We are delighted once again to be able to offer another series of one-day
workshops in our Spring 1999 Programme, especially designed for management
academics and doctoral students.
We are repeating some of the most popular workshops from the last series
and have introduced some new topics which we hope you will find
interesting, These will be led by prominent Cranfield academics and
distinguised visiting professors who are all experts in their particular
fields. The workshops will be essentially pragmatic and will include
practical excersises and focus on the participants' own research projects.
Full details of the workshops are given below, and at a cost of 200 pounds
per day (150 pounds for doctoral students), this series represents real
value for money. If you would like to attend one or several of these
seminars, please contact me and I will gladly forward you a booking form.
Barbara Birtles
Research Training Administrator
Cranfield School of Management
Cranfield University
Bedfordshire
MK43 0AL
Tel: +44(0)1234 751122 Ext 3784
Fax: +44(0)1234 754488
Email: [log in to unmask]
ESSENTIAL SKILLS FOR MANAGEMENT RESEARCH - SPRING 1999 PROGRAMME
WRITING PAPERS FOR PUBLICATION
Professor Anne Huff
Wednesday 17 February 1999 and Wednesday 16 June 1999
09.00 - 17.00
For this very practical workshop session you will be asked to bring ideas
for three papers you hope to write for journal publications. You will also
be encouraged to exchange early abstracts and article outlines for advice
before beginning the writing process.
During the day Professor Huff will give an overview philosophy and offer
advice on: forming a writing community and strategies for writing; choosing
a topic; identifying conversants; title and abstract; using exemplars and
presentation.
Anne Sigismund Huff is Professor of Strategic Management at Cranfield and
the University of Colorado. She is the 1998/99 US Academy of Management
Conference President, and has a long and distinguished academic career,
with publications in top journals.
PHILOSOPHY AND RESEARCH DESIGN
Professor Mark Easterby-Smith
Wednesday 3 March 1999
09.30 - 16.30
This workshop will be structured around an exercise which will develop an
overview of philosophical choices within management research, and we will
then consider their implications for research design. This will involve a
combination of video, interactive discussion and group exercises. We will
then look in more depth at the implementation of different research
designs, responding to the interests/concerns/problems of the participants
with a range of exercises on qualitative methods, including depth
interviewing, grounded theory, qualitative data analysis etc.
Mark Easterby-Smith is Professor of Management Learning at Lancaster
University and is the lead author of Management Research: An Introduction,
Sage 1991. Between 1989 and 1997 he co-ordinated the national, ESRC-funded,
scheme for recruiting and developing new faculty members into UK business
schools, which involved running a series of workshops and conferences on
teaching and research methodology within management. His current research
is into organisational learning and the problems/opportunities of
conducting cross-cultural management research.
WORKING WITH QSR.NUD.IST4
Richard Ford and Val Singh
Wednesday 10 March 1999
09.30 - 16.30
This is a practical workshop for those who wish to use the latest software
tool to help them manage their textual data, whether in-depth interview
transcripts or open-ended questionnaire responses. The session is
particularly suited for those who are about to start preliminary fieldwork,
but will also be relevant for experienced researchers and others, who wish
to learn about working with this software.
An overview of the software is given, with a hands-on tutorial session.
You are encouraged to bring your interview schedule, any pilot interview
transcripts, and your diagrammatic conceptual map of your research, so that
your (eventual) coding frames can be discussed. After the hands-on
session, we will go through some of the implications for validity,
reliability and researcher involvement/bias from using computer-assisted
methods. You may bring your own laptop if you wish. A demo version of the
software is available. We aim to give enough support for you to set up
your own NUD.IST project with confidence.
Richard Ford is a final year doctoral student, studying Third Party
International Logistics Services. Richard used N4 in his PhD, and has
(jointly with Val) run several N4 workshops for faculty and doctoral
students.
Val Singh is Manager Research Programmes at Cranfield, and has used N4 to
analyse her interviews for her PhD on Meanings of Commitment in Engineering
in the UK and Sweden. Val leads several sessions on the Cranfield Research
Methodology Course. Her research interests include commitment, engineering
careers and women in management.
