UTD Moves Up in Business School Rankings Based on Faculty Research Productivity The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) School of Management on March 10 released the results for 2006 of its ongoing study that ranks the top 100 business schools on the basis of the research productivity of their faculties. The research rankings of the top five business schools are unchanged from their positions - both worldwide and in North America - first announced in February 2005. They are the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in first place, followed, in order, by the Harvard Business School, the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University, the Columbia Graduate School of Business and the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The UTD School of Management ranked 33rd in North America, up from 35th in February 2005, and 36th worldwide, up from 38th in the rankings' initial announcement. "The UTD Top 100 Business School Research Rankings" tracks the publications of business school faculty worldwide since 1990 in 24 leading academic journals, all of which are peer-reviewed. The study then ranks the business schools based on the number of articles published in those journals by their faculty members over the last five years. UTD School of Management Dean Hasan Pirkul, Ph.D., said the rankings should be of interest not only to business school faculties and administrators but to the general public as well. "The rankings provide a tool for business school faculties and administrators to benchmark their research productivity against that of their peers," Dean Pirkul said. "Also, the results are of interest to students, parents and other stakeholders because research is an integral part of the work of institutions of higher education and faculty research plays an important role in providing students with the most advanced educational experience," he said. For a complete listing of the research productivity rankings of both the top 100 North American business schools and the top 100 business schools worldwide, visit the website of the school's Center for Information Technology and Management (CITM) at http://citm.utdallas.edu/utdrankings/. Nortel's Aspiring Leaders Attend SOM Lecture Members of Nortel Networks' Executive Edge Program attended a lecture and reception at The School of Management (SOM) in March on the topic of enterprise transformation. Michael Oliff, Ph.D., director of enterprise research in SOM's Executive Education Center (at left, standing), delivered the lecture. Nortel's Executive Edge is a professional development program for employees aspiring to be leaders at the senior management level. Doug Eckel, Ph.D., SOM's new director of corporate development, organized the event (see Director of Corporate Relations Joins SOM Staff on page 37). U.S. State Department Brings Foreign Tours to SOM In January, The School of Management (SOM) hosted visits by two groups from abroad participating in tours of the United States that the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs sponsored. On January 23, eight women economic and business leaders from North Africa and the Middle East heard presentations on SOM programs focused on international management and on promotion of women for membership on corporate boards. One objective of the State Department's program was to examine the roles of educational institutions, media, businesses, courts, civic and religious organizations, and women's groups in advancing women as business leaders. Countries represented by the delegation were Egypt, Gaza, Iraq, Mauritania, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The following week, on January 31, a Southeast Asian delegation from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka included a visit to SOM on a tour focused on studying the workforce development and education that result from business partnerships with local chambers of commerce and schools. The Southeast Asian group also heard presentations from several SOM administrators and faculty members and - like their counterparts a week earlier - attended a breakfast reception, toured the SOM Building, visited classes and attended a luncheon before departing. The Dallas visits were part of the groups' itinerary during their three-week U.S. tours. SOM international management faculty member Habte Woldu, Ph.D., coordinated the visits to SOM, the only U.S. institution of higher learning included on the tours. Executive Education Honored for Professional Coaching efforts Top honors have come to the Executive Education area of The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) School of Management (SOM) for its initiatives in executive and professional coaching. The North Texas Chapter of the International Coach Federation (ICF) has awarded Executive Education its 2005 Prism Award. The annual award recognizes demonstrated excellence and organizational results achieved through targeted professional coaching initiatives. Inaugurated in 2004, the award last year was presented to two recipients, IBM and Oracle. The Executive Education area won the 2005 honor for establishing the Executive and Professional Coaching Program, a graduate-level certificate curriculum, and for employing coaching