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The University of South Carolina

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Human Resources & Organizational Behavior

The Ph.D. program in Human Resources & Organizational Behavior at The Darla Moore School of Business is designed to produce scholars who wish to conduct high-level theoretical and empirical research and teach at major research institutions.  The program stresses close contact between a small group of doctoral students and a distinguished faculty. The program of study consists of small seminar classes, individual faculty attention and research mentoring relationships wherein doctoral students work closely with faculty members engaged in leading-edge research.  

The OB/HR area will be admitting students for the 2014-2015 academic year.

Please contact Bruce Meglino at 803-777-5970 or meglino@moore.sc.edu for more information about the Management Ph.D. program.

Human Resources & Organizational Behavior Program Description

Program Prerequisites: A student should have completed undergraduate or graduate course work in each of the following areas with a minimum of grade of “B”.  These prerequisites can be satisfied during a student's tenure in the doctoral program by completing courses shown below. 

  • Financial Accounting or Managerial Accounting (ACCT 225 or 226)
  • Two of the following:  Finance (FINA 363 or 760), Marketing (MKTG 350 or 701) or Management (MGMT 371 or 770)
  • Introductory Economics (ECON 224)
  • Statistics (MGSC 291 or 692) 

Course Requirements

The student, in consultation with a Ph.D. advisory committee, develops a program of study giving consideration to his or her academic background and professional objectives. The program of study must meet the general requirements of the Moore School as outlined below.

Major Area (15 hours): In addition to the research-tools course work specified above, each student must complete at least 15 semester hours of course work in organizational behavior/human resources and related disciplines (e.g., psychology, sociology) approved by the Ph.D. advisory committee. The following is a partial list of courses that students may take to fulfill this requirement:

MGMT 821 -- Doctoral Seminar in the Behavioral Sciences I. (3) Study of major theoretical and methodological issues in organizational behavior with emphasis on developing conceptual models and implementing research designs.

MGMT 822 -- Doctoral Seminar in the Behavioral Sciences II. (3) Exploration of current specialized topics in organizational behavior with emphasis on synthesizing research, developing conceptual models and implementing research designs.

MGMT 823 -- Current Issues in Organizational Behavior. (3) (Prerequisite: MGMT 821 or 822) An advanced seminar focusing on reading, synthesis and critical evaluation of current research in organizational behavior.

MGMT 824 -- Doctoral Seminar in Human Resource Management. (3) Theories and research in human resource management.

BADM 880 -- Readings and Research. (3) Independent Study.

PSYC 770 -- Survey of Social Psychology. (3) (Prerequisite: 18 hours in psychology) Issues, research and theories in social psychology.

PSYC 843 -- Seminar in Social Psychology. (3) (Prerequisite: PSYC 770) Theoretical and empirical issues in an area current interest in social psychology. May be repeated with different topics.

PSYC 706 -- Seminar in Judgment and Decision Making. (3) Research and theories of processes in judgment, choice and decision making.

Cognate Area (9 hours): Students must take nine semester hours of cognate course work. The cognate area may include courses from academic areas within or outside of the Moore School of Business.  All courses must be approved by the student's advisory committee and the associate dean for academic affairs. The most popular cognate areas for students in management have been:

International Business

Human Resources

Social Psychology

Research Tools (18 hours): The School of Business requires that all doctoral students complete at least 18 semester hours of research-tools course work as specified by the major area of concentration. The specific course work required will include no more than 6 semester hours of research-tools course work from the major area of concentration and must be approved by the student's Ph.D. advisory committee, program director, and associate dean for academic affairs. The following is a partial list of courses that students take to fulfill this requirement:

PSYC 709 -- Basic Quantitative Methods in the Analysis of Behavioral Data I. (3) (Prerequisite: An introductory course in statistics in psychology or mathematics) Quantitative methods for graduate students in psychology and other behavioral sciences.  Emphasizes logical/intuitive understanding of the basic techniques and focuses heavily on the application of these methods to psychological research. Three lecture/discussion hours and a one-hour scheduled lab per week.

