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Wednesday, May 16, 2012 | 3:19 PM CDT

Management PhD Program Information

The minimum requirements for a PhD in Business Administration with a major in Management are reviewed below and summarized as follows:

AREAS MINIMUM CREDIT HOURS
Foundation requirements (may be waived) 0-15
Foundation statistics requirement
(STAT 651/652) (may be waived)		 0-6
Major field and concentrations 18
Research methods minor field 15
Elective PhD seminars 9
Economics (may be waived) 0-6
Examinations no credit
Dissertation research 16-22
Total minimum requirement 64

The PhD program requires a minimum of 64 semester hours beyond a master's degree or 96 semester credit hours beyond a bachelor's degree if the student has no master's degree. To assure achievement of career goals, students and/or their advisory committees may schedule work beyond the 64 credit hour minimum. For example, it is not typically feasible to write a dissertation proposal, conduct the research, write the final dissertation and defend it in 16-22 credit hours. However, recent legislation passed in the state of Texas limits the number of hours in the total PhD program to 100 hours above the master's degree. For all of these reasons, the Mays Business School has a five-year limit to the PhD program.

Each of the areas identified in the summary above are discussed in the following subsections.

Foundation requirements

The foundation requirements that apply to the PhD program in Business Administration with a major in Management are as follows:

The doctoral foundation requirements may not count toward the minimum 64 semester credit hours required beyond the master's degree. Applicants with a MBA degree from an AACSB graduate-accredited institution will usually have satisfied all or nearly all of these foundation requirements.

Major field and concentrations

A minimum of 18 graduate level credit hours is required in the management major. These credit hours must be taken after admission to the PhD program. Students who have not taken graduate-level courses previously in organization theory and/or human resource management may be asked to complete appropriate foundation courses.

Management courses that are used to satisfy the foundation requirements may not be counted in the required 18 hours for a major.

The 18 graduate level credit hours are a minimum requirement and must be satisfied by taking at least four Department of Management doctoral seminars (excluding MGMT 673, 686, and 687, which are research methods seminars) and we encourage all students to take all 18 hours via in-class seminars, though this not required (as noted below).

The following three seminars must be taken by ALL students:

Students must take at least one of the following seminars:

It is recommended that students majoring in micro areas take both the OB and HRM seminars; and students majoring in macro areas take both the strategy and international business seminars.

The 18-hour major requirement may also be met by taking Independent Study (MGMT 685) and/or Special Topics (MGMT 689). However, only three hours of MGMT 685 can count toward the major and the total of MGMT 685 and MGMT 689 generally must not exceed nine credit hours.

Other seminars which can be used to fulfill this requirement include:

PhD students majoring in management may specialize by selecting courses and conducting research primarily in a single concentration.

The four concentrations are:

Appendix A outlines one possible scenario (among other possibilities) for each of the four concentrations. The concentrations are discussed more fully below.

International Business, Public Policy, and Law (IBBPL)

The International Business, Public Policy and Law concentration focuses on such topics as: international business; relationships between the corporation and its political, economic and social environments; legal and regulatory environment of business; influence of regulation on business performance; stakeholder and interest group activities; corporate governance; corporate political strategy; and ethical/social responsibility issues.

Human Resources Management and Labor Relations

The Human Resources Management and Labor Relations concentration focuses on such topics as: recruitment, selection, testing, and staffing; human resource planning and forecasting; employee relations and information systems; health and safety programs; job analysis and pay determination; compensation procedures, including benefits and services; design of performance appraisal systems; the strategic process by which human resource programs are developed, adopted, implemented, and evaluated; external influences upon work activity such as unionization, collective bargaining, industry councils, and other forms of formal employee participation; labor force participation rates and the supply of labor; impact of legislative, economic, and political developments relevant to administering human resource programs, including labor legislation, EEO/Affirmative Action legislation, court rulings, and regulatory agency guidelines.

