The Impact of Executive Doctoral Programs on Management Practice
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Engaged Management ReView Volume 2 Issue 1 Charting a New Territory: Practitioner- Article 2 Scholarship in Action 2018 The mpI act of Executive Doctoral Programs on Management Practice Morgan Bulger Case Western Reserve University, [email protected] Kalle Lyytinen Case Western Reserve University, [email protected] Paul Salipante Case Western Reserve University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.case.edu/emr Part of the Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License Recommended Citation Bulger, Morgan; Lyytinen, Kalle; and Salipante, Paul (2018) "The mpI act of Executive Doctoral Programs on Management Practice," Engaged Management ReView: Vol. 2 : Iss. 1 , Article 2. Available at: https://doi.org/10.28953/2375-8643.1043 https://commons.case.edu/emr/vol2/iss1/2 This Essay Papers is brought to you for free and open access by CWRU Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Engaged Management ReView by an authorized editor of CWRU Commons. EDITORIAL NOTE The Impact of Executive Doctoral Executive Doctoral Programs (EDPs) in business and management have become 1 common alternatives to traditional PhD pro- Programs on Management Practice grams. EDPs offer experienced business and management professionals the opportunity to study for a terminal degree by combining Morgan Bulger Kalle Lyytinen Paul Salipante their practitioner experiences with rigorous Case Western Reserve Case Western Reserve Case Western Reserve engaged scholarship capabilities. The basic University University University rationale for these programs is that today’s leaders need generic knowledge about com- plex problem solving and evidence-based management. The reasons include the ABSTRACT radical growth in readily available data about business practices, the increased speed of Although the prevalence of Executive Doctoral Programs (EDPs) is increasing, little change related to technology, globalization is known about their influence on management practice. To support further research and business models, and, that leaders can and debate into this important area, this essay presents a dynamic model of EDP build such knowledge through engaged impact and discusses how the model can help reorient current knowledge on practi- scholarship activity. Despite the advances tioner–scholar behaviors and careers. The model identifies six dimensions of EDPs’ in such doctoral programs, we know little about the actual impact EDPs have on personal impact: 1) cognitive development, 2) academic contribution, 3) practical im- management practices. Bulger, Lyytinen and pact, 4) career mobility, 5) identity transformation, and 6) community belonging. In Salipante’s essay fills this important gap by addition, it identifies eight activities that represent EDPs’ practical impact: 1) direct suggesting a dynamic model of the impact management application, 2) teaching or educational engagement, 3) consulting or that rigorous training in engaged scholarship coaching, 4) knowledge productization, 5) engagement in communities of practice, can have on experienced business and man- 6) creating communities of practice, 7) public speaking, and 8) influencing policy. The agement practices. By applying grounded model is developed based on evidence from a grounded theory analysis of survey theory to survey data from the EDP at Case data from the EDP at Weatherhead School of Management. In conclusion, we discuss Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead how the various stakeholders in EDPs can leverage and further develop the model School of Management, the model captures and its various elements to increase the influence of practitioner–scholars on man- how a student’s cognitive development, agement practice. identity transformation and community be- longing may lead to career mobility through constant interactions with the practical and the academic realm. As such, Bulger, Lyyt- inen and Salipante invite us to engage in a much-needed debate over the personal and 1 We express our gratitude to Mimi Lord and Kathy Buse, two PhD alumni from Case Western practical impact of EDPs by developing the Reserve University’s executive doctoral program, and to the alumni council of 2013, whose model further through empirical research members helped to conduct the surveys that resulted in some of the data corpus. We also are and by applying its various elements to crit- thankful for their initial data analysis. Additional thanks go to Richard Boyatzis and Beth Fitz ically review existing programs and improve Gibbon for their comments on an earlier version of the manuscript, and to three anonymous their impact on management practices. reviewers and Lars Mathiassen for their highly constructive comments. 14 Engaged Management ReView JULY 2018, VOL. 2, NO. 1 Special Issue on Charting a New Territory INTRODUCTION Executive Doctoral Programs (EDPs) are to identify their potentially novel effects ucts go beyond print or text. (Cameron & graduate-level programs directed at ful- on management practice. Because EDPs Rousseau 2015 pp. 7) ly-employed, experienced profession- have the goal of educating practitioner– als with about ten years of meaningful scholars, any assessment of the program Pressure to evaluate such practical effects post-baccalaureate work experience and should include the program’s effect on the also is expressed in the recently updated an MBA or equivalent graduate degree academy and on scientific endeavors. Be- accreditation requirements of the Asso- (EDBAC Bylaws, 2015). EDPs are designed cause most doctoral programs—including ciation to Advance Collegiate Schools of to address the gap in knowledge use and EDPs—identify, use, and largely honor re- Business (AACSB). These requirements influence that arises between the man- lated measures, such as publication qual- expect program assessments to “[p]rovide agement academy and practice (Rynes et ity, citation numbers, h-index, and others, a portfolio of evidence, including direct as- al., 2001). They also are viewed as an in- we do not concentrate on how to assess sessments of student learning, that shows tegral element of an expansive, life-learn- such measures.1 The real need for EDPs is that students meet all of the learning goals ing model of management education with to create measures of practitioner–scholar- for each business degree program. Or, if distinct pedagogies, content, and affective ship that can truly capture the programs’ assessment demonstrates that students response involving a change in identity influence on managerial practices. are not meeting learning goals, describe (Boyatzis et al., 1998). The broad purpose efforts that the unit has instituted to elim- of these programs has been to prepare To move beyond current narrow measures inate the discrepancy” (AACSB, 2017). If graduates to operate in complex mana- geared toward academia, we need to eval- EDPs seek to address salient management gerial settings in ways that help improve uate how practitioner–scholars—who work problems and create behaviors that help these settings. Like the spread of evi- and live in practice—behave and feel. We address them, then changes in students’ dence-based medical practices in recent also need to observe how and the extent behaviors and expectations need to be decades (Barends, ten Have, and Huis- to which they engage in practice settings evaluated as part of the overall program man, 2012), evidence-based managerial and influence other practitioners in ways assessment. This evaluation calls for ex- practices requires as a critical component that matter. These needs raise a critical amining the range of effects that these doctoral education that moves in the di- question not deeply examined in the past: programs’ students and alumni have on rection of applied research. In line with this What is the influence of executive doctoral managerial practices. movement, these programs seek to have a programs on managerial practice? Man- lasting influence on managers’ cognition, agement education veterans Kim Cam- This essay begins to address these chal- motivation, and practical activities by en- eron and Denise Roussau challenge us to lenges and to inspire further research into gaging students in rigorous and relevant identify such impact in their 2015 review and debate about EDPs by identifying the problem-driven research that addresses of Weatherhead’s Doctor of Management primary elements of practitioner–scholar managers’ self-identified problems (Sali- program: influence, which fall into two categories: pante and Smith, 2012), as well as in asso- (1) personal impact—reflecting dimensions ciated educational processes that expand Practitioner–-scholars are a distinct of students’ practitioner–scholar compe- the students’ theoretical, methodological, kind of professional and their impact is tency development during and after the and communication skills. likely to be multifaceted. It is important program, and (2) practical impact—reflect- that efforts be undertaken to assess ing activities carried out by students and The management and improvement of this impact and then to expand it. Are alumni as they engage with and influence EDPs should also be evidence-based. Al- they designing new intellectual content managerial practices. The essay is an initial though some attention has been given to for consulting practices or executive step in addressing the challenges identified the effects that teaching evidence-based education? Are they