Working within the general degree requirements, the PhD student and faculty advisor design a program of study to match the student's research interests. In the primary field of Organization Studies, students typically select courses from the areas of organizational behavior, organization theory, and human resource management, supplemented with coursework from allied disciplines elsewhere at Vanderbilt University.
Doctoral program coursework requirements include a four-course sequence in a chosen basic discipline (psychology, sociology, economics, etc.), a four-course sequence in statistics and research methods, and basic courses in other functional business disciplines (marketing, accounting, finance, and operations). Students typically complete coursework within four or five semesters, and spend the remainder of the program working on a dissertation as well as other research projects.
Many courses, including those in the basic discipline and in research methodology, are taken outside the Owen Graduate School of Management. Transfer credit from an accredited university may be granted for some coursework at the discretion of area faculty and the director of the PhD Program. The requirement of basic knowledge in other business functions is typically waived for students who have had prior coursework in their areas. Students must be enrolled full time.
