Discussion: View Thread

  • 1.  Recommendations of OB Ph.D. programs for experienced practitioners?

    Posted 12-09-2009 16:23
    Good afternoon,

    I would like to pose a question to the group. I am a practitioner with
    18+years of work experience which I would like to leverage as I make a
    pursue a mid-career transition to academia.

    I am in the process of reviewing and applying to US based Organizational
    Behavior and Management programs. I would like to ask the group for their
    recommendation of AACSB OB programs that you would consider if you were in
    my postion that would value practitioner experience and older students.

    Although some have questioned my desire to pursue a Ph.D. in business a
    decade after my MBA. It is a product of time, reflection and goal-setting. I
    have realized that my true business interests are in adding value through
    research and discovery more than making a difference on the quarterly
    earnings statement.

    Thank you in advance for your replies.

    Warm Regards,

    Bernie Malonson


  • 2.  Recommendations of OB Ph.D. programs for experienced practitioners?

    Posted 12-09-2009 21:28
    Bernie,
    I'll be interested to hear what others have to say, but my guess is that you're not going to find much difference across AACSB OB programs on the value they place on work experience in general. Although you don't describe what type of experience you have, some amount of work experience can be helpful in research and in teaching. What's most important is, using your words, the extent your experience adds value to your future research and discovery.

    If I were in your position, I would look for a program where the research interests of specific faculty members dovetail with my experience. (This will probably require substantial effort on your part.) I would then make the case -- probably in initial contacts or in my application -- that my experience can add value to the program I wish to join. In the end, faculty members choose to work with Ph.D. students based on the student's potential to add to the knowledge in the field.

    Good luck in your search,

    Bruce

    Bruce M. Meglino
    The Moore School of Business
    University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208
    Voice: 803.777-5970; Fax: 803.777-6876
    http://mooreschool.sc.edu/facultyandresearch/faculty.aspx?faculty_id=71

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Organizational Behavior Division Listserv [mailto:OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Bernie Malonosn
    Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 4:23 PM
    To: OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: [OB-LIST] Recommendations of OB Ph.D. programs for experienced practitioners?

    Good afternoon,

    I would like to pose a question to the group. I am a practitioner with
    18+years of work experience which I would like to leverage as I make a
    pursue a mid-career transition to academia.

    I am in the process of reviewing and applying to US based Organizational
    Behavior and Management programs. I would like to ask the group for their
    recommendation of AACSB OB programs that you would consider if you were in
    my postion that would value practitioner experience and older students.

    Although some have questioned my desire to pursue a Ph.D. in business a
    decade after my MBA. It is a product of time, reflection and goal-setting. I
    have realized that my true business interests are in adding value through
    research and discovery more than making a difference on the quarterly
    earnings statement.

    Thank you in advance for your replies.

    Warm Regards,

    Bernie Malonson


  • 3.  Recommendations of OB Ph.D. programs for experienced practitioners?

    Posted 12-10-2009 05:01
    Bernie

    I'm a 2nd year OB PhD student at the London School of Economics, about the
    same age and stage as you, I guess. It's working fantastically well for
    me...but I'd echo and perhaps amplify what Bruce has tactfully said: your
    experience will, perhaps, allow you more easily to find a set of interesting
    research questions and to negotiate good access to data, but I think
    supervisors want to be comfortable that you can combine the benefits of your
    experience with a 'beginner's mind' approach to the research and publication
    process. I also think one has to become accustomed to accepting that in
    many contexts, one's practitioner experience verges on being irrelevant to
    acquiring the toolset and mindset of a good researcher (and to get
    accustomed to lots of people telling one that, however true it may be!)

    As Bruce has said, start by looking for compatible faculty members. When I
    was searching, various people warned me that some supervisors have 'certain
    social expectations' of their PhD students, ranging from babysitting to
    generally being an acolyte. Also, many supervisors are not interested in
    students who will not specifically agree to research their own precise area
    of interest...but I found several interesting people at good programmes with
    whom I felt there was a fit, and if the chemistry is there I think you will
    know it.

