Geetha Rao, Times News Network
23 Nov, 2006
IIM-B has said it will not disclose the pay packets of its students. What's the funda behind big buck salaries?
The fat pay packets IIM graduates get after placement at various companies always attract a lot of attention. However, recently, IIM-B decided not to divulge salaries of students since it could make them vulnerable to unscrupulous elements; also because it says it's not a placement agency.
It can be unsafe
V Ravichandar, management consultant, and alumnus of IIM-A says there may be a little concern because opportunists might hit at highsalary employees like in the case of Adobe CEO Naresh Gupta.
"Who gets how much —there is a vicarious kind of pleasure in knowing that, and that's really trouble. One must stay below-radar in today's times."
Brand expert and alumnus of IIM-B Ramanujam Sreedhar feels there may be something in that: "I have promoter-clients who are Indians settled in the US drawing huge salaries who insist on invisibility because they feel vulnerable."
Privacy please
HR trainer-consultant CVK Maithreya, who's been on the admission panel for IIM-K, says besides concern for safety, there's the aspect of personal privacy: companies may not want employees to divulge salaries; and the employee himself may not want his friends or relatives to know how much he earns.
Why tell?
On the other hand, says Maithreya, the high salaries can be an incentive for people to take up management. Plus, irrespective of publicity, the demand for managers is high and the supply is low, which means that there will be more management institutes coming up.
And there's always the feel good factor: it feels good to know an Indian earns so well. V Ravichandar says it helps to have such info, since HR managers need to know what people are being paid, they must know competitive levels. And the high salary has a positive rub-off on the institute.
Why not tell?
But Ramesh Venkateswaran, alumnus and visiting faculty, IIM-B, says he sees no logic in not revealing high salaries. And he doesn't believe employees' lives are at stake if salaries are revealed.
Also, he thinks salary levels are not a measure of the performance metric of an institute. So it can give rise to the quality being decided by the salary, while in reality, there are other parameters for quality.
Besides, the institute policy may want to keep the focus on academic excellence. Though the salaries can make students aspire to belong to such institutes, Ramanujam Sreedhar also says mentioning salaries can create inequity among those who have landed plum jobs and those who haven't, or even between IIM batchmates.
Also, it puts pressure on students who don't make it to an IIM. It also puts pressure on quality second-rung management colleges, which do produce quality students.
At the same time, one must understand that only a few IIM students get super-huge salaries, adds Sreedhar.
Negative impact
Experts say that the emphasis on salaries has had its impact on second and third-rung management colleges. They too have begun to quote salaries as an indicator of how good they are.
Placement agency?
When asked why IIM-B said it was not a placement agency, Rajeev Gowda, professor, IIMB, says probably because it meant, "we are in the business of educating people. That is, the focus is on academics. It just so happens that the students do well in the market."
23 Nov, 2006
IIM-B has said it will not disclose the pay packets of its students. What's the funda behind big buck salaries?
The fat pay packets IIM graduates get after placement at various companies always attract a lot of attention. However, recently, IIM-B decided not to divulge salaries of students since it could make them vulnerable to unscrupulous elements; also because it says it's not a placement agency.
It can be unsafe
V Ravichandar, management consultant, and alumnus of IIM-A says there may be a little concern because opportunists might hit at highsalary employees like in the case of Adobe CEO Naresh Gupta.
"Who gets how much —there is a vicarious kind of pleasure in knowing that, and that's really trouble. One must stay below-radar in today's times."
Brand expert and alumnus of IIM-B Ramanujam Sreedhar feels there may be something in that: "I have promoter-clients who are Indians settled in the US drawing huge salaries who insist on invisibility because they feel vulnerable."
Privacy please
HR trainer-consultant CVK Maithreya, who's been on the admission panel for IIM-K, says besides concern for safety, there's the aspect of personal privacy: companies may not want employees to divulge salaries; and the employee himself may not want his friends or relatives to know how much he earns.
Why tell?
On the other hand, says Maithreya, the high salaries can be an incentive for people to take up management. Plus, irrespective of publicity, the demand for managers is high and the supply is low, which means that there will be more management institutes coming up.
And there's always the feel good factor: it feels good to know an Indian earns so well. V Ravichandar says it helps to have such info, since HR managers need to know what people are being paid, they must know competitive levels. And the high salary has a positive rub-off on the institute.
Why not tell?
But Ramesh Venkateswaran, alumnus and visiting faculty, IIM-B, says he sees no logic in not revealing high salaries. And he doesn't believe employees' lives are at stake if salaries are revealed.
Also, he thinks salary levels are not a measure of the performance metric of an institute. So it can give rise to the quality being decided by the salary, while in reality, there are other parameters for quality.
Besides, the institute policy may want to keep the focus on academic excellence. Though the salaries can make students aspire to belong to such institutes, Ramanujam Sreedhar also says mentioning salaries can create inequity among those who have landed plum jobs and those who haven't, or even between IIM batchmates.
Also, it puts pressure on students who don't make it to an IIM. It also puts pressure on quality second-rung management colleges, which do produce quality students.
At the same time, one must understand that only a few IIM students get super-huge salaries, adds Sreedhar.
Negative impact
Experts say that the emphasis on salaries has had its impact on second and third-rung management colleges. They too have begun to quote salaries as an indicator of how good they are.
Placement agency?
When asked why IIM-B said it was not a placement agency, Rajeev Gowda, professor, IIMB, says probably because it meant, "we are in the business of educating people. That is, the focus is on academics. It just so happens that the students do well in the market."
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