DBA Program Schedule and Courses

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Program Schedule and Courses

Designed to accommodate working business professionals, the program is delivered in a blended learning format that combines online learning with traditional classroom instruction during monthly in-residence weekends (Fridays and Saturdays).

The DBA program requires completion of 62 credit hours over a three-year period including preparation and defense of a doctoral dissertation.

Content Courses (20 credit hours)

DBUA 8211. Becoming an Applied Researcher.

Supports a student’s entry into the format and rigor of the UD DBA program by introducing them to the scholar-practitioner doctoral competencies of critical thinking and analysis, academic reading and writing, as well as, the managerial and organizational literature. Students will complete a personal assessment and development plan to identify strategies for success. The course will acquaint the students with the blended learning format that integrates both online and on-ground content delivery methods utilized throughout the DBA program.

DMGT 8315. Strategic Perspectives.

Survey of strategic management topics that are relevant to managers. The primary objectives are for students to be able to assimilate and synthesize existing knowledge from the field of strategic management in meaningful ways. Intended to equip students to derive and apply tactical solutions to strategic issues that face both large and small organizations today.

DMGT 8325. Organizational Behavior & Human Resource Management

Attracting and retaining a talented workforce is a strategic imperative. Doing so requires organizations to create an overall context through a set of organizational practices referred to as the HR Value Chain. This organizational context must be supplemented at the individual and group level with a variety of leadership and motivational processes that foster commitment, satisfaction and engagement.

DMGT 8335. Leadership and Followership.

Views leadership as both a personal and an interpersonal process. In-depth self-assessment and reflection used to develop the self-awareness necessary for effective leadership in complex environments. Ethical implications of emerging approaches to leadership and followership examined.

DMGT 8355. Organization Development and Change.

This course examines organizational effectiveness from a senior leadership perspective. Attention is devoted to understanding the various leverage points that allow leaders to create high-performing organizations that are capable of quickly adapting to the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environments in which they operate. Attention is also paid to the processes and dynamics of implementing successful change via the formal organization development process. Enrollment restricted to DBA students only.

DMKT 8360. Applied Marketing Research.

This course examines the marketing research process as it applies to marketing concepts such as consumer behavior, segmentation, branding, customer service, pricing, distribution, integrated marketing communication and sales. Steps in the marketing research process such as survey design, data collection, data analysis and reporting will be covered in detail.

Research Methods Courses (18 credit hours)

DBUA 8305. The Craft of Research and Writing.

This class teaches students how to write clearly and effectively both in their academic research and in their professional lives. It sets forth the principles of writing from a reader’s point of view, beginning on the sentence level and proceeding to the level of the document. By learning concepts such as “nominalization,” “information flow,” “point,” “argument,” “warrant,” and “problem,” students learn not only how to navigate the academic writing that they read, but how to lead their own readers when they write. The course will also cover the importance of setting up a valuable problem, and how to explain its rationale with a cogent and well-supported argument.

DBUA 8320. Designing Applied Research.

Designed to equip managers to be critical users of information by learning about the variety of research strategies, designs, and operations. Designed to build a core set of skills by examining the full range of methodological choices, constraints, and compromises that occur in the applied research process.

DBUA 8330. Qualitative Methods for Diagnosis and Assessment.

Focuses on the use of qualitative methods for discovering, observing, and analyzing a variety of organizational phenomenon. Topics include case method, grounded theory, action research, phenomenology, ethnography, and comparative-historical inquiry.

DBUA 8340. Applied Statistical Analysis I.

Designed to build a toolkit of analytic techniques for development, measurement, and analysis of data. Topics include descriptive statistics, correlation, exploratory factor analysis, and regression analysis.

DBUA 8350. Applied Statistical Analysis II.

Designed to expand the toolkit of analytic techniques for development, measurement, and analysis of data, with a focus on multivariate analysis techniques. Topics include multiple regression analysis, multivariate analysis of variance, conjoint analysis, cluster analysis, and structural equation modeling (SEM) among others. In addition, this course provides the opportunity to advance students' knowledge and application of appropriate analysis methods for their dissertation research.

DBUA 8370. Practicum Dissertation Mini-Proposal. (Independent Study)

Doctoral students take the first step in the dissertation process by selecting an applied research topic and writing a mini-proposal to include a review of relevant literature, research questions, hypotheses, and methodology to conduct the research.

Doctoral Colloquia (6 credit hours)

The colloquium is designed to facilitate the development and enhancement of professional working relationships between students and their major professor. As such, the colloquium sequence will assure that the DBA students are making adequate progress toward developing an independent applied research study for the required dissertation. The colloquium provides supplemental instruction in research, teaching, writing, presentation and career transition strategies. The doctoral colloquia will also include professional development workshops and assist the students in developing career transition strategies.

DBUA 8102. Doctoral Colloquium I.

DBUA 8103. Doctoral Colloquium II.

DBUA 8104. Doctoral Colloquium III.

DBUA 8105. Doctoral Colloquium IV.

DBUA 8106. Doctoral Colloquium V.

DBUA 8107 Doctoral Colloquium VI.

Doctoral Dissertation (18 credit hours)

The DBA Dissertation I, II, III, and IV are the culminating experience in the program. Individual students demonstrate their ability to design and execute an applied research study. The DBA Dissertation courses are taken in three successive trimesters after all other course work has been completed. Enrollment in DBUA 8699 Doctoral Readings may be required if the applied research project is not completed by the end of the third dissertation trimester. A grade of T is assigned and remains until after the defense of the dissertation. Doctoral Readings are required each term until the final defense of the dissertation is complete.

DBUA 9394. Dissertation I. (3 credits)

DBUA 9395. Dissertation II. (3 credits)

DBUA 9696. Dissertation III. (6 credits)

DBUA 9697. Dissertation IV. (6 credits)

It is possible that some students will not complete the dissertation within three years, and those students will be required to take 6 hours of doctoral readings each semester until the program is completed by the successful defense of the doctoral dissertation.

University of Dallas, SB Hall

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