Future Stars – Peter Baloh

Peter Baloh is a lecturer and a research fellow at Information Management department of Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, the only EQUIS accredited school in South-Eastern Europe. He is active in the areas of Information Systems, Management of Technology and Innovation, Project Management and Knowledge Management, which are considered through the lens of successful implementation in various organizational settings. He has authored over 40 articles, which were presented at international conferences or featured in journals such as MIT Sloan Management Review, IEEE Software, International Journal of Information Management, Research-Technology Management, Journal of Organizational and End User Computing, Knowledge and Process Management, Strategic Outsourcing, among others. In 2008, he held a visiting professor position at Kyungpook National University in South Korea, where he gave a full 45-hour course on Knowledge Management Systems. He gave invited talks at universities in Australia (RMIT and Victoria), Singapore (Natl Univ of Singapore) and UK (Univ of Salford). Moreover, he transfers that knowledge from business practice and back to it. He has fourteen books-professional monographs to his name, and has founded and managed a niche consulting venture ‘Catch the knowledge’, advising top Slovenian companies in the areas of his research interests. We caught him at one of his stops in US and interviewed him.

Name: Peter Baloh

Year of the PhD program: defended 3wks ago.

Explain your background which has led you to the PhD program. When I was seven years old, I got my first computer. I quite soon realized that computers are not fun just per se, but rather, something can be done with them, and that with that, one can realize other, non-computer related goals. I still see them as that – tools that can help achieving other (business related) goals. Maybe that is why I never strictly went for »one field«, but rather, my whole education is about combining IT (secondary school) and business (undergraduate degree). The »business side« of me always critically judges new technologies by »what business value can be generated and how«, while the »tech« side of me is the one that is fascinated by and wants to play with the »cool tekkie functionalities«. As far as the degree is concerned, I liked the idea of exploring that »hidden mystery« underlying everyday phenomena.

What research areas are you interested in? Information Systems, Management of Technology and Innovation, Project Management and Knowledge Management, which are considered through the lens of successful design and deployment in various organizational settings.

I can’t really pronounce your school’s name. What’s with all the L’s and J’s ?? Just replace the J with Y and read it out loud, there it is, Lyublyana, see, easy. It’s a great school, great geographical area, great reputation. We are one of the three schools in the central and south eastern european regions that have EQUIS accreditation (a mere 100 something business schools in the world have it). One of our main things is internationalization school – getting and sending as many academics and students IN and OUT… You know… requisite variety… ))

What do you like to do for fun? This is a good one. Basically everything I do in my life has the fun factor connected to it. I believe that this is what life should consist of and I believe that if you have fun while doing things, you can be good at what you are doing. This is my personal philosophy that I follow, thus, even whatever I do professionally, I try to have as much fun as possible. If you ask me what do I do when I take time off my work… I travel the world, usually together with my wife… I travel to see »beyond« the facades that media, taboos, or norms of this or other world created. I also try to hang around with my 10 month baby-son. He also travels with us, of course, but playing with him is way of exploring the universe as well. In a weekly routine, I also do fitness and sauna to relax from everyday stress.

Just curious – how often do you blog?  I facebook daily and I update my ‘professional’ blog www.baloh.net whenever something worthwhile telling happens. That can be twice daily or once a month.

Mention some things that you have done that made your thesis writing easier. I tried to take as much break from work as possible, however paradoxical this sounds. I did things that are not connected to writing the dissertation. As once Peter Drucker said, when you are professionally involved in one particular area for a long time (and process of getting the PhD is a very long and very narrow project, with very small number of tangible milestones on the way), you better get a serious hobby or two. I found that working continuously on just the thesis, I got oversaturated by it, and my conscious mind didn’t want to cooperate anymore. I left it for a day, week, even a month, and then I made a huge progress in just a day or two. Another thing that was really worthwhile was talking to as much varied bunch of people as possible. I talked about my topic with senior and junior academics, I talked about my topic with students who attended my classes and I talked about it with senior executives. I talked about it with my friends. Now don’t get me wrong, this was not the only thing I talked about in the last 4 years. I just grabbed every opportunity that I could talk about it with someone who was interested. Why I think this was important?  It forced me to conceptualize what I was researching in many levels and from many different angles, and in my opinion, externalizing something that you deep down understand, is the key to really »understanding what you know«.

