Academic Guidelines of the Business Science Institute

Page last updated on 08/06/2023

Paul Beaulieu, Professor ESG-UQAM. Member of the the Business Science Institute Academic Committee.

This text aims to clarify the academic orientations of the doctoral training provided by Business Science Institute. It includes comments and suggestions made by a number of members of the Business Science Institute faculty.

Preliminary remarks

Business Science Institute’s academic activities mirror the current approach to management education projects, which is based on the international and multi-institutional participation of a network of outstanding faculty and on a training programme designed specifically for management practitioners who are particularly concerned with critical and imaginative thinking on their own management situations and professional experiences.

Business Science Institute considers the field of management from a global perspective, while taking into full account the specific contexts of individual management and business practice. Business Science Institute focuses on supporting the development of managerial practice through the advanced training of doctoral practitioners in a broad range of business and management areas.

The work we do at Business Science Institute is concerned with the fundamental logics underlying managerial practices and the importance of nurturing the dynamics involved in developing individual and organisational knowledge creation capabilities.

1. Strategic positioning of Business Science Institute

The training of Doctors of Management Practice :
Business Science Institute aims to satisfy a demand not currently met by existing academic institutions by training original Doctors of Management Practice. Eventually, Business Science Institute will be the central hub for the running of an international community of peers dedicated to the advancement of knowledge in management practice.

The function of these Doctors of Management Practice within their organisations and in Society is to carry out, in synergy with professional and scientific communities, the following mandates:

  • To produce new valid knowledge ‘from and for’ practice
  • To build a body of knowledge on management practices
  • To communicate and transfer management knowledge and practice within peer communities based on scientific debate
  • To train participants to become Doctors of Management Practice
  • To participate directly or indirectly in the questioning of management knowledge and in the creation of research questions raised by management practices.

 

A perspective focused on achievement
Doctors of Management Practice are primarily concerned with the eco-systemic intelligence processes of strategy, implementation and efficiency in the action of organisations and managers. This is the reason for the Executive designation in their title: Executive Doctorate in Business Administration.

 

A specific field of knowledge for practice
The fields of management practice and knowledge created in practice situations are subject to specific epistemologies as well as rules and approaches to the production and validation of knowledge and know-how that are appropriate to them.

The level of development of knowledge systems and communities in managerial practice has reached a state and a dynamic that requires the presence of managers capable of producing and communicating scientifically valid knowledge.

 

A high-level faculty
The Scientific Advisory Board of the Business Science Institute includes professors and PhDs in management sciences from prestigious universities and business schools with experience in leading research and numerous publications.

 

A state-of-the-art technological infrastructure
The Business Science Institute’s current telecommunication and distance learning facilities provide impressive leverage for the training of these new PhD students. Indeed, the Business Science Institute has equipped itself with a state-of-the-art technological infrastructure to support its training and knowledge dissemination activities on a global scale and aspires to become a global platform for the training of Executive Doctorates in Business Administration.

The competencies to be developed in candidates for the title of Doctor of Management Practice fall within the following five areas:

The pragmatics of action
The detailed knowledge of the processes and dynamics of the effectiveness of collective action and the ability to conceive their evolution give candidates a distinctive competence.

This orientation towards action and implementation in practice is based on the mastery of a holistic, integrative and eco-systemic perspective and gives particular attention to the knowledge of the dynamics of change. The thesis topics therefore have a managerial interest in the organisations to which they belong, while aiming to propose generic knowledge of action that can be mobilised in similar management situations.

Judgement and critical thinking
The knowledge and practice of critical analysis of managerial and organisational realities ensures a high-level quality of In Situ judgements and decision-making.

The mastery of a praxis of individual and collective self-reflection in order to broaden awareness of the multiple facets of real-world realities in the face of complex contexts and for the holistic intelligence of management situations characterise the training.

