JiscMail Logo
Email discussion lists for the UK Education and Research communities

Help for PHD-DESIGN Archives


PHD-DESIGN Archives

PHD-DESIGN Archives


PHD-DESIGN@JISCMAIL.AC.UK


View:

Message:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

By Topic:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

By Author:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

Font:

Proportional Font

LISTSERV Archives

LISTSERV Archives

PHD-DESIGN Home

PHD-DESIGN Home

PHD-DESIGN  November 2015

PHD-DESIGN November 2015

Options

Subscribe or Unsubscribe

Subscribe or Unsubscribe

Log In

Log In

Get Password

Get Password

Subject:

Re: Scale, Scope, and Skills in PhD Research

From:

Charles Burnette <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 21:01:05 -0500

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (108 lines)

Ken, 
What if a PhD candidate decided to focus their research on why the person in charge of hiring designers for IBM did what they did in the first six months of their job. What if they approached IBM for a research position to investigate this question? What if this information would be useful to IBM to improve their program, and the managers concerned  were asked to become stakeholders? What if the subject of this inquiry was willing to provide information about his strategy, and how he came to it? What if the PhD candidate was given permission to talk to those he hired about why they took the job he offered them; what they hoped to do, and what they spent their time doing? What if the candidate asked the people who declined a job offer why they did so? etc. until the candidate had enough information to document what happened during and immediately after the first six months of the program? I pose these questions to you, not as an approach I recommend, but as an alternative way to think about how to gain and generate new knowledge. 

You seem to be saying it is all up to their supervisor’s domain knowledge when the supervisor could, in theory, call in others when they were not able to respond to the issues underlying each question. A problem of obtaining knowledge can be framed and approached many ways. And a good supervisor should be as curious and open to possibilities as the candidate they advise. Seeing things as too complex to comprehend flies in the face of science, which always seeks something that fits the problem of interest and the resources available to study it. PhD dissertations can be scaled to what is feasible. They certainly shouldn’t be torpedoed by subjective inflation of what someone, in this discussion you, considers necessary. 

