Doctor of Philosophy in Business Management

Purpose

South Africa is facing a pressing need for knowledge developers in the field of Business Management. Having this qualification will improve the prospects for conducting research and the development of knowledge that is relevant to regional and South African problems.

The primary purpose is to ensure that high level academic research takes place in the field of Business Management, thereby enabling individual achievement and institutional capacity building. This qualification aims to develop capable Business Management researchers who are experts and specialists in their field and who are:

(a) equipped and skilled to apply scientific methods to new problem areas.

(b) able to make a knowledge contribution to their field (via peer-validated publications and engagements at relevant forums).

Learners will be expected to

• Conceptualise and implement research initiatives and formulation in the specialised field.
• Apply methods and/or research techniques to specialised knowledge and/or theory under study.
• Produce independent research output for examination, scholarly debates and/or publications.

Rationale

The Doctor of Philosophy aims to fulfill the vision of the institution in terms of excellence in research, through systematic and rigorous processes of conducting and reporting on research. The institution is committed to serving the needs of the region and in this respect the Department of Business Management, situated in the School of Business and Enterprise at the institution, is ideally positioned to both meet the needs and address the challenges experienced by business enterprises in the Free Market system. Graduates will be equipped to conduct research in a manner that is critical, reflective and constructive, with a view to production of new knowledge and innovations that are able to be defended and applied locally and internationally in business contexts with similar challenges. Graduates from the doctoral programme are expected to have acquired extensive disciplinary knowledge and advanced research competencies that will provide expertise in their specialisations, will enrich the discipline and offer advanced and complex practical applications and solutions to problems faced by large, medium and small business enterprises.

There is strong empirical evidence that suggests that investment in higher education has paid off dramatically, especially in developing countries. Global policy makers such as the World Bank have turned around previous policy emphasis on primary and secondary education at the expense of higher education and international research has indicated that countries that tackled higher education and skills development have higher levels of human development. The need for highly specialised post-graduate expertise and knowledge in Business Management is currently not addressed locally. Professionals and academics from other institutions have realised a need for this qualification in this region within the Eastern Cape.

Establishing the wider currency of qualifications in the new global economy - while the international standards in this regard can be articulated in different ways. The following are the ways in which this qualification allows the University to achieve international standards:

• Improving the research capacity in the University (and subsequently in the country).
• Improving the quality of research undertaken (as the students undertake research at a higher level), contributing to the increased scientific knowledge production both at the institution and in South Africa.
• Aligning the institutions firmly to the scientific, technological and socio-economic challenges facing South Africa-Business Management is instrumental in bringing solutions to business and everyday problems like unemployment. This qualification, in addition, will enhance Management research of the developing and rural communities.

Affirmation of our historical role as the training ground for leaders in Africa-the qualification would equip individuals to take positions of responsibility within different domains of society, by improving the following competencies-research, project management, resource management, teamwork, and communication.

Furthermore, a number of other factors serve as motivation for the provisioning of this qualification

• Advances in Business Management and Entrepreneurship are profoundly changing the way of doing business and the use of business knowledge is increasing at all levels of the community. The fast evolution of business principles is accompanied by an unrelenting shortage of entrepreneurial skills.
• Focus on the current technologies and enhancing the analytical capabilities of our students is one of the outcomes needed for innovations in the industry and for knowledge sharing.
• The recent focus on business developmental initiatives for developing and underdeveloped countries, driven by the government, is believed to be a solution in reducing socio-economic problems. This qualification better equips individuals to be able to contribute new knowledge and innovative solutions to some of the local problems.

The National Development Plan specifically talks to the Doctoral educational landscape through two objectives (to be achieved by 2030) as indicated; Increase the percentage of PhD qualified staff in the higher education sector from the current 34% to over 75% by 2030 and produce more than 100 doctoral graduates per million per year by 2030. That implies an increase from 1420 in 2010 to well over 5 000 a year.

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)

• The RPL process is one that would be very difficult to implement for the research based doctoral qualification thus the process is not traditionally followed. None the less, each learner's situation is unique and the institution's RPL policy will allow for the evaluation of each situation on an ad hoc basis.

Entry Requirements

The admission requirements to doctoral studies are

• Submission of certified copies of academic records and research publication experience if any.
• A written research proposal within the business management domain.
• An applicant should demonstrate English language proficiency at Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) level through the language quality of the proposal submitted.
• Master's Degree in Business Management or satisfaction of the University's policy with regards to the Recognition of Prior Learning.

Rules of Combination

There are no modules in this qualification; it is purely a research based degree thus the rules of combination do not apply.

1. Display high level knowledge and expertise, of past and current theoretical perspectives relating to the field of business management, as well as contemporary methodology, applications and trends within the researchers selected business management sub-field.
2. Demonstrate awareness of academic and professional protocol and conventions in conducting their research and writing up their findings, which they must be able to present and defend to peers and scholars both nationally and internationally.

The following Associated Assessment Criteria will be assessed in an integrated manner across the Exit Level Outcomes

• Display the creation and interpretation of new knowledge through original research in the field of business management.
• Achieve an advanced level of scholarship, a level that is of a quality to satisfy peer review by business management colleagues of a national and international level.
• Presentation of original research findings/results and recommendations in a thesis that meets the theoretical and technical requirement of a scientific investigation.
• Demonstrate the ability to apply business management knowledge and theory in critically reflexive, creative and novel ways to address complex business management problems.
• Demonstrate the ability to identify, address and manage emerging ethical issues, and to advance processes of ethical decision-making, including monitoring and evaluation of the consequences of such decisions in a business management context.
• Access, process and manage information, as well as make sound judgements in the absence of all the relevant facts related to specific business management problems. These judgements should lead to significant original insights into new information or issues in the business management domain.
• Demonstrate an understanding of theoretical underpinnings in the management of complex systems to achieve systemic change (relative to their given business management sub-domain).
• Display intellectual independence and the ability to operate independently whilst managing research progression and development within the field of business management.

Integrated Assessment

• The assessment process includes supervision that entails provision of feedback on individual chapters, followed by final examination of the thesis upon its completion.
• Doctoral candidates and their supervisors are required to complete quarterly progress reports detailing progress in the research study, as per the institution postgraduate guide.