THE CONTENTS OF A GOOD PhD
Professor Derek Pugh
Wednesday 17 March 1999
09.30 - 16.30
Doctoral students need to understand fully the nature of the PhD degree if
they are to increase their chances of a successful outcome. Supervisors
need this understanding too if they are to play their part effectively.
Using experiences from Business and Management studies as examples, this
seminar explores such basic issues as the meaning of a doctorate, its
structure, the desired outcomes of PhD study, the relationship between
student and supervisor, and the operation of the formal system.
The day will include interactive sessions and you should bring details of
doctoral projects that you are undertaking or supervising.
Derek Pugh is Visiting Research Professor of International Management at
the Open University Business School and has an international reputation as
a writer, teacher, researcher and consultant in the fields of
Organisational Behaviour and International Management. He has had
considerable experience of the design of doctoral programmes and the
supervision and examination of doctoral students. He is author and editor
of many books and is the co-author with Dr Estelle Phillips of How to Get a
PhD (2(superscript: nd) ed.) Open University Press.
UNDERSTANDING ORGANISATIONAL STRATEGY:
THE INSTITUTIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Professor Royston Greenwood
Wednesday 21 April 1999
09.30 - 16.30
Organisational strategies are usually studied as though managers exercise
strategic choice based upon analysis and the pursuit of competitive
difference. In fact, much managerial action is constrained by
institutional pressures and expectations that limit managerial choice,
often in ?hidden? ways. Furthermore, by conforming to institutional
expectations, organisations increase their chances of survival. It is thus
important that researchers understand the processes by which institutional
forces evolve and shape managerial action.
This workshop will outline the Institutional Perspective on strategy and
discuss methods by which the nature and influence of institutional forces
can be researched.
Professor Greenwood holds the Telus Chair of Strategic Management and the
rank of Associate Dean at the University of Alberta. He is on the
editorial boards of Journal of Management Inquiry, Canadian Journal of
Administrative Sciences and the Journal of Organisational Behaviour and has
published in numerous top journals. His research interests are: the
management of professional service firms; the dynamics of organisational
change; the evolution of industries and organisational fields.
CASE STUDY RESEARCH
Dr Alan Harrison
Wednesday 28 April 1999
09.30 - 16.30
Apart from their well-known teaching uses, case studies are also widely
used for research. Here, however, the track record is less consistently
favourable. Often, researchers have only themselves to blame. There are
too many examples where cases have been used to parade ?best practice?
which has been derived from relatively superficial evidence and analysis.
Yet some major contributions to theory in the social sciences have been
case based. It is commonly used:
? in situations when current theory is weak or under-developed
? where there are many variables at work and the connection between them is
difficult to understand
? where the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly
evident
? as a coherent envelope for the application of multiple research methods
and the use of inter-disciplinary research.
This session is designed to explore strengths and weaknesses of case study
research from a point of view of research design, and to examine the
practicalities of the method.
Alan Harrison is Exel Logistics Research Fellow at Cranfield School of
Management. His research interests focus on the application of lean
methods in operations management, and he is an enthusiastic supporter of
case based research. He is currently working on a research project within
the UK aerospace industry, and on intelligent manufacturing systems.
STRATEGIES OF ACTION RESEARCH/PRACTICE
Dr Peter Reason
Wednesday 5 May 1999
09.30 - 16.30
This workshop will explore the variety of paradigms that can underlie the
practice of research in organisational and professional practice and
outline three major strategies and their associated methods for the
practice of action research:
? first person research/practice helps the researcher foster an inquiring
approach to his or her life, to be aware and discriminating while acting;
? second person research/practice discourses with a face to face group as
a community of inquiry;
? third person research practice seeks to engage whole organisations,
communities and regions in inquiry and democratic development.
You will have an opportunity to explore how your own research interests
could be shaped to follow an action research path.
Peter Reason is Director of the Centre for Action Research in Professional
Practice at the University of Bath. His major academic work has been to
contribute to the development of a participatory worldview and associated
approaches to inquiry, and in particular to the theory and practice of
co-operative inquiry. He has published widely on these subjects and is
currently co-editing Handbook of Action Research: Human Inquiry for
research/practice to be published by Sage.
