Doctor of Business Administration

Overview

The innovative approach ofour Doctor of Business Administration programme advocates learning by engagement and action.

You will be able to create professional actionable knowledge, both through classroom learning, and by applied research through Critical Action Learning and Action Research, utilising appropriate quantitative and qualitative methods.

The core curriculum of the DBA programme consists of contemporary management topics such as:

• change and crisis management
• innovative approaches to leadership
• managerial decision making
• ethics
• sustainability
• social impact

In addition to rigorous classroom scholarship, you will create a Doctoral Development Plan (DDP) which will allow you to chronicle your development as a doctoral practitioner and researcher.

Description

The DDP will also assist you in understanding your transformation process and reflections on becoming a scholar/practitioner, creating doctoral-level professional knowledge, as well as the development of critical thinking skills such as leading in the midst of ambiguity.

You will complete your qualification with an original thesis that’s based upon a critical project that you undertake in your organisation. Unlike doctoral business programmes that are more theoretical in nature, the thesis for our DBA is designed to produce new, actionable knowledge that you will immediately use.

We understand that most senior managers will change positions and organisations throughout their career. Therefore, due to our DBA programme’s focus on building critical reflection, critical thinking, and doctoral-level skills, you should graduate with the knowledge and expertise necessary to apply what you’ve learned in a variety of organisational and managerial settings.

Core Modules:

• The Doctoral Practitioner
• Change and Crisis Management
• Knowledge Creation
• Management Research: Quantitative & Qualitative Methods
• Leadership and Community
• Action Research & the Action Research Thesis
• Complex Adaptive Systems
• Decision Making with Risk and Uncertainty
• Ethics, Sustainability and Social Impact

DBA Vs. PhD
A PhD is a research based doctoral programme which usually involves little or no taught element and is academic in nature. A professional doctorate, like the DBA, produces a qualification which, whilst being equivalent in status and challenge to a PhD, is more appropriate for those pursuing professional rather than academic careers. As such, the aim of a PhD is to advance knowledge, whereas the primary goal of a DBA is to advance professional practice.