Explaining Me

At our recent face-to-face meeting for the Research Methods class, we briefly discussed how the blogging assignment was going.  As usual, our diverse cohort had diverse opinions and I came to realize that my approach, and frankly my enjoyment of the assignment may be unique to me.  That's why, in this blog entry, I'd like to share some thoughts I've had since that discussion.

I appreciate the blogging assignment for the opportunity it presents to practice critical thinking and presenting that thinking in writing.  I consider this to be an important competency for becoming the kind of scholar-practitioner that I want to be and I'm glad to have the chance to do it. I use my blog to integrate what I am learning from class into the context of my everyday life and what interests me.  I also use it as a chance to practice developing and expressing my point of view on important topics in our field of study. 

In addition to active posting on my own blog, I have been active in making comments on blogs written by other cohort members and sometimes they take the form of challenging questions or provocative statements.  My purpose in posting these comments was to encourage more lively discourse, which is something that I have enjoyed in other learning communities in the past.  I was attempting to model a behavior that I desired from others.  

Upon reflection, I realize I was wrong to think that because I desire this kind of feedback that others do, too.  More importantly, I realize that my choices could be misunderstood and that there is a potential for my comments to be considered disrespectful or worse yet, as a kind of intellectual bullying.  I am sorry I created this situation, and I hope this explanation serves as an adequate apology to any of my fellow cohort members who may have misunderstood my efforts.

From the very start of our program, I have been questioning my obligations, and the expectations of me as a member of the cohort in supporting the other members.  I decided and still believe, despite this failed attempt, that we can and should learn from each other, and what I can contribute lies in sharing what I have learned from my experiences in working in organizations.  I'm not going to stop trying to help others, and will consider this a learning opportunity, as we so often extol the virtues of learning from our failures.  

But, you can't learn from failure unless you actually do fail at something - and admit it.  And what better place for failure to happen than in the psychologically safe environment that we consider our cohort to be.  So with that in mind, I wonder, why aren't we doing it more? Why aren't we challenging each other, expressing different opinions or stretching ourselves beyond our comfort zone? This is our chance!  It's our opportunity to safely fail and learn.

We have about 18 months remaining to take advantage of the psychological safety of our cohort and, speaking only for myself, I want to make the most it.  I will continue to use my blog to share my thoughts with contemplative or provocative posts - probably even after this class is over.  And I am imploring my fellow cohort members and other followers to comment with thoughts that continue the conversation and stretch our collective thinking - or just tell me that you think I'm full of "it" and why!.   In return, I will no longer use comments on other blogs for provocation unless it is specifically asked for.  

Thanks for allowing me to express my thoughts and for staying open.  And happy blogging.

"Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone"  - Joni Mitchell

A "Real Life" OD Research Problem

The assignment for this blog entry is to find a real-life OD research problem that has not been studied yet.  Yikes!  That sounds intimidating.  Hasn't everything been studied?  

In thinking about it, I realized the answer can't be yes because there is still so much we don't know, there are still many problems needing to be solved and there will always new data, tools and insights that provide new ways to look at old problems.  Unfortunately for me, that realization seemed to make the assignment that much harder. 

The idea of looking at old problems in new ways is always intriguing to me.  I have, more than once, found myself reading the findings of a research study and feeling that something was missing or having a sense that some assumption in an analysis was flawed. The MBA rankings research that I blogged about is a good example of this.

I like to think about problems at the highest level, integrating knowledge from many disciplines to make meaning of situations.  And I'm drawn to theory development; particularly to developing theories that challenge conventional wisdom and produce real insights that can benefit organizations and the people in them.  

The lack of relevance in academic research has been talked about for a long time, but it can't go on forever.  Leaders relying upon quick fixes and short-term thinking even when addressing fundamental strategic problems is not new, but it can't go on forever, either. These are ultimately unsustainable situations that cry out for new ideas and solutions and they are the types of organization problems that are well-suited for OD work and interest me. 

So with that, here are three research questions that I would find very interesting for theory development.

1. Can there be a model for a sustainable, functional organization?  What characteristics does the organization and the people within it have?  How does it work?  How is it led?   (by functional, I mean the opposite of dysfunctional)

2.  How does the concept of a sustainable organization change the dialog about inclusion and the ways diversity can make a positive difference in organizations?

3. How would the concept of a sustainable organization change the dialog about the purpose of business schools and how would their students and faculty benefit from looking at the purpose of business schools through an sustainable model lens?  

This represents just the very beginning of my thinking in this area so I'm interested in hearing how it sounds to you.  What do you think of the idea of a model for a sustainable organization? Do you think this could be the basis of a useful theory?

MBA rankings dilemma, continued

This is a follow-up to my previous post on the MBA program rankings.

I'm intrigued with this because it touches on two timely topics for our class; research methodology and the debate surrounding the relevance of research being done in business schools.  

Several good comments that pointed out various shortcomings in the Bloomberg methodology were made on my first post. These comments echo the ongoing criticism coming from academia surrounding the various methodologies being used to rank business schools. So, I wonder, if the rankings are so flawed, why does the business media continue to do them, and, why do business schools continue to take them seriously? (even while they are simultaneously protesting their very existence)  

At the risk of sounding overly simplistic, I am attributing this to what I see as a series of disconnects surrounding the 'business' of business schools.  It's as if all the stakeholders (students, faculties, university administrators, donors, businesses, and the business media)  are taking on different agendas and driving them in different directions. 

For instance, most business schools leaders would recoil at the thought of their purpose being, as the Bloomberg study said, "to channel its graduates into good jobs".  Most of the top business schools compete for the top students by saying their value lies in how they prepare students to be great business leaders and entrepreneurs. Yet the Bloomberg research showed fewer than 10% of the full-time MBA students surveyed either went to start ups or started their own business and 43% of the full-time MBA students went into positions in either consulting or financial services which, coincidentally or not, is where the highest starting salaries were found.  

Additionally, BloombergBusiness has set a new agenda for the conversation regarding the importance of creating new knowledge and the relevance of this once highly-regarded role of business school faculty, saying that it is irrelevant to what students or businesses want from MBA programs and/or business schools.  Whether students or business leaders value the academic research done at business schools is, I believe, still an open question, but this decision is a disconnect that puts business schools in the defensive position of having to justify the value of their faculty research programs.

Lastly, Bloomberg's decisions bring to light that academic research - generally considered by the faculty to be the most prestigious and valued work of a business school - does not generate revenue for the school and that undergraduate teaching and expanding MBA programs are generating significant revenue, in both tuition and donations, for business schools that are otherwise strapped for cash.  All of this highlights the disconnect between that which generates revenue for business schools, the expectations and desires of the academic business scholar, and what students, employers and donors expect from their investment in a business school.

It seems as if there are many research questions embedded in this dilemma.