Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Universities look into the future

Universities look into the future (BBC)

By Mike Baker


Will universities in the future still look like this?
The current funding crisis will transform Britain's universities by 2020.

University campuses will be unrecognisable.

The conventional image of today, which is still fondly perpetuated in the media, is already as antiquated as college scarves and sherry with the tutor.

The 18-year-old school leaver, living on campus, studying full-time for a purely academic, three-year undergraduate degree is fast becoming a minority species.

The current financial squeeze, which is set to continue for the next decade, will accelerate a transformation that has begun in many universities.

Already more than one in three students studies part-time and one in six is from overseas. READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

Commentary: If things look this bleak in the UK how much better can they be in Canada?

Sunday, March 28, 2010

IB Dream Jobs: Vienna University of Economics and Business PhD Studentship



The Institute for International Business (IIB) at the Vienna University of Economics and Business is seeking to fill two positions for Research and Teaching Associates. Positions may be filled at the doctoral level. The successful candidates will provide part-time support to the IIB faculty in teaching and administrative work while pursuing an active program of research. English is the operating language of the group.



Members of the IIB group are active in research in a variety of areas of international business, international management, and strategy. The group maintains a strong collaborative atmosphere with active research-oriented programs for doctoral students. IIB faculty serve on the editorial boards of major journals including the Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Management, Management International Review, and Global Strategy Journal. One of our members currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Long Range Planning. We have published in journals such as the Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Organization Science, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of International Management, Management International Review, International Business Review, Research Policy, Organization Studies and many others. IIB also regularly hosts academic visitors from major North American, European and Asian universities.

Established in 1898, Vienna University of Economics and Business has over 20.000 students and 400 full time faculty. It is one of the largest business schools in Europe. The university offers Bachelors, Masters, Executive Masters, and PhD programs in traditional and specialized areas. The University is ranked in the Financial Times European top 50 and the FT top 25 for Business Administration. The joint Masters in International Management (CEMS) is ranked first in Europe by the FT. The university maintains partnerships with 200 universities on all continents and has strong ties to the business community.

Vienna is the capital of Austria and a major center of business for the region. Vienna also is world renown as a center of culture. The city offers exceptional attractions in music, art, and popular culture, as well as world-class dining and a high standard of living. Vienna hosts a variety of international organizations including the UN Atomic Energy Agency, UNIDO, and OPEC. Vienna also serves as the gateway to Central and Eastern Europe; it is the European regional headquarters of more than 200 multinational corporations in IT, financial services, pharmaceuticals and other industries. Vienna is consistently ranked one of the world’s most livable cities by Mercer Consulting.

Minimum requirements for the positions: Candidates must possess a university degree in business studies, social sciences, or a related field.

Informal inquiries should be directed to Professor Björn Ambos. Tel. +431313365121, Email: Bjoern.Ambos@wu.ac.at

To apply please visit the following link (http://www.wu.ac.at/structure/servicecenters/hr/jobs) or send your applications to Vienna University of Economics and Business, HR Department, Augasse 2-6, 1090 Vienna, Austria. Ref. 1532

To be considered for the position, your application including curriculum vitae and three letters of reference must be received by 21.4.2010.

Thoughts on Reading, Writing and Researching



Thoughts on Reading, Writing and Researching

I think there does need to be a balance between the "publish or perish vibe" my classmate and this article (Publish or Perish? Re-Imagining the University Press) describe and having "high but realistic aims" as described by another classmate. My own motivations for formats to publish are somewhere in between and somewhat simplistic or naive. I am often just happy enough and feel I have succeeded in making progress in learning of my discipline just to have the time and inclination to write down and organize my own thoughts in my own chosen way whether that should earn value or exceed requirements among any community is often above and beyond my intrinsic needs.

A recent CBC Ideas podcast by Frank Faulk discussed the importance of internalized codes of moral certainty which are exceedingly difficult to adapt to situational contexts and may even be genetic in their patterns of cognitive expression. This might explain cultural in group versus out group aspects impacting on choices of (or lack of) formats of publication where larger market monopolies and returns on investment may have turned against constructive intellectual debate.

