PhD Philosophy
Currently I am supervising three full-time students at The Open University, four more at Coventry University and I hope to be taking on more at Coventry University soon; two colleagues are currently in the process of drawing up proposals and I have one studentship I'm currently recruiting for. All of my current students are studying in the area of organisational fit. Future ones will either be in this area or the use of film in management education. I'm afraid that I cannot take on students outside of these areas as the workload would be too great and I wouldn’t be able to give the level of support that I have in the past.
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There are some tremendous advantages in having clusters of students doing PhDs in closely related areas. It seems to build enthusiasm and motivation, provides support, and helps to keep everyone at the cutting edge of the subject. And it forces me to get my act together and organise visiting speakers, reading groups, seminars and conferences!
A consequence of my approach is that I only accept students on to pre-defined research questions. These are usually broad topic areas (e.g. looking at fit and creativity or fit and organisational performance) and the students have to hone the question, develop hypotheses or propositions and work out their method. But knowing the main question allows students to get a head start and they have the confidence of knowing that their subject is PhDable. I must admit to frustration watching people aimlessly reading for a year and a half trying to discover a research question. There are a few people for whom this is a good approach as it provides a rich grounding, but for many it is a waste of time and effort and, worse still, provides an indulgent aura over the process of completing a PhD. I am more than happy to work with people through this research question defining process, and I find it is a useful mechanism to determine (for both parties) whether a PhD route is the way to go, but the outcome must be the potential student's own 3000 word essay reviewing relevant literature and explaining why the research question is important.
I am happy taking people on to positivist or constructionist studies and to use quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods. All my students to date have worked on empirical studies, but I am happy to consider theoretical and conceptual projects as well. I would be reluctant to take on people who want to do research methods PhDs (i.e. those studies that focus on developing new methods of measuring fit) simply because I am not an expert in this area.
Finally, I should say something on the benefits of doing a PhD as this conveys information on the sort of things people learn from working with me. I see the PhD as essential training for an academic career. It teaches you the depth of understanding you need in order to write in a literature. It teaches you how to develop a research question. It develops your logical reasoning. You learn how to choose appropriate data gathering techniques, how to analyse data and how to draw appropriate conclusions. You may find something interesting or profound or useful, but this is a bonus. The key thing is to develop as a researcher and as an academic. For this reason, I see it as crucial that you review for conferences and journals, prepare and present conference papers and write journal papers during your studentship.
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Finding Out More
At the moment, I am taking on students for eiither a part-time or a full-time Ph.D. at Coventry University.
If you want to find out more, please feel free to contact me on +44 (0) 2476 888412 to discuss the opportunities, or email me at j.billsberry@coventry.ac.uk.
Alternatively, you can find out more about Ph.D.s at the Coventry University at http://wwwp.coventry.ac.uk/researchnet/degrees or you can email the research office at research-apps.pg@coventry.ac.uk.