Management & Organizations
The Ph.D. program in Management and Organizations (“MORS”) integrates psychological, sociological, economic, and complex systems perspectives on the study of organizations and their members. Faculty and students pursue research on the behavior of individuals, groups, organizations, and groups of organizations, with the goal of advancing theoretical understanding of these phenomena. The MORS program maintains an active training program for researchers with interests in individual decision-making, management and organizations, complex systems, and management broadly defined.
The hallmarks of the program are a first-year curriculum that provides a broad theoretical background in the disciplines of psychology and sociology that underlies the behavior of individuals, groups, organizations, and their environments; students' active involvement in scholarly research from day one; and the breadth of faculty expertise that fosters innovative and high-impact research.
Active research areas
Corporate governance, computational social science, culture, decision-making, dispute resolution, diversity, ethics, group behavior, inequality, motivation, organizational change, organizational design, negotiations, social movements, social networks, strategic adaptation and change, and social responsibility. The study of finance aligns with numerous areas within economics: macroeconomics, public finance, econometrics, household finance, economic development, and economic history. This is why broad training in economics is essential for those who wish to do innovative work that straddles both finance and economics. Some examples include the financing and investment decisions of firms, households, and governments; the interplay between asset prices, capital markets, and the macro-economy; and the role and limitations of financial institutions in facilitating access to credit.
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The MORS faculty have diverse backgrounds and hold degrees in management and organizational behavior, strategy, industrial and organizational psychology, social psychology, sociology, and physics. Our faculty are leaders in developing new, evidence-based knowledge about management practice, and in teaching essential management skills. Our research spans a broad range of areas that include innovation, social inequity, social movements, negotiations, ethics, computational social science, culture, conflict resolution, individual and organizational decision-making, social networks, and power.
Over the years, our faculty have been recognized for their exceptional mentoring of doctoral students, with two faculty receiving both the Academy of Management’s Outstanding Educator Award and Northwestern’s Graduate School’s Graduate Faculty Award, and another receiving the inaugural (2018) Kellogg Research Mentorship Award. Several faculty have also received best paper and distinguished scholar awards from the Academy of Management. We have published scholarly articles in, and serve on the editorial boards of, leading journals, such as Journal of Applied Psychology, American Journal of Sociology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Administrative Science Quarterly, Organizational Science, Science, Management Science, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Nature, and the Annual Review of Psychology.
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Our doctoral students come from a variety of backgrounds. Some have substantial work and professional experiences, or are recent MBA graduates, and others enter directly from undergraduate programs in the social sciences, business, engineering, and allied fields. Though not required, successful applicants often possess one or several of the following characteristics:
- Experience in the social sciences, e.g. through undergraduate or graduate coursework in anthropology, economics, political science, psychology, sociology or related fields
- Research experience, e.g. in the form of an honors or master’s thesis, or research assistant work
- Post baccalaureate work experience
- Evidence of quantitative or statistical skills, e.g., high quantitative test scores or advanced courses in mathematics, statistics, engineering or econometrics
- Relevant master’s degree
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Coursework
In your first two years of the program, you are expected to complete the required coursework. You must take nine non-independent study courses in your first year of the program (this means three courses each over fall, winter, and spring quarters).
In your second year, course registration is more flexible as you transition from coursework to independent research. You may take MORS doctoral courses offered that year, as well as courses in other fields, such as psychology, sociology, anthropology, communications, strategy, computer science, or economics. You must maintain a 3.0 (“B”) grade point average in coursework.
Preliminary and qualifying exams
You will take your preliminary (“prelim” or “field”) exam in the summer between your first and second years. The prelim exam covers material in the four substantive Management and Organizations Ph.D. core courses. Prelims also require full competence in the material covered in the two core methods classes.
Paper requirement and candidacy
Each fall in years two and three you must present 30-minute research talks to faculty and your Ph.D. cohorts based upon the research you have conducted during your first and second years. In your third year, you must successfully complete a candidacy paper by March 15th and present it to faculty. Upon successfully passing this paper, passing the prelim exam and maintaining a 3.0 GPA in coursework, you are admitted to candidacy.
Research, proposal and dissertation
The main activity in your third year and afterward is research toward a thesis, under the direction of one or more faculty advisors. A thesis proposal must be presented to the department by the end of the spring quarter of your fourth year. In your final year in the program, you must complete a dissertation demonstrating original and significant research and pass a final oral examination on the dissertation.
Teaching requirement
To promote engagement with faculty and integration with the intellectual life of the department, students serve as research and teaching assistants during years two, three, and four, including summers. Research assistantships (RAs) are an excellent lead-in to research; teaching assistantships (TAs) prepare you for teaching after obtaining your Ph.D.