The Irish Management Institute (IMI) is an educational institute in
Dublin, Ireland
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 cen ...
that offers
postgraduate diploma
A postgraduate diploma (PgD, PgDip, PGDip, PG Dip., PGD, Dipl. PG, PDE) is a postgraduate qualification awarded after a university degree, which supplements the original degree and awards them with a graduate diploma. Countries that award postg ...
s,
master's degrees
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. ,
executive education
Executive education (ExEd or Exec. Ed) refers to academic programs at graduate-level business schools for executives, business leaders and functional managers globally. These programs are generally non-credit and non-degree-granting, but sometime ...
programs and short courses in Business and Management. In its role as a membership organisation it connects businesses around its mission of improving the practice of management in Ireland.
An alliance between University College Cork and the Irish Management Institute was announced in June 2011 by
Taoiseach
The Taoiseach is the head of government, or prime minister, of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The office is appointed by the president of Ireland upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legisl ...
Enda Kenny
Enda Kenny (born 24 April 1951) is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as Taoiseach from 2011 to 2017, Leader of Fine Gael from 2002 to 2017, Minister for Defence from May to July 2014 and 2016 to 2017, Leader of the Opposition from ...
, the two institutions having been collaborating since 2009. As of 2014, the majority of the degrees offered by the IMI were accredited by UCC. In 2016, after many years of discussion, UCC bought the IMI and its lands.
History
The idea for the institute originated from a committee set up by Michael Dargan, T.P. Hogan and other businessmen. The motivation was to establish an organisation that would further the science and practice of business management in Ireland. Those involved were inspired primarily by the
American Management Association
The American Management Association (AMA) is an American non-profit educational membership organization for the promotion of management, based in New York City. Besides its headquarters there, it has local head offices throughout the world.
It o ...
and
The Conference Board
The Conference Board, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit business membership and research group organization. It counts over 1,000 public and private corporations and other organizations as members, encompassing 60 countries. The Conference Board co ...
. At the same time the then Minister for Industry and Commerce,
Seán Lemass
Seán Francis Lemass (born John Francis Lemass; 15 July 1899 – 11 May 1971) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach and Leader of Fianna Fáil from 1959 to 1966. He also served as Tánaiste from 1957 to 1959, 1951 to 1954 ...
had prompted a separate group of leading semi-state and private bosses into investigating a similar idea. Both groups merged and the inaugural meeting of the Irish Management Institute was held on 9 December 1952 in the
Gresham Hotel
Hotel Riu Plaza The Gresham Dublin, formerly The Gresham Hotel, is a historic Star (classification)#Hotel ratings, four-star hotel on O'Connell Street in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is a Dublin institution and landmark building which ...
. The founding chairman was
Sir Charles Harvey.
The objective of the institute was to raise the standard of management in Ireland. Originally it did this through corporate and personal memberships, regular lectures and conferences, a journal called ''Irish Management'', research and the establishment of a members library. After its first decade the institute became involved in management training courses.
Part of IMI's original brief had been to encourage the universities to develop management education. In the early 1960s both
UCD and
Trinity College Trinity College may refer to:
Australia
* Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales
* Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
introduced master's degrees in management. This was an indication of management's growing stature as an academic discipline. In turn IMI created the Sir Charles Harvey Award for exceptional graduates of these courses. The first recipient was Patrick J. Murphy. IMI later went on to become a provider of education. Its popular Certificate in Supervisory Management (CISM) was the first academic course run by IMI and was the institute's first progression into all-island distance learning. In 1973 IMI partnered with Trinity for the
MSc (Management). The MSc epitomised IMI's teaching philosophy and is notable for being the first management degree in the world to be based on
action learning
Action learning is an approach to problem solving. It involves taking action and reflecting upon the results. This helps improve the problem-solving process as well as simplify the solutions developed by the team. The theory of action learning an ...
. Related courses followed over the next three decades. Other affiliations with Irish universities have included a Masters in information technology development with
NUI Galway
The University of Galway ( ga, Ollscoil na Gaillimhe) is a public research university located in the city of Galway, Ireland. A tertiary education and research institution, the university was awarded the full five QS stars for excellence in 201 ...
and a research alliance with the
University of Limerick
The University of Limerick (UL) ( ga, Ollscoil Luimnigh) is a Public university, public research university institution in Limerick, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Founded in 1972 as the National Institute for Higher Education, Limerick, it beca ...
. In 2003 IMI launched their support and delivery of the Flexible Executive
Henley MBA programme. In 2011 the institute began an alliance with UCC. UCC now accredits IMI's diploma and degree courses.
UCC controversially bought the IMI and the IMI was merged into UCC.
Board and Council
IMI is owned by UCC. Its
council
A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or natio ...
acts an advisory body for IMI management and is elected from a group of senior executives from member organisations. Council members serve as ambassadors for IMI within Irish industry and are the
electoral college for IMI's board of directors. The
board
Board or Boards may refer to:
Flat surface
* Lumber, or other rigid material, milled or sawn flat
** Plank (wood)
** Cutting board
** Sounding board, of a musical instrument
* Cardboard (paper product)
* Paperboard
* Fiberboard
** Hardboard, a ty ...
is responsible for IMI's strategy and planning. The
CEO
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
(formerly the director general) is in charge of managing the institute.
Campus
The institute was originally headquartered upstairs in 81
Grafton Street
Grafton Street () is one of the two principal shopping streets in Dublin city centre (the other being Henry Street). It runs from St Stephen's Green in the south (at the highest point of the street) to College Green in the north (the lowest p ...
. As its activities increased it required greater space prompting further moves to 79
Merrion Square
Merrion Square () is a Georgian garden square on the southside of Dublin city centre.
History
The square was laid out in 1752 by the estate of Viscount FitzWilliam and was largely complete by the beginning of the 19th century. The demand for ...
in 1954, 12 Leeson Park in 1956, Errigal on the Orwell Road in
Rathgar
Rathgar (), is a suburb of Dublin in Ireland. It was originally a village which from 1862 was part of the township of Rathmines and Rathgar; it was absorbed by the growing city and became a suburb in 1930. It lies about three kilometres south of ...
in 1963 and, finally, the purpose-built, 13-acre (53,000 m2) National Management Centre in Sandyford, which opened on 25 September 1974. Around the time of sale the secluded site was considered a prospective location by
Soviet Russia
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...
for its
embassy
A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...
in Ireland.
The architect Arthur Gibney was awarded with the
RIAI Gold Medal 1974-1976 for the building, which took design inspiration from the system of step terraces used in the
Oakland museum of California
The Oakland Museum of California or OMCA (formerly the Oakland Museum) is an interdisciplinary museum dedicated to the art, history, and natural science of California, located adjacent to Oak Street, 10th Street, and 11th Street in Oakland, Cali ...
. The site was developed to incorporate existing natural features, its distinctive trees and small hills, as well as Clonard, a mid-nineteenth century house. A sculpture by
Michael Warren called ''Dolmen'' was erected in 2000. A residential block and conference centre were later added, for which Arthur Gibney & Partners won the RIAI Best Commercial Building Award in 2005.
Further reading
* Cox, Tom (2002) ''The Making of Managers: A History of the Irish Management Institute, 1952-2002''. Cork: Oak Tree Press.
External links
IMI websiteBritain From AboveAerial photographs of Clonard House, Dundrum in 1948
References
{{authority control
Universities and colleges in the Republic of Ireland
Sandyford
Educational institutions established in 1952
1952 establishments in Ireland