PSYC 710 -- Basic Quantitative Methods in the Analysis of Behavioral Data II. (3) (Prerequisite: PSYC 709) A continuation of PSYC 709. Three lecture/discussion hours and a one-hour scheduled lab per week.

PSYC 772 -- Research Approaches to Human Behavior. (3) (Prerequisite: PSYC 709) Non-quantitative aspects of research methodology and experimental design in laboratory and field settings. A critical investigation of artifacts and ethical issues in behavioral research.

PSYC 821 -- Theory of Psychological Measurement. (3) (Prerequisite: PSYC 225 or the equivalent) A survey of psychological scaling and factor theory, together with special techniques for achieving reliability and validity, including item analysis.

MGMT 872 -- Seminar in Management Research Methodology. (3) (Prerequisite: MGSC 792) Research methods and techniques for translation of management theory and practical problems into testable propositions.

MKTG 850 -- Research Methods and Philosophies in Marketing. (3) Doctoral seminar covering research methods and philosophies that underpin knowledge generation in marketing.

MKTG 853 -- Analytic Techniques for Marketing Decision Making. (3) Doctoral seminar investigating contemporary analytic techniques for testing marketing theories.

MKTG 854 -- Latent Variable Estimation Techniques. (3) Doctoral seminar examining covariance structure methods for developing measures of unobservable constructs and testing structural models.

MGSC 792 -- Advanced Statistics for Business and Economics. (= ECON792) (3) (Prerequisite: MGSC 692) The development and application of advanced statistical methods to problems in business and economics. Topics include application of estimation and hypothesis testing in both univariate and multivariate cases.

MGSC 692 – Quantitative Methods I. (3) The development and application of advanced statistical methods to problems in business and economics. Topics include application of estimation and hypothesis testing in both univariate and multivariate cases.

MGSC 892 -- Experimental Research Methods. (=ECON 892) (3) (Prerequisite: MGSC 692) The structure and analysis of experimental and research designs with applications to business and economic problems.

STAT 700—Applied Statistics I. (3) Introduction to probability and the concepts of estimation and hypothesis testing for use in experimental, social, and professional sciences. One- and two-sample analyses, nonparametric tests, contingency tables, sample surveys, simple linear regression, various statistical packages including SAS. Not to be used for M.S. or Ph.D. credit in statistics or mathematics.

STAT 701—Applied Statistics II. (3) (Prerequisite: STAT 700 or consent of department) Continuation of STAT 700. Simple linear regression, correlation, multiple regression, fixed and random effects analysis of variance, analysis of covariance, some multivariate methods, various statistical packages including SAS. Not to be used for M.S. or Ph.D. credit in statistics or mathematics.

EDRM 718 -- Research and the Statistical Packages. (1-3) (Prerequisite: EDRM 710 and EDRM 711) Advanced use of available statistical packages in educational research. Content varies; topics and credit announced in advance.

SOCY 751 -- Topics in the Analysis of Social Networks. (3) Selected topics in the theory, measurement and analysis of social networks.

 
Dissertation Preparation (12 hours):  A minimum of twelve hours of dissertation preparation are required.

Additional Graduate Course Work: The Graduate School of the University requires that a student have a minimum of 60 hours of graduate course work beyond an undergraduate degree before he or she can be awarded a Ph.D.  Therefore, students without a master’s degree may be required to take additional graduate course work beyond that specified above.

Further Requirements

Research and Teaching: Prior to receiving the Ph.D. degree, the student must teach and participate in research under the direction of a faculty member of the Moore School.

Language Requirement: The candidate must demonstrate competency in a computer programming language or statistics as demonstrated by appropriate course work or examination by the student's Ph.D. advisory committee.

Dissertation: Each candidate must present a dissertation that gives evidence of original and significant research. The dissertation must be completed no later than five years after successful completion of the comprehensive examination. The candidate must defend the dissertation before a committee consisting of no fewer than four members, as prescribed by the Graduate School.

 

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