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Management (PhD)

Management (PhD)

Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies and Lazaridis School of Business and Economics

waterloo

Located in the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics, our PhD in Management program will turn you into an advanced researcher with both theoretical and practical understanding of the complex problems of business management. We offer five distinct fields.

Learn more about the Lazaridis School, and our ties to Waterloo's technology community by reading the open letter to prospective students from Madhu Kalimipalli, director of the program.

Develop unparalleled research abilities.

Work alongside leading academics.

Apprentice-style approach to learning.

Program Details

Program Structure

The program is structured to be completed in four years.

In the first two years, you will complete 11 half-credit courses and write the comprehensive exams. Comprehensive exams are typically completed at the end of your second year.

In the third and fourth years of the program, you will focus on completing your dissertation proposal and dissertation. In order to develop and refine your research skills, you are expected to engage in research throughout the program.

You will also complete a non-credit course on university teaching.

Available Fields

Challenge yourself and work with experts in your field as you write and defend your doctoral dissertation. You can pursue research in any of our five fields:

The Accounting field in Laurier’s PhD in Management program prepares you for an academic career. You will be encouraged to focus your learning and research in empirical financial accounting or behavioural accounting.

Our program provides students with a breadth of knowledge of accounting theory and research methodologies. Through teaching and research assistantships, coursework, seminars, and independent research, students develop analytical and interpretive skills as well as intellectual independence. We welcome applications from students in accounting or related fields, such as finance or economics.

We have one of the largest Accounting programs in Canada with 34 faculty and lecturers. Over the past 21 years, we have had 10 gold medallists on the Uniform Final Evaluation (now the Common Final Examination, administered by CPA Canada); this is more than any other university in Canada.

A Rigorous Research Environment

You will work independently and ethically in an advanced research program and will receive training in conducting original research, preparing scholarly publications, and communicating knowledge.

As a student in the Accounting field you will have access to:

A small student-to-faculty ratio.
Excellent research facilities through the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics and the CPA/Laurier Centre for the Advancement of Accounting Research and Education.
Research funding and external grants.
Cutting-edge research.

Course Offerings

Accounting students can focus their learning and research in empirical financial accounting or behavioural management accounting. Below are the course offerings for each respective focus.

Empirical Financial Accounting courses:

BU801: Management Foundations
BU802: Research Methodology
BU817: Survey of Accounting Research
BU827: Seminar in Financial Accounting
BU837: Seminar in Management Accounting
BU843: Seminar in Advanced Financial Econometrics
BU847: Seminar in Archival Research in Accounting
EC620: Microeconomics I
EC640: Macroeconomics I
EC655: Econometrics
MF703: Seminar in Corporate Finance

Behavioural Management Accounting courses:

BU800: Fundamentals of Behavioural Research
BU801: Management Foundations
BU802: Research Methodology
BU804: Organizational Behaviour
BU817: Survey of Accounting Research
BU827: Seminar in Financial Accounting
BU837: Seminar in Management Accounting
BU842: Consumer Behaviour
BU857: Seminar in Behavioural Research in Accounting
MS700: Univariate and Multivariate Statistics
PS800: Advanced Multivariate Methods

Our PhD in Management degree program with a concentration in Organizational Behaviour (OB) and Human Resource Management (HRM) is a four-year program. In the first two years, you will complete courses and your comprehensive exams. In years three and four, you will focus on research with your supervisor and other faculty members. Opportunities for teaching are also available. If you complete your MSc in Management with us, you will receive credit for those courses you have already completed, which can decrease the length of the time it takes to complete this degree. This program is designed for students who wish to become academics and researchers.

Why choose OB/HRM at Laurier?

You will have the opportunity to work closely with leading scholars in the field of OB/HRM and be involved with cutting-edge research throughout your studies. Building a strong research foundation (including exposure to different theories and methodologies) is important for success in your future career.

We only admit a small number of students each year to ensure that our students can receive the mentoring that they need to succeed in an academic career. You will receive personalized guidance and individualized attention as you develop your own research and prepare for your career.

Our faculty members devote an extensive amount of time and energy into developing our students’ research capabilities and skillsets. You will be encouraged to join projects that can build this foundation and provide you with opportunities to start building your résumé with conference presentations and publications.

Required Courses

MS700: Univariate and Multivariate Statistics
BU800: Fundamentals of Behavioural Research
BU802: Research Methodology
BU804: Organizational Behaviour
BU814: Human Resource Management
PS800: Advanced Multivariate Methods
BU899: Doctoral Dissertation
Five electives chosen in consultation with the OB/HRM field coordinator

Note: Students admitted into the PhD program from the Laurier MSc in Management will be exempt from some courses already completed at the master’s level.

Learning Outcomes

You can expect coursework that is designed to provide a solid theoretical foundation in OB/HRM combined with exceptional statistical and methodological training, including research methods, research design, and quantitative analyses. You will also have the opportunity to delve deeper into topics with special topic courses, electives, and directed studies.

You will conduct your own research under the guidance of our faculty supervisors. You are expected to engage in research throughout the program, culminating in the completion of your dissertation.