Organizational Behavior/Organization Theory

The Organizational Behavior/Organization Theory concentration focuses on such topics as: individual characteristics such as beliefs, values, and personality; individual processes such as perception, motivation, decision making, judgment, commitment, and control; group characteristics such as size, composition, and structural properties; group processes such as decision making and leadership; organizational processes and practices such as goal setting, appraisal, feedback, rewards, and behavioral aspects of task design as they affect individuals and groups; and change processes within organizations; organizational births and deaths, and the impact of social, economic, and political forces at the population level; organization design and redesign, culture, and adaptation processes at the organization level; management behaviors, strategies, and demographics at a collective managerial level.

Strategic Management

The Strategic Management concentration focuses on such topics as: roles and problems of general managers (e.g., top management teams), organizational goal setting; strategy formulation; strategy implementation; strategic planning and decision processes; strategic control and reward systems; resource allocation; diversification and portfolio strategies; competitive strategy; corporate venturing; creation and management of new businesses; and entrepreneurship.

Research methods minor field

The research methods minor field is designed to assure that students have the requisite knowledge and skill to conduct independent research. A minimum of 15 credit hours of course work taken after admission to the PhD program is required for a research methods minor. Nine of these 15 hours consist of Management 686, 687 and 689 (Seminar on Organizational Change).

Students without a foundation knowledge in statistics that is equivalent to Texas A&M University's STAT 651 (Statistics in Research I - 3 hours) and STAT 652 (Statistics in Research II - 3 hours) may be required to take these courses or other statistics foundation courses. Preferably, students will take these courses in the summer prior to beginning their work in the PhD program. These courses may not count toward the minimum of 15 credit hours of required course work in the research methods minor field. A basic foundation competency in calculus is also required. The six hours in additional minimum course work (i.e., in addition to MGMT 673, MGMT 686, and MGMT 687) within the research methods minor may be taken (with approval) from such courses as the following:

In addition, other courses may also be appropriate to satisfy this requirement. For example, it is suggested that macro-oriented and quantitatively-oriented students consider the econometrics minor, which consists of the 4 sequential courses ECMT 675; ECMT 676; ECMT 677; and ECMT 678. This is an excellent backdrop from which to conduct macro research on organizations and industries.

As a part of the research methods requirement, students should be able to demonstrate familiarity with commonly used statistical concepts and procedures such as probability theory, ANOVA, MANOVA, factor analysis, multiple regression, and similar procedures. Students should be able to describe when the use of such concepts and procedures are appropriate, cite the kinds of data/sampling requirements that must be met in their use, and interpret how results of such analyses can be used to answer a variety of research questions.

PhD electives

This requirement is designed to support the student’s research and/or career plans. A minimum of nine graduate level credit hours taken after admission to the Ph.D. program is required. Courses may be selected from one of the other fields in Mays Business School (accounting, business analysis, finance, or marketing) or from other disciplines within the university (economics, engineering, political science, psychology, sociology, etc.). These credit hours do not necessarily need to come from a single academic department. All courses for this requirement must be PhD seminars. In other words, students cannot take masters-level courses to fulfill this requirement. Moreover, students are not able to take independent studies (i.e., 685 courses) to fulfill this requirement. Students should feel free to contact the DPC Coordinator to resolve any questions about this requirement.

Economics

Training in theory and methods of economics is encouraged. Normally, this requirement is satisfied by the management department course MGMT 612 (Price Theory). Note that this course does count toward fulfillment of the 18-hour requirement for the major field and concentrations.

Examinations

Two examinations (aside from those in courses) are normally part of the PhD program — preliminary and final. The preliminary examination is taken at or near the end of the student’s course work and is a comprehensive exam preliminary to undertaking dissertation research. The final examination, which is oral in nature, concludes the program and assures that the dissertation research is acceptable. The preliminary and final examinations are discussed more fully later.

Dissertation research

The culmination of the program is the dissertation research. Here students demonstrate their abilities and knowledge through independent research.