Or, so I believe.
Chuck

> On Nov 18, 2015, at 4:05 AM, Ken Friedman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> Dear Chuck,
> 
> While I withdrew from the thread on design thinking at IBM, your last reply calls for an answer. This answer does not involve design thinking at IBM. It involves the issue of scale, scope, and skills in PhD research.
> 
> From time to time, you argue that I make seemingly unstated assumptions rather than recognising a set of clearly defined premises that account for my position.
> 
> Your did this in the case of my response to your proposal for a PhD thesis:  
> 
> [Chuck Burnette wrote:] “This seems to assume that fresh minds are not capable ones, and that the PhD candidate has to meet requirements that prevent them from generating new knowledge, or do critical and constructive thinking, perhaps in concert with others that have more knowledge and expertise on a subject than they do.”
> 
> I made no such assumption. I assume and *expect* that a serious PhD student capable of the required work has a fresh mind. It takes a fresh mind to undertake the original research required for this topic. Only original research with critical and constructive thinking will generate new knowledge.
> 
> I also assume and expect that PhD students work with others who have greater knowledge and expertise on the subject. This is the role of supervisors. It is also the case where students must learn from working experts located within the organisation under study. In the case of IBM, this woulds not be one organisation, but the network of the overall firm as well as many organisations, units, divisions, and subsidiaries employing 370,000 people spread across 170 nations.
> 
> The problems I described state objective impediments that make it difficult for one single person to do this work as a single PhD thesis. No matter how fresh, intelligent, critical, and constructive the mind, the research problem you proposed requires gathering too much data across too many disciplines for a single PhD student to achieve serious results. 
> 
> A journalist might offer some insights, but we do not hold newspaper articles, magazine articles, or even books to the same standards that we hold  a PhD thesis. The work required to deal adequately with this thesis on an organisation of 370,000 employees in 170 nations would be massive. 
> 
> There are books with comparable scale and scope. David Halberstam’s 1986 book, The Reckoning is such a book. This is a 750-page masterpiece on the automobile industry written by a Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist in his 50s. Another example is the Toyota Way series by Jeffrey Liker, Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering at University of Michigan. Barry Katz’s magnificent new book is another case in point — Make It New: The History of Silicon Valley Design. Katz is a professor of engineering at Stanford and a professor of design at California College of Art, as well as an IDEO Fellow.
> 
> Perhaps the Toyota Way series takes on the scale and scope of the questions involved in “what worked and what didn’t” at IBM. The others are more limited in scope, though still massive. An experienced professor would likely gather a research team to understand these issues in an organisation of this size.
> 
> While the question involves the results of design thinking in a massive industrial organisation, but the *research question* is a social science question — “what worked and what didn’t.”  Answering this questions requires information, data, and analysis involving management studies, organisation theory, and organisational psychology, and most likely it will involve micro-economics, innovation studies, and technology. In other words, you are talking about this issue as though it is a design problem. The *research problem* for this PhD thesis involves the social sciences. 
> 
> In too many cases, I have seen the unfortunate result of PhD students in design who come from a design background attempting to answer research questions in social science without the necessary foundation. This is often made worse by PhD supervisors in design who fail to understand the complexity of the issues involved. What’s worse is that many supervisors apparently don’t understand the basic research skills that all PhD students should have, or at least they do not teach them to their students. As a result, students take on projects for which they are entirely unprepared. 
> 
> In visiting different universities, I have often met PhD students with fresh minds and the capacity for critical, constructive thought whose thesis projects were mediocre or even incompetent. Reading the thesis and speaking with the students, I found that the deficient research skills evident in the thesis projects often involved poor supervision. This nearly always involved skills gaps based on what supervisors did NOT teach. It also involved mistakes that students made on the direct advice of supervisors who did not understand simple methodological challenges. 
> 
> A PhD dissertation differs from a master’s thesis. A master’s thesis can take any of several directions. A PhD dissertation must make an original contribution to the knowledge of the field. I *assume* and *expect* that a PhD student will study under faculty members with subject domain knowledge and methodological expertise in the area they study. This also means having an appropriate sense for the limits of a dissertation topic and the work needed to gather the data and information on which the student will do research.
> 
> Finding out “what worked and what didn’t” in ANY initiative at a company operating in 170 nations raises dozens of subsidiary research problems. To do this for IBM as a whole is impossible for a single PhD student.
> 
> Anyone who comes to design with a foundation in the social and behavioural sciences has an awareness of the challenges involved. This project requires understanding an organisation that employs 370,000 people in 170 nations through a network of multiple organisations, units, divisions, and subsidiaries. Many of these units have their own histories and cultures as organisations purchased by IBM and merged into the larger organisational network, generally with differing degrees of success. The very fact that the old IBM culture has fragmented and is no longer what it once was while the company operates in a very different world is one reason for the design thinking initiative.  
> 
