University Programs in Mobile Work

Post Graduate Programs in Remote and Distributed Work?

A blog visitor, Christian M., sent this question:

I’m a 27 year old business consultant in Germany. I want to write a PhD thesis about “work anywhere, anytime”. Do you know a professor at a university, business school etc. who could supervise a PhD thesis about this topic or do you have an advise for me to find one? He could be located anywhere in the world.

I hope you know somebody doing scientific research about this topic.

Thanks a lot,
Christian

My reply to Christian was as follows:

We do not personally know any one who does scientific research into remote work or global business teams, but I may be able to suggest a few places to begin your research.

I am listing below a few universities which offer graduate level programs in areas closely related to your field of interest. Unfortunately, only the first is a PhD program. I believe the other 2 are MBAs but perhaps someone there could offer insight. The final link is to a resource which lists PhD programs in information related fields.

It seems odd given the prevalence of distributed work in our world that the field is still so young and unformed as an academic discipline. I discovered much the same thing when I studied Comparative Religions. I always felt that one of the benefits of that was the diversity of faculty and departments I got to work with – I would get to study under  Anthropologists, Historians, Doctors of Divinity, Sociologists, and Psychologists all in the same program, with only the subject as a unifying principle. So while the newness of telework as a subject of serious study presents some challenges, it likely also presents great opportunities and flexibility.

I hope these links help, please keep in touch and let us know what you find and what you ultimately decide to do.

Does anyone else know of other programs or resources not listed below? Please comment and share them if you do.

The Center for Work, Technology & Organization (WTO) is a research center located within the Department of Management Science and Engineering (MS&E) at Stanford University’s School of Engineering. WTO’s faculty, graduate students, and industrial research partners are committed to basic and applied research to understand how work is changing and to design more effective organizations and technologies. WTO sponsors research projects, colloquia, workshops, and conferences that bring together social scientists, engineers, designers, and managers within the context of an engineering school to address crucial social, organizational, and technical problems in an interdisciplinary manner.

The PhD degree in MS&E requires the fulfillment of certain disciplinary course requirements, as well as qualifying exams and a dissertation defense. Typically, students take about four to five years after entering the program to complete all PhD requirements.

The Virtual Team Management and Communication program in the Division of Graduate Professional Studies provides a framework for understanding and managing many sociocultural, regulatory, and geographic issues in a worldwide environment.

The program is targeted for team members, team leaders, and managers working in virtual and globally distributed teams.

Advanced Masters Program in Management of Globally Distributed Work (AMPM) is an executive education program in Global Management. It is designed for high potential professionals in technology organizations who, as a part of their job assignments need to develop markets and manage clients and work-sites around the globe. It is also designed for consulting professionals and MNC executives who may be transferred to various worldwide locations.

Managers who are the products of the AMPM program will define global strategic plans for their companies and add value to execution of plans with their close knowledge and familiarity of markets, financial structures and work cultures of most important geographies and economies of the twenty first century represented by India, China, Europe and the US. Such managers will be “globally-ready” to take up challenging tasks in confronting competition either globally or locally.

A unique feature of the program is its delivery over four sites spanning South Asia, Europe, North America, and East Asia. The program will be delivered through a consortium of leading business schools from Asia, Europe, and North America. The consortium members are:

• Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, India
• SDA Bocconi-School of Management, Italy
• UCLA, Business and Information Technology Consortium, Anderson School of Business Los Angeles, USA
• Faculty of Business, City University of Hong Kong at Hong Kong/Shenzen, China.

Information-related Ph.D. degree programs

This page provides a listing of 143 Ph.D. degree programs in information-related fields, such as computer science, information systems or library and information science. You can view the list by school name, program name, or country.