Posted by jonathmill on 11/20/12 6:51pm

• Posted by Thomas Graf on 11/21/12 4:08pm

  Hi there,

  thank you for your message. You raise an important question and there is much confusion about it.

  Let me clarify that a doctorate in management - whether fulltime or part-time, whether a PhD or a DBA - NEVER has the purpose to increase your management capabilities. For this, here are MBA programs and Executive Education seminars.

  I am not saying that you won't get some take-aways from a doctorate that you can apply in business. But the primary reason for doing a doctorate in management is NOT to become better managers.

  So what do you learn in a DBA program? Well, you learn to become a researcher. This means that you will be able to identify a relevant research problem, to frame it in a terminology such that it can be studied, to design an apt methodology, and to actually study it.

  Of course, this research topic can and should be related to the real management world. And in a DBA program, this research topic will be even closer to your every day life as it may stem directly from your employer's practice. But at the end of the day, a doctoral student is learning the tools to do research on these problems on a higher level, abstracting from the one concrete company case to a more general level that can help explain similar phenomena in other settings as well.

  Best wishes,
  Thomas

  By Thomas Graf
  Founder DBA Compass
  Author of the DBA Survey

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• Posted by EvaN on 07/05/13 1:11pm

  Dear Jonathan
  Even though you asked this question quite a while ago, I think it makes sense to add to Thomas' response.
  I am the programme director of the Bradford DBA, and have experience with this programme for more than 12 years now.
  I fully agree with Thomas, that the DBA is no programme to gain management knowledge (that's why most DBAs require an MBA before starting a DBA), but:
  what I and most of our students find most exciting on the DBA are:

  • gaining a more critical and reflective thinking on working with literature ad research methods
  • how they widen their view on how to solve business related problems
  • that they become a (if not THE) specialist in their topic - worldwide
  • their contribution to not just knowledge, but also management
  • and finally the network they build with other managers from all over the world and how this influences their intercultural management skills.
    Several of our Alumni also started a second carreer as visiting lecturer at international business schools. Who would be better to teach at MBA programmes than those who got the MBA plus huge business experience plus education in how to do proper research?
    with regards from
    Eva

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