as a critical part of the curriculum in its Executive MBA (EMBA) Program. "The UTD School of Management is taking a prominent role in the positive impact executive coaching makes on the development of business and organizational leaders," says Frances Shuster, ICF North Texas Chapter president. "The school is also giving a huge vote of confidence to the executive and professional coaching profession." In accepting the award, David Springate, Ph.D., SOM's associate dean for executive education, says the school considers executive and professional coaching important to leadership development. "Our EMBA students gain from the enhanced professional and personal development opportunities these coaching initiatives offer. The positive influence and culture of coaching touches all of their organizations. And, our coaching program students are positively influencing their clients and the companies they interact with, as well," Dr. Springate says. Jasper Arnold, Ph.D., director of the EMBA Program, notes that each student in both the Class of 2006 and the Class of 2007 is assigned his or her own executive coach. Robert Hicks, Ph.D., established the school's executive and professional coaching program in 2004 with assistance from Judith Feld, who holds ICF's top certification as a Master Certified Coach. The program meets the requirements for ICF Professional Coaching Certification and offers academic graduate credits at UTD. In addition, in January The School of Management hosted a meeting of the newly formed Graduate School Alliance for Executive Coaching, an organization that works for high academic standards in executive and professional coaching. Dr. Hicks is serving as acting president of the organization. Representatives from eight universities in the United States and one in Australia attended the meeting. SOM Magazine Earns Accolades Management, The School of Management's (SOM) semiannual magazine, has recently received top recognition for design, photography and overall excellence from three professional organizations. In October of last year, the first two pages of "Above & Beyond IT," the opening story in the Volume 8, No. 1, Autumn 2004 issue, was accepted into the Art Directors Club of Houston's 50th Annual Awards Show. In November, a logo created as a design element for the feature story "Putting Our Best Fit Forward" was chosen to be included in Volume III of LogoLounge, a logo design book to be published next year by Rockport Publishers, Inc. of Gloucester, Mass. "Putting Our Best Fit Forward" appeared in Management's Volume 4, No. 1, Autumn 2000 issue. Dorit Suffness of the Dallas design firm Peterson Ray and Company designed the logo and the first two pages of "Above & Beyond IT." Also in November, "Shanghai City Streets," which appeared as Management's Volume 8, No. 2, Spring 2005 cover image, was chosen by the Press Club of Dallas as the year's top feature photo. The photo, which won over finalist competition from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and The Dallas Morning News, was taken by student Becky Sullivan while on an SOM international management study tour in China. Another Katie Award went to photographer Jim Reisch for his series of portraits of CEOs, each of which appeared in Management during 2004-2005. Management was also a finalist in the 2005 Katies competition for "best magazine" in the Corporate Communications category, which was won by the Office of Publications at Southern Methodist University. School Offers Students Several Career Seminars Fifteen area companies sent representatives to a February career management seminar at The School of Management (SOM) on implementing an internship program within their company. Judy Guyer, director of SOM's Career Programs Office, presented the seminar, one of a series of career management forums this spring. At subsequent seminars, representatives of industry shared their expertise on career options for students in various majors, including management information systems, finance, marketing and supply chain management. For more information on the seminars, which are free to SOM students, contact Ms. Guyer at 972-883-6832 or guyer@utdallas.edu. SOM Certificate of Management Program Now Available in Denison The University of Texas at Dallas School of Management (SOM) has joined forces with the Center for Workplace Learning at Grayson County Community College in Denison, Texas, to offer a nine-week Certificate of Management program geared to managers and supervisors already on the job. The community college began offering the program, which SOM's Executive Education area created, in January and repeats it regularly. The non-degree "mini-MBA" program takes a broad approach to all functional management elements, says David Springate, Ph.D., SOM's associate dean for executive education. "The program integrates fundamental academic theory with practical applications and is designed to equip supervisors and managers with the knowledge of business practices and concepts they need for effective management," he says. Also regularly offered on campus at UTD, the program's objective is to enable managers to lead their teams to higher levels of productivity. The version being taught at in Grayson County is tailored to