Category Archives: Education & Management Development

Teaching-research-service ratio

Academics are more often than not required to work in all of the three areas of teaching, research and service – the latter commonly also called “administration”, as it’s not all about outreach to the community but rather, keeping a university going. This leads to an ongoing debate on whether teaching is done at the expense of research, whether one can be only good at some of these tasks but not all etc. This reminds me of a survey (coming some years ago from the University of Porto) that asked about our teaching loads; a tricky question in itself. How are teaching loads defined anyway? In-class teaching varies a lot in intensity and preparation depending on level, type of “lecture” and interaction, number of students etc.

More seriously, at least related to teaching and research, marketing scholars have now investigated the effects of research (quantified as academic publishing) on MBA education. Mitra and Golder (2008) indeed found that research has a positive effect on MBA programmes, though more in terms of their reputation and subsequent recruitment than education itself. Time to join the debate on their blog!

Gyöngyi

PS. Though it is lamentable how scant articles on logistics education