N.Y. University Reports on Israel’s Industrial Management Requirements

The New York University today published a report declaring that Israel will have to train an industrial management force of some 4,000 persons in the next five to ten years in order to meet the requirements of the country’s economy.

The report was issued by Dr. B. Bernard Greidinger, coordinator of the New York University–International Cooperation Administration business education project in Israel. Dr. Greidinger, who also is a professor at NYU’s Graduate School of Business Administration, described the work now being conducted in Israel at the Hebrew University’s Eliezer Kaplan School, at the Graduate School of Industrial Management Enginneering of the Haifa Institute of Technology, and with industrial firms and professional groups.

Six NYU faculty members are now in Israel assisting in the development there of educational programs for business, the report indicated. At Hebrew University the NYU group is helping to set up a complete curriculum in business administration. Research has been undertaken and literature from foreign countries is being translated into Hebrew. A dictionary of accounting and business terminology also is being prepared. During the coming academic year, the Hebrew University will give courses in quality control, alternative production management, advanced accounting, and budgetary control, the report stated.

AMERICAN EXPERTS PROVIDE “KNOW-HOW” FOR INDUSTRIAL FIRMS

At the Haifa Technion the NYU faculty members are at work organizing the teaching of a graduate course in the techniques of operations research, the report continued. Also under way are the development of a statistical analysis program, the collection of case material, the development of a research program for an operational analysis research group, and the preparation of material for additional graduate courses.

The NYU group in Israel–under the direction there of Professor Theodore Lang, acting field project coordinator–also is working directly with industrial firms and trade associations to establish seminars and in-plant study days, training programs, and cooperative programs between business and educational institutions.

According to Dr. Greidinger, “The aim is to help managements set up their own ‘in plant’ management training plans and to instruct the training directors or others chosen by their respective organizations in establishing and administering such plans. To this end also, both general and specialized educational programs are to be carried on by the cooperating academic institutions in an integrated framework, based upon existing needs for such training as ascertained through ‘need analysis’ surveys and by more exact and fundamental types of research.”

Both the Technion and Hebrew University are sending students and businessmen to the United States for advanced training in the various business disciplines at American universities. The project in Israel was established under a cooperative agreement between Israel, the International Cooperation Administration of the United States State Department, Hebrew University, the Technion, and New York University.