While academics often appear to defend their theses with excessive statistical data which obviously requires greater investment in review they often isolate those readers who should play a larger role in their primary audience which appears to be lost due to uber-competitiveness to be published. Namely their undergraduate and graduate students should provide an audience eager to learn from their publications. However many humanities disciplines have lost prominence and popularity perhaps because they no longer provide relevant thoughtful debate or communicate directly enough to attract higher rates of enrollment and profit-earning tuitions.



As an English Literature undergraduate I was taught to analyze and give significance to written patterns and symbols of communication to thereby possess an ability to identify values and recognize the vitality of human culture embedded in contexts of written English language and present my results in as vital and interesting a forum as possible. I try to avoid controversy and I make it as far as my own dry blog frequently but even in the beginning of that I was fearful of sharing my own thoughts with a sea of strangers. I have gained confidence in this area over time.

Of course English Literature studies as a base are possibly the most heavily derided and misunderstood humanities subject possible. There is a certain cultural aspect of perceived redundancy and I have noticed if most people read anything at all anymore it is as likely to be a TV Guide or some form of pulp fiction let alone an academic paper or a book of non-fiction or history. Let alone write anything at all other than brief emails or SMS texts. That as many as 50%of my fellow Canadians may be functionally illiterate suggests more of them might be studying English Literature or something (anything) to find a reason to read.



For example, plagiarism appears the norm rather than the exception in some studies a percentage of up to 60% of falsified data and seemingly progressively increasing in frequency at the graduate and doctoral levels (Price & Price:2005). Without exemplary leaders and managers these learners are failing their own potential and they bring being taught to think independently into question rather seem to be refining those skills which lead them to being merely opportunistic. As is often said of children perhaps we get the students we deserve. How much of a link is there between functional illiteracy and plagiarism?

Does such a trend indicate how far research academia has insulated itself from the common interests of our world's intrinsic leadership and managerial needs even at the most basic levels? Are we forgetting that teaching people to read, write and research assists in the self-awareness of developing one's own self-image and embodiment or identification with one's own culture? If so, are we collectively witnessing a lost determinant search for the self in this wilderness of plagiarism? It appears obvious nearly half of all academics are not really reading (even) their own students' works.

Price, J. & Price, R. (2005) " Finding the true incidence rate of plagiarism," International Education Journal, 6 (4), 421-429.
[Accessed: March 25, 2010]

Publication Venues and Research Management Considerations



1. How do you decide what format of publication is optimal for you area of research?

When I arrived at my current position I was told people do not usually publish until they have earned their PhDs and that it would be good to develop an enjoyment of reading and writing about this international business graduate discipline. So that’s what I do and I have been doing for in excess of seven years and I am in that holding pattern without regrets until the right PhD program and faculty may appear or reveal itself to my recognition of mutual interests and I really like this job too much to leave it before that time anyway.

I joined JIBS the Journal of International Business Studies which is top flight and has mostly provided scope in terms of junior faculty conferences available with an active mailing list of global conferences and journal submission requests which is a daily reminder that the day will come when I will prepare and plan some form of submission to one or another which I would consider within reach. As I was considered a perfect fit for this position I would hope to be considered a perfect fit for a PhD program with a well matched and patient advisor who truly values cross-cultural experience, global learning and self-improvement goals and who would mesh nicely with my sense of progression and reasonable renumeration rewards to desire higher goals. That would be a pretext to publications.

Money is a motivator.

As my classmate described even with proper preparation many of those with the necessary training and skills may never lead or manage a research project. I would agree internal growth and motivations beyond training are required and there can be no transformation from one stage to the next without it being natural, necessary and inherently part of one’s character at present. There's no way to force it unless it becomes an essential requirement to my personal measures of success. I even have a few other course goals I would like to complete before making a PhD leap. But perhaps not until this lily-pad becomes untenable.



