org theory phd program question
Nicholas Poggioli has a question about which orgtheory program he should attend:
I’m especially interested in hearing which programs might be best suited to my own research interest, how organizations “digest” novel information. I would like to focus my doctoral studies on how managers of organizations decide whether and how to respond to climate change, a category of information that is constantly shifting in meaning and public opinion. Lessons learned from this could be more widely applied, I think, to how organizations respond–or don’t–to new kinds of information. Any help on this question would be greatly appreciated.
Any thoughts?
Adverts: From Black Power/Grad Skool Rulz
orgtheory.net 
Man… reading that makes me wish Jim March wasn’t emeritus… Then it’d be easy.
But seriously, I think there’s a real question of psychological versus sociological approaches to studying decision-making. The organizational learning folks (e.g., Levinthal, Greve) are quite different than the psychological folks (who I don’t really know). Specifically, the way organizations store and process information is a pretty different level of analysis than how individual managers interpret novel information. Also, I imagine there might be significant methodological implications as well (labs versus other qual/quant methods). So this isn’t especially helpful, but I’d say that Nicholas needs to be a bit clearer on that (or look for programs that do both levels well).
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jacobmodel
October 21, 2012 at 6:04 am
Andrew Hoffman at Michigan Ross. Their MO group is superb at both macro and micro.
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Pete A
October 21, 2012 at 4:24 pm
Cornell! We have lots of organizations folks across the ILR School, the Johnson School, and the Sociology department as well as strong environment/sustainability folks on campus. The program requirements for a phd are slightly different depending where you apply, but once you are a student the entire campus community is available to you.
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Diane Burton
October 21, 2012 at 6:32 pm
Nick here. Fabio, thanks so much for posting the question, and commenters thank you for the suggestions! Diane, I am excited about Cornell and am working on my application. Pete I will look at Andrew Hoffman’s work and more closely at Michigan’s program. jacobmodel, the disciplinary split has complicated things a bit and is nudging me to programs with explicit “interdisciplinary pride”. Another reason why Cornell appeals to me. Thanks again all!
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Nick
October 24, 2012 at 4:14 pm
Avoid Johnson. ILR, and soc are way more friendly and productive.
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nn
January 15, 2013 at 11:20 am