    Good luck and I'd be delighted to help offline if you wish, though my
    context is the UK of course.

    Best wishes
    Chris Coleridge
    PhD Candidate, LSE
    c.j.coleridge@lse.ac.uk

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Organizational Behavior Division Listserv
    [mailto:OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Meglino, Bruce
    Sent: 10 December 2009 02:28
    To: OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: Re: [OB-LIST] Recommendations of OB Ph.D. programs for experienced
    practitioners?

    Bernie,
    I'll be interested to hear what others have to say, but my guess is that
    you're not going to find much difference across AACSB OB programs on the
    value they place on work experience in general. Although you don't describe
    what type of experience you have, some amount of work experience can be
    helpful in research and in teaching. What's most important is, using your
    words, the extent your experience adds value to your future research and
    discovery.

    If I were in your position, I would look for a program where the research
    interests of specific faculty members dovetail with my experience. (This
    will probably require substantial effort on your part.) I would then make
    the case -- probably in initial contacts or in my application -- that my
    experience can add value to the program I wish to join. In the end, faculty
    members choose to work with Ph.D. students based on the student's potential
    to add to the knowledge in the field.

    Good luck in your search,

    Bruce

    Bruce M. Meglino
    The Moore School of Business
    University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208
    Voice: 803.777-5970; Fax: 803.777-6876
    http://mooreschool.sc.edu/facultyandresearch/faculty.aspx?faculty_id=71

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Organizational Behavior Division Listserv
    [mailto:OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Bernie Malonosn
    Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 4:23 PM
    To: OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: [OB-LIST] Recommendations of OB Ph.D. programs for experienced
    practitioners?

    Good afternoon,

    I would like to pose a question to the group. I am a practitioner with
    18+years of work experience which I would like to leverage as I make a
    pursue a mid-career transition to academia.

    I am in the process of reviewing and applying to US based Organizational
    Behavior and Management programs. I would like to ask the group for their
    recommendation of AACSB OB programs that you would consider if you were in
    my postion that would value practitioner experience and older students.

    Although some have questioned my desire to pursue a Ph.D. in business a
    decade after my MBA. It is a product of time, reflection and goal-setting. I
    have realized that my true business interests are in adding value through
    research and discovery more than making a difference on the quarterly
    earnings statement.

    Thank you in advance for your replies.

    Warm Regards,

    Bernie Malonson


  • 4.  Recommendations of OB Ph.D. programs for experienced practitioners?

    Posted 12-11-2009 08:08
    Good morning.

    I wanted to say thank you to all who have responded to my query. I have
    received some excellent feedback and I identified a few programs that I
    might not have initially considered.

    Bruce: Thank you for your suggestion to contact faculty ahead of time. I
    have already begun to do this and plan to accelerate my efforts in this area
    over the next few weeks.

    Chris: Thank you for your feedback on acquiring the proper tool-set for
    research. That is precisely what I am looking for in a program. Somewhere
    where I can get a solid grounding in research methodology and start building
    a pipeline of publishable research.

    One of the key areas I am interested in is the scholar-practitioner gap in
    management. The financial area spends a great deal of time and money
    adapting research into its models and I believe there is potential value in
    management doing the same. Pure research is important while at the same time
    relevant and actionable research is highly sought after by the business
    community. It is one of the areas that I hope to incorporate into my
    research where I hope that my previous experiences, while not crucial, will
    be able to add to the knowledge base and insights in the area.

    Bernie Malonson


  • 5.  Recommendations of OB Ph.D. programs for experienced practitioners?

    Posted 12-11-2009 10:09

    Bernie,

    A few more thoughts to add to the dialogue...

    Our Organizational Behavior program at Baruch College in NYC has successfully admitted and graduated many older students, some with 10 to 20 years of business experience. We value their experience and encourage them to use it in their choice of research questions. We are open to their ideas for research projects, and do not expect them to conform to our research agendas. Finally, we find that they tend to be highly focused and motivated to complete the program within four years.  

