ethos

Point 1: Extremely critical. You have to engage with the discourse, understand the contours of your discipline. The research that will advance the field, set a trailblazing path - the research that will get you the highest returns for the field. And the research that is incremental that will put food on the table. Point 2: Even Newton said his best work lasted only 2 years - couldn't come up with the citation; maybe anecdotal at best. With this in mind maybe it is the case that you have to navigate through the egos and tradition to put food on the table. One possible solution is to find like-minded colleagues, stick together and have a blast. Do not let go of the pursuit of high return research - clearly you cannot wallow - that being said lack of ambition may very well be the single biggest cause of a career downturn. I will say this - invite the the most vitriolic criticism for your research and if you receive them be grateful - you will get a few negative feedback when you submit your papers to journal. That will help you plug all your holes - do not be afraid of engaging. Alarm bells should ring when you do not get criticism when you have no pointers where to head to next.

I think it isnt efficient enough given what is at stake to keep these contexts - morality and economics - in silos - to not look at them through the same lens. Breeding and living and any activity really - economic or otherwise - that increases entropy brings with itself or ought to anyways a sense of responsibility towards future generations. The sensible endeavour clearly has to be towards not worsening the environment - if not for others i.e. the civilisation, goodwill, etc - but for the sake of your own kids. Yes strategy research covers a whole gamut of paradigms - as it should - but with it should come a more stringent decree simply because its assimilation into the industry is relatively quicker and more and also because it assumes systemic proportions and has potential long term consequences. To put it clearly we need less of the folks - the equivalent of hacks - going out into the industry every year and applying all sorts of frameworks without a context. Any effort to address this and evolve couldnt be enough. Management practice is getting more scientific - wouldnt hurt if it got a lot more interdisciplinary as well and worked towards removing information asymmetry. I am merely thinking out aloud about the OPs observations and trying to make sense of it at my end with my limited resources.

Clearly - eventually yes but in the meanwhile - the flux that they create makes it difficult for people who live on the periphery to make ends meet as it were. Here I talk about the society, the consumers the lot really - if you take a 20k ft birds eye view - space and time wise. So you will always have the fly by night operators (organisations that operate for 10-20 even 30 years ought to be characterised as such - strategy by definition has to be long term looking) and sure there is a case to be made to have a monitoring system in place to take care of these bubbles. Plethora of cases abound with these 'unsustainable strategies' and if there isn't a check and balance in place you will invariably end up with a mechanism that allows people-institutions to get away.

Yes rsaylors or u know its because there is a huge supply - a glut - of potential candidates vying for an economics profile (given that a fair number of us like the subject in whatever form-content.........inherently attractive) - which has driven the salaries lower............on the other end of the spectrum ibanking jobs do not typically appeal with the odd hours and what have you - no such thing as a free lunch? - so they end up jacking up their salary offers - we could view this from a tax-subsidy perspective...........disclaimer: i do not claim to be a student of economics :) and the whole nature of my argument could fall flat - courtesy a ADMSMTH/STGlz/Krgman poster :):).

Hi daffodil5435 thanks for your input - yes will be sending out my applications sometime this week - typically we should have the interviews in Jan-Feb with the decisions in Mar-Apr is it.

Yes daffodil5435..........my concern is do they preempt the funding decision (basis your spoken English proficiency) even before you get to be on campus and take the TSE or SPEAK or any number of versions that we have.......... - thanks. For e.g. am just saying - if a fellow misses out on any of these tests - does he have to pull out for lack of TA funding. There aren't enough information resources available on this bit of the doctoral application process - or maybe its not that common - after all a strong PhD candidate is not supposed to lack in any of these faculties - and so this is treated as a given - implicit? - thanks for your input.

Hi rsaylors yes - no I mean if you are admitted you are funded - true........I am worried about - if you are not funded you wont be admitted - which for the most part is true too :) and this 'no funding' call could be driven by my

Hi rsaylors good to hear from you.........I have gone through the web pages of the list of universities that I intend to apply to - the speaking subsection cutoff hasnt been explicitly mentioned by most of them - a couple if I recall correctly - want a 26. I was wondering whether there is an implicit criteria when it comes to making a funding decision. I acknowledge the fact that a TA could require this level of competency but I am just a bit tense in that after getting through most of the hurdles that come in your way of preparing a strong PhD application I should'nt be shunted out because of this one apparent weakness (I say apparent because I can easily hold my own in spoken english - even if the admissions panel were to give me a skype interview I would happily convince them - just that the TOEFL format of delivering a speech on a non research topic that doesnt interest you could potentially bring your score down - thanks for your views as always.

Hi I have recently taken the TOEFL - awaiting my scores - wanted to have your views on whether the universities have any cutoff for funding purposes for e.g. does a 22-24 on the speaking subsection harm your chances?........thanks for your help.

Hi Indus yes I thought so - thanks. Next week I am getting my recommendations sorted out; I am currently on my 5th draft of the SOP :) also getting my list of 15 odd management departments made out - I am interested in organisational performance (its drivers), organisational evolution and methodologically see myself working on multi level research - organisational modeling. Any thoughts on the universities that I should be aiming for would be helpful. Thanks for your help.

Hi Indus I have a query regarding the financial statement form and the bank affidavit - do I need to send these in before getting an admit (i.e. at the time of application) or once I get the confirmation on my scholarship - stipend + tuition waiver, I can arrange to have it mailed out for my i-20 (just one of those things that I need to think as well to ensure I have the requisite liquid assets in my account) - thanks for your help as always.

Hi Indus yes thanks will do that - am in the process of getting my documentation in order and have started working on my SOP.

Hi Indus yes thanks, I will start writing my sop this week - identify 3-4 broad areas, get in touch with a couple more faculty members and try to freeze my list of 15 odd unis. I am also in the meanwhile getting copies of my transcripts made out. I intend to put in my applications by 1st week of oct - any thoughts you might have on the general approach employed - kindly let me know- thanks for your help again.

Hi Indus, frayed and rsaylors I took the GMAT yesterday and got a 730 - 49q and 41v. I have also been in touch with a PhD professor in Statistics and one in Economics - will be working on an industrial research project under their aegis. You think we are on the right track here? - thanks for your help and also would be great if you can advise on the typical AWA score requirement if any - thanks again.

Yes Indus I would like to explore work in theory as well as methodology. I am thinking by terms you mean jargons but I didnt intend to make my communication to come across in that manner. I might want to structure it better though in my SOP. But that is why I am posing my queries - need to make sense of how to go about my applications :). I think I will apprise myself with some literature on macro OB/OT and arrive at a reasonably broad yet specific enough interest to crystallise this better. I was going through the UTD T100 and CMU was ranked lower, went through the research areas that their faculty typically are interested in and its more like Micro OB at the university is it. This difference between the MBA T100 & the research T100..........along with the kind of area that I am interested in is something that I should research a bit more on. I gather realising your interest and then tying it in with the university faculty's is paramount. Take the rankings as a guide - what do you suggest though which rankings - the MBA ones or the research list (because I am still trying to wrap my head around CMU being rated lower - I know though Darden doesnt even offer doctoral studies so there are a lot of caveats that I need to be aware of). This is a big decision for me and I cannot be more cautious. Thanks for your time and help.