By Philip Cola, PhD, Associate Director, Academic Affairs,
DM Programs
This past December, I finished teaching an Introduction to
Research Inquiry (DM 665) for the fourth time.
This is my favorite class to teach as it is often the initial
introduction to research method and design for our first year DM students. It is a scenario where I am able to
articulate to students that whether they know it or not, “a big reason that they are in a doctoral program is to conduct
research”. We go on in this
class to work on building scholarly skills (i.e., finding literature, engaging
or reading the literature efficiently and effectively, organizing our own
literature libraries based on interests, and practice writing). This generates excitement for students
because they know that ultimately they will be armed with empirical evidence
supporting some of the things they that they need to change based on personal
experiences in business management contexts.
As the students advance past this introduction to research
inquiry, the next step in the process is Qualitative Inquiry I (DM 638) where
we begin to more closely examine the philosophy of science and the scientific
method through a lens of inductive reasoning.
Amidst the deep dive into the philosophy of science and qualitative
methodology, it seemed appropriate to formally provide the students with the
definition of research as follows:
“A systematic investigation designed to develop and contribute to
the
generalizable dissemination of knowledge”
This
is not the first time that they are hearing these words together in this way as
it is discussed in DM 665, but this time, is the first time the early stage
doctoral students see it written down and given the opportunity to discuss and
dialogue about what this all means. The
feeling is that it seems so simple, but when relevance and rigor are added to
the mix this becomes a significant undertaking and they begin to realize that
the road ahead will be challenging with the potential for significant
accomplishments throughout their journey.
The discourse on this definition of research came for the first year
students a few days after participating as audience members in the “Annual DM
Research Symposium” where the second and third year DM students presented the
outcomes of their qualitative and quantitative research papers.
Students
could clearly see the rigorous method or “systematic Investigation” shining
through as a hallmark of the Weatherhead School of Management’s approach to the
conduct of research. We then spoke in
some depth about the “generalizability” of findings across practice and
academia. Was the work relevant across
disciplines, contexts and organizations?
However, what seemed to emerge as a critically important topic was the
importance of “dissemination”. We
discussed how research is not actually research unless it is disseminated. It is actually part of the definition. Therefore, if our research work merely sits
on our desks, or in our computer drives, or digital storage spaces and is not
disseminated then what good is it for any of us. It begs the question, why join a doctoral
program if we are not focused on conducting AND disseminating our research
results?
The need for management research continues to grow in
importance today because of the rapid and continuing increase in demand for
improved practices in order to maximize the quality of leaders, managers,
organizations, communities and society nationally and globally. Therefore, it is the responsibility of
researchers to play a lead role in conducting relevant investigations with
proper scientific rigor that impact both practice and advance our academic understanding
through evidence based management approaches.
This responsibility does not stop just because you graduate with a
doctoral degree. As a matter of fact,
that degree increases the importance of specially trained individuals to
appropriately carry out research for the creation of new knowledge.
I encourage each of you whether you graduated long ago from
the E/DM program or if you are a more recent graduate to ensure that you are
strategizing about your own research contributions to further the field of
Management. This is why we created the
Engaged Practitioner Scholar (EPS) Fellowship Program. We have 13 active research fellows working on
their own personal research agendas with the assistance of faculty at the
Weatherhead School of Management. This
program brings individuals back to the basics of creating their own individual
research ideas and strategies about which study will come next while thinking
through the proper audiences or outlets for generalizable dissemination.
There are a number of alumni considering joining the EPS Fellowship
and I encourage all of you to consider joining or at least discussing with us
sometime in the near future your ideas for your own research agenda. Please contact me with questions at (216)
368-6932 or pac4@case.edu. There are few things that I enjoy more than
talking about research, so I welcome the conversations.