What do you do to make your PhD career successful? Talking. Visited as many doctoral consortiums as possible – ECIS, AOM-OCIS, IFIP, and talked about my research to my colleagues, senior researchers, and people from the industry at any occasion possible. I am glad that my institution is not one of those that see PhD as the ‘entry step’ to start writing books, papers, or attending conferences. PhD student needs to get connected and he/she needs to get in situ training in revision and conference process. These are all major parts of academic lives, so why not?  I understand the budgeting issues; however, I believe conference organizers could do much more to lower the cost of attendance. But this is entirely different issue, so let’s stay on the positive side of my answer and of this interview.

Closing thoughts? Don’t let your work overrun your personal life. There is that other side of life – believe in it and it does happen.

AoM’s OCIS Division Doctoral Consortium proposal submission deadline extedned to June 8 (Funding may be available)

AoM’s OCIS Division Doctoral Consortium proposal submission deadline has been extended to June 8th. It is possible that funding for travel support may be available but we do not have confirmation on this yet.

The OCIS division of the Academy of Management is pleased to announce the
2009 Doctoral Consortium, to be held in Chicago, IL August 7-8, 2008.  The
consortium will provide an opportunity for doctoral students to network,
receive feedback on their research, and discuss career issues. PhD
students working on research in the areas of Organizational Communication
and Information Systems are invited to apply.  The deadline for
applications is June 8th, 2009.  Applicants will be notified of outcome by
June 25, 2009.

There is a possibility that funding for supporting student travel will be
available. However, at this time, we do not have confirmation of this NSF
funding. Stay tuned, we should have more information shortly!

Doctoral Consortium Dates and Times
* Friday, August 7, 2009, 6:00pm – 8:00pm
* Saturday, August 8, 2009, 9:30am – 5:30pm

Confirmed Faculty Advisors for the Doctoral Consortium
Manju Ahuja, University of Louisville
Catherine Cramton, George Mason University
Arun Rai, Georgia State University
V. Sambamurthy, Michigan State University
Carol Saunders, Central Florida University
Christina Soh, Nanyang Technology University

Application Process
Submit the following materials via email to Manju Ahuja
(Manju.Ahuja@louisville.edu) by May 15, 2009:
1.         Completed application form (below)
2.         5-page, double-spaced summary of proposed dissertation research
3.         Letter of recommendation from dissertation chair/advisor
4.         Curriculum vita

Any questions about the consortium should be directed to Manju Ahuja
(Manju.Ahuja@louisville.edu)
——————————

——————————————————————————————————————

OCIS 2009 Doctoral Consortium Application Form
DEADLINE: June 8th, 2009

Name:
School:
Program:
Email:
Phone number:

1.         What year are you in your PhD program?
__1st   __2nd   __3rd   __4th   __5th or more

2.         Will you have completed your dissertation proposal by August 8,
2009?
__yes  __no

3.         Have you participated in an OCIS Doctoral Consortium in the
past?
__yes  __no

4.         Name and Contact Information for dissertation chair/advisor:

5.         To consider your application we must receive a recommendation
from your chair/advisor. It should be emailed to Manju Ahuja
(Manju.Ahuja@louisville.edu) no later than June 8th, 2009.  Have you asked
your chair to submit a letter?
__yes  __no

6.         Briefly describe your research interests. (1 Paragraph)

7.         Briefly describe your dissertation research, including its
current status (1 paragraph).

Manju K. Ahuja
OCIS PDW Chair

Manju K. Ahuja, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Chair
Computer Information Systems
College of Business
University of Louisville
Louisville, KY 40292
Phone: (502) 852-4678
Fax: (502) 852-4799
manju.ahuja@louisville.edu
http://cbpa.louisville.edu/profile/Ahuja.html