You will have exposure to cutting-edge research from our faculty supervisors and guest speakers, as well as networking opportunities within the academic community.

The disciplines of Supply Chain, Operations and Technology Management seek answers to fundamental questions about the design, production, and delivery of goods and services. We welcome applications from students with backgrounds in business, mathematics, engineering, economics and related fields. Graduates of our PhD are prepared for a career in academia or research.

We create a nurturing environment where you have access to:

A personalized approach with a small student-to-faculty ratio.
Cutting-edge research training by active leading researchers.
Our Centre for Supply Chain Management whose mission is to create close ties between industry and academia.
Our "Distinguished Speaker Series," which brings in world class presenters from around the globe.

Our Faculty and Students

Our 13 faculty are leading researchers in fields such as sustainable and closed-loop supply chain management, logistics and transportation, operations management, management of innovation and technology, and stochastic modelling.

Over the past five years, faculty in Supply Chain, Operations and Technology Management have received more than $1 million in research grants from funding agencies, including the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), as well as grants from industry, including $500,000 from CN Rail. Our faculty members have published their research in top-tiered academic journals, including Management Science, Production and Operations Management, Manufacturing & Services Operations Management, JOM, JORS, Annals of OR, EJOR, Financial Management and IIE Transactions, to name just a few.

Selected Faculty/PhD Student Research Topics

Customer acquisition, retention, and service quality for a call center: Optimal promotions, priorities, and staffing.
Socially optimal location of facilities with fixed servers, stochastic demand and congestion.
Flow control in capacity-constrained queueing systems with non-stationary arrivals.
The effect of demand-supply mismatches on firm risk.
Cost Analysis of an (S-1,S) Inventory system with two demand classes and rationing.
Towards more innovative, eco-efficient sustainable product designs: Proposing a new DEA-based methodology.
Corporate payout policy, cash savings, and the cost of consistency: Evidence from a structural estimation.
An analysis of a widely used version of the CUSUM tracking signal.
Inventory competition for news vendors with profit targets.
Transshipment between competitive retailers.
Three essays in product development: Competition, sustainability and channel structure.
Modeling and analysis of value-based healthcare delivery.
Exploring hopes and fears from supply chain innovations: An analysis of antecedents and consequences of supply chain knowledge exchanges.
The transient collaboration model: Theory building, structural formation, and network operationalization.
The benefit of advanced load information for truckload.

Course Offerings

BU802: Research Methodology
BU805: Deterministic Quantitative Analysis
BU815: Stochastic Analysis and Simulation
BU825: Foundations of Supply Chain Management
BU845: Seminar in Supply Chain Management I
BU855: Seminar in Supply Chain Management II
BU859: Foundations of Operations Management
EC620: Microeconomics I
EC655: Econometrics

Research

Candidate Profiles

We invite you to learn more about the program by getting to know our PhD candidates whose profiles are featured below.

Lazaridis Institute for the Management of Technology Enterprises

With the announcement of the Lazaridis Institute for the Management of Technology Enterprises, special funding will be available to students concentrating on the application of innovation and technology management as it relates to their respective fields of interest.

"We provide a supportive and personalized approach that enables our students to get involved in state-of-the-art research. Our candidates graduate with skills, knowledge and experience in demand by academia, industry and government organizations."

Madhu Kalimipalli, Director, Management PhD program

Admissions

Take the first step in your graduate education and apply to one of our graduate programs. Follow our three-step admission process — we’ll walk you through how to apply and prepare for your first day as a graduate student.

Start: Fall (September) only
Format: Full-time
Application opens: TBD
Application deadlines:
- Jan. 15: First consideration deadline
- April 30: Application deadline for international applicants
- Aug. 15: Application deadline for domestic applicants

Your Next Steps

Contact Us Tuition and Funding Apply Now

Candidate Profile: Supply Chain

Read about the research of Tina Arabian in the Supply Chain, Operation and Technology Management field.

Candidate Profile: Accounting

Read about the research of Harjot Mehmi in the Accounting field.

Candidate Profile: Marketing

Read about the research of Sakshi Korde in the Marketing field.

Candidate Profile: Supply Chain

Read about the research of Tina Arabian in the Supply Chain, Operation and Technology Management field.

Candidate Profile: Accounting

Read about the research of Harjot Mehmi in the Accounting field.

Candidate Profile: Marketing

Read about the research of Sakshi Korde in the Marketing field.

The AACSB accreditation is based on a portfolio of performance metrics and that includes high quality teaching, high quality research and a high quality environment that we provide for our students.

Waterloo Campus

This program is available on Laurier's Waterloo campus.

Laurier's Waterloo campus is home to more than 19,000 graduate and undergraduate students. Tucked into several city blocks, this campus is walking distance to your classrooms, food, and various campus amenities.

Laurier is a leading force in research among Canadian universities, and many of our research centres and institutes are housed in Waterloo.

Learn more about Laurier's campuses.

Tuition and Funding

Regardless of the type of graduate degree program you intend to pursue, financial planning is important. At Laurier, we want to provide you with as much information as possible about a variety of scholarship and funding opportunities and equip you with the skills to manage your finances effectively in the years to come.

