanning; leadership; effective communication; teamwork.
- Universities should make sure management theory does not hold back the creativity of students in these moments. Whether it’s within a corporate organisation, or within their own SME or start-up, we want students to innovate, invent, and implement with creativity.
Intrapreneurship: a contemporary adaptation of entrepreneurship
The idea of intrapreneurship has taken rise and is now appearing in more published research. Assoc Prof McKeown explains the concept as being an entrepreneur within an organisation. Therefore, teaching an entrepreneurial mindset will give students a sustainable career.
McKeown tells her students, “Always think of yourself as if you are self-employed: although you may be inside an organisation as an employee, see yourself as working for yourself. This keeps you constantly aware of your own value proposition. Continue to ask yourself, why would other people want to engage with me? Why would my employer continue to hire me? What makes them want to continue to pay for me?”
McKeown further explains the impact of COVID on her students’ sense of job security. “Our graduates are entering their careers very differently. The brutality they’ve seen of redundancies, and permanent employees being let go as quickly as casuals – it has changed students’ mindsets. The concept of job security has shifted, so our students need to create their own security through value. Let’s teach them these exact skills to succeed from the get-go.”
“The concept of job security has shifted, so our students need to create their own security through value.”
As a member of the Wiley author team for Schermerhorn’s Exploring Management, 1st Edition, McKeown is giving voice to intrapreneurship in the chapter called Innovation and Creativity, which sums up the concept beautifully.
To harness the intrapreneurial outlook, she suggests to students:
- Think of yourself as self-employed, and channel the self-employment skill set in your everyday work and interactions.
- Practice your communication skills and problem-solving capabilities.
- Use university resources while you have access – make the most of your time in the education setting.
- Show your creativity and ability to innovate by incorporating it in your academic activities while you’re a student.
- Consider all your management units with the lens of a SME or entrepreneurial start-up – human resource management, industrial relations, supply chain management – they all have meaning for businesses of all shapes and sizes.
Our future economy drivers are here to be educated
In preparing graduates to be career-ready, it’s worth weaving small business themes and entrepreneurship throughout teaching units and textbook resources. This way, from Week 1 of a course, self-employment and small business becomes not only an option, but also an opportunity that students can openly work towards.
About Tui McKeown:
Associate Professor Tui McKeown teaches innovation, entrepreneurship, and intrapreneurship at Monash University, and is the President of the Small Enterprise Association Australia and New Zealand. Tui McKeown is a member of the author team for Schermerhorn’s Exploring Management, 1st Edition.
More Information:
We hope this post have provided you with some new insights about management and entrepreneurship. If you would like to know more about Exploring Management, 1st Edition or any of Wiley’s titles, please reach out to your local Wiley Consultant or request a desk copy today.