Interview with Bob Galliers 3/3

Marco: I think that is it, yes.
Galliers: I hope you can get something out of that conversation.
Marco: Yes, I’m sure. Thank you for your time.
Galliers: Not at all. Good luck back in Italy. I’ll see you in June. Enjoy the spring there. I hope Milan is a little less snowy than in Boston.
Marco: Unfortunately, not this year, but in March, we generally switch to warmer temperatures.
Galliers: One other thing that might be worth saying, and I don’t know if you want to include this or not, but you said to me before we started the interview that I’m “quite an international person,” and I think that’s important. I was lucky enough to teach and head a department in Australia. I then came back to the UK. I did my first degree at Harvard here in the States. When I stepped down as dean at Warwick, I did a year as a visiting professor at INSEAD in France, and now I’m back in the States.
I think it’s really important to take opportunities where one can to be exposed to different systems like you’ve done coming from Italy to spend a year here. That, in itself, just makes you think about the lens through which you look at the world; the lens through which you do your work; the approaches you adopt; the assumptions you make about the phenomenon that you’re studying.
Marco: There are different perspectives.
Galliers: Those different perspectives are so important. In the field of information systems or organization studies or strategy, we’re involved now in the world of business, whether it’s a full-profit organization or an NGO. That business tends to be done in a world which is international. If you’re studying an offshoreing phenomenon or something, if you don’t understand what it’s like at the other end of the wire or wireless, you just don’t get it.
So any opportunity that PHD students can take to be involved with work, with colleagues, in a network, which is international, or to take a semester or a year at another institution somewhere else in the world, I would say take that opportunity, not just from a professional perspective, but just from being a human being – a citizen of planet earth. That is such a wonderful experience.
One of our PHD students here just spent a semester at the Institute of Empresa in Madrid. Another student is currently at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. And we welcome students from around the world, like yourself, from Denmark, India. We’ve got a couple from Latin America here at the moment. That adds so much to their own experiences and understanding of the world. But it also helps our students if we’ve got visitors coming here because they begin to learn from their colleagues from different parts of the world, as well as those colleagues learning from us. It’s really reciprocal. I would really recommend that.
Sometimes, some programs really tie you in, especially if there’s a lot of coursework to be done. But that seems to be a missed opportunity to some extent because all you’re doing is learning. It’s almost like a closed system. There’s one outcome of closed systems, it’s called the concept of entropy. You need the oxygen from outside the system boundary to be able to really grow and develop. So I’d recommend that. Just a postscript to the interview.
Marco: I will include it in the interview, definitely.
Galliers: Okay. Good.
Marco: Thank you very much.
Galliers: I’d better go. I’ve got a lot of things I’ve got to do. Have a great trip back. It was a pleasure. I’m really glad that you’ve enjoyed it here. It was a pleasure having you here and say hi to my colleagues in Milan. I’m still interested in hearing all your work on ambidexterity and so on.

2009 Doctoral Consortium Deadline is Approaching!

Written by OCIS Chief Technology Officer

Thursday, 26 February 2009

The OCIS division of the Academy of Management is pleased to announce the 2009 Doctoral Consortium, to be held in Chicago, IL August 7-8, 2008.  The consortium will provide an opportunity for doctoral students to network, receive feedback on their research, and discuss career issues. PhD students working on research in the areas of Organizational Communication and Information Systems are invited to apply.  The deadline for applications is May 15th, 2009.  Applicants will be notified of outcome by May 22, 2009. Doctoral Consortium Dates and Times Friday, August 7, 2009, 6:00pm – 8:00pm Saturday, August 8, 2009, 9:30am – 5:30pm Confirmed Faculty Advisors for the Doctoral Consortium Manju Ahuja, University of Louisville Catherine Cramton, George Mason University Arun Rai, Georgia State University V. Sambamurthy, Michigan State University Carol Saunders, Central Florida University Christina Soh, Nanyang Technology University APPLICATION PROCESS Submit the following materials via email to Manju Ahuja by May 15, 2009: Completed application form (below) 5-page, double-spaced summary of proposed dissertation research Letter of recommendation from dissertation chair/advisor Curriculum vita Any questions about the consortium should be directed to Manju Ahuja ( Manju.Ahuja@louisville.eduThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ). ———————————————————————————————————————————————— OCIS 2009 Doctoral Consortium Application Form DEADLINE: MAY 15th, 2009 Name: School: Program: Email: Phone number: 1.         What year are you in your PhD program? __1st   __2nd   __3rd   __4th   __5th or more 2.         Will you have completed your dissertation proposal by August 8, 2009? __yes  __no 3.         Have you participated in an OCIS Doctoral Consortium in the past? __yes  __no 4.         Name and Contact Information for dissertation chair/advisor: 5.         To consider your application we must receive a recommendation from your chair/advisor. It should be emailed to Manju Ahuja ( Manju.Ahuja@louisville.eduThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) no later than May 15, 2009.  Have you asked your chair to submit a letter? __yes  __no 6.         Briefly describe your research interests. (1 Paragraph) 7.         Briefly describe your dissertation research, including its current status (1 paragraph).

Future Stars – Yeliz Eseryel

Yeliz Eseryel, Ph.D. Candidate in Information Science and Technology, Syracuse University School of Information Studies (iSchool)

Year of the PhD program:

Fifth and the last year.