2. In your research field, what factors should the RM consider before publishing?

For money or consultant motivated publication: I believe the RM needs to consider the Terms of Research (TOR) as the first factor to review if only because the contract needs to be clarified if, when and how the results may or may not be published, deseminated or shared and if possible the terms need be reviewed to ensure that the RM's best interests are being met in engaging the research management of the project in question. For example our notes referred to a case where researchers were restricted from access to all results in a private funded project. This would feel like working ona puzzle with a blindfold on to me. Misrepresentation of possible results became an ethical question.

Furthermore, if the RM is working as a consultant on a multinational project then the abstracts, background, perliminary resources, methodology and processes, requirements, stages and deadlines will need to be prsented, confirmed and addressed clearly and known from the outset to coordinate with a lead consultant whereby the deliverables are agreed as well as payments schedules and budgetary needs fixed and known all prior to start with changes only by mutual consent following contractual agreement.



As a classmate and our resources indicate in cases of patent clearance procedures, restrictions and requirements need to be maintained to ensure IP protection. However many of the procedures appear to place the researcher in a Catch 22 position. In terms of hinting at a new discovery or product development in publications I remember a lot of viral hype about some new gadget to revolutionize the way we think of transport and it turned out to be the Segway -building hype into a product that does not deliver or worse yet is subject to recalls - might damage a researcher's reputation if the marketing has been overblown.

Friday, March 26, 2010

New way of fish farming could help fix environment

New way of fish farming could help fix environment
Biologists study whether sea creatures could be used to counteract damage to ecosystems
By Randy Shore, Vancouver SunMarch 25, 2010 New designs for fish farms could keep them in the ocean and help restore damaged marine environments at the same time, says a biologist working on a five-year nationwide aquaculture project.

Marine biologists in New Brunswick and in B.C. are employing mussels, oysters, sea cucumbers, urchins and seaweed to dramatically increase the amount of food created by salmon farms, and they believe they can extract excess carbon and nitrogen pollution from the sea in the process. FULL STORY HERE

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

A correction to my post on obtaining unbiased data.



I would like to thank Mr. Feroze Khan Vice President of Stratford University for reading my post on steps to obtaining unbiased data and correcting my misinterpretation of the facts in the Helios Air Accident Flight ZU 522.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

On Research Leader's Necessary Skills



1. What do you think are the most important skills of a research leader and why?

I believe in reflection and that there is no complete or sufficient empirical "grand list" that can address the essentially intuitive nature of good leadership. However I heavily rely upon W. Edwards Deming's insights, yet again, as I wholly trust his nature to populate my thinking as his thoughts are so finely and resolutely formed and shared. These points reside heavily within his " five deadly diseases" and I freely adapt them for my own purposes to answer this question. Curiously, I am also not completely convinced that leadership be justly separated from the principles of quality management. I believe in attempting to separate them we lose some aspects of their intangible qualities (duality or pisces nature) essential to their best practice in an over-desire to analyze for competitive advantage alone where the " yin and yang" of self-improvement of both aspects of leadership and management direction do signal the processes of future successful human progress. I believe we do need more good managers who are leaders and good leaders who are managers. No less and no more.

Therefore a good research leader:

1.Has constancy of purpose, plans for the future, and defines long-term goals.
2. Emphasizes long-term profits, benefits and budgets & sustains goals for growth.
3.Evaluates performance in ways which are just and moralizing to followers, encourages systems & long-term thinking, teamwork and abolishes fear.
4.Deeply commits to the research team, with strong history of association, profound knowledge of the team, understanding & empathizing with their problems and challenges.
5.Leads and manages beyond statistical analysis and seeks to include the unknown and unknowable, creatively deviates from traditional schools of thought and thus becomes distinctive, unique and an intangible asset to the research.
6.Knows how to listen and how to speak and is the team's personable PDCA cipher.


2. Do skills differ with different research streams?

Different streams imply the possibilities of there being different skills for successfully leading in those streams. The leader of a logistics company requires different skills and knowledge than the leader of a cosmetics company. Therefore, I would opine different skills would certainly be required if one sought to transfer from one to the other. Some leaders might be able to cross-over successfully from logistics to cosmetics due to basic leadership/needs similarities on the Pavlovian or Maslowvian hierarchies. Non-complementary streams and the nature of the scope of distances or differences between them would suggest some leaders would not successfully navigate from one to the other. In the cases of comparing cognitive knowing versus affective influencing leadership skills, for example, computer skills versus charisma, one might suggest all leaders do share certain core competencies in the latter rather than the former. Even if one had no charisma other leadership skills might present themselves to make up the difference.

