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Archive for October, 2011

DMD LE Chapter Website

Saturday, October 29th, 2011

Our Delta Mu Delta Chapter website is up and running – here is the link: https://sites.google.com/site/ncudeltamudelta/

We set it up as a (free) Google site. Qualifications for membership are listed on the main page. If you are member, consider self-nominating to become an officer. Elections are coming up very soon! I was the Secretary this year and truly enjoyed working with the Officers and members. We have some great new local scholarship news coming up soon!

The schedule for Elections is:
Wednesday, November 2: self-nomination for Chapter Officers opens
Monday, November 28: self-nominations close
Wednesday, November 30: election opens for all Chapter Officers and Faculty Adviser via online ballot
Wednesday, December 7: election closes
Thursday, December 8: New Chapter Officers notified
Saturday, December 10: Chapter Officers Induction Ceremony

Holding my breath..

Thursday, October 27th, 2011

I am holding my breath.

My dissertation manuscript went to the OAR yesterday.

So I am….

waiting for the other shoe to drop

waiting for the next aftershock

watching the sky for rain

walking on eggshells

watching paint dry

waiting for the dust to settle

waiting for my ship to come in

waiting for the pot to boil

…clichés or not…it’s pretty nerve wracking. The OAR has 7 days to review my work and either thumbs-up it or thumbs-down it. I am holding my breath…and trying to think positive thoughts! Perhaps if we all hold hands and wish really, really hard…..!

Waiting and fixing

Sunday, October 23rd, 2011

I continue to wait on Dissertation Committee member Dr. W’s return of my DM. Technically Committee members have 7 days to review my paper but today is Day 9. So I have done these things yesterday and today:

– placed the change matrix in front of the DM – I had it as a separate document but Dr. M says to put it at the front
– updated the change matrix to show accurate page numbers where the changes were made
– addressed Dr. B’s recommendations to the DM
– augmented the Chapter 5’s Conclusion to help “tie” it together with some points made earlier
– since I never received permission to use a specific figure from its author, I deleted the figure and updated the table of contents (TOC) and wording that referred to it as a figure
– I responded to thinkPhD reader emails
– I corrected all my et al. errors. I have a tendency to write (Author, et al, 20xx). There should be no comma after the author’s name, and a period after the “al” – thanks Word for the find and replace function!
– I wasted time on the NCU Discussion Board and made a few comments
– I looked online at the photo of Mariah Carey’s cute new twins (certainly not a time waster – they are so CUTE)
– I turned in my “Weekly Dissertation Update” as required by the school
– I read the entire 217 page DM one more time…it’s a real sleeper!

So waiting and fixing is what I will be doing today. I hope to receive my DM back from Dr. W, make the corrections, and send it back asap to Dr. M so that he can submit it to the OAR before the end of my class on Oct 30!

The Committee Speaks

Friday, October 21st, 2011

Well, one of the Committee members speaks…so far….

Dr. M sent my Dissertation Manuscript (DM) to my Dissertation Committee last Friday. Dr. B returned it yesterday and I am making his recommended changes today. He was complimentary and suggested adding to a few paragraphs in certain places. I have not heard from Dr. W, yet. Technically, the Committee gets one week to review and comment. I hope to see something from Dr. W tonight, so that I can make her changes and turn it back into Dr. M no later than tomorrow. This would mean that my DM could possibly be sent to the Office of Academic Research (OAR) in a few days!!!

I am pretty nervous at this point and not trying to focus on horror stories of DMs being rejected by the OAR. I am trying to stay confident that my work is good enough to move forward. But we will see very soon….

DM to Committee

Thursday, October 13th, 2011

My DM will go to my Committee for the first time today. I am pretty nervous about this next big step! The Committee has not seen my work since reviewing the DP ages ago. I hope that my Committee will review it and turn it back into me quick. This class ends on Oct 31 and it would be FANTASTIC if I did not have to take another DIS course to complete my coursework. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

DM – put together

Sunday, October 9th, 2011

Today, I turned in my completed DM to Dr. M. Last week, he saw everything except the Abstract, Chapter 5, and a couple of the Appendixes. Today – he got the whole bologna!! He will look, make suggestions, I will make changes, then on to the committee!

Chapter 4 was a real kicker because my data did not yield beautiful stats. I had to get some help understanding what the data meant and figuring out what procedures to use. Some of the assumptions for MANOVA were violated and so I ended up with nonparametric Mann-Whitney to supplement the results. Ultimately, there was not a statistical difference in the two groups.

Initially, I was crushed because I felt like my results may not be showing anything. But the more I thought about it, it was apparent that there was a change…. a change from old managerial principles to new ones. Companies with sustainable strategies used be considered cutting-edge leaders. Now, they are just like the other guys. Over time, the other guys crept up on them by mimicing certain strategies, then normalizing them. And so, the last sentence of my DM Chapter 5 reads:

In support, this study revealed that firms without public reporting of sustainable activities have imitated the actions and strategies of those that do, and sustainable initiatives have been adopted as normal strategic imperatives for business success.

The Scholarly Kitchen

Sunday, October 2nd, 2011

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”!