|
Gatton’s doctoral program in management prepares students for successful academic careers in research-intensive universities. Our doctoral graduates perform cutting-edge research that advances knowledge in the business domain by working closely with the world-class faculty in the Management Area.
What sets the Gatton Management Area’s doctoral program apart?
World-Class Faculty
The Gatton School is committed to assembling the finest scholars in the Management Area to assist in your education and eventual career as a management professor. Our faculty members are considered thought leaders within their research domains.
Daniel J. Brass, J. Hennings Hilliard Chair of Management, is an associate editor of the most prestigious research journal in management, Administrative Science Quarterly.
Stephen P. Borgatti, Chellgren Chair of Management, is a senior editor of Organization Science, another of the most prestigious research journals in management, as well as past president of INSNA, the professional association for social network researchers.
Associate Professor Walter J. Ferrier has won the coveted Academy of Management Journal article-of-the-year research award.
Associate Professor Giuseppe (Joe) Labianca has won the Organization and Management Theory Division best paper award at the Academy of Management conference, and was runner-up for the Academy of Management Review article-of-the-year. Both he and Associate Professor Ajay Mehra have been on the boards of the disclipline’s top journals, including Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, and Organization Science. In addition, Dr. Mehra serves as the Book Review Editor for the Academy of Management Review.
Assistant Professors Emery Yao and Brian Dineen have both published extensively and have developed into thought leaders. Dr. Dineen’s research has won a prestigious award from the Academy of Management's Human Resources Division for best dissertation.
These faculty members have mentored doctoral students who have gone on to be business school faculty at major research universities such as the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton, Emory University, Tulane University, Penn State University, Clemson University, the University of Cincinnati, Oklahoma State University, University of Illinois-Chicago, William & Mary, and Boston College.
LINKS - International Center for the Study of Social Networks in Business
The study of social and organizational networks is an exciting area of inquiry that has seen spectacular growth over the past decade in management, as well as having inspired the success of such websites as MySpace and Facebook. Daniel J. Brass, the director of the center, is a pioneer in the study of social networks in organizations. He does extensive research and teaches classes and seminars at top universities all over the world. His keen interest in the many aspects of social networks is evidenced by more than five hundred citations to his published research.
Professor Stephen P. Borgatti has been a key player in the development of the field of social network analysis. In addition to having over 70 publications on social networks and generating numerous mathematical models of social behavior, Borgatti is the co-developer of UCINET, which is widely regarded as the best software package for the analysis of social networks. His research, which mixes cognitive anthropology and social network structure, has been applied to improve knowledge management in organizations, counter terrorism, and to slow the transmission of HIV, as well as deal with many other important real-world problems.
Several other Management faculty members - Professors Labianca, Mehra, and Yao - have earned international reputations for their research in social networks. In addition, LINKS has benefited from the active participation of network researchers in related fields at the University of Kentucky, such as marketing, decision sciences, and public policy. The Management Area’s main research focus is on social networks in business, both within organizations, as well as between organizations. Within organizations, our faculty focuses on the antecedents and consequences of various types of social networks at the individual and group levels. Examples of research questions we study include:
- What type of social capital do leaders have?
- Which social network configuration leads to optimal team performance?
- Which position in an organization’s social network is most powerful?
- How do social networks affect interpersonal conflict?
- What is the best manner in which to manage knowledge in an organization?
Our faculty also study networks of organizations. Examples of research questions we study include:
- How do different interorganizational knowledge acquisition networks affect organizational learning and change?
- How do strategic alliances affect the value of an organization’s inventions?
The management area also hosts the most influential research conference in Business Networks (ION, the Intra-Organizational Networks Conference), allowing our doctoral students to meet and interact with the top networks researchers from around the world, further enhancing our students’ career prospects.
Exciting Research in Strategy, Management, and Human Resources Management
In addition to the research on business networks, our faculty members are also engaged in cutting-edge research in business strategy topics such as competitive dynamics within industries and strategic decision making, management topics such as how to manage organizational change or virtual teams with constantly changing membership, and human resources management topics such as how to better compete for the highest quality human capital by attracting and selecting applicants through web-based channels. Examples of research questions we study include:
- How does customizing web-based recruiting information to individual job seekers affect applicant pool quality and eventual employee satisfaction and success once on the job?
- What factors are associated with a job seeker or employee being able to better discern the culture of an organization? What effects does understanding of the culture have on performance?
- What are the predictors of a job seeker engaging in resume fraud, and what might organizations do to deter such behavior?
- How does the pattern of competitive behavior exhibited by a firm impact its profits, market share, and stock price?
Part of a Comprehensive Major Research University
As part of a major comprehensive research university, you’ll have contact with scholars in related fields, including Public Policy, Economics, Psychology, and Sociology. This contact allows you to develop research questions that are interesting and important to a variety of fields of study.
Intensive, Personal Attention
We pride ourselves on providing individualized attention to our students. We work closely with doctoral students in an apprenticeship model to nurture future thought leaders. Each doctoral student will work on a combination of professors’ projects, as well as projects of their own initiative and design. Our current students have published these projects in the best research journals in our field as well as winning research awards at annual research conferences of the Academy of Managment and the Strategic Management Society. Examples of research questions our students are currently pursuing include:
- How does a firm’s position in an interorganizational network affect the entrepreneurial process?
- What types of competitive actions impact a company’s perceived stock risk and prompt investors to short sell a company’s stock?
- What can organizations do to minimize negative employee reactions to being excluded from workplace relationships, events, and activities? What leads to an employee being the target of workplace exclusion?
- How does a person’s human and social capital affect the likelihood of that person making a lateral transfer within an organization?
Lexington is One of the Best Places to Live in the U.S.
Lexington, KY is a small, interesting urban/suburban locale with ready access to both exciting urban areas as well as beautiful rural areas. It has a low cost of living, terrific schools, and a low crime rate. Forbes Magazine has consistently listed Lexington as one of the top 20 places to live in the U.S.
GET MORE INFORMATION ABOUT GATTON’S PH.D. IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
If you are interested in challenging yourself intellectually and becoming a professor in a major research university, click here to get more information on applying to Gatton’s Ph.D. program in Business Administration. You can also contact Daniel Brass (dbrass@uky.edu) or Ajay Mehra (ajaymehra1@gmail.com) to discuss the program in greater depth. We encourage applications from minority and international students.
View Frequently Asked Questions
|
