Case 19 Hosting a Visit From a Prospective "Customer"
Setting: Business School; Your Position: Dean
You are dean of a small, but growing, business school attached to one of the country's leading universities. One of your goals has been to increase the number of major organizations which recruit students at the school to work after graduation. The placement of graduates in good jobs is a key indicator of the success and reputation of the business school. This task has been neglected by your predecessors to the detriment of the school's ability to attract the very best students.
Many of the prospective employers wish to visit the school prior to interviewing students. You generally handle such visits personally, and they have proven to be quite productive and successful. Recruiters like to get a picture of the educational program as a background for their interviews. One prospective employer has asked for such a visit next week, but unfortunately, you will be out of the country. To coordinate the visit, one of your faculty must be designated to meet with the recruiter, showing that person your facilities, offering the chance to sit in on a class session to get a sense for the pedagogical environment, and taking him or her to lunch.
You feel confident that any one of several faculty members could easily handle the responsibilities of the visit if she or he were willing. They all have the necessary skill and expertise to explain the curriculum, and in fact, they have performed this role effectively in the past. Their interest in this assignment is, unfortunately, another matter. Most of the faculty view themselves as "creative scholars" and look with attitudes ranging from indifference to contempt at the necessary process of "wining and dining" prospective recruiters.
There is only one of your faculty who does not hold such an attitude, and that person has frequently expressed an interest in greater involvement in helping to market the school. You believe that the rest of your group shares your view that this individual is uniquely qualified for this assignment.