In the human brain there is an affective area of influencing the opinions, decisions and actions of followers through which a leader might mirror precedence, competitors, market conditions, and other examples while neither absolutely knowing the level of follower compliance to suggestive guidance nor what particular stimulus or incentive even provides the best follower compliance. This would suggest that leadership is perhaps at the best of times an acting performance and an ongoing experiment in testing out affective change management to a range of cause and effect possibilities and contexts.

No regrets listening to this: The Sociology of Richard Sennett

Flesh and Stone: The Sociology of Richard Sennett - Part Two




I like this tune for some reason?



In case you haven't noticed I punctuate my homework and reflections with musical selections.

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

ANU PhD Scholarship in IB

PhD Scholarship in International Business
Australian National University


Applications are invited for a full-time PhD scholarship in the School of Management, Marketing and International Business funded by a grant under the Linkage Scheme of the Australian Research Council.

The project aims to understand the factors that impacted on the investment decisions of European companies in Australia and of Australian companies in Europe through firm-level surveys. Some of those factors are the international experience of firms, their core competencies, their asessment of opportunities and risk in the foreign business environment, as well as the ways in which they accommodated and mitigated elements of perceived risk through the choice of location, entry mode, local partners etc.

The student involved in the project will develop skills in implementing and developing surveys and analysing the results of the surveys using both qualitative and quantitiative techniques.

The scholarship includes a tax-free stipend of A$26,140 per year for three years. Applicants are expected to have an honours or Masters degree or equivalent qualification in business studies, commerce or economics, or a cognate field of academic study. Both Australian residents and international students may apply.

Application deadline: Friday 19 March 2010.

Enquiries and applications: rso.cbe@anu.edu.au or +61 2 6125 3664

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Pierre van der Eng, Associate Professor
School of Management, Marketing & International Business (MMIB)
ANU College of Business and Economics, Copland building 24
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
Australia
Tel. +61 2 6125 5438
Fax +61 2 6125 8796
ANU CRICOS provider number is 00120C

Saturday, March 06, 2010

Concerning Best Practices in Research



1.What training is required for new research staff and what information do they need to be made aware of?

New research staff should first be made aware of their contractual obligations to observe and maintain policies, regulations and ethical requirements as to safeguard the appropriate application of research funds to ensure best practices are maintained. Beyond also being provided with the opportunities to acquire training in methods to develop good thesis and data collection techniques (such as these eGSA courses?) new staff should be acquainted with terms of research requirements and codes of conduct as exemplified by our resource list.

While there are great similarities among the provided codes such as QUT policies, Australian NHMRC regulations, Dupont and the like academic versus business requirements will vary across national and international domains and possibly the extent of their institutional research domains. It also appears that both academic and business codes of conduct share similar frameworks and influence each other in areas of collaborative interest. Our resource list provides evidence of close interconnectivity and collaboration among research organizations around the world which through their experience have encountered similar challenges in managing their research regulations necessitating quite explicit codification of employee requirements perhaps through bitter experience. Obviously ethical requirements are an often debated subject such as the Milgram Electroshock of 1961 or the Zimbardo Prison Experiments of 1971 at Yale University which were considered overly emotionally stressful for volunteer participants on an absolute versus relative approach to ethics (Zimardo:1973).