REPERTORY GRID TECHNIQUE
Dr Keith Goffin
Wednesday 12 May 1999
09.30 - 16.30
The repertory grid technique offers researchers an effective method for
indirect questioning. It was originally developed by psychologists to
obtain an understanding of how subjects view other people by identifying
their constructs?the underlying criteria by which they differentiate
between people they know. However, since it is useful for identifying the
underlying ways in which subjects view any issue (including complex ones),
repertory grid analysis has found many applications in both marketing
research and management research. This workshop offers an introduction to
the technique. It is based around a practical exercise in designing and
running a repertory grid interview.
The key issues on repertory grid technique which will be covered include:
the theoretical basis; the advantages and limitations; designing
interviews; data analysis; interpreting results; and examples from
management research.
Keith Goffin is a Senior Lecturer in Operations Management at Cranfield
School of Management, having joined the faculty four years ago after a
successful career in industry. His research interests include customer
support and product innovation and he has used repertory grid technique
extensively. Currently, he is helping design research into supply chain
management using the technique.
COGNITIVE MAPPING
Dr Mark Jenkins
Wednesday 19 May 1999
09.30 - 16.30
Managerial cognition is a fast developing perspective which provides a
detailed understanding of managers and their organisations. The cognitive
perspective is concerned with the subjective world in which managers
operate. In particular it allows us to focus on the way in which
individuals deal with the growing complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity of
the organisational world. The term cognitive mapping refers to approaches
for representing and analysing the way in which individual and collective
managers see their world.
This session will give you an overview of the cognitive perspective to
managerial research and of the various forms and approaches to cognitive
mapping. There will also be a practical exercise to enable you to explore
the strengths and weaknesses in both capturing and analysing data from
cognitive maps. Finally we will consider applying and publishing research
using cognitive mapping.
Mark Jenkins is a Senior Lecturer in Strategic Management at Cranfield,
teaching on the MBA and senior management short courses, specialising in
competitive strategy, strategic capabilities and customer facing
organisations. He has worked in Europe, the USA, the Far East and Middle
East, and has been a visiting Professor in Strategic Management at the
University of Colorado. He is founding editor of the Journal of Marketing
Practice, a member of the editorial review board for the European Journal
of Marketing, and is author of The Customer Centred Strategy (Pitman, 1997)
GROUNDED THEORY
Dr David Partington
Wednesday 26 May 1999
09.30 - 16.30
Many prominent organisational researchers argue that there is a need for
more studies which set out to build new theories from data. In the
literature, however, the process of grounded theory development and its
position in relation to other qualitative approaches is less than clear.
This workshop aims to develop an understanding of established strategies
for creative theory-building which are likely to lead to success in meeting
the criteria used to evaluate this kind of work. Through a greater
understanding of grounded theory approaches, including the application of
appropriate analytical methods, you will improve your confidence in
undertaking theory-building studies.
The workshop is intended for both new and experienced researchers in fields
related to management and organisations who are interested in discovering,
or simply learning about, grounded theory.
David Partington is a Lecturer in Project Management at Cranfield School of
Management. He has more than 20 years experience as a lecturer,
practitioner, consultant and researcher in the management of change. His
research interests include group behaviour, personal control and the
effects of key organisational characteristics on managerial action.
DEVELOPING ?GOOD? THEORY
Professor David A. Whetten
Tuesday 15 June 1999
09.00 - 17.00
According to Kurt Lewin, ?There is nothing quite so practical as a good
theory.? In this workshop we will discuss why good theory is essential for
good scholarship and how scholars can build good theories.
You should bring to the workshop an observation or question that you would
like to fashion into a theoretical model. This model-building process will
be worthwhile for scholars interested in writing a theory development
paper, or in using their theoretical model to design an empirical research
project.
David A. Whetten is the Jack Wheatley Professor of Organizational Behavior,
and Director of the Center for the Study of Values in Organizations, at
Brigham Young University. Prior to joining the faculty at BYU he taught
for 20 years at the University of Illinois. He will serve as the President
of the Academy of Management in1999-2000. He is past editor of The Academy
of Management Review, a leading theory development journal in the field of
management. He has an extensive publication record, including several
theory development articles. His current research is focused on
organisational values and organisational identity.
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