specifically address the needs of businesses in that part of the state. "In this sense, we are addressing the economic development needs of North Texas as a whole," Dr. Springate notes. David Spivey, SOM's Certificate of Management program director, adds that the executive management education credentials and knowledge the UTD "mini-MBA" offers in Grayson County "supplements the county's initiatives to expand efforts to continually upgrade its workforce." Because the Certificate of Management is a non-credit program, there are no graded assignments or course grades. Each session focuses on a single topic, immersing students in the subject matter and allowing them to explore the fundamentals and applications of the topic. The opening session deals with understanding, managing and organizing business. Subsequent sessions delve into: ¥ strategy and its relation to quality, supply chains and operational excellence ¥ the principles of marketing ¥ managing information, communications and knowledge ¥ employee motivation, collaboration and performance ¥ the principles of accounting ¥ ethics, diversity and human resource management ¥ the fundamentals of finance ¥ the global perspective. Classes meet weekly from 6 to 9:30 p.m. on nine consecutive Tuesday evenings and are held in the new Center for Workplace Learning on the main campus of Grayson County Community College in Denison, Texas. The cost is $2,195 per person. To register, contact Lila Myser with the GCCC Office of Admissions at 903-463-8731 or myserl@grayson.edu. GLEMBA Takes Study Tour in China Students in The School of Management's Global Leadership Executive MBA (GLEMBA) Program traveled to China in September of last year to learn, firsthand, about that country's economy and investment climate. The study tour was led by GLEMBA Program Director Anne M. Ferrante, Ph.D., and Associate Director Jonathan M. Hochberg, Ed.D. While in Beijing, GLEMBA students visited several businesses, including Lenovo, the Chinese company that purchased the personal computer division of IBM last year. Also in Beijing, the class made company visits to Microsoft and GE Energy. They then traveled to Shanghai, where they visited Home Depot's Chinese facilities, and to Suzhou, where they visited a Black & Decker factory. GLEMBA's 2006 study tour will be to Chile and Argentina. Seminar for Women Leaders Draws Participants From Coast to Coast Positioning Women for Corporate Boards (PWCB), a seminar designed to prepare female business leaders for membership on corporate boards of directors, drew 14 participants who completed the autumn 2005 session. The three-day seminar combines firsthand experiences of current corporate board members and selection-committee chairmen with case studies presented by faculty from The School of Management's Institute for Excellence in Corporate Governance and The Leadership Center at UTD. In addition to the District of Columbia, attendees at the PWCB seminar last November came from California, Arkansas, Texas, and Ontario, Canada. The School of Management, Leadership America and the Leadership Texas Alumnae Association jointly sponsor PWCB. The next seminar is scheduled for November 6, 7, 8, 2006. For more information, visit http://som.utdallas.edu/pwcb. SOM Adds Healthcare Administration Concentration Responding to the unique needs of the North Texas health-care sector, The School of Management (SOM) has created a new major area of graduate-level study in healthcare administration. Students in both the Master of Business Administration Program and the Master of Science in Management and Administrative Sciences Program can elect the new concentration, which was crafted by an interdisciplinary faculty committee. The first two classes, both held in the evening, began in January at the start of the spring semester. John F. McCracken, Ph.D., SOM clinical professor of healthcare management, says the curriculum will grow incrementally until it includes a total of six classes that students can take. Healthcare now employs more people than any other industry in North Texas, Dr. McCracken says, and is the second-largest employer in the country. Beyond that, statistics from the Health Industry Council of the Dallas-Fort Worth Region show that "health industry employment rates continue to outpace other sectors of the Dallas-Fort Worth economy" and that the sector is likely to keep supplying a growing number of diverse job opportunities. These facts and more gave the school impetus to create the concentration, says Varghese Jacob, Ph.D., SOM's senior associate dean. "There is a recognition that this is one of the fastest-growing industries in this area, with its own unique needs, which is somewhat different from the traditional service industry," Dr. Jacob says about the decision to craft a specialized curriculum in the field. Healthcare is an industry "where there's a lot of layers, all of which have to interact efficiently for things to run smoothly," Dr. Jacob explains. "Healthcare managers need to take into account not only medical aspects but also legal aspects, government policy, operational aspects, not to mention the competition they're facing. "There are several management issues, we think, that are unique to this industry. So we wanted to...allow students