thinkPhD

Have you ever thought about how does social change happen? I recommend reading an interesting story called “The 100th Monkey” and below that, “The Hundreth Monkey Revisited.” Is there a short cut to social transformation? Can “one monkey” really make a difference in a society?

Are you willing to be that “one monkey”? Will your education make a difference to all the monkeys around you?

I challenge you to create change for good in your own life and then to show that to others. Let’s make a change in our social fabric. Choose good things today.

1. He had only one major publication.
2. It was in Hebrew.
3. It had no references.
4. It wasn’t published in a referreed journal.
5. Some even doubt he wrote it by himself.
6. It may be true that he created the world, but what has he done since then?
7. His cooperative efforts have been quite limited.
8. The scientific community has had a hard time replicating his results.
9. He never applied to the ethics board for permission to use human subjects.
10. When one experiment went awry he tried to cover it up by drowning his subjects.
11. When subjects didn’t behave as predicted, he deleted them from the sample.
12. Some say he had his son teach the class.
13. He expelled his first two students for learning.
14. He rarely came to class, and he just told students to read the book.
15. Although there were only 10 requirements, most of his students failed his tests.
16. His office hours were infrequent and usually held on a mountaintop.

shared from http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~pinto/god.html

A recent article in Bloomberg Businessweek entitled Occupy Our Business Schools (by David L. Ikenberry and Donna Sockell) posed some interesting thoughts about MBA programs. Most programs do not include social accountability studies. Rather, the stress is on finance, marketing, and management with the view that only these add value to our society. Indeed, value is received through products, services, buying, selling, and creating worth, yet there is an obvious lack of focus on the human element. Is “value” simply immediate and ephemeral, and without lasting and significant impact on tomorrow?

Corporate social responsibility includes sustainable actions, i.e., using resources and creating value in society today that does not bankrupt future generations. An easy example is designing a toy that all children want to have, but choosing to use lead paint becuase it is cheaper. The toy manufacturer added value to society (according the MBA model) by creating worth through a product. Yet, parents will SCREAM about the health risks of the new toy. Did the toy manufacturer managers and engineers consider all of the implications to society, including the future implications, of distributing that toy?

Our MBA programs (and BS/BA programs, for that matter) must contain studies about the ethical and social implications of actions today, so that we protect our tomorrows. I don’t think we need separate social responsibility courses. Corporate social responsibility studies must be fully integrated within each course so as to prepare our next generation of business leaders.

That is, if we have a next generation.

To my readers, colleagues, family, and friends:

May have you a blessed Christmas day full of love and laughter! Today is a day to reflect on blessing received this year. May happiness and peace be yours today, tomorrow, and forever!

Happy Holidays,
Cindy

Today, I passed the APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) exam today! I now have four letters to add after my name.

Of course, I am still waiting for those other elusive three letters (PhD)….

I work in my company’s supply chain department and the CSCP certification is part of our recommended education and training. The Association for Operations Management (APICS) has several certification programs, including the Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) program. The CSCP certification is relevant to supply chain operations and decision-making. The test has four content sections: “Supply Chain Management Fundamentals,” “Building a Competitive Infrastructure,” “Managing Customer and Supplier Relationships,” and “Using Information Technology to Enable Supply Chain Management.”

My company paid for a course offered by the local APICS chapter as well as the online APICS CSCP Learning System. Between the classes and studying on my own, I estimate that I spent at least 100 hours preparing for the exam. I took a vacation day from work yesterday and studied most of the day (but I graded some papers, too). I also printed out the CSCP flash cards and studied with co-workers over our lunch breaks.

The test was difficult because it required a conceptual knowledge of the topics, rather than simply memorizing definitions. There were a few questions on the test that about subjects that I do not think were in the textbooks. Overall, I feel like I learned quite a bit about supply chain processes and strategies studying for the exam.

I think those four letters after my name look pretty good…what do you think?

Cynthia J. Wolfe, CSCP

Looking for a holiday gift for you or your favorite PhD-to-be? Look no further! My thinkPhD double-sided mug will motivate and inspire! Click the link and step into my Zazzle store…

thinkPhD Double-sided Mug by thinkPhD
Browse other Thinkphd Mugs

The Scholarly Kitchen is an interesting website you might want to check out. Its mission is to “advance scholarly publishing and communication, and the professional development of its members through education, collaboration, and networking.”

Supported by the Society for Scholarly Publishing, the website showcases recent research and changes in various scholarly fields. However, you will find lots of interesting and non-stuffy stuff on this website. For example, the September 30 entry was a video should some pretty fantastic street dancing (Pumped Up Kicks - Dubstep)!!

If you are stuck right in the middle of your dissertation or your concept paper or any other paper that is DRIVING YOU CRAZY, navigate over to the Scholarly Kitchen for something good to “eat”!

