Curriculum

The minimum requirements for a Ph.D. in Business Administration – Management are reviewed below and summarized as follows:

The Ph.D. 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 Ph.D. 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 Ph.D. 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 Ph.D. program in Business Administration – Management are as follows:

• Basic understanding of statistical and calculus concepts and applications (prior to taking the research methods sequence)
• Courses from all areas of business or equivalents to provide a basic understanding of concepts in the business disciplines.
• The Department of Management foundation requirements are satisfied by the completion of one or more (three credit-hour) graduate courses in each of the following areas: accounting, finance, management, and marketing. This requirement may be waived.

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 Ph.D. 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:

• MGMT 634 (Seminar in Organizational Behavior)
• MGMT 636 (Seminar in Organization Theory)
• MGMT 676 (Seminar in Strategic Management)

Students must take at least two additional seminars in the department, such as:

• MGMT 624 (Seminar in Human Resource Management)
• MGMT 637 (Entrepreneurship)
• MGMT 667 (Multinational Enterprises)
• MGMT 689 (Seminar in Leadership)

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.

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

The two primary concentrations are:

1. Organizational Behavior/Human Resource Management
2. Strategic Management/Strategic Entrepreneurship

Organizational Behavior/Human Resources Management

The OB/HR concentration focuses on such topics as: individual characteristics such as values and personality; individual processes such as perception, motivation, decision making, judgment and commitment; 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, feedback, awards, and behavioral aspects of task design as they affect individuals and groups; change processes within organizations; organization design and redesign, culture, and adaptation processes at the organization level; management behaviors, strategies, and demographics at a collective managerial level; recruitment and selection; compensation procedures, including benefits and services; design of performance appraisal systems; the strategic process by which human resource programs are developed, implemented, and evaluated; external influences upon work activity such as unionization, collective bargaining, and other forms of formal employee participation; impact of legislative, economic, and political developments relevant to human resource programs.

Strategic Management/Strategic Entrepreneurship

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 international business and entrepreneurship.