LEARNING OUTCOMES
On successful completion of this course, students will increase their knowledge of different career alternatives for business school PhDs. As an outcome, the participants will be better equipped to make well-informed and clearly evidenced career choices. They will be supported to plan and build international careers in academia. More specifically, participants will be able to:
Understand the differences and intersections between academic and corporate careers, and critically evaluate pursuing a career in a business school,
Appreciate the global business school landscape within different types of institutional and national contexts,
Apply a professional map of roles in business schools, including deans, administrators, professors, scholarly academics, professional instructors, and contingent workers,
Gain confidence in identifying their own strategic space in navigating today’s globalizing business school sector to design and implement appropriate career plans
Recognize the importance of early career actions and timely publications with a greater multiplier later in one’s career.Credits: 6
Schedule: 14.04.2025 - 16.04.2025
Teacher in charge (valid for whole curriculum period):
Teacher in charge (applies in this implementation): Henrikki Tikkanen
Contact information for the course (applies in this implementation):
CEFR level (valid for whole curriculum period):
Language of instruction and studies (applies in this implementation):
Teaching language: English. Languages of study attainment: English
CONTENT, ASSESSMENT AND WORKLOAD
Content
valid for whole curriculum period:
Work and Career in Business Schools is about scholars, professions, research, teaching, debate, relevance and much more, preparing participants for careers in the global business school industry. The course is a wide-ranging guide that surveys important topics relevant to the world of academia, such as publishing, pedagogy, networking, passion, and of course, competition, status, power, and money.
On a practical level, this course is both rigorous and relevant, aiming at helping early-career business scholars to find their way in the academic world which is full of credentials, citation indices, impact factors and research assessment exercises, but which is also the home of research and education of high societal importance and pertinence. Indeed, the academy and scholars also have a responsibility towards mankind that is not best served through A-journal publications alone. As a counterpoint to publish and perish cultures, this course will contribute to reflections about what a meaningful (i.e. successful, impactful, self-standing) scholarship is, and what alternative routes exist to achieving this. Upon opening the discussion about the means and consequences of ‘playing the game’ in academia, special attention in this course is given to career planning with practical and professional implications.
Work and Career in Business Schools is about scholars, professions, research, teaching, debate, relevance and much more, preparing participants for careers in the global business school industry. The course is a wide-ranging guide that surveys important topics relevant to the world of academia, such as publishing, pedagogy, networking, passion, and of course, competition, status, power, and money.
On a practical level, this course is both rigorous and relevant, aiming at helping early-career business scholars to find their way in the academic world which is full of credentials, citation indices, impact factors and research assessment exercises, but which is also the home of research and education of high societal importance and pertinence. Indeed, the academy and scholars also have a responsibility towards mankind that is not best served through A-journal publications alone. As a counterpoint to publish and perish cultures, this course will contribute to reflections about what a meaningful (i.e. successful, impactful, self-standing) scholarship is, and what alternative routes exist to achieving this. Upon opening the discussion about the means and consequences of ‘playing the game’ in academia, special attention in this course is given to career planning with practical and professional implications.
The business school industry is globally the most substantial, international, and extending sector in higher education. Despite digitalization, MOOCs, mergers and closures, cash cow roles, and public budget cuts, management education offers plenty of career opportunities. However, more and more Nordic doctoral students will find their path to a somewhat odd mix of schools ranging from Ivy League élite universities to stand-alone entrants in educational hot spots around the world.
This course draws more general attention to the fact that there are altogether 15,000 business schools globally. These institutions − as well as their scholars – operate in a complex and competitive world of rankings, credentials, publish or perish tenet, and public criticism. Indeed, increasing globalization and marketization of higher education is transforming business schools and academic work. At the same time, some argue that in ever more competitive global higher education markets, signaling status and quality has become more important than being so.
Our reflection on this complex context starts from familiar institutions operating in the Nordic countries followed by other Western contexts and global educational hot spots all the way to developing countries. We assert that despite notions of ‘global mimicry’ and convergence, the management education industry is a massively stratified and diverse milieu. Indeed, navigating in this terrain is not only difficult but also potentially disastrous.
The course welcomes students with various disciplinary backgrounds in business studies. The broad aim of the course is to develop the participants’ understanding of the past, present, and future of business schools as academic institutions and sites for making own decisions about life choices. This is of utmost importance, since there is little evidence-based knowledge, either conceptual or anecdotal, about the paths that academics choose to follow across the course of their careers (see Frost & Taylor, 1996; Hällgren, 2014 and Fleming, 2019 for exceptions).
Assessment Methods and Criteria
valid for whole curriculum period:
Feedback will indicate the degree to which participants have analyzed, synthesized, and integrated ideas and conceptual positions in a way which contributes to their knowledge and understanding of this course. Emphasis is on the student’s ability to engage with relevant academic literature as a means to personal and professional reflections and development and being responsible for taking action in their own career strategies.
Workload
valid for whole curriculum period:
The course is designed as a three-day intensive doctoral seminar. The course is prepared in collaboration with three scholars + a guest speaker who have studied business schools and management education and held significant administrative responsibilities in their institutions.
This workshop is an intensive three-day course. Each day comprises two or three modules. Learning methods are a combination of lectures and interactive group discussions about the pre-readings and assignments.Academic discussion on the assigned pre-readings and completion of the related pre-assignment are important parts of class participation and passing the course. To be appropriately prepared for the three course days, the students are expected to complete all pre-readings assigned to the modules. This reading package comprises essential journal articles/book chapters and interesting web sites.
DETAILS
Substitutes for Courses
valid for whole curriculum period:
Prerequisites
valid for whole curriculum period:
FURTHER INFORMATION
Further Information
valid for whole curriculum period:
Teaching Language: English
Teaching Period:
2024-2025
2025-2026Registration:
We welcome applicants with various disciplinary backgrounds in business and management studies. Only doctoral students are eligible. Each applicant must submit an application, including basic information (name, contact information, place of study), motivations for applying, and a personal reflective career plan beyond completion of the doctorate (3-4 pages).