2. Why do research organizations need retention of data policies?

University and business research programs and institutes provide the environment to develop strategic and profit-making enterprises for the benefit of income earning divisions, shareholders or incubator spin-off corporations who often provide the seed financing required to conduct the research and employ the researchers. Policies concerning the confidentiality and provenance of research conducted seek to ensure competitive advantage in a global business environment often observed to provide challenges in terms of patent protection and infringement of intellectual property rights. The clearest example of recent public document policy oversight concerns the global warming debate and several hacked emails from the University of East Anglia in Cambridge England. Sufficient information security might have prevented the revelation that conflicts of interest and terms of peer review ethics may often come into question "in harsh daylight" even with the prevalence of well organized terms and codes of conduct and policy (Keleman: 2009). On the other hand, large corporations conducting unsustainable business practices have the most to lose from greater regulatory measures to curb industrial influence over research and have often been complicit in the ruination of research reputations among those who question their global business practices as described in numerous publications by Brian Martin at UOW.

Martin, B. (2001) "Environment and Public Health," Censorship: A World Encyclopedia, Volume 2, edited by Derek Jones (London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2001), pp. 740-743. [Accessed: March 6, 2010]

Keleman, P. (2009) "What East Anglia's E-mails Really Tell Us About Climate Change," popular Mechanics, December 1. [Accessed: March 6, 2010]

3.Identify professional divisions at your university and discuss what each of them does.

While this is a brief list (way to go exceeding our posting length!) it did acquaint me with a large number of Daejin University institutes providing confirmation of their associations and involvement where possible with internet references. Please consider this a brief of scan of a lenghty list.

SOCIAL SCIENCES

Daejin University Academy of Daesoon Thought: Conducts Daesoon philosophy research considered one of East Asia's fastest growing religions.

Daejin University Institute of Local Economy: Conducts research into local technological competitive growth and innovation strategies.

Daejin University Institute of Construction: Conducts research inconstruction engineering and management to improve efficiency based upon collaborative efforts of industry, academia, and research exchanging and sharing technical knowledge, experience, and information through cooperation.

Daejin University Institute of Environment: Conducts research in energy, agriculture and design best practices.

ENGINEERING/BUSINESS

Daejin University Institute of Industrial Technology/ Institute of High-Tech Materials: Conducts research in association with the KREONET-NOC the Korea National Science and Research Network.

Daejin University Institute of International Trade: Conducts research into developing international growth partnerships and business collaboration.

Daejin University Institute of Basic Science: Conducts science and technology research.

EDUCATION

Daejin University Institute of Education Attached to the Graduate School of Education: Conducts education research.

Daejin University Institute of Reading Culture: Conducts research into literacy and literacy training.

Daejin University Institute of Chinese Studies: Conducts active research program in developing the university's Chinese market specialists orientation and cooperative development of the DUCC China campus programs. Daejin University is a Korean market leader in this offshore development.

Daejin University Institute of Humanities: Active in developing digital humanities archives.

Daejin University Institute of Northern Districts /Institute of Local Government's Policy: Assists in local and regional collaborative research projects in Pocheon County and Gyeonggi Province two of the fastest growing regions adjacent to Seoul.

Daejin University Institute of Social Capital: Conducts research into the value and application of social networks to increase individual and group productivity.

Daejin University Institute of Legal Policy: Conducts research in legal and legislative affairs.

Daejin University Institute of Cyber World's Culture: Conducts research into e-business, webometrics and social sciences.

BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY COLLABORATION

Daejin University Industrial and Academic Cooperation Agency: Provides recruitment and employment assistance in cooperation with four regional growth markets in China and Korea.

Daejin University Center for Inauguration and Nurture of Enterprise Research: A research unit which develops information technology applications concerning security and trust, intelligence, multimedia convergence, wireless and mobile communications in a future oriented ever changing commercial environment.

Daejin University Center for Industrial Academic Cooperation: Through membership in the Korea Association of Industry, Academy and Research Institutes assists SMEs with fast paced and economical technical development. Focus is on next-generation growth industries in biotechnology, green technology, and nano information technology.

Daejin University Center for Intellectual Property: Conducts studies upon Information Security and Assurance such as modeling, simulations and applications including computing systems and devices.

Gyeonggi-Daejin Technopark: An SME business incubator located on campus with assistance and development plans with 80 knowledge-based high tech enterprises and research institutes around the province seeking to lead regional economic growth through local industrial and market development research. Companies include biotechnology, IT/electronics, auto components, medicine/chemistry, nanotechnology and mechatronics among others.