Explain your background which has led you to the PhD program.

Well, I have always been interested in research. I conducted my first research in high school. I went to a “School of Science” in Turkey, a high school with a heavy curriculum, founded to train scientists and engineers. I conducted a year-long study at a hospital on comparing three diagnosis methods for Acute Leukemia and won several awards with that study.

Despite my background in hard sciences, I got a college degree in Business Administration in Turkey (Middle East Technical University), Master’s in Information Management and an MBA in the US (Syracuse University). During and after my master’s degrees, I worked as an IT consultant and then as an IT project manager. Implementing enterprise-wide systems such as SAP, I truly felt the need for systems and approaches where the technology design, and business processes were aligned with each other and with the organizational structures (such as organizational culture, norms, and leadership). Roughly 80% of these implementations fail and there is tons of research on it, yet we still need to learn more. That was a strong motivation for me to go back to school to get my Ph.D. degree. It was a tough decision for me, because I really loved the challenges of IT project management, and identified with the role. But I am also very passionate about teaching and research, and I truly enjoy the academic environment.

What research areas are you interested in?

My dissertation research is on leadership dynamics in self-managing virtual teams. I specifically study Open Source Software development teams. I am conducting a longitudinal study and am hoping to continue following a number of teams for a few more years. At Syracuse University, I’ve been part of the Open Source Software Research Group, which is headed by Dr. Kevin Crowston. My advisor Associate Dean Dr. Bob Heckman and Dean Dr. Elizabeth Liddy are also part of the research group. We conducted a number of studies on task coordination, decision-making, leadership and group maintenance in Open Source Software teams.

Having said that, my overall research agenda focuses on the alignment of information technologies, business processes and organizational structures. Thus, I also expect to explore these connections in other contexts than open source teams as well.

What do you like to do for fun?

Well, there are many things I enjoy in life. I am a USTA 4.0 tennis player, and a decent volleyball player. I love to travel internationally, meet new people, learn their language, culture, and cuisine. I enjoy many forms of art. I try to catch the local art exhibitions, and go to museums when I travel. In fact, last year, I started to paint after many years. I really enjoy it. I regularly go to the concerts of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. There are other things I have tried, that I am not so good at for now; I learned a few languages, got my motorcycle rider’s license, started ballroom dancing, did parachuting and gliding, rock climbing, and hiking. Once I have time to get a bit of life, I would like to get better at ballroom dancing, languages and outdoor sports.

How do you do all that while doing your Ph.D?

Oh, I don’t. Did I tell you I love to eat? Ph.D. is an excellent time to practice that skill, I am an expert eater now… and I am only half-kidding there.

Joke aside, I can do only one or two things at a time. These last two semesters, I’ve been painting. In fact on April 20, some of my paintings will appear in an exhibition. Couple of years ago, I received an international grant extension from National Science Foundation (NSF), which allowed me to spend two months in Italy for research. So I figured, I am going to Italy, I might as well learn some Italian for a semester or two before I go. It turns out people don’t speak much English in the southern part of Italy. My broken Italian came pretty handy and allowed me to also make a good number of friends there.

Just curious – how often do you blog?

Pretty often. I have a blog (enterprisesystems.blogspot.org) that I use for teaching my Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) class. I teach in France, USA, Turkey and Denmark. I don’t use the blog every time, but many times it’s part of my course, and my students write their daily reflections after class on the blog. I also have my personal blog, but I use it less often since I started twittering. Twits are short (140 character-long) messages that you share with other twitters. My twits get automatically posted on my blog as well as updating my Facebook status. Lastly, I participate in an anonymous blog with a few colleagues.

Mention some things that you are currently doing which is helping to make your PhD career successful.

Well, I think a successful Ph.D. career is one where one (1) gets the skills one needs as an Assistant Professor, (2) conduct a solid dissertation study, and (3) graduate in a reasonable amount of time. I have strived for a successful PhD career by being active in all facets of academic life in the first four years of the program. I am pretty lucky in that the iSchool at Syracuse is an exceptional place. Being part of the Open Source Research group has been a hands-on way to learn about conducting research, grant-writing, and collaboration. At the iSchool, PhD students get treated like junior faculty. So I represented the PhD students in a number of committees such as the PhD committee, promotion committee and search committee, and even got a vote! I developed courses on Enterprise Systems and ERP at both graduate and undergraduate level, both of which got approved by the university senate and became regularized offerings. I taught at our executive program in DC, at our executive master’s program for EPA Lausanne. I also co-taught and am co-developing courses on information technologies, virtual teams and data centers. All of these experiences create a well-rounded profile and makes for a real academic experience.