> It would be possible for a single PhD students to ask how this initiative works or fails to work at one IBM unit in the nation where the student already works, understands the general culture, and speaks the language fluently. This topic is sufficiently limited for a single PhD student who is willing to dig in. Even this requires learning about the organisation within that specific IBM unit at sufficient depth to ask the right questions. It will also requires framing and reframing the questions and answers under way, and developing an understanding for the people involved and the context within which they work.
> 
> Could a single PhD student find out “what worked and what didn’t” in IBM as a whole? I say “No.” You seem to say, “Yes.” There is one way to demonstrate that a single PhD student really could do such a project successfully. That would be for a single PhD student to do what you propose and succeed. Perhaps I am mistaken. Perhaps not.  
> 
> Over the past several decades, I have looked at hundreds of PhD theses in several fields. I’ve read some carefully. I have skimmed several hundred more. I have also reviewed many articles and journal papers by people who have presumably earned a PhD. Few of the PhD students and few of these authors could manage a topic such as this. 
> 
> To tackle the research question you propose — “what worked and what didn’t” across the full organisational network of IBM — requires more than a fresh mind. I assume a fresh mind. What I do not assume is the depth of experience and research skill needed to answer a difficult and complex problem at the scope and scale you propose it. 
> 
> It is wrong to assume that a PhD student has the experience or skill required for such a project. Students undertake a PhD to develop these skills. 
> 
> Moreover, a problem of this scale and scope requires far greater experience and subject domain expertise than most single researchers have. That is why people gather research teams for major projects.
> 
> I hope this clarifies the difference between the seeming assumptions I did not make and the explicit premises I stated in explaining why this kind of question is unsuitable for a PhD thesis. 
> 
> Yours,
> 
> Ken 
> 
> Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | Editor-in-Chief | 设计 She Ji. The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation | Published by Tongji University in Cooperation with Elsevier | URL: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/she-ji-the-journal-of-design-economics-and-innovation/
> 
> Chair Professor of Design Innovation Studies | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China ||| University Distinguished Professor | Centre for Design Innovation | Swinburne University of Technology | Melbourne, Australia 
> 
> —
> 
> Ken Friedman wrote [i.e., the explicit premises for the problem in question]:
> 
> —snip—
> 
> 2) The results of the effort at IBM would not be a suitable topic for a PhD dissertation at most universities.
> 
> The empirical research required would take more than three years, making this impossible within the Bologna scheme or at universities in the UK or Australia. It would also require a significant foundation in management studies, organisation theory, and some acquaintance with organisational psychology. Depending on the issues that emerge, it would likely require a serious understanding of micro-economics, innovation studies, and technology. That would make too great a stretch for most PhD students in design, and the lack of familiarity with design would make it a difficult subject for PhD students in other fields.
> 
> The first question alone requires a broad reach. Steve Lohr’s article puts it this way: “IBM, like many established companies, is confronting the relentless advance of digital technology. For these companies, the question is: Can you grow in the new businesses faster than your older, lucrative businesses decline?”
> 
> As you read further into the article, however, at least another half dozen key questions emerge.
> 
> These questions are simply too large for a single PhD student to answer. To genuinely understand “what worked and what didn’t” requires a researcher with an appropriate theoretical foundation, significant research experience, and an appropriate basis for the required judgment calls.
> 
> It takes a lot of work to understand anything that happens in a company with more than 370,000 employees. This is particularly the case for a major multi-nation corporation that operates in over 170 nations with more than $100 billion in revenue from a massive array of subsidiaries, regions, product ranges, and more. 
> 
> Many PhD students would have difficulty analysing Lohr’s article in the New York Times to identify the dozen or so subject fields involved and the multiple research methods that one would need to ask the appropriate research questions. Gathering the data to answer those questions would stretch any single researcher, no matter how much experience he or she has.
> 
> This is an important topic — to do it justice requires a seasoned researcher with adequate funds and access to the key data. Working on such a project could provide enough useful material to employ have a dozen PhD students in a research team. It is far too much for a single dissertation, and it requires far greater skill than any one PhD student has.
> 
> While the goal is worthy, this is too much for a PhD student to achieve.
> 
> —snip—
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> PhD-Design mailing list  <[log in to unmask]>
> Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design
> Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
> -----------------------------------------------------------------

Charles Burnette
[log in to unmask]


-----------------------------------------------------------------
PhD-Design mailing list  <[log in to unmask]>
Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design
Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Top of Message | Previous Page | Permalink

JiscMail Tools


RSS Feeds and Sharing


Advanced Options


Archives

March 2024
February 2024
January 2024
December 2023
November 2023
October 2023
September 2023
August 2023
July 2023
June 2023
May 2023
April 2023
March 2023
February 2023
January 2023
December 2022
November 2022
October 2022
September 2022
August 2022
July 2022
June 2022
May 2022
April 2022
March 2022
February 2022
January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
July 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998


JiscMail is a Jisc service.

View our service policies at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/ and Jisc's privacy policy at https://www.jisc.ac.uk/website/privacy-notice

For help and support help@jisc.ac.uk

Secured by F-Secure Anti-Virus CataList Email List Search Powered by the LISTSERV Email List Manager