Whew hoooo!!!!! Done with my comps!

I am in a doctoral program at Capella University working on a PHD in Education – Instructional Design. Just completed my written comps about three weeks ago and had my orals yesterday. What a big relief to be past that. I'm taking today to revel in my accomplishments, and then it's back to work on my dissertation.

A total of fourteen courses (if you include my comps) in two years and three months. That was a real challenge with my schedule. Glad that phase is over and now I can devote full attention to my dissertation. I hope to be defending by the end of September.

I have very much enjoyed my Capella University experience. The program is customizable enough to suit my needs and the faculty I chose ranged from fully acceptable to outstanding. I received great advice right from the start from other learners and faculty. My mentor was the right choice and has been a real pleasure to work with.

Although I have an obvious bias, I can say that anyone looking into a distance Master’s or PhD program should give Capella consideration.

Paul C.

 

Congratulations Paul, you are to be commended for the discipline! Best wishes in writing the dissertation.

Russell

 

Hey, you're an official ABD.* Congratulations. I still remember vividly the feeling when Dean Siebert emerged from the post-oral closed-door meeting with a smile on his face.

May we learn the topic of your dissertation?

Incidentally, for a splendid, if dated, inside look at that process, I really enjoyed the book "Doctors Orals" by one of my favorite writers, George Rippey Stewart ("Earth Abides," "Storm," "Names on the Land," etc.)

John Bear
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*For our friend at HUX, "ABD" stands either for "All But Dissertation" or "Almost Bloody Done."

 

Congratulations, Paul! I'm going to be starting Touro's Ph.D. program in June (Business Administration).

What topic have you selected for your dissertation?

Scott

 

Paul,

Congratulations. Perhaps I will see at Capella sometime. I also appreciate your help and kind words of encouragement in my endeavor.

mark

 

My dissertation deals with knowledge management principles and processes in an organizations reengineering effort.

 

Paul,

Congrats of the highest order on achieving ABD. In spite of our occasional disagreements on the merit of DETC degrees, I respect your diligence and effort in pursuit of your Ph.D.

On a humorous note, I must say that the topic of your dissertation sounds like it could have come from one of those management buzzword report-writer tools (the kind where you pick a random word from each of 3 columns)

 

Congratulations Paul! Certainly something to be proud of, and do keep us updated on your dissertation progress.

Bruce

 

Chip, I appreciate your positive comments. Despite our ongoing debate on the DETC issue, I have respect for your positions the rational thought that goes into the expression of those opinions. Also, the current tone of the debate on degreeinfo is one more example of how a slightly moderated forum takes little or nothing away from freedom of expression, but certainly adds to the civility of the discourse.

I always feel uncomfortable when I get asked about my dissertation. I project on to whoever is asking the question my own level of interest in others dissertation. Which I must admit is very close to zero. I am very interested in my own, but find the whole idea of reading someone else's less than appealing and assume that others hold my view.

All the buzzwords are there to be sure. It does get a little deeper than that, though. My research methodology is Action Research with a significant Ethnographic component. It focuses on a industry standard 5-step reengineering process that does an adequate job of bringing an organization out of the dark an into a "best in class" state. However, it completely avoids the obvious; that the reason for having entered the dark in the first place was a lack of systematic and organic processes that promoted the diffusion of innovation and new ideas as they happened. Most reengineering efforts provide a snapshot approach to bringing an organization to "best in class". But the serious irony is that it was the lack of knowledge management and change management within the various business processes that allowed the organization to fall so fare behind, I posit that any reengineering effort that does not specifically take into account the need to incorporate innovation diffusion as an organic part of the newly reengineered processes will ensure that the reengineered processes will, sooner or later, require reengineering again.

Hey...wake up...this is really important stuff here!

 

Congrats, Paul. I like your dis. question. In my own research, I came to the conclusion that process re-engineering almost always becomes the new "micro-manager". The new process often significantly constrains innovators *and* creates a highly bureacratic barrier that is next to impossible to penetrate.

Process Re-engineering (as it is practiced today) is often a holdover of mechanicalism (we can simply fix the machine). As a corporate mental model, mechanicalism has run its course. Companies that realize this will be the winners. They must purposely view their actions, policies and practices through the eyes of organic models.

Barry Foster

 

Interesting topic, Paul,

Are you modelling any of this - and if so, with what methods and tools ?

Cheers,

Neil Hynd

 

I am ever so happy for you!
I remember doing all that good stuff...lol