Research Methods in Industrial Engineering and Management

1. Research Methods in Industrial Engineering and Management Kick-offlecture September 18th, 2018 Henri Schildt

2. Today • Introductions (You) • Discussing the pre-exam • Course practicalities • General bits and pieces about the PhD process and goals of this course

3. Round of introductions • Mention • Your name • Background (shortly) Educational / work background, why are you here, at which stage of your PhD journey are you • Dissertation topic / interest areas • Your thesis supervisor(s) • What are you looking to learn from the course? • Open questions related to doing PhD research? • We will unpack one table at a time: Did you find something that unites you as a group?

4. Pre-examdiscussion

5. How did you find the book?

6. General feedback on writing Mostly good writing in technical terms • Grammar & spelling You should always plan ahead the structure of your writing (the narrative arch, red line, plot) Make your key points pop out by leading paragraphs with the key issue CITE WORKS PROPERLY AND COMPOSE PROPER REFERENCE LISTS!

7. Question #1 How do you think the basic disciplines (economics, psychology, social psychology and sociology) have influenced the management theories covered in your readings? Can you identify different styles of thinking based on disciplinary differences?

8. Question #2 Can you identify a connection between different styles of theorizing or theories and the methods used by the authors? In particular, to what extent are theories tied to the use of qualitative and quantitative methods?

9. Question #3 2 (Bandura) 6 (Hambrick) 11 (Staw) 13 (Argyris) 17 (Mintzberg) 19 (Weick) 20 (Freeman) 22 (Scott) 23 (Williamson) 24 (Winter) For each of the ten authors, list briefly: • a) what you thought was the single most interesting insight • b) think of a phenomenon to which the ideas could be extended, either theoretically or in practical application

10. Course practicalities

11. Course instructors Professor Henri Schildt (Strategy) • Dept. of Management Studies as Aalto BIZ and DIEM at Aalto SCI (Strategy & Venturing) • Email: henri.schildt@aalto.fi Course assistant Joosef Valli (gradingonly) • Email: joosef.valli@aalto.fi

12. Goals Introduction to academic research and PhD program • Why? You will know what is expected from you Understanding kinds of theoretical contributions • Why? So that you can start your thesis work right Knowledge about the academic profession • Because we try to turn you into an academic and because it is important for navigating the PhD process Draw attention to the basic research skills and issues, in particular research design

13. Course philosophy and guiding values • The course is built around a pragmatist conception of learning: the best way to learn is through finding your own answers to though questions • We hope to induce an atmosphere of encouragement and learning into this class and your PhD journey Aalto’s Values Passion for exploration Freedom to be creative and critical Courage to influence and excel Responsibility to accept, care and inspire Integrity, openness and equality

14. RMIEM1: Pre-exam, Lectures and Essay • Expert lectures by representatives of various disciplines within the DIEM community, and some additional guests • You will also get an introduction to different disciplines and traditions of doing research • Carefully preparing for the lectures is essential • Readings and questions from the lecture assignments provide a basis for discussions so you are expected to know the material well • Lecturers can provide additional insights or help in understanding unclear issues in the material

15. Lecture assignments The lecture assignments consist of pre-assigned readings and questions (~6 pre-assignments in total) The readings and questions will be available in MyCourses roughly two weeks in advance. All the weekly assignments are compulsory.  Submit lecture pre-assignments to MyCourses at latest by Sunday 9pm before the lecture.

16. Our sessions

17. The final essay • The essay instructions will be published later in the fall • The purpose of the essay is to synthesize the key issues that you need to decide on in your PhD dissertation and start thinking about them in relation to your own topic and goals • Show how you can apply what you have learned during the course in your own research. • Deadline December 21st at 9pm

18. Other practical issues • If you have any problems with course deadlines etc., contact me in advance and we will figure it out • Please if you are not able to meet the deadlines, consider taking the course next year! • Three absences are permitted without extra activities. • Hopefully nobody will be away more than 3 sessions as participation constitutes the main form of learning • Alsoifyouhaveany feedback, feelfree to tell me – I am alwaysdeveloping the course!

19. RMIM1 is important … but just the start Pleasenotethatthereareexcellentcourses for PhDstudentseverywhere: • DIEM / Aalto Sci • Aalto BIZ • University of Helsinki • National and nordicPhDnetworks (KATAJA, NordIB) • PhD summer schoolsaround Europe

20. PhD as a journey

21. Why are you here?

22. You will feel lost…

23. …and you cannot always count on your PhD supervisor.

24. Different from all other studies before Independent: Nobody can tell you exactly what to do • You have to even figure out your own learning goals! Frustrating: Sometimes you will end up pursuing a dead-end • “Kill you darlings” – you need to learn to let go things you’ve spent weeks or months reading and writing about Intrinsic motivation: topic should be really meaningful • Anyone can complete a M.Sc. thesis on a stupid topic with mere perseverance or spend time on stupid (but necessary) projects at work -- PhD is different Entrepreneurial: You will need to actively pull diverse people into the orbit of the thesis and you need to learn to manage your ambition level yourself

25. Don’t get it right, get it written. James Thurber Outlines can help, but not if you begin with them. If you begin, instead, by writing down everything, by spewing out your ideas as fast as you can type, you will discover … the fragments you have to work with. Howard Becker => supervisors will be frustrated if you do not have anything written after 2-3 discussions !

26. It’s easy to self-sabotage… • Overcommitting • Busyness • Perfectionism • Procrastination • Disorganization • Do not put in effort • Choose performance-debilitating circumstances (Kearns et al. 2008)

27. Findingyourownscholarlycommunity and audience • We SHOULD NOT workalone. Become a part of (yourchosen) largerscientificcommunity • PhDthesisarewritten for a specificacademicaudience. Findyouraudience! • PhDthesisarenotevaluated in terms of theirpracticalimplications • A theoreticalstory is needed • Work on yourskills of abstraction (makeitmoregeneric) • Connect to priorwork!

28. Tackle your task with a piece at a time • Split up the work to doable parts: • Articles • Sections • Tasks to be done • Sometimes it is worth letting problems lay for a while • But do not fall victim to perpetually avoiding your central bottleneck (typically your theory section or empirical analysis)

29. Welcome to Aalto & PhD studiesHave fun!

30. WELCOME TO THE COURSE & THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION !