It has been awhile...

Well before starting a blog, I promised myself that I would not become a blogger that did not update somewhat frequently, well I have failed... Although my intentions were good, I have not been writing very much. So I will try to get everyone up to speed on what I have been doing. No worries, this will not take very long, since a lot of it relates to school work and that is not very fun to read. First and foremost, I moved!!!!

I am now a member of Savannah and loving every minute of it. It is a great neighborhood. It has almost 5,000 residents, along with a dog park, multiple parks, swimming pools, and full gym. It is almost like living in a resort, but I am lucky enough to live here everyday! So that has been great! My mom was kind enough to come help me with my move and I was all moved in and unpacked within a week...

I then took a stay-cation for a week where I just rested and watch a ton of movies, TV shows, and got to reconnect with some old friends. During this time I did become addicted to The Tudors and Dexter... And if you are reading this now and have some opinion on either please know I have only made it through the first two seasons of The Tudors and the first three seasons of Dexter... No spoilers please!

After that I began teaching Summer I, which is a five week course that met twice a week for 4 hours. To say that was tough is an understatement. All of the students had 8-5 jobs and then came to class from 6-10 p.m. It just made for a long day. Plus being newer to teaching, I did not think to eliminate projects, so I had to grade everything super fast and get feedback to the students quickly, while I was doing this I was beginning preparation for my Comprehensive

exams, so this meant that I needed to meet with every professor in each of my topic areas (Organizational Behavior, Organization Theory, and Human Resource Management) to get any insights on how to study or what to study. Below are pictures of my office, or what I now know as the most popular room in my house!!!

At the beginning of the summer I began outlining all my articles from each of my Seminars, each seminar's outline is about 80 or so pages... I know that it seems like a lot, but really, each seminar had between 6-8 articles a week * approximately 30 pages per article * 10 weeks, that is a lot of information. So it took some time to get everything into a manageable state. Which leads me to what I am doing now...

Comps!!!!!

I know, I know, right about now you are jealous! I now am just studying for my comprehensive exams. So what this entails is being able to know all the main authors in the three subject fields, along with breadth and depth of each topic, and finally having my own novel ideas of how to integrate different components within a subject area. So essentially, questions are comprised of of three parts normally, a historical overview of the field, then a linkage of two concepts, and finally knowing and seeing patterns for future areas of research. Although this is a very daunting task, as one professor put it, if you pass your comprehensive exams, it is essentially saying that you have the knowledge based to be a Ph.D., and since that is only 1% of the population I feel like you have to work for it. But after I finish my comprehensive exams I will be officially finished with the course work and just be ABD (All but dissertation). So it is worth all the hard work and effort.

So this is how comprehensive exams go:

First, you have to turn in a pre-comp paper or research experience. I am working on my paper now and it will be reviewed by the graduate committee and if it is good then I will be allowed to take my comprehensive exams.

Then tentatively on September 17th, because the schedule is not quite set, I will sit in a room for 9 hours and be given 4 questions in my main topic area (OB) and I answer 2, then 2 questions I answer 1 in each of the other areas. After I have completed that I will be given a one week take home exam which I will turn in the following Friday.

Then I have 3-4 weeks of freedom ( it is relative, since I will still be teaching) while 3-4 graders grade each of my answers. I am sure I will be a nervous wreck, but that is how it goes. Then if I pass I will be on to my dissertation. The great thing about the research experience paper I am working on now, is that it will hopefully morph into my dissertation. So that is what I have been up to this summer, and the rest of the summer will just be studying and working on my paper. I am headed to Canada in a few weeks for the Academy of Management Conference. I am really excited about that! That is all for now, I better get back to studying!!!! Yikes :-)

My Academy Awards Speech.....

Well I have just submitted my students grades for the semester... So I am officially done for a few weeks! I just wanted to take a few moments to thank some people for helping me over the last two years.... Even though I wanted to quit, or I whined about reading, or I did not want to write ANOTHER paper... I made it! Here, I go.... I figure, I will not be able to actually ever give an awards speech so this is as close as I am going to get!

To my family, I would like to thank them so much for their support! Without phone calls, IM's, text messages, and knowing that someone believed in me I could not have made it this far!! Although, my whole life I was told... " To much is given, much is expected"... I finally get why I was pushed so hard.

To my Nanny and Poppy: As I am packing my things to move, last night I found the e-mail my Nanny sent me when she found out I got in the program, my Nanny and Poppy were so proud. I am so glad she got to see that I was going to get my PhD.

To Liz: We met in the sorority house, and lets just say... she has been there for me through thick and thin... She has bared witness to the ugly cry, the sobbing, and also giving me a good story or too... Just to help me get through a bad day. Please do not think they are all bad, lol... but when they were, she was always there!




To my friends: I have known all of them since high school and I know that if I ever needed anything they would be there for me! Although we are spread throughout the country right now it is always good to know they are just a phone call away!


To the Harper's: They have been great family friends and every time I come home I get to see these three adorable kids and it just makes me smile... These kids do not ask me about my work or school, so it is always fun to visit and see the world from their point of view!!!

My cohort members: These last two years would have not been the same without them! They are constantly making me laugh and even though I am out numbered and get a bit more nervous then the rest of the guys... I have loved being in class with them! They are always a positive reinforcement and also always good for a statistics joke :-) Also, the members of the marketing department and ITDS... We have all had classes together over the last two years and I could not imagine going through classes with better people!

Chanel: Although she is just a puppy, she has been there with me through three moves, two degrees and a lot of frustrated nights. She never judged, and like they say... If I become the person my dog thinks I am, then I will be a good person... I hope this is true... Because her little 20 pounds has made a huge impact on my heart, and as we speak she is dancing around wondering why it is not bed time!!!

There are so many other people I want to thank, even up to the last hours of my final FINAL, I had a friend chatting with me on facebook... Just that little distraction helped me finish it up and pull it off! Although I am not finished with the program, finishing coursework is one milestone... And I thought I should take the time to thank everyone who has helped me along the way!!!

Well last night as I was headed to bed I was feeling a little defeated... Please know, I recognize that I have done a lot over the last few weeks, but I still have quite a few more things to do by Tuesday. So I took the night off, and that is sometimes not a good idea, since a Ph.D. program is a lot of guilt... there is something you always could potentially be working on... Anyway, I was having an off night and just tired... I think I had really after 8 years, I had finally hit my limit but of course, like any good Ph.D. I checked my e-mail from my I-Phone minutes before I turned off the light and I received this e-mail...

Professor McKee,

I just wanted to write you a little note and tell you that you are a great professor. I cannot remember a time in my college career that I have had so much fun and learned so much in a class. You are a very influential teacher and your teaching style is AMAZING! The people from past semester that said that is wasn't are CRAZY! As I end my college career, I wouldn't want to end it any other way then in your class. Thank you so much for making learning fun!

Good luck on all your finals and the future!

Thank you again!

Then I realized... This is what it is all about... and I went to sleep really happy and feel as though I can make it through these last few days!!!

Thanks for all the support!

Well I just wanted to send out a big thank you to all my friends and family for their support over the last two years. I know at times I have been super stressed and exhausted at times, but I could not have done it without everyone's positive thoughts. So, I am sure you are thinking what is next... Well, I have two more papers due next week and am currently working on a take-home exam. Over the summer I will teach Leadership for 4 hours every Monday and Wednesday for Summer 1. Throughout the summer I will be working on my pre-comprehensive exam paper, which is a requirement before I can take my comprehensive exams. I will also, be studying for my comprehensive exams. I just found out due to a policy change that I will be taking my comprehensive exams, the 3rd week of school... I was thinking they would be in December. Therefore... I will be studying most of the summer. But that is okay! I think it will be good to have a closer deadline.

My big exam was last night, it took three hours... But just two questions... It was tiring, but I am amazed at how quickly those 3 hours passed... I feel as though a lot of people could not understand how I could study for over a week and not feel prepared for my exam... So I took a picture of my study materials for just my Organizational Theory class... Each of those binders are 3 inch binders that are full of journal articles... Here is the reading list I was tested from... Please know, that the two questions, could come from any of these....So that is why, I may not have answered the phone or responded to all my messages on my birthday...

Meta-theoretical Perspectives, Rational, Natural and Open systems

Scott, W. R. & Davis, G. F. ( 2007): The subject is organizations; the verb is organizing In Scott & Davis Organizations and organizing: Rational, Natural and Open system perspectives, chapter1, 1-34

Tsoukas, H. & Knudsen, C. (2005): The need for meta-theoretical reflection in Organizational Theory.

Starbuck, W. H. (2005). The origins of Organization Theory. In Tsoukas and Knudsen (Eds.)

Scott, W. R. & Davis, G. F. (2007). Organizations as rational systems

Scott, W. R. & Davis, G. F (2007). Organizations as natural systems

Scott, W. R. & Davis, G. F (2007). Organizations as open systems

History and Population Ecology

Smith, Adam (1776) Of the division of labour.

Fayol, Henri (1949) General principles of management

Weber, Max (1946) Bureaucracy.

Blau, P. M. (1970) A formal theory of differentiation in organization.

Hannan, M. T. & Freeman, J. (1977). The population ecology of organizations.

Hannan, M.T. & Freeman, J. (1984) Structural inertia and organizational change.

Carroll, Glenn R. (1984). Organizational ecology.

Baum, J. A. & Oliver, C. (1992). Institutional embeddedness and the dynamics of organizational populations.

Institutional Theory Approaches

Meyer, J., & Rowan, B. (1977) Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony.

DiMaggio, P. J., & Powell, W. W. (1983) The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational field.

DiMaggio, Paul J. and Walter W. Powell. (1991). " The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis.

Oliver, Christine (1991) Strategic responses to institutional pressures.

Ingram, P. & Clay, K. (2000) The choice-within-constraints new institutionalism and implications for sociology.

Resource Dependence, Transaction Costs

Scott, R. W. & Davis, G. F. (2007) The dyadic environments of organizations. Chapter 9

Williamson, O. E. (1979). Transaction-Cost Economics: The Governance of Contractual Relations.

Casciaro, T., & Piskorski, M. J. (2005). Power Imbalance, Mutual Dependence, and Constraint Absorption: A Closer Look at Resource Dependence theory.

Orlikowski, W. J. (1992). The Duality of Technology: Rethinking the Concept of Technology in Organizations

Moran, P. & Ghoshal, S. (1996). Theories of economic organization: The case for realism and balance.

Contingency, Configuration, Congruence

Randolph, W. A. & Dess G. G. (1984) The congruence perspective of organizational design.

Schoonhoven, C.B. (1981) Problems with contingency theory: testing assumptions hidden within the language of contingency "theory".

Venkatraman, N. (1989) The concept of fit in strategy research: toward verbal and statistical correspondence.

Dotty and Glick (1994) Typlogies as a unique form of theory building: toward improved understanding and modeling.

Doty, Glick, and Huber (1993) Fit, equifinality, and organizational effectiveness: a test of two configurational theories.

Meyer, Tsui, and Hinings (1993) Introduction: configurational approaches to organizational analysis.

Systems theory, Complexity theory

von Bertalanffy, L. (1950) An Outline of General System Theory.

Ericson, R. F. (1972) Visions of Cybernetic Organizations

Anderson, P. (1999). Complexity Theory and Organization Science.

Boisot, M. & Child, J. (1999). Organizations as Adaptive Systems in Complex Environments: The Case of China. Organization Science

McKinley, W. (1993). Organizational Decline and Adaptation: Theoretical Controversies

Thietart, R. A., & Forgues, B. (1995). Chaos theory and organization.

