Uchendu Eugene Chigbu
Nearly all educated grown-ups and professionals know something about being an expert or generalist in a given academic field or work of life.
Not many know something about being an expert generalist. Experts are specialists (in a field of study or practice) who possess in-depth knowledge in a specific area of expertise.
Generalists have vast knowledge in a particular field or a variety of fields. Within the business arena, the expert generalist, as described by Orbit Gadiesh (chairman of Bain & Co.), is “someone who has the capacity and desire to master and gather knowledge in a wide range of disciplines, industries, skills, themes and talents”.
Within this arena, expert generalists have such varied knowledge-based skills that they are skilled in spotting details, detecting patterns, connecting dots and improvising ways to tackle difficult circumstances across businesses and sectors.
Differentiating generalists, specialists and expert generalists
I encourage young Africans to study land administration. It is an aspect of land management concerned with ensuring that land use, development, security and value (and other elements) are operational to achieve land management objectives. To illustrate the strength of the expert generalist, I highlight some of the distinctions between a generalist, specialist, and expert generalist in the land sector of a nation in the context of depth of knowledge, roles and tasks and skills
Depth of land knowledge: Generalist land professionals (e.g., land governance and land policy graduates or professionals) have broad expertise in multiple areas and maybe enough experience in each area of key land disciplines to provide trustworthy guidance and counsel to governments and private sector clients. Specialist land professionals (e.g., engineers, geodesists, cartographers, geo-informaticians and others) have detailed and in-depth knowledge in their disciplinary area rather than in a variety of areas.
Expert generalists (e.g., land administration and land management graduate or professional) are imbued with in-depth knowledge across multiple areas in the land profession, including planning, architecture, valuation, law, geography, land policy, gender, health, political science, agricultural science, sociology, land governance, urban and rural development, engineering, mathematics, philosophy and cultural studies – to mention a few.
Land skillsets: Generalist land professionals (e.g., land governance and land policy graduates or professionals) have a broad skill set within their discipline or sector or even across disciplines and sectors. They are trained to navigate problems outside of their comfort zone and into other land-related areas with governance and policy dimensions. Specialist land professionals (e.g., engineers, geodesists, cartographers, geo-informaticians and others) have a strong mastery of specific topic areas.
Their strength is in their specialisations within their disciplines. They have the best-horned specialist skills because they devote all their time and effort to learning and remaining up-to-date on their subject. However, their general knowledge across many disciplines can be a weakness. Expert generalists (e.g., land administration and land management graduate or professional) have an array of transferable skills that may be applied to a wide range of land professional and non-professional areas such as leadership, qualitative research, agency, communication, organisation and skills across the humanities, arts, engineering, technology, natural and social sciences.
Land sector responsibilities: Generalist land professionals (e.g., land governance and land policy graduates or professionals) usually engage in various land-related tasks, depending on the necessity. Specialist land professionals (e.g., engineers, geodesists, cartographers, geo-informaticians and others) are more likely to handle routine responsibilities.
Their deep knowledge base in one specialist area means they usually have well-defined goals and stick to deadlines. Expert generalists (e.g., land administration and land management graduate or professional) are helpful in different land sector responsibilities, often with more substantial generalist knowledge across various institutions, research areas and professional collaborations.
Why land administration graduates are expert generalists
The difference between land administration (and land management) from other land-related professions is their focus on developing multiple interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary skills instead of mere disciplinary skills. In today’s academic and training world, disciplinary skills lead to a linear career path in land-related professions. This is not to say that disciplinary skills are inferior, outdated, or unimportant.
Due to the multifaceted land problems that exist today, the focused development of a single skill usually leads to a linear career path. However, the wide skillset of an expert generalist is an asset to any nation, society or company because of the emergent world where almost all problems and solutions are interlinked across sectors and academic disciplines.
Concerning the question of why land administration are (or should become) expert generalists rather than the traditional specialist, Holger Magel, a renowned professor in land management and honorary president of the International Federation of Surveyors, once stated that “only specialised generalists - and not specialised experts – can reach the new fields we have in the land arena to enable them to contribute to planning and development decisions, conflict resolution, and pro-poor land management, including disaster and environmental-risk management”.
Emerging scholars and professionals in land administration must understand that, as expert generalists, they are expected to be people with beyond-average knowledge in other land-related professions and disciplines rather than mere delegators and coordinators in their workplace. As expert generalists, graduates of land administration should be able to exhibit multiple combinations in ways that are more valuable than in-depth knowledge in each one or few
disciplines.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to becoming an expert generalist. Geodesists, engineers, planners, sociologists, and artists (any graduate from a given discipline) can also be expert generalists. I have focused on how land administration graduates are (or can be) expert generalists in the land sector due to the vastness of subjects they are taught during their academic and professional trainings.
*Uchendu Eugene Chigbu is an Associate Professor (Land Administration) in the Department of Land and Property Sciences (DLPS) at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST). The views expressed in this article are entirely his, and not that of NUST.