By Prof. Vincent Bagire
I am still making sense of this exclamation. It was recently made of me by a long time close acquaintance with whom we have taught management at Makerere University Business School. She has taught human resources management while my focus is on general management. In both ways of this discipline we emphasize organizational set up, career growth and management of processes. OMG is a phrase that has recently joined the speech of peers adopted from the local artistes the Ebonies, in full, Oh My God! This is an expression of the many surprises that we encounter daily in family and organizational life. It is both of the good and bad experiences. The slogan has joined public talk and is widely used.
In 2014 I wrote a piece in the Leadership Magazine on, A PhD for what? In that article I tried to elaborate the usefulness of higher education to the community. Getting a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree, the highest in academic structure, is still felt as a preserve of the very few countrywide. It is not ordinarily seen as a degree that will be translated into applied knowledge. This was a page from my experiences and how I wish to demystify the same in my many communities – village, church, university, peers and global scholars. This experience is part of the contradictory realities that we face in organizations and my emphasis is that those involved in leadership and management of others must set up a system of internal cohesions to take advantage of the many resources around us like for church groups, experiences of the Christians, contacts, networks, skills, among others.
I will get back to some issues I have previously written about in this same magazine. Basically growing a career does not stream down instantly. It is step by step, staged ascendance in one’s choices, mistakes and resilience. But to those reading this, a career path should be anchored on some certainty of the personal desire. I will not insist that today, youth should be zero focused on what they want to become. To me, along the way there are still open-ended choices. I would challenge teachers and those in charge of youth especially in schools, managers and leaders working with young career professionals to encourage them to remain open-minded while working hard towards the desired future career position. Parents should not emphasize to their children a given career path possibly in their own trail. It is possible to have a father who is an engineer and children who are completely unable to cope with science subjects. Emphasizing that it is possible and must cope can break them physically, mentally and intellectually. They can however be guided with dimensions to gradually stream towards their professional choices in this era of great dynamism.
Back to the challenge, to my village foes, a PhD is meaningless unless you are seen at ordinary community events identifying with their fate. They wish to see tangible contributions in their lifecycle. To the many in school and education related activities it is an inspiration, just a person to look up to. But even in this case then, I must be close to them. You do not inspire people by ‘remote’. It is an illumination that education can lead to a distinguished career path and many would wish to pick a leaf of strength and courage to keep along. Having streamed through a similar livelihood it is fulfilling to think of all the possibilities and no hindrances. It is believable that the PhD may not translate into cash support as some may deliberately expect. But at least I know it and have said aloud, it is packed in ability to articulate issues that can change life to tangible benefits.
Now then, those are insights on getting and living with a PhD. Becoming a Professor? Yes, even my colleague, a senior lecturer, found the exclamation in OMG when she read on staff mail that I had been promoted to the rank of an Associate Professor! There are spikes that have characterized this path. A well-managed path to this level is contained in having simple vision and keeping along, avoiding messing into inabilities, being true to my realities. According to Makerere University Business School policy, one starts as a teaching assistant for about two years, becomes an assistant lecturer for another three years then after to a full lecturer. One must within possibly three years commence his PhD study that takes about four years. After this achievement one will become a senior lecturer and works hard to contribute to knowledge through publishing internationally and guiding policy and practice locally in one’s discipline. A professor is just another leader, yielding authority in the scholarly community. Leadership is about inspiring others to act towards defied goals, guiding and influencing. In the societal sense, it is an accomplishment of a long academic journey. Sure then, it should not be close ended but opening possibilities for many others. They are custodians of knowledge, but people are aware that knowledge is wealth and thus money. They are thus continuously engaged in the search for knowledge, in the support to many in need, in guidance to the uncertainties of community and organizational life, and in saying the truth. Professors are expected to be candles of legitimate community conduct; even at weddings or funeral rites their honor is not contested.