     

    I think the most difficult aspect of returning to school after a successful career is having to play the role of student, not boss. At Baruch, we are cognizant of the difficulty of this role adjustment and strive to make our older students feel welcome and valued. Another difficult aspect of returning to school, is, of course, the drop in income. While we provide graduate assistantships and fellowships, our older students tend to have other sources of income or support.

     

    We encourage you to check out our program. Our current OB faculty include Stephan Dilchert, Molly Kern, Richard Kopelman, Hannah Rothstein, Donald Vredenburgh, Allen Kraut, Moshe Banai, Abe Korman, and Cynthia Thompson. Our colleagues in the psychology department include Harold Goldstein, Karen Lyness, and Charles Scherbaum.

     

    Good luck to you!

    Cynthia Thompson
     
    --
    Cynthia A.Thompson, Ph.D.
    Professor and Vice Chair, Dept. of Management
    Research Fellow, Boston College Center on Aging and Work
    Zicklin School of Business
    Baruch College
    One Bernard Baruch Way
    NY, NY 10010

    On Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 8:07 AM, Bernie Malonosn <malonson.bernie@gmail.com> wrote:
    Good morning.

    I wanted to say thank you to all who have responded to my query. I have
    received some excellent feedback and I identified a few programs that I
    might not have initially considered.

    Bruce: Thank you for your suggestion to contact faculty ahead of time. I
    have already begun to do this and plan to accelerate my efforts in this area
    over the next few weeks.

    Chris: Thank you for your feedback on acquiring the proper tool-set for
    research. That is precisely what I am looking for in a program. Somewhere
    where I can get a solid grounding in research methodology and start building
    a pipeline of publishable research.

    One of the key areas I am interested in is the scholar-practitioner gap in
    management. The financial area spends a great deal of time and money
    adapting research into its models and I believe there is potential value in
    management doing the same. Pure research is important while at the same time
    relevant and actionable research is highly sought after by the business
    community. It is one of the areas that I hope to incorporate into my
    research where I hope that my previous experiences, while not crucial, will
    be able to add to the knowledge base and insights in the area.

    Bernie Malonson





  • 6.  Recommendations of OB Ph.D. programs for experienced practitioners?

    Posted 12-11-2009 11:40
    Hi--congratulations on your decision to join the academic community. 
     
    When I was thinking about an academic career and examining doctoral programs, I had a similar background in the practitioner's world and had read some motivating literature about management and decision making. 
     
    Your goal to reduce the research-practice gap is laudable but is part of the requirements for most journal publications.  You will be required to identify the implications for practice in each of your research publications.  In other words, one of your goals will be a requirement for publication.  However, it is only one goal and it can make your choice of doctoral programs complex and confusing.  I have argued that when designing a research study, you may have a hard time anticipating where the findings will ultimately lead.  Theory and practice are shaped over many studies and the direction those studies take the theory.  Having the goal of reducing the research-practice gap requires you first have a good research study.  That in itself is a very challenging goal.  With some experience, you may gradually achieve your goal although the path to that goal is not always clear when designing your first study.
     
    You also identify this goal: "...where I can get a solid grounding in research methodology and start building a pipeline of publishable research."  That alone is an excellent and sufficient starting goal.  If you accomplish this, then other goals become possible.  If you don't accomplish this, the other goals will be difficult to impossible.
    You write, "The financial area spends a great deal of time and money
    adapting research into its models and I believe there is potential value in management doing the same."      This is a popular ongoing topic in management research.  I agree with you but not all management researchers do--it is not easy to accomplish and management researchers are said to be less effective in influencing practice than are researchers in many other fields.  H Mintzberg, E Locke, and a few others are possible exceptions but it is a difficult challenge.
     
