PhD in Leadership and Change Dissertations
As part of the doctoral program for the Ph.D. in Leadership and Change, the student must complete a dissertation demonstrating his/her ability to conduct scholarly research. A dissertation begins with a well-designed question or issue meriting investigation. The issue should emerge from and carry forward an existing body of theory and knowledge. The dissertation should demonstrate scholarship, creativity and originality and have implications for a particular issue in the field of leadership and organizational change in the professions.
We strongly encourage students to begin thinking about their dissertation area, even if the specific issue is not clearly defined, early in their program. Since individualized learning agreements are really building blocks for the dissertation, students will benefit most if they can identify the overall area of interest around which they have passion and which merit investigation, and then work backward to design the individualized competency learning strategies and demonstrations.
In the Ph.D. in Leadership and Change Program, students have a wide range of dissertation possibilities, from case studies, to descriptive studies, to empirical, qualitative and quantitative studies, as well as hybrids of these and other approaches. During years 2 and 3 in the program, the student will be exposed to a variety of methodologies and research paradigms, and as the student closes in on his/her dissertation topic, the ‘genre’ advantages/disadvantages and fit with different types of research questions and issues will become clearer.