Organizational Networks, Relationships, Sense making

Salancik, G. R. (1995) Review: WANTED: A Good Network Theory of Organization

Granovetter, M. (1983). The Strength of Weak Ties: A Network Theory Revisited

Ring, P.S. & Van de Ven, A.H. (1994) Developmental process of cooperative interorganization relations.

Levine, S. and White, P.E. (1961) Exchange as a conceptual framework for the study of interorganizational relations.

Weick, K., Sutcliffe, K., & Obstfeld, D. ( 2005). Organizing and the process of sensemaking.

Weick, K. ( 1993). The collapse of sensemaking in organizations: The Mann Gulch disaster.

Power and Politics in Organizations

Emerson, R. (1962). Power-dependence relations.

Hickson, D., Hinings, C. R., Lee, C.A., Schneck, R.E. & Pennings, J.M. (1971). A strategic contingency theory of intraorganizational power.

Child, J. (1972) Organizational structure, environment and performance: the role of strategic choice.

Pfeffer, J. (1992). Understanding Power in Organizations.

Pfeffer, J. & Salancik, G.R. (1974). Organizational decision making as a political process: The case of a university budget.

Wildavsky, A. (1972). The Self-Evaluating Organization.

Organizational Change, Learning and Adaptation

Carlile, P. R. (2004). Transferring, translating, and transforming: An integrative framework for managing knowledge across boundaries.

Huber, G. (1991). Organizational learning: The contributing processes and the literature.

Barnett, W., & Sorenson, O. (2003). The Red Queen in organizational creation and development.

Meyer, A.D. 1982. Adapting to environmental jolts.

Romanelli, E. & Tushman, M. L. (1994) Organizational transformation as punctuated equilibrium: An empirical test.

Dooly, K. J. (1997). A Complex Adaptive Systems Model of Organization Change

Plowman, D. A., Baker, L. T., Beck, T. W., Kulkarni, M., Solanski, S. T., & Travis, D. V. (2007). Radical Change Accidentally: The emergence and amplification of small change.

Multilevel and Methodological issues

Klein, K. & Kozlowski, S. W. J. (2000). Multilevel Theory, Research, and Methods in Organizations: Foundations, Extensions, and New Directions.

Dansereau, F., Yammarino, F. J. & Kohles, J. C. (1999). Multiple Levels of Analysis from a Longitudinal Perspective: Some Implications for Theory Building.

Miller, D., & Friesen, P. H. (1982). The longitudinal analysis of organizations: A methodological perspective.

Street, C. T. & Gallupe, R. B. (2009) A Proposal for Operationalizing the Pace and Scope of Organizational Change in Management Studies.

Grant, A. M. & Wall, T. D. (2009) The Neglected Science and Art of Quasi-Experimentation: Why-to, When-to, and How-to Advice for Organizational Researchers.

McKelvey, B. (2006). Response: Van de Ven and Johnson’s “Engaged scholarship”: Nice try but….

Major Debates in Organizational Theory

Astley, W.G. and Van de Ven, A.H. (1983) Central perspectives and debates in organization theory.

Ulrich, D. & Barney, J. (1984) Perspectives on organizations: resource dependence, efficiency, and population.

Cannella, A. A., &. Paetzold, R. L. (1994) Pfeffer's Barriers to the Advance of Organizational Science: A Rejoinder

Scherer, A. G. (2005) Micro and macro perspectives in organization theory: A tale of incommensurability. I n Tsoukas and Knudsen (Eds.)

Swedburg, R. (2002). Economic versus Sociological approaches to organization theory. I n Tsoukas and Knudsen (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Organizational Theory, 373-391

Ghoshal, S. (2005). Bad management theories are destroying good management.

New Developments, Future Trends

Burrell, G. (2005). The future of Organization Theory – Prospects and Limitations. In Tsoukas and Knudsen (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Organizational Theory, 525-535

Clegg, S. (2005). Managing Organization futures in a changing world of power/knowledge. In Tsoukas and Knudsen (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Organizational Theory, 536-567

Lewin, A., Volberda, H. W. (2005). The future of organization studies – Beyond the selection-adaptation debate. In Tsoukas and Knudsen (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Organizational Theory, 568-595.*

Campbell, J. L. (2007). Why would corporations behave in socially responsible ways? An institutional theory of corporate social responsibility.

Raisch, S., Birkinshaw, J., Probst, G., & Tushman, M. L. (2009). Organizational Ambidexterity: Balancing Exploitation and Exploration for Sustained Performance.

Wolfe, R. A., Weick, K. E., Usher, J. M., Terborg, J. R., Poppo, L., Murrell, A. J., Dukerich, J. M., Core, D. C., Dickson, K. E., & Jourdan, J. S. (2005). Sport and Organizational Studies: Exploring Synergy

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Anyone want to take my final for me!

Just wanted to share the adorable text message I got from Miss Maggie and the Harper's for my Birthday!!

Well I would love to say that I spent my birthday with friends, shopping, having some wine, or anything besides studying, but that is not the case. I have been in massive study mode all weekend, except for a few detours here and there. I am preparing for my last set of finals ever. But for some reason, I believe they might be my hardest. I have a in-class exam on Tuesday, it is a three hour written exam over anything in the class. Only two question... so to say it is terrifying is an understatement. For my birthday my cohort members created a "Tori's vomit index" because I always get so nervous before things like this... I tried to scan it, but it would not post... so, lets just say I am at the "Stage 4" which is the worst. I hate ambiguity and this is the most I have ever had on an exam. But I am trying to stay positive and just keep studying. After that exam, I will receive a take home exam in my Experimental Design class on Weds due the following Weds, and then I have two 20-30 page papers due next Tues. But then I am done!!! They say there are three major milestones when you are in a Ph.D. and the first is completing your coursework... So I almost have one done. I am super excited about that!!! Just need to make it there!

But I do not want this post to seem to depressing, I did receive some great birthday messages from all my friends and family and even a few gifts in the mail! What girl does not like getting presents! Also, two of my friends were nice enough to take me out last night for my birthday... They gave up precious study time and we went out to Sonoma, a wine bar and had a fantastic meal. I cannot thank them enough for taking me out and celebrating!

So 2 weeks from now, I will be spending my last night in this house and moving on the 17th, I cannot wait!!! I could not have pulled everything off, the moving, the changing of all the bills, and everything without my mom... She has been great! There is a lot left to do, but I will be able to get it done! I am ready for a fresh start!

It has been awhile...

It has been awhile since my last post, but I am just in that crunch time before finals where it feels like there is always something I need to do.... Plus, I promised myself when I started my blog that I would try to only post if I had something to say. I feel as though people would stop reading if I created daily posts about how I was studying... and studying... and studying... But I do have some exciting news... A paper that I was a co-author of was accepted to The Academy of Management Conference in Montreal, Canada. So I will get to go and present in August. This was a really big deal for me and I am super excited to get an all expenses paid trip.

Since my last post, I did get to go home to Tulsa for Spring Break. The first part of the break my mom came to Texas to help me get ready for my move to my new house in May, and the second half I spent in Tulsa. I was super excited about getting to go to Tulsa, but as all my trips, it went by really fast. One huge bonus though was it was my cousin Seth's wedding! Although it snowed on the day of, which of course I would only think to bring home a "summer dress" and 4 inch heels, we had a great time. I got to see a lot of my family on my mom's side that live on the West coast and it was great to have the day and catch up with everyone. We definitely had some adventures that day in the snow, getting everyone some warmer clothes.

Here is a pic of just the beginning of the snow!!

The wedding was great and then I got to meet some fun friends after the wedding for a drink. So all and all it was a great break to school work. Then it was back to work. I have been spending these last few weeks working on a few paper deadlines for some other conferences and getting all my Summer work organized. One thing that they forget to tell you when you get into a Ph.D. program is that half of your time is spent planning and organizing. So I have been getting everything set. I am in my last few weeks of actual course work, so I am super excited about that! I cannot believe I have been in college for eight years! I do recognize that it has been 8 years and three degrees, but after a solid 21 years of school work, I am ready to be done with tests and course work.

Thought I should add a picture of some of the faculty and cohort members which I work with!!

This last week has been a busy and exhausting week. I had an Experimental Design take home exam, that I spent about 15 hours on, and then the in-class exam took almost 3 1/2 hours, I then had to attend and speak at Beta Gamma Sigma induction today, which is the business equivalent to Phi Beta Kappa, so to say I am exhausted an a bit brain burned is an understatement. But I am going to spend the rest of the evening on the couch watching really bad reality TV!! That is all for now!!!

I gave my first conference presentation!!

Well another week as come and gone, and I am writing this after spending the last 4 hours glued to the television watching the Academy Awards. If you did not know, I live for Awards season, I have no idea why, probably the fashion... But I never miss an awards show....Now many of you maybe thinking... How does she have time to watch 4 hours of TV.... Well with careful planning! I have to really delegate my time when it comes to the weekends, but I finished all my readings early this afternoon. This week was a hectic one, as you can tell by my earlier post I recited all my assignments that were due up until March 2, so the second finally came and went and all the projects papers and exams are finished for a bit. This weekend though, was my first conference presentation. I am pretty sure if you ask anyone who was with me, I get quite nervous before any exam or any presentation. But thanks to a great support system I was able to make it through! I would like to note here, that my cohort pointed out to me after a few glasses of wine Saturday evening, that I have not named all of them in my blog to date.... so I am including a picture, so that you can see most of us... A few people could not be there the night this was taken...So from left to right, we have Josh, Marcus, and Ray... (See Ray... your name is now on my blog!!!) Both Ray and Marcus attended the presentation on Saturday and were great support. I co-authored this conference paper with Josh called Multi-Leader Team Work: An Empirical Assessment of the Influences of Shared Leadership and Cohesion on Team Effectiveness. I have pasted in the abstract, in case any of you were fascinated by the title and wanted to know a bit more... if not just keep scrolling and we can get to the rest of the week! :)
Abstract:
Assessing team effectiveness is important for researchers and managers as team work becomes more common within firms. The purpose of this study is to further expand research on team effectiveness by determining the influence of shared leadership on the theoretical model of effectiveness proposed by Cohen and Bailey (1997). Data was collected from 151 undergraduate business students in order to empirically examine the relationships among shared leadership, cohesion and team effectiveness. The findings suggest that shared leadership influences both team effectiveness and cohesion in a manner similar to leadership forces exhibited by a single, appointed leader. The detailed findings of the relationships are reviewed and discussed, and implications for researchers and managers are provided. So that is what are paper was about... We actually came up with the idea for a class project and then refined the idea and sent it on to a conference. The rest of the week was not as exciting, but just super busy. I am very excited for the up coming week, tomorrow I am headed to see Alice and Wonderland, then on Wednesday my mom is coming for a visit. After my Experimental design class on Wednesday I am officially on Spring Break until the 22nd! To say that is exciting is an understatement. So my mom is coming here for a few days, we are planning some shopping and she is kind enough to help my start packing for my move in May. Then I am headed to Oklahoma for the rest of the week to spend time with family and friends. Heading back to Tulsa is always special and I love that I get to spend time with my Poppy. He is always up to date on what is going on, in fact he reads my blogs! This spring break will have a great ending because everyone from Seattle is coming in for Seth's wedding! Since I was teaching last summer I was unable to go attend the family reunion so I will finally get to see quite a few people that I have not seen since I went to Seattle when I was 15!!! So since 15, I would have to say a lot has changed since then... well lets see got a license, graduated high school, moved to Texas, turned 21, graduated college, moved to Missouri, completed my Masters, and now have moved back to Texas... So you can understand why I am excited to see everyone... Plus the last time I saw a lot of these people I had braces and a perm!!! So I am really looking forward to seeing everyone and having a great Spring Break!!! I will leave you with a picture of my grandparents and mom at one of there family reunions! Better get back to readings and preparing for tomorrow!