Friday, December 10, 2010

The DM Cohort – Reflections on the 4th Residency Session

With the first semester now over, I thought I would reflect upon the non-academic part of the Doctor of Management experience. I had come into the program not knowing exactly how the transition from work to academia would take. Everything I read and everyone I talked with provided me with knowledge but since I did not have the experience of a doctorate program under my belt, there was no ability for me to absorb what I was reading and hearing prior to the start of the program. This phenomenon is called “absorptive capacity,” the ability a person has of internalizing something new is dependent upon prior experience that lets one grab the newness and make it concrete. I would say that our cohort had little to no absorptive capacity as to accurately predicting and planning for the nature and extent of the workload. My comment is not limited to the quantity of the workload, no, what I am saying is the lack of an initial absorptive capacity to accommodate the shift in orientation from a practitioner to a scholar.

For me, the first semester was mostly adapting to the workload and the shift in orientation. What I had not initially focused on, but later in the semester did, was finding the time and the desire to get to know my cohort peers.

It is amazing how stereotyping or quick, initial assessments get in the way of how we see people. That limitation really hit home for me during the semester. But I learned a lot about many of my cohort peers and now see them in a human way, much more tactile and dynamic than at the start. I guess that is a natural enough evolution one goes through in personal relationships but in a group, that progression often takes a long time. In the cohort, opportunities for understanding each other are sped up and my eyes have really been awakened.

One of my favorite Star Trek – The Next Generation episodes is when Picard and an alien (a commander of a ship like Picard) are unwillingly placed on a deserted planet by an “advanced” civilization to test these two individuals. They spoke different languages, of course, but haven’t you always seen an entertainment show where everyone speaks and converses on the same language (either English or subtitled to a language)? This episode attempted to be more realistic. Meaning was transmitted back and forth between Picard and the alien in English (so the audience could understand the words) but the structure of the words spoken by the alien was like a Thomas Pynchon novel. The alien spoke in metaphors from the history of his world. These metaphors produced inferences for the alien about what he and Picard should or should not do but Picard had no idea about how the inferences connected to reality. This created a tremendous amount of a different type of phenomenon, “uncertainty absorption” for Picard, he had no idea what the alien meant through the stories told because the alien did not provide the data at the level Picard needed to understand. Picard therefore had to fill in, or absorb, a lack of understanding with guesses.

The alien kept telling Picard that “your eyes are not wide open” meaning Picard did not understand. Eventually through experimentation in interpretation, Picard eventually built a small vocabulary to understand the metaphors; he discovered the primer that allowed him to understand meaning. Finally, Picard’s “eyes were wide open,” as the alien said to Picard, like my eyes have become.

Adrian “Zeke” Wolfberg, DM Class of 2013

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

DM Alumni Reflections on the DM Experience [Part 3 of DM Alumni Study]

When we asked alumni to look back on their time in the DM program, we received a wide range of responses, but inevitably their reflections took them back to the relationships they formed in the program – the relationships with the members of their cohorts and with faculty.

The cohort, in particular, received a good deal of attention in the interviews. The quality and diversity of backgrounds of the members of the cohort struck many immediately upon entering the program:  

What makes the case program what it is, is the quality of the cohort. When I was first introduced I was amazed at the quality of the person that was there.”

This was the group that DM alumni spent three years and hundreds of hours of discussion.  Relationships that were formed were strong, and a number of alumni credited the support from members of their cohort was critical to their completion of the program.

“The high point is the quality of the faculty and the peer group ? interesting people, hard?working, smart… I believe I learned as much or more from the peer group as I did from the profs.. .”

It is clear from the interviews that the quality of the faculty is critical to the DM experience. Faculty were praised for empowering and challenging the students and for opening their intellectual horizons.

“The instructors and teachers were committed and excited. Not what others have experienced with other schools ? lack of energy and such. I never experienced that in the program. I like the commitment… all of the instructors did a super job and the administrators were always available. They were all there to help you get through the program.”

In addition to the cohort and the faculty, the curriculum was also generally well-received.  The first year is particularly important because it excited and stimulated DM alumni in a way that is completely new to them. Many reported that the first year was one of the most intellectually expansive points of their lives. In the words of one alum:

“Year one was absolutely amazing … the intellectual stimulation was extraordinary. Like I’ve died and gone to heaven…  The first year was an intellectual high?point.”

Although the first year packed quite an impact on the alumni, many appreciated the expansive, cross-disciplinary elements of overall program.  The appreciated being “knocked” out of their “comfort zones.”

“Most of us were disciplinarily thinking and [the curriculum] forced you to walk through an entire environment that was replete with all of the subjects but that you could not afford to dally on any one subject for too long. Each one of those things left a mark so that I could remember where they were and go back to them."

Of course, there was a constant tension between the stimulation and the workload. DM alumni indicated that the DM program was an unbelievably busy period in their lives, and that they were not necessarily prepared for the scholarly workload. As one alumnus indicated “It was extremely stressful because all of us had full time jobs.” Some came expecting a similar workload to their masters experiences and they were surprised with the amount of work the program required.

“The Case program challenged us to work hard and work well. It wasn’t there to weed us out, but was not soft…. That’s the hallmark of a quality academic program. I was treated as a serious person.”

Nicholas Berente is a former faculty member of the doctorate of management program (now an Assistant Professor with the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia).  Dr. Berente interviewed alumni from the first decade of the DM program.  This blog is the third of five parts based on those interviews. Part 1 addressed why DM alumni decide to pursue a doctorate and part 2 summarized their reasons for choosing the Case program. Subsequent blogs will address: (part 4) the impact of the program on their thinking and (part 5) the impact of the program on their careers.