To accomplish #2 on the success definition, I started thinking about my study early in the program. Being part of the open source research team helped me really understand my context. I also did an exploratory study in 2006. So far, the feedback I get from the doctoral consortia suggests that the reviewers find the topic interesting and they find the research design rigorous. To accomplish #3 on my definition, I have stopped everything else and focused on my dissertation in the fifth year of my program. So, hopefully it will work out and the result will be a good one. J

Discuss some challenges that you’ve encountered in your PhD career and how are you working to overcome them.

What I am trying to do now, is to keep a consistent, rigorous and efficient work habit. I’ve had that for my work in the industry, or as a student. Yet, when your primary goal is to write a dissertation, this is very challenging. For example for the last few months, I have been so excited to finish my data analysis and make sense of it, I had been waking up at 3am or 5am, energized to get started even after a long week. Then, once I solved the puzzle, writing it up is not as exciting for me and requires self-discipline. Having said that, it should be just as exciting to write it up, since, as Weick puts it, “How can I know what I think, until I see what I say?”

What are some issues that you would like to discuss/ask fellow OCIS members (i.e. some opinions on particular research areas, the PhD program, the job search, etc.)?

How do we, as researchers, make an impact on practice? And how do we make this impact NOW? This is what I would like to discuss. When I asked this question to some of the prominent researchers, they said “Well, you don’t, until after you become a full-professor.” Because of the requirements to get tenure, at the beginning of one’s academic career, trying to make an impact on practitioners becomes a career-suicide. Because of the length of time journal publication takes, sometimes what we say becomes old news by the time we say it. So the question is, how do we change the system to make a difference in the world with our research? It sounds like a tall order, but isn’t it why we do research in the first place?

Future Stars – Alessia Santuccio

Year of the PhD program: I am now pretty close to the end of my PhD. I will defend my thesis in Economics of Communication next month.

Explain your background which has led you to the PhD program. I graduated in 2004 in Business and Administration at Cattolica University of Milan. It seemed to me that time did just fly away so quickly. I thought not to be ready to leave the university context: I still wanted to spend my time studying, exploring new things, still wondering the reasons why of some phenomena. So I decided to begin a PhD.

What research areas are you interested in? Since I started my PhD, I have explored many issues that mainly refer to knowledge management, collaboration and communication dynamics also in emergency scenarios, analysis of individual and collective behavior of project teams interacting on-distance. More in detail, next month I will defend my dissertation on communication and collaboration dynamics in long-distance teams, which explores the mentioned topics in EU funded project teams. I am also managing a EU funded project exploring the ethical governance of ambient intelligence in society, so I am happy to approach also this new area of study!

What do you like to do for fun? I love cooking, people say I exteriorize creativity when I spend time in the kitchen…but for quality, please ask them! I also love reading and watching movies, relaxing on a big sofa! Swimming is my favorite sport, I used to participate in competitions but now the time left to train is not enough anymore L .

Just curious – how often do you blog? I have never posted on a blog.

Mention some things that you are currently doing which is helping to make your PhD career successful. When I began my PhD, I had the opportunity to start working at CeTIF, a research center of my University which explores organizational dynamics and technological innovation in the financial industry. I think that CeTIF, pushing me into the world of business, gave me the possibility to approach the “so what” issue: I started to understand and “concretely touch” the reasons why of what I was studying and getting closer to a company view, its needs and requirements, without leaving behind the theoretical background. Also, I have been working for three years on projects financed by the European Commission. I really love working and being in touch with the international environment: you can share issues and topics that are of interest at the moment and meet always new and interesting people.

Discuss some challenges that you’ve encountered in your PhD career and how are you working to overcome them. I think the most difficult issue to manage when you decide to start a PhD is the need for time optimization. It happened to me to be involved on many and – why not – different projects or issues. On the one hand this is good as the more you do the more you learn, but on the other hand it can also be dangerous if not properly managed. Sometimes you need to stop and think: “Am I going on the right direction? How can this be useful for my PhD career?”. I think it is really important to have well defined objectives that you can reach and also a good helmsman that can support you if necessary.

Please make additional comments here: I really appreciate the possibility you gave me to post an interview and I hope this is just the beginning of a multicultural and global OCIS phd students’ community!