to focus on this particular industry, rather than functional topics." The interdisciplinary concentration has launched with an introductory class, The American Healthcare System, that Dr. McCracken is teaching, and Negotiation and Conflict Resolution in Healthcare that Laurie Ziegler, Ph.D., senior lecturer in organizations, strategy and international management, is teaching. Dr. McCracken says the other four classes that will be added are Strategic Management of Healthcare Organizations, Healthcare Costs, Management and Control, Healthcare Informatics and Special Topics in Healthcare Management. Healthcare administration is SOM's "first industry concentration," Dr. McCracken points out. Historically, the concentrations that The School of Management has offered, such as finance, management information systems and general business, "have been 'functionally' oriented, not industry oriented," he says. Dr. McCracken also is executive director of the Alliance for Medical Management Education (AMME), a joint program of SOM and The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. He notes that while AMME, in its ninth year, has been geared primarily "to clinical people, doctors and professionals already in the healthcare field," in adding the new healthcare administration concentration, SOM "is opening the doors for non-clinical people." Dr. Jacob says that whereas the AMME program - administered by the school's Executive Education area - is geared toward doctors and executives in healthcare, the new concentration aims to reach those who want to advance to managerial positions in the industry. For more information about the healthcare administration concentration, call Dr. McCracken at 972-883-6252 or e-mail him at JFM@utdallas.edu. Director of Corporate Relations Joins SOM Staff In the recently created School of Management (SOM) position of director of corporate relations, Doug Eckel, Ph.D., routinely looks at the school's many component activities, aptitudes and scholars, then envisions how faculty, degree programs and training classes can come together to help companies with their staff development. "Our programs can have immediate payoffs in specific functional areas, such as with classes in supply chain management, internal audit or directed research projects in information management," says Dr. Eckel, who received his Ph.D. in finance from Virginia Tech. "But many of the benefits of employee development are more long term, including increased employee satisfaction and retention, and longer term profitability and sustained competitiveness." Prior to joining the SOM staff last summer, Dr. Eckel organized the research marketing effort at Virginia Tech's College of Engineering, which had annual research expenditures of more than $70 million. "The aspect of that job that was most rewarding was bringing together unrelated research groups and individual faculty whose combined expertise could address new, larger, often interdisciplinary scientific questions," he says. "This job is very similar to that position...although the target audience...is somewhat different" Contact Dr. Eckel at 972-883-5923 or Doug.Eckel@utdallas.edu. UTD Athletics Department Honors SOM Director of Special Events SOM Director of Special Events Tammy McNew was named "honorary coach" for The University of Texas at Dallas women's basketball game last December 15. In announcing the recognition, Albert Buckles, UTD's assistant director of athletics, said Ms. McNew was being honored for volunteering to help with athletics department special events. Ms. McNew has organized several receptions for the athletics department and is a member of the UTD Golf Tournament Committee. She was recognized during the game and presented a special T-shirt. UTD's Honorary Coach program recognizes outstanding faculty and staff who give significant "support and involvement with ... athletics and our student athletes," Mr. Buckles said. The program is sponsored by ING Financial Services, he said. SOM Administrative Assistant Receives UTD Staff Scholarship School of Management (SOM) staff member Jessica Brown has been chosen to receive a $250 Staff Scholarship from The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) Staff Council. Ms. Brown, administrative assistant to SOM Senior Associate Dean Varghese Jacob, Ph.D., is working on a Master of Science degree in special education at the University of North Texas in Denton. The staff council has developed the scholarship program to further the education of UTD staff members in academic or vocational programs. To be eligible, staff members must be attending community colleges, universities or accredited vocational schools and be employed as a staff member for a minimum of two consecutive years at the time they submit an application. They must also work a minimum of 20 hours per week, maintain an overall grade point average of 2.5 for undergraduate work or 3.0 for graduate work, and be a U.S. citizen or permanent U.S. resident. The scholarships are awarded twice each year, in the spring and fall semesters. Application deadline is September 15 for the fall semester and February 15 for the spring semester. More information is available at www.utdallas.edu/utdgeneral/staffcouncil/staff_scholarship.html.