    When I was a doctoral student, I noticed that many of my fellow students tended to think about an academic career from the standpoint of the big picture and shaking up the world with a major revelation in their dissertation.  I countered by suggesting the most narrow and focused dissertation possible.  I felt it was better to have an advisor suggest expansion than to have a dissertation so big that it was unwieldy and unfocused resulting in little publication potential.  Despite that, I still reached quite a bit in my dissertation and had less focus than I wished I'd had when it came time distill publishable papers.  More recently, I have focused more narrowly on each very specific study and have sped the completion of studies as well as improved the quality of those studies.  I focus much more on theoretical grounding than on potential practical implications.  Interestingly, I receive occasional comments from practitioners that my ideas have practical appeal. That is my experience.  Your's might differ.
     
    Here comes the radical statement.  If I were choosing a doctoral program, I would not worry too much about my interests.  Anything I was interested in would become dull after working on it in the form of a dissertation for months or years.   I would rather work with a successful academic advisor who takes a genuine interest in developing successful scholars among his or her students.  Assume that advisor knows what is important and publishable.  That is how I would choose a program.  By the way, organizational development scholars seem to share interests like those you write about.
     
    I hope I haven't wasted your time with my comments.  They are only my opinions and I welcome others' with more insight and experience to offer counter suggestions.  Good luck with your worthwhile goals. 
     
    Dave McLain
    SUNY Institute of Tech
     
     
    -----Organizational Behavior Division Listserv <OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU> wrote: -----

    To: <OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU>
    From: Bernie Malonosn <malonson.bernie@GMAIL.COM>
    Sent by: Organizational Behavior Division Listserv <OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU>
    Date: 12/11/2009 08:07AM
    Subject: Re: [OB-LIST] Recommendations of OB Ph.D. programs for experienced practitioners?

    Good morning.

    I wanted to say thank you to all who have responded to my query. I have
    received some excellent feedback and I identified a few programs that I
    might not have initially considered.

    Bruce: Thank you for your suggestion to contact faculty ahead of time. I
    have already begun to do this and plan to accelerate my efforts in this area
    over the next few weeks.

    Chris: Thank you for your feedback on acquiring the proper tool-set for
    research. That is precisely what I am looking for in a program. Somewhere
    where I can get a solid grounding in research methodology and start building
    a pipeline of publishable research.

    One of the key areas I am interested in is the scholar-practitioner gap in
    management. The financial area spends a great deal of time and money
    adapting research into its models and I believe there is potential value in
    management doing the same. Pure research is important while at the same time
    relevant and actionable research is highly sought after by the business
    community. It is one of the areas that I hope to incorporate into my
    research where I hope that my previous experiences, while not crucial, will
    be able to add to the knowledge base and insights in the area.

    Bernie Malonson



  • 7.  Recommendations of OB Ph.D. programs for experienced practitioners?

    Posted 12-11-2009 13:44
    Bernie,

    Regarding the scholar-practitioner gap I would look into scholars that have published in the conversation around Evidence-Based Management.

    http://www.evidence-basedmanagement.com/

    There are a number of well known senior academics in this area who might be interested in taking on like-minded doctoral students.  Best of luck, you're certainly on the right track.

    Jason


    On Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 8:07 AM, Bernie Malonosn <malonson.bernie@gmail.com> wrote:
    Good morning.

    I wanted to say thank you to all who have responded to my query. I have
    received some excellent feedback and I identified a few programs that I
    might not have initially considered.

    Bruce: Thank you for your suggestion to contact faculty ahead of time. I
    have already begun to do this and plan to accelerate my efforts in this area
    over the next few weeks.

    Chris: Thank you for your feedback on acquiring the proper tool-set for
    research. That is precisely what I am looking for in a program. Somewhere
    where I can get a solid grounding in research methodology and start building
    a pipeline of publishable research.

    One of the key areas I am interested in is the scholar-practitioner gap in
    management. The financial area spends a great deal of time and money
    adapting research into its models and I believe there is potential value in
    management doing the same. Pure research is important while at the same time
    relevant and actionable research is highly sought after by the business
    community. It is one of the areas that I hope to incorporate into my
    research where I hope that my previous experiences, while not crucial, will
    be able to add to the knowledge base and insights in the area.

    Bernie Malonson