Management Systems
An Integrative Doctoral Program

Contemporary management of the organization in its operations requires answers to problems which now extend across more than one area of systems management. Answers are required which take into account simultaneous human resource factors, information system requirements, product design and production scheduling. Accordingly, there is a special strength, not answering all professional needs, but rather answering a specific need which is important and not being met, in turning out Ph.D's who can understand, teach, and consult with respect to an integrated view of the management of organizations and their sub-systems.

An inter-disciplinary -- rather than multidisciplinary -- approach makes possible the transfer of intellectual technology from one field to the next, a characteristic feature of some of today's state-of-the-art advances in science.

All Management Systems students take an inter-disciplinary series of five core courses: Strategic Decision Making and HRM, Quantitative Management Modeling, Information Technology, Manufacturing Technology and Strategy, and Linear Statistical Models. These five courses are to be taken in the first two years, and a qualifying examination which reviews the student's learning and promise must be passed to continue into the third year of study.

Management Systems students also complete five required courses in an Area of Concentration, which is defined by the student's dissertation interest. This can range from five courses in management, computer information systems, or operations management, or five courses which come altogether from two of these areas of study or at times also from outside the department. The college requires a comprehensive examination in the area of concentration, as most if not all doctoral programs elsewhere do. For Management Systems students, one third of the exam is on a research paper which is of sufficient quality to be submitted to a top journal and which has in fact been submitted for review. Finally, the students complete a doctoral minor related to their field of research.

The entire program is overseen by the departmental Graduate Programs Committee, under the direction of the departmental Graduate Coordinator.

Ph.D. in Management Systems
Departmentally Selected Courses

The Department of Management & Information Systems
College of Business Administration
Graduate School of Management
Kent State University
Kent, OH 44242-0001
(330) 672-2750