Return to Decision Line Home Page
Return to DSI Home Page

INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

ROBERT E. MARKLAND, Feature Editor, College of Business Administration, University of South Carolina

Operations Management Education in Hong Kong: Some Observations

by Jaydeep Balakrishnan, Faculty of Management, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta

This article examines Operations Management (OM) education at business schools in Hong Kong, primarily at the undergraduate level, in a period of significant change. These observations result from discussions the author has had with faculty members from the different universities in Hong Kong and written information available from the universities themselves. The focus is on OM education in the business schools (although at most of these universities, OM- related courses were also offered by the engineering faculty). The experiences of the Hong Kong universities in adapting OM offerings to meet the shift to a service-based economy will provide insights for others facing the same changes.

Relevance of Hong Kong

An examination of OM education in Hong Kong is relevant for two reasons: First, the economy is moving from a manufacturing-based one to a service-based one, just like in many other regions in the world. As seen in Figure 1, manufacturing employed about 850,000 persons in 1985. By 1995, this figure had dropped by more than 50% to about 400,000. Many of the manufacturing jobs have moved across the border to adjoining areas of the People's Republic of China (PRC), where the labour cost is much lower than in Hong Kong. (However, some of the operations of a firm such as product design, marketing, and logistics may still be performed in Hong Kong. In one firm the author visited, manufacturing was done in the PRC, but the manufacturing manager operated out of Hong Kong. This is possible since Hong Kong permanent residents can travel to and from the PRC freely).

During the same period, the population grew from 5.4 million to 6.1 million, and the annual constant dollar GDP growth was about 6%. This implies a greater role for services, which is supported by the figure. The employment in the export-import sector, just one area in the service sector, increased from less than 175,000 persons to more than 525,000 persons between 1985 and 1995. This one sector alone offset a large proportion of the large job loss in manufacturing. However, OM programs in Hong Kong share some of the same problems faced by their counterparts elsewhere in the worldža perception that OM is no longer relevant in a service- based economy.

Second, studying Hong Kong universities offers a unique opportunity to compare alternative strategies. Hong Kong has six universities, all publicly funded, which offer business education. They are all situated within a small geographical area. Since these universities are affected by the same external factors, the effects of different strategies followed by the universities can be compared more easily.

The six universities are:

  • The University of Hong Kong (HKU)
  • The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)
  • The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)
  • The City University of Hong Kong (City U.)
  • The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HKPU)
  • Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU)

The universities use open days to attract students to the different programs. On open days, high school students visit the campus to meet with faculty members, tour the departmental facilities, attend informative sessions and the like. The departments put a lot of work into promoting themselves. This helps the students because a joint entrance procedure includes all the universities and provides students with relevant information prior to applying.

Depending on the business school, students are admitted to the BBA program (integrated admission), first taking a common core and later majoring in different areas, or students are admitted directly to the different departments. Degrees in business normally take only 3 years to complete as students will have completed 13 years of schooling before entering a university. Except at the Chinese University, where courses may be taught in English, Cantonese, or Mandarin, the other universities in Hong Kong use English exclusively. The curriculums are quite similar to those in North America. This is not surprising since many of the faculty members have degrees from North America. Hong Kong is also a hub of East Asian business. So courses related to China, Japan and other East Asian countries are also taught. The details of the programs are given in Table 1.

Apparent Strategies Followed

Strategy A: Offer OM major as part of a common degree. The OM areas at CUHK and HKUST are having a tough time attracting students as majors, even though they are reputable institutions. For example, the CUHK MBA program was ranked fifth in Asia (Asia Inc., September 1994). Students choose other areas as their major once they are admitted. Between the two, the HKUST electives have better enrollments. Both CUHK and HKUST open their electives to any qualified student, business or non-business. But at CUHK, there is very little interest from other faculties, while at HKUST, there is high interest. This may be due to the fact that, at HKUST, all students, regardless of the faculty, must take some electives from each of the other faculties. Thus, there is an incentive for students to take relevant OM courses. At CUHK, students are not required to take electives from other specific faculties. In some cases, students can take few electives due to major course loads. So, even though the courses may be open, interest from other faculties is low. Helping HKUST is the fact that it has fewer faculties than CUHK and that the enrollment in the business school is higher.

Thus opening OM electives to non-business students might be an effective way to increase enrollment, depending on the curriculum of other faculties. This will result in an increased appreciation of OM in the future. Of course, there will be issues such as the pedagogy, as the students will be from different backgrounds (as in an MBA class). Perhaps it may be better to stop worrying about majors and concentrate on enrollments in individual courses. Attracting majors without ensuring job opportunities may backfire on the OM area. If employers do not recognize OM in their hiring, the result would be low employment rates for OM majors. This might result in a backlash and low OM enrollments over the next few years.

Strategy B: Offer OM as a separate degree. The two universities that offer separate degrees in OM or QAB are doing quite well. (QAB is substituted for OM in the case of City U. QAB shares some of the same problems that OM has in attracting students. Thus OM is not at a disadvantage when compared with QAB. So, if QAB is successful, then it is likely that OM would also be successful, as seen in the MA in QAB program at City U in the table). This is another option for encouraging education in OM. But this goes against the prevailing philosophy of an integrated business education. Students in each degree may concentrate on their field and not see the interrelationships between the different fields due to gaps in their studies. For this reason the universities in Hong Kong seem to be moving toward a more integrated approach.

Another disadvantage of this structure is that the OM area may have less control over whether OM is taught in other departments, because each department will have more control over their own course offerings than they would have in an integrated degree. In an integrated degree program, decisions regarding the curriculum will be made by a multi-disciplinary committee. As a result it is more likely that students will be exposed to all relevant business fields. As seen from the table, only at CUHK do all business students take OM. (All the MBA programs in Hong Kong require students to take a course in OM because the MBA programs tend to be integrated. Thus, curriculum decisions are made by consensus from all areas.) This means that a majority of students graduating with undergraduate degrees in business from Hong Kong have not taken an OM course. This is certainly a genuine concern.

First, graduating future managers who have no appreciation for OM issues does not bode well for business competitiveness or OM. One non-OM faculty member gave an example of a student project presentation that he attended, where he could identify crucial OM issues that had been missed. Apparently, these issues were ignored because the student group presenting, who had never taken an OM course, did not even recognize them as issues. In that respect, even though the CUHK has very few students taking electives, all the nearly 500 students graduating each year will have had some exposure to OM. Second, enrollment in OM electives will be low due to lack of knowledge about the area. It is heartening to note that HKUST will soon require all business students to take an introductory OM course.

Strategy C: Place more emphasis on services. Both the City U and HKUST are considering new programs in Service Operations Management. This is quite relevant given the nature of Hong Kong's economy. Major sectors include import-export, finance, and tourism. Most graduating students are likely to be employed in the service sector. Thus, traditional manufacturing-based OM courses have to be modified to reflect the changing nature of the economy.

Strategy D: Offer very little in the way of OM. HKU and HKBU do not offer much in the way of OM courses. Both these schools have considerably fewer faculty members than the other four schools. They have chosen a focused strategy. HKU offers a BBA in Accounting and Finance in addition to a BBA General. HKBU has several majors. Thus, they have focused their limited faculty personnel resources toward these majors. As a result very few OM courses are offered.

In summary, different universities in Hong Kong are taking different routes in OM education given the challenges. Different strategies will have advantages and disadvantages in the long run. It might be worthwhile examining these issues in more detail to learn from the experiences of these universities.

Note: The author would like to thank Professor Clay Whybark, Visiting Professor, Chinese University of Hong Kong, for his useful comments regarding this article.