Question

Direction: Read the following scenario and answer the THREE questions that follow.
Bharat Business School (BBS), a premier business school, was renowned for the quality education it provided. Its faculty, known for their domain area expertise and excellence in teaching, competed with each other for a better student feedback. Of late, the institute was finding it difficult to upgrade its course content with rapidly changing global business scenario. The difficulties multiplied when the school realized that some of senior faculty would retire on regular basis, starting in the near future. To overcome these difficulties, BBS decided to recruit young faculty in all the departments (e.g., Economics, Finance, Marketing, HRM, Production etc).
When the Dean - Academics scanned the applications, she found three distinct types of aspirants viz. (i) A type candidates who were very good teachers, competent at teaching the courses taught by existing faculty members; (ii) B type candidates who were average teachers, competent at creating and teaching new courses that would complement existing courses, taught by the current faculty; (iii) C type candidates were not-so-good teachers, willing to teach any course BBS required.
Note1: A course is termed complementary when it covers the latest content and complements existing courses offered by a department.
Note2: Each department decides the suite of courses to be offered.
Suppose the Dean-Academics wanted to ensure the most efficient utilization of faculty resources.
Which of the following hiring decisions will ensure the MOST efficient utilization of faculty resources?

• A. Hire A type candidates and let the new as well as existing faculty teach same courses
• B. Ask existing faculty to develop complementary courses
• C. Hire A type candidates, capable of developing complementary courses
• D. Hire B type candidates to teach complementary courses
• E. Hire C type candidates and assign them teaching-assistant responsibilities

Answer 1

The Correct Option is C

The scenario presented at Bharat Business School (BBS) highlights the need for an efficient faculty recruitment strategy to address challenges posed by rapidly changing global business environments and impending faculty retirements. To achieve this, we need to evaluate the suitability of different types of candidates:

1. A type candidates: Very good teachers, competent at teaching existing courses.
2. B type candidates: Average teachers, skilled in creating and teaching new complementary courses.
3. C type candidates: Not-so-good teachers, willing to teach any courses needed by BBS.

The goal is to ensure efficient utilization of faculty resources to keep course content up-to-date and maintain quality education. We will evaluate each hiring option based on their potential to achieve this goal:

1. Hire A type candidates and let them teach the same courses as existing faculty. This duplicates effort and may not introduce updated or complementary content.
2. Ask existing faculty to develop complementary courses. This may overburden current faculty, especially with imminent retirements.
3. Hire A type candidates, capable of developing complementary courses: This option combines the teaching excellence of A type candidates with the innovation to update the curriculum, ensuring efficient utilization and high-quality education.
4. Hire B type candidates to teach complementary courses. While they focus on complementary courses, their average teaching may not meet the quality standards and may lead to course dilution.
5. Hire C type candidates as teaching assistants. This might not address the need for high-quality and updated course content.

Based on the above analysis, the hiring decision that will ensure the most efficient utilization of faculty resources is to Hire A type candidates, capable of developing complementary courses. This ensures that BBS can maintain educational excellence while introducing relevant, complementary courses to their curriculum.