At the master’s programme entry test, two applicants caught Madina’s attention; one man who passed the test before Madina, and another right after her. The first applicant was a bit nervous but well-prepared, the second one did stress too much and mentioned that his assignment had been similar to Madina’s and that he shared her ideas and solutions. After the test, she got to know the other applicants better, including the two she had already spoken to. The first one introduced himself as Sultan Mussin and the second person was Victor Krassenko. Sultan Mussin looked self-confident and behaved with dignity, easily building a rapport with some of the applicants while talking about their jobs and employers with ease. Victor Krassenko approached Madina[1]and the other applicants and began a discussion about the effectiveness of the current test system, prospects for updating it and the future of higher education. While talking to her, he referenced a number of philosophical, social science, information technology and economics arguments. Based on his good test results, Victor was awarded a scholarship because he was a university alumni and held an economics degree[2]. Neither Madina nor Sultan received scholarships because they had not majored in economics. Sultan had a degree in mathematics from the Kazakh National University. However, they did ultimately receive the university president’s scholarship. Madina’s candidacy was nominated by the committee chair and Sultan’s candidacy – by the dean with whom he had already built a rapport during the application process. Both Madina and Sultan were grateful for the scholarship as it helped cover the high rent in Almaty and university tuition fees. The two-year study marathon was full of academic discoveries and a sense of joy. They studied six days a week during the evenings, participated in academic conferences and roundtables and implemented group projects. The faculty was pleased to have three smart students such as them in one group, who were able to sustain and lead meaningful discussions on a range of management topics. They often argued about ethical dilemmas because Madina’s opinion often differed from Sultan and Victor’s in regard to the meaning of social justice. Even though she was the only female student in the group, she was never treated as the “token female” by her classmates or the faculty. Madina, Victor and Sultan’s competitive spirit meant they got the best out of their studies, taking the time to prepare thoroughly for classes and striving to be the best students they could. During the breaks, Madina and Victor would debate human values, human destiny and the role of managers in corporate organizations. At the same time, Sultan continued to establish links with university managers and “key” classmates, as he called them. He easily identified a person’s social status and did not spare much time for those who could not be of use to him. One of his achievements was to have the KBS rector as a research supervisor for his master’s thesis. During that period, Madina and Victor were of great interest to Sultan, as they built a friendly relationship, supporting each other and sharing learning materials and sources. Sultan worked as a sales manager at a computer company and Victor was a budgeting officer at the Rakhat confectionery plant, the largest of its kind in Kazakhstan. Madina’s classmates respected her position and place of work, and this respect grew when she joined the AlmaU faculty as a part-time teaching assistant[3] (Exhibit 3). Victor and Sultan also really wanted to get jobs as part-time teachers at the university. In the future, Sultan imagined himself a businessman generously sharing his practical knowledge and expertise with students and followers. Madina then remembered how two years later she had suggested Sultan apply for a lecturer’s vacancy at her chair and he refused because of the low salary. At their graduation ceremony, Sultan won the award for the best overall master’s score, while Madina – the best management major. Madina’s thesis was given the best score, setting a precedent for KBS. The chair of the defence committee came up to her and said publically “Madina, are you married?” She answered she was. The chair continued “Bad news! You’ve lost a 50 per cent chance of [. . .] So, do you have children?” “Not yet,” Madina replied, puzzled. “Good news! You still have a 50 per cent chance of becoming a university doctor!” he concluded triumphantly. At the graduation party, Victor and Sultan announced their intentions to join a PhD programme as soon as possible. Madina told them that her immediate plan was to have a baby. “A PhD requires a certain research maturity and a clear vision of what you are going to research, how you’re going to achieve results and how society will benefit from your study,” she said explaining her vision. “Why do you always have to read so much into things? It’s just another step towards a successful career. Just meet the programme requirements and you get a doctor’s degree,” Sultan answered. “Actually, Madina, everything in life is much easier than you seem to think. The most crucial thing is to get a scholarship and then things will work themselves out,” added Victor. “For the record, I do nothing in my personal and professional life. It looks like a degree for you is the goal itself, but for me the most important thing is the quality of my research and to have a positive impact on society!” Madina continued. “Napoleon,” which used to be Madina’s nickname in their group, “is like that. She will never change,” Victor whispered to Sultan. Soon after graduation Sultan moved to a financial fund company as an analyst and a year later, he became the finance department director in another large financial company. After two years, he joined another financial group as an executive director and its deputy chairman of the board. Finally, when he was 26, he was appointed director general and chairman of the board at the large consulting company KazConsult. Madina was unaware of Sultan’s achievements as they stopped keeping in touch as soon as they graduated, except for two calls. Victor told her about Sultan’s career progress during their regular meetings and showed her a famous business magazine with Sultan’s photograph on the cover. Sultan gradually began to reduce his contact with Victor as well as he moved up the career ladder. After a while, he became part of the influential Kazakhstan business elite. Victor, in turn, moved on to a textile factory where he was in charge of the planning department, after which he took on the role of project manager for a drilling company, launching a range of successful projects. Five years after graduation, he took a job with Success Group Ltd as its leading budgeting project manager and bought out the company as soon as top management made the decision to sell it. To do so, Victor took a big loan from a local bank, mortgaging his flat and launched his business career as a co-owner with his colleague and IT project manager.

