The Karpin Enquiry and the Role of Management Education in Australia: History Revisited?

Abstract The report of the industry taskforce on management skills, chaired by David Karpin, has been the most recent in a succession of reports on Australia's need for management skills and the role of the education providers in satisfying them. According to the Karpin Report the main problem with Australian management is a lack of leadership skills and the failure of the educators to focus on training future leaders. Karpin feels that business and the educators are out of touch; that management academics have concentrated too much on producing graduates who can master statistical techniques rather than graduates who understand how to lead and communicate. In turn the Karpin Report has been accused by the same academics of perpetuating a narrow emphasis on managers as entrepreneurial leaders ignoring the whole range of functions required in the effective manager (Lamond, 1995). This paper will not be concerned with criticising the apparent bias of the Karpin Report. It will be more concerned with underst...