"With contributions from several university-based partners, ASPIRE provides graduate students and postdoctoral researchers with informative, hands-on professional skills training essential for degree and post-degree success."

Brent Wolfe, Associate Dean, Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies

Careers

The Lazaridis School is committed to providing PhD candidates with a solid foundation from which to build successful academic careers. Many of our graduates receive offers for assistant professor and tenure-track positions from universities around the world, including:

York University
McMaster University
University of British Columbia
University of Waterloo
SUNY Fredonia
Penn State
University of Memphis
Kean University
Zayed University, UAE

Not all of our graduates go on to pursue academic careers; some find success working for organizations in which they can apply their expertise in other ways. Graduates with non-academic positions include:

Hosein Nooriaan, Senior Analyst, Risk Management, RBC Group
Yunhua (Julie) Zhu, Senior Associate, PwC
Gregory Tanguay, Marketing Director, Laborie
David Whiteside, Happiness Research Fellow, Plasticity Labs
Sara Babaee, Software Developer in Optimization, NAVBLUE an Airbus Company
Tannaz Mahootchi, Senior Methodologist, Operations Research, Cancer Care Ontario

Research Chat

A podcast showcasing graduate students' research and experiences at Laurier.

Laurier 601

Laurier's incoming student support program will help you transition into graduate studies.

ASPIRE

A professional skills development training program for graduate students at Laurier.

Research Chat

A podcast showcasing graduate students' research and experiences at Laurier.

Laurier 601

Laurier's incoming student support program will help you transition into graduate studies.

ASPIRE

A professional skills development training program for graduate students at Laurier.

Contact Us

Faculty with Supervisory Status

Learn about the interests and ongoing research of our faculty members. If their research interests you, email the professor directly to set up a meeting. Include information about yourself, your skills, your experience, and why you’re interested in their research.

Our OB/HRM faculty supervisors are leading scholars with exceptional research and teaching records. They publish in the leading journals in the field and are nationally/internationally recognized for their research expertise. They are active in the top conferences in the field; this involvement in the larger research community provides you with remarkable networking opportunities.

Greg Irving
Professor

Employee attitudes
Employee psychological contracts
Organizational socialization

"My research interests centre on the processes by which individuals move from being organizational outsiders to insiders. To that end, I examine the role of factors such as the impact of Realistic Job Previews (RJPs) and applicants’ pre-entry expectations on their post-entry adjustment. Although post-entry adjustment can mean many things, my interests focus primarily on employee attitudes toward the organization (e.g. organizational commitment) and behaviours (e.g. turnover). I am also interested in the ways that organizations can facilitate the transition from outsider to insider via activities such as organizational socialization and the development of psychological contracts."

Lisa Keeping
Professor

Processes and outcomes of performance evaluations
Employee selection
Leadership

"Employee performance reviews are conducted by most organizations on an annual or semi-annual basis, often at great time and expense. Interestingly, research indicates that managers and employees alike find performance evaluations to be among the most disliked aspects of their jobs. My research examines the process and outcomes of performance evaluations from the perspective of both managers conducting the evaluations and employees being evaluated. Some of the issues I examine are why managers deliberately provide evaluations of employees that they know to be inaccurate as well as the reactions employees have to receiving performance feedback. The approach I like to take to research is to examine what are largely considered to be human resource issues by applying theories and concepts from organizational behaviour. Secondary areas of interest to me are leadership and employee selection."

Lindie Liang
Assistant Professor

Leadership
Emotions
Mindfulness
Motivation
Workplace aggression

“My research interests can be broadly classified into three overlapping areas: leadership, workplace aggression, and emotions. In my research, I apply motivational theories to answer the questions when and why employees behave in certain ways. For example, I am interested in exploring why leaders mistreat their employees, what emotions leaders experience after mistreating their employees, and why mistreated employees behave badly. My other research interests include mindfulness, conflict in the workplace, and ostracism."

Chet Robie
Professor

Personality
Testing
Faking

"My research interests focus on the use of personality variables in the workplace. I am interested in questions such as, 'What personality variables predict important individual and organizational outcomes such as performance and retention?' and 'What is the best way to measure personality variables in the face of such threats as applicant faking?'"

Yujie (Jessie) Zhan
Associate Professor

Emotional regulation
Work stress and well-being
Employee retirement

"My research interests include two streams: emotion regulation and retirement. My research on emotion regulation mainly concerns service employees who are required to express a cheerful emotion when they are interacting with clients or customers. I am particularly interested in how service employees react to difficult customers and why they use different strategies to regulate their emotions. My interest in retirement research is stimulated by the aging trend of population. My research aims to explore factors that impact older employees’ retirement decision and retirement adjustment process."

Program Recruiters

Brenda Burns (on leave)
Graduate Program Recruiter

Victoria MacKenzie
Graduate Program Recruiter

Danish O'Habib
Graduate Program Recruiter

Looking for more info? Contact the Lazaridis School.

Join us at Laurier

Management (PhD)