Family business

Immediately after graduation, Sultan married the daughter of an executive manager at an international oil company. They had two sons. Victor also married and had two children. He did not like to talk about his family. His wife worked, but was not able to focus on her career so much because of looking after their children. Victor always considered his main goal to provide his daughters with a good education abroad. Madina married a young man from her native town, and by the time Victor called to make his business proposal they had two children aged 4 and 8. When the children were born, she left the university administration but continued working as a part-time lecturer with the management and marketing faculty. She taught two courses per semester, which involved 10 h of factual teaching a week, 10 h of preparation and checking student assignment papers and another 3-4 h a week of regular faculty work. She was only paid for the hours she spent teaching and checking students’ test papers. When her second child was one, she began her PhD, which gave her a chance to balance her career and childcare. Madina saw clearly how crucial it was to find a work and life balance and that those who got disrupted or could not adjust it, faced serious constraints. That was the reason she refused job offers from her university and other companies, some of which were rather difficult to reject, such as the head of the project department, director for international affairs and deputy dean for international development. They all sounded tempting, interesting and promising, but she was very well aware that the requirement to work overtime and spend a lot of her time with other people would also deprive her children of their mother’s attention. Sometimes, Madina wondered whether Victor and Sultan had ever regretted their time spent away from their family and children. When she was just setting out on her career, Madina did not care about her work-life balance; she was employed full-time at the university, studied in the evenings, worked as a part-time English instructor at weekends and completed study assignments through the night. It could have lasted forever, if tragic events in her close colleagues’ lives had not intervened. One after the other, her two female co-workers died, having achieved middle manager positions, which had led to excessive teaching and study loads. Work had become their main concern in life and following their high ambitions, they began to use every opportunity to improve their career prospects. However, a combination of working too hard and excessive stress caused exhaustion and they died very young, leaving behind husbands and children. This was the catalyst for Madina to begin believing in the need to create and maintain a good work and family life balance. Madina had an egalitarian marriage; both partners setting career and professional development goals. Even though they made all important plans and decisions together, Madina was still responsible for resolving the majority of household and family matters. Madina’s doctorate supervisor, after visiting them in their comfortable and nicely renovated home in the outskirts of Almaty, said that her husband Murat Adilbek had an “impressive and stable career.” He had been promoted from warehouseman to a top manager in MTS, a small Belarussian Company, which was the local distributor for several Russian, Belarussian, Polish and USA corporations manufacturing specialized machinery. Thanks to the MTS family-friendly parties and team building sessions, Madina had become good friends with her husband’s boss, who talked to her about working with overseas partners and had recently offered to accompany Murat on his business trip to Poland to develop relations with a Polish auto accessory producer. He earned twice as much as his wife and had a bachelor’s degree from the same local university. He often told her to seriously consider leaving behind the university work and move into a higher-paying industry or stay at home as a housewife. “There’s no sense working so hard for such a small salary.Preparing lectures, checking students’ assignments and doing your other faculty work means you work long hours. You get paid for 40 hours and you work 50 or more!” he reminded Madina. “Look Murat,” she told her husband, “I do not see myself in any other industry. It’s my vocation. I do what I am pretty good at and that gives me the motivation to improve and develop myself. Working just for money is not my cup of tea”. She took a deep breath and continued, “To me a “good job” means being able to learn, network and share ideas with people and anyone I can teach something new to. Academia is a community of intellectuals interested in gaining and generating new knowledge”, Madina explained. “Well, what are your expectations if you stay in education? After defending a PhD thesis, I would have thought you’d get some kind of minimal increase, say 5 per cent, and in five years you might be promoted to associate professor level, which would add another 50 per cent to your current salary at best. After that you will spend another 10 years becoming a professor, which will get you a moderate income. Education in Kazakhstan is not the field in which you are paid adequate to your level of qualification. Compare yourself to other industries. You will always be underappreciated!” Madina’s husband argued. Madina recalled what her overseas mentor had suggested she consider, “I have noticed that in Kazakhstan the situation in and around higher education is rather similar to that in Central Europe. Look, there will always be a niche for finding additional, rather well-paid teaching opportunities within your own institution, let alone in your home city! I think you need to complete your PhD now, and at the same time develop both a focus area with a subtopic and your teaching skills, so that you can be relevant, competitive and valuable to your course participants and course organizers.

(a) Identification of the main issues - Provide an overview of the key issues and problems.

1. How does Sultan approach his professional and personal life? Describe in detail his approach using information from the case. (10 marks)