Report of the Academic Program Review Committee (APRC) for Managerial Sciences

Review Period FY2012-2014

Approved April 20, 2015

Quality, productivity and viability of the unit

Quality of the unit: According to the outside reviewers,theDepartment of Managerial Sciences was created about ten years ago when the Robinson College of Business (RCB) merged two departments. The programmatic diversity and breadth of this department are greater than those of typical management departments in schools of business, andgood organizational cohesiveness of the unit has not been achieved. At the time of the self-study, thedepartmental faculty consisted of 37 members: 11 tenured, 7 tenure-track, and 19 non-tenure track faculty plus 3 additional senior faculty members who currently hold administrative positions outside the department. Eleven faculty members were hired recently but no information on the rank and type of position was provided. The gender and ethnic diversity of the faculty decreased between 2010 and 2012. Although the departmental faculty membersare in six distinct disciplines, recent hires and resource investments have been concentrated in only two of these areas: Strategy/Entrepreneurship and Organizational Behavior/Human Resources. All of the current PhD students, six of the seven Assistant Professors and the current senior faculty searches are in these two areas. The Herman J, Russell Sr. International Center for Entrepreneurship,which is housed in the department, and the People at Work Initiative of the RCBW.T.Beebe Institute of Personnel and Employment Relations provide research opportunities for departmental faculty.

Productivity of the unit, research:During the review period, the tenured/tenure-track faculty published an average of 0.92 articles and 0.19 books per year,which included 18 top-level journal articles. All full-time faculty published a total of 56 refereed journal articles during the review period. The outside reviewers assessed the overall research productivity of the five senior faculty during the review period as relatively low with only onefaculty member maintaining a high level of research productivity. Some senior faculty members who hadregularly published in top-level management journals have left GSU. Several of the faculty members received monetary awards or prizes during the review period but no information about external grants received by faculty was provided. However, the figure on p.17 of the self-study suggests variable amounts of funding (low of $25,000 to high of $823,671) were received each year of the review period.

Productivity of the unit, teaching:The department offers an undergraduate BBA with a major in Managerial Sciences, and faculty teachthree courses of the RCB undergraduate core curriculum (junior level), generating an average of 36,894 credit hours a year.The numbers of full time NTT faculty (13 to 19) and PTIs (19-26) are large and together they generate the majority of the credit hours. For instance, for Fall 2012, the T/TT faculty generated 13.7%;academic administrators, 23.6%;the NTT faculty, 38%; the PTIs, 17%; and the GRAs, 8% of the credit hours. The outside reviewers indicated that the NTT faculty are of good quality and very important assets to the teaching mission of the department.The department offers five MBA degree concentrations for which the enrollment was steady over the review period. However, the four MS program concentrations had low and declining enrollment. Enrollment in some elective courses in the different tracks of the undergraduate majorand also of the MS program concentrations was consistently low and because of thatthese courses were rarely taught. Learning outcomes were included in an appendix for the three junior-level core courses, but the self-study was silent on the assessment of learning outcomes.

Overall viability of the unit: The undergraduate and MS concentrations offered by the department have not kept up with evolving MBA programs and business school education in general. The viability of the department has been negatively affected by the current lack of strong leadership and also by the lack of clear strategic direction for revamping the departmental concentrations and educational programs and for achieving organizational cohesiveness.

Viability of undergraduate programs: The number of undergraduate majors increased slightly during the review period and the quality of these students as indicated by the Freshman Index was lower than that forthe college and university. The six-year undergraduate graduation rates improved from 40% to 50% during the review period. Seventy-two percent of the 2013 graduates responding to a questionnaire were employed within six months of graduation. Enrollment in elective courses, designed to allow students to pursue career tracks,was low due to students not being advised about these tracks. Due to the low enrollment, the elective courses were rarely taught. Although the department offers undergraduate internships and study abroad opportunities, these opportunities are not well publicized, and only a small number of students take advantage of them each year. One student and one team of students had research opportunities with faculty during the review period.

Viability of the master’s programs: The department offers five MBA degree concentrations. The self-study stated that enrollment was steady during the review period. However, the four MS program concentrations had low and declining enrollmentwith the greatest declines in the Operations Management and Organizational Change concentrations. Enrollment in elective courses for the different tracks of the MS program was consistently low, and these courses were rarely taught. The large decrease in the number of MBA students in the college and in the MBA elective courses offered since the 1990s has made it no longer possible to “piggy back” elective courses for the MS program concentrations onto MBA elective courses.

Viability of the PhD program: The PhD program was started in 2004 and has maintained an average enrollment of 10 students, which is considered appropriate for the number of research active faculty. Of the total of 25 admitted students, 10 did not complete the program, 6 graduated, and 9 are still in the program. Five of the six graduates have been successful in obtaining academic positions at other universities.

Viability of goals and recommendations

Goals of the unit:

  1. Restructure the MS program to increase student enrollment
  2. Redesign the BBA to insure that more than 25% of the students choose to specialize in a career concentration.
  3. Consider the feasibility of offering a minor in Managerial Sciences or department sub-disciplines.

Recommendations of the external reviewers:

  1. Develop a coherent strategic vision for the department and clearly communicate it to the faculty.
  2. Revamp the department’s Master of Science Program to narrow it to two areas with high market demand.
  3. Hire a cadre of research active senior faculty with expertise within the new narrowed strategic focus.
  4. Close the assessment and improvement loop for all degree programs.

APRC comments and recommendations:

The committee supports the recommendations of the reviewers. We offer the following comments and additional recommendations.

  1. The self-study providedlittle analysis of the department’s performance. There was no assessment of learning outcomes.
  2. The stated departmental goals and plans to implement them appear to be inadequate to address the existing challenges.
  3. A search should be initiated for a permanent chair to bring strong leadership to facilitate the departmental reorganization.
  4. The department should develop a focusedmission with degree and course offerings in the context of the new directions of RCB. For example, the department may want to consider a one-year cohort-based master of science degree.
  5. Student advisement should be strengthened to encourage students to elect courses to support career paths.

The outside reviewers suggest that the department develop a new area of concentration in business analytics and operations, but this effort may be subsumed in other organizational changes in RCB.