A practice of knowledge scientifically anchored in the evidence of experience (evidences)
The following are developed in the course

Mastery of the processes of producing scientific knowledge and management practice based on evidence from real experiences (evidence-based management).
The knowledge and improvement of rules, processes and practices of efficiency control in the realisation and concretisation of development projects.
In situ knowledge management
The management of the production, dissemination and transfer of knowledge in practice settings as well as the processes of collective knowledge building, collective engagement and action research partnerships or intervention in complex situations are developed in the curriculum.

Responsibilities of management practice
On the basis of a critical praxis and the mastery of management accountability practices, doctoral students are led to reflect on the ethics of production, service and consumption practices, and more generally on the multiple aspects and effects of organised activities.

Through their training in these different fields of management, PhDs in Management Practice will be able to contribute actively to the elaboration and dissemination of a practical and reasoned wisdom of management.

3. Une perspective de formation in situ

Les Docteurs de Pratique en Management produisent in situ de la connaissance valide dans le cadre des processus de la gestion des organisations et des entreprises. Cette connaissance est générée selon des règles de validité qui en assurent le caractère scientifique et qui garantissent tant sa pertinence et sa rigueur que son ancrage dans les réalités de la pratique.

L’essentiel de leur parcours de formation garde son immersion dans les situations de pratique où ils sont impliqués. L’approche d’apprentissage mise en œuvre par Business Science Institute implique une contextualisation constante des connaissances et des méthodes ainsi qu’une mise en relation directe de celles-ci avec l’expérience courante des apprenants. Elle les invite aussi à rechercher une certaine transférabilité des savoirs génériques ainsi produits.

4. Une approche d’apprentissage centrée sur la pragmatique

L’approche par l’apprentissage et le développement des capacités des Docteurs de Pratique en Management reposent sur la mise en œuvre des principes et des activités-types suivantes :

  • L’ancrage dans les situations de la pratique du management et de l’action,
  • L’apprenant est le premier responsable de la mise en œuvre de ses apprentissages et de sa démarche scientifique. Les membres du corps professoral interviennent dans son parcours afin de stimuler, de soutenir, de questionner, de suggérer des sources de savoir ou des méthodes pertinentes et rétroagir sur la base de son plan d’apprentissage,
  • Le développement d’une rigueur méthodologique mettant en valeur la recherche des évidences in situ et de la communication au sein de la communauté des pairs sur la base de la démonstration et de l’argumentation scientifique
  • La réalisation de séminaires intensifs de réflexion critique sur l’état des connaissances, des pratiques managériales ainsi que sur l’épistémologie et les méthodologies de la connaissance scientifique et in situ,
  • La mise en réseau d’échanges, de collaborations et de discussions des communautés de doctorants, de professeurs, de managers émérites et de diplômés de l’Executive Doctorate in Business Administration (les Fellows du Business Science Institute)
  • La réalisation d’un projet de recherche-action ancrée dans un contexte de pratique et conduisant à sa soutenance au sein de la communauté de connaissance de Business Science Institute,
  • Une pratique de tutorat intensif pour le développement des capacités et des compétences de réflexion critique et pour l’accompagnement des projets d’apprentissage,
  • L’exposition des doctorants au sein de nombreuses situations et activités collectives où sont mises à l’épreuve leurs capacités à communiquer, argumenter et débattre des connaissances acquises et des thèses avancées.

5. Orientation de la recherche et réseau mondial

En tant qu’institution de formation et de recherche, Business Science Institute concentre ses efforts de recherche sur l’épistémologie du management, ainsi que sur les pratiques de développement, de validation et de transfert des connaissances au sein du champ de la pratique organisationnelle.

Business Science Institute constitue un réseau international qui regroupe des communautés qui interagissent sur une base structurée dans le but d’échanger, de débattre et de faciliter le développement des compétences ainsi que le transfert des connaissances : la communauté de docteurs de pratique (les Fellows du Business Science Institute) ; le conseil scientifique du Business Science Institute ; la communauté des gestionnaires émérites associés au Business Science Institute et la communauté des entreprises ainsi que les milieux professionnels associés.