This is a great video - Kathryn Schulz gives an inspiring speach at TED, and reminds us that being wrong is very much part of being human.

I found this little story today and encourage you to read it if you are working on your dissertation….it may put things in perspective!

The Rabbit’s Dissertation by A. Gerstlauer

Enjoy!

I am happy to announce that I paid off my student load today! Yippee! I had a Wells Fargo loan, not a federal loan. The bank did not require any payments until after graduation, but I went ahead and made payments all along. I did not want to wait until after graduation to pay — I just did not want that stress! Making the last lump sum payment felt very good, even though I was afraid the bank and I would be disconnected because we are in the midst of a thunderstorm. No worries, though, and my payment was accepted. I wrote PAID OFF in big letters on the most recent loan statement. Now, we can SAVE that payment amount each month.

It feels GREAT!

Congratulations new Delta Mu Delta inductees at NCU! Today we had our Lambda Eta Chapter Induction Ceremony via teleconference. There are 15 new inductees to our Chapter. Welcome! Welcome!

We have a fantastic group of Officers who are highly motivated to build Chapter Scholarships in addition to the DMD Scholarships available to all DMD members. If you are a member of our Chapter, we need your ideas to fund Chapter Scholarships. Email or post your ideas here to the blog. I am the Secretary and will be happy to share your ideas with the Officers.

If you are interested in learning more about DMD, click this link.

Yesterday, Husband and I watched Fiddler on the Roof on TV. I have seen the movie lots of times, but everytime I see it, the memories of when as a teenager I saw it on Broadway flood over me. Zero Mostel played Tevye on stage and the production was simply fantastic. I will never forget my first Broadway experience.

Watching the movie, I was reminded that the Fiddler is a symbol of survival even when life is difficult. Tevye says, “A fiddler on the roof. Sounds crazy, no? But here, in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn’t easy. You may ask ‘Why do we stay up there if it’s so dangerous?’ Well, we stay because Anatevka is our home. And how do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word: tradition!”

And so we all must scratch out “our tune” as well - that is, without “breaking our neck”!!

Academy Award winner Jeremy Irons narrates a thought-provoking mockumentary about the journey of a plastic bag to the ocean. Then watch Charles Moore explain about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Reflect on plastic bag pollution and decide how you can make a difference. Choose a sustainable solution, not a plastic-wrapped one.

Today I was inducted in Delta Mu Delta, an international honor society for business students enrolled in programs accredited by ACBSP at the baccalaureate, graduate and doctoral levels.

The organization’s website lists the mission statement as “Delta Mu Delta is a business honor society that recognizes and encourages academic excellence of students at qualifying colleges and universities to create a DMD community that fosters the well-being of its individual members and the business community through life-time membership.”

Delta Mu Delta Eligibility Requirements:
· Currently enrolled learners on or after April 9, 2007
· Undergraduate degree learners that have completed 75% or more of their degree program and have a GPA of 3.9 and are in the top 20% of this classification.
· Masters degree learners need to have completed 75% of their program, have a GPA of not less than 3.9 and in the top 20% of this classification.
· Doctoral learners in the Ph.D. or D.B.A. program need to have completed their comprehensive examinations, have a GPA of 3.9 and in the top 20% of this classification.

The induction was kinda neat - it was by conference call! There were 25 initiants from all over the world on the call. I have been involved in a number of honor society inductions over the years but I must say, this one beats them all. I simply put the call on speakerphone, muted the microphone, and was inducted while sitting in my office chair while taking a break from writing my dissertation proposal!

(By the way, that baby is now 79 pages long and my lit review is 32 pages - 8 more pages required to meet the 40 page minimum and I am still waiting for my concept paper to come back from University review….)

I was asked recently to post my professional bio so that others can get an idea of how to format their own bios. I added one new thing to my bio, as I will be inducted into Delta Mu Delta in a few weeks. I added the bio to my thinkPhD “about” page as well.

Professional academic bios should include your educational milestones, honors, and relevant career information. I could have added some thing about articles published, but none of my articles so far are published in peer-reviewed journals.

My professional academic bio:

Cynthia J. Wolfe graduated from Troy University in Troy, AL, with an BS in Environmental Science, and later received an MBA from Troy University. She has obtained Doctoral Candidacy status at Northcentral University in Prescott Valley, AZ, where she is pursuing a PhD in Business Administration with a specialization in Management. She is a member of the Academy of Management (AOM), the National Business Education Association (NBEA), Delta Pi Epsilon (National Honorary Professional Graduate Society of Business Education), and Delta Mu Delta Honor Society, Lambda Eta Chapter. She is a manager at an international packaging company and an instructor with the University of Phoenix, Richmond, VA, campus, where she teaches business and general studies.