Sorry, doesnt’ fly here

I looked over the link with the brochures on these programs. Come on, do you think 2 months is enough to learn a field? That’s just insulting, as if business professors spent their years in graduate school learning to read Powerpoint slides instead of learning something substantial. Most have an MBA before getting a Ph.D. Someone from these programs wouldn’t make our first screen.

Want to know what would help? Publishing in the journals that have credibility in the departments to which you’re applying. If you had serious publications, you’d be a serious candidate. We’d notice the strength first and maybe debate how we would integrate you if you come from a different field. If you also had some real business experience in addition to some credible publications in business-related fields, it would hardly be an issue. The last thing you need is more classroom theoretical conceptualizing about what this thing called business is, as if you could add it like an option on a car.

And beware this constant drumbeat about faculty shortages. There are shortages in accounting and finance, but not in other areas of business. In accounting, there’s a shortage because no one who is intellectual really wants to teach and research accounting anyway, and if you aren’t intellectual, you can make more money doing accounting than being a professor in it. In finance, there’s a shortage because everyone in it cares about money and if you really know it, you can make 5-100 times as much money and be more on the cutting edge by just going to Wall Street. That’s what switching physicists do. Otherwise, the shortage is just like the reported shortages that never materialize or when they do get filled by adjuncts in math, history, ...

Still A. Snob, at 8:10 am EDT on August 8, 2008

Do your homework …

Still A. Snob makes a good point on the faculty shortage issue, though in the process over simplifies the problem. It is true there is a lot variation in shortages by areas of business. While shortages are most severe in Accounting and Finance, they’re not limited to these areas.

Snob also makes a good point about the importance of serious publications: “We’d notice (that) strength first and maybe debate how we would integrate you if you come from a different field.” But Snob failed to notice that the Tulane program requires a publication supervised by a committee of senior faculty and defended before graduation. In addition, the Tulane program is a full 12 months beginning with an intensive summer introduction to business research and teaching, followed by four 36-hour seminars in one of three specialties spread over the 9 month academic year. These on-campus seminars are the equivalent of those delivered to residential students and most are taught by the same faculty.

Finally, Snob missed the mark on the background of b-school faculty. While he (or she) says that most have an MBA, that’s simply not true – at least not in the leading business schools. Take the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University for example. In 2006, Kellogg hired 16 new assistant professors. Of these, only four had a PhD in business. Eight of them had PhDs in Economics and the other four had PhDs in psychology or another social science discipline. It’s not likely these folks had any business experience — or an MBA for that matter. And you can bet they spent a lot of their time “conceptualizing about what this thing called business is …” That’s one of the fundamental challenges in business education. By the way, what else do “switching physicists” know about business that justifies their Wall Street salaries?

Victor J. Cook, Jr, Freeman Professor of Doctoral Studies and Research, at 12:30 pm EDT on August 8, 2008

Authentic bridges

” .. By the way, what else do “switching physicists” know about business that justifies their Wall Street salaries?”

Because, for reasons unknown to moi, there are authentic bridges between finance, “financial engineering,” engineering, and physics? Because all those fields require high-level analytic rigor in senior-level calculus that one does not get in philosophy, English, education, sociology, and other soft-side domains?

Also: many of the big-name PhD programs (e.g., Harvard) require the first PhD year to run parallel with the first-year MBA program. Not fun. Not endless arguments about nothingness. Professional rigor required.

Put another way: would you want someone with poor math skills to be handling accounts at Fannie Mae? (Oh. They are? Sorry.)

Finally: this has been done in English/health care. Someone gets a PhD in English and can’t find a decent job. They go back for one year, get an associates in nursing and join the professional nursing faculty at Podunk U.

F.A.S., at 4:05 pm EDT on August 8, 2008

How Does One Get Into These Programs?

I hold an MBA and am presently completing my PhD in Education. I have been trying to break into teaching in higher education. I would love a position that is non-tenure track. If I understand correctly, this program is to educate faculty from other disciplines in the business discipline. What about those of us who hold business degrees? Your comments are welcomed.

Thank you,

Gwendolyn Glee

Gwendolyn, CEO at Glee Consulting Group, LLC, at 10:30 pm EDT on August 8, 2008

More “Authentic Bridges”

Thanks to F.A.S. for coining the phrase “authentic bridge.” It turns out there are a lot more of them then the one between Physics and Finance.

One of the first things we did when developing Tulane’s program was to shop our ideas around the academic departments of the University. We discovered a lot more “authentic bridges.” Here are a few of the other PhDs (>) their bridge disciplines and (>) the b-school specialty to which they might lead:

Anthropology > Marketing > Economic Development

Art History > Marketing > Museum Management

Engineering > Finance > Financial Engineering

Human Genetics > Finance > Biotechnology Management

Philosophy> Organizational Behavior > Business Ethics

Sociology > Organizational Behavior > Leadership

These examples suggest an important conclusion: an “authentic bridge” is one that expands our understanding of the related business function.

Victor J. Cook, Jr., Freeman Professor of Doctoral Studies and Research at Tulane University, at 4:26 pm EDT on August 10, 2008

students should be insulted

as a business major, some tart who who couldn’t make it as a real professor, and now has a PhD insome quasibull like psych or social work Is going to teach me business quantitative methods? not for my $50 grand a year. If I pay for the education,, I expect quality. Unless I go to u of phoenix, where it isn’t clear what I expect.

jon Steiner, at 5:00 am EDT on August 11, 2008

A little more homework

The answer to the first question F.A.S. asks is, in a word, “yes.” But, there’s a world of subtle — and important — differences between “Professionally Qualified” and “Academically Qualified” under the rules of the AACSB.The bottom line? Professionally Qualified faculty are not eligible for tenure. And a faculty member’s “roots” have very little to do with the tenure decision. Maybe F.A.S. should do a little more homework before declaring a point to be moot.

Victor J. Cook, Jr., Freeman Professor of Doctoral Studies and Research at Tulane University, at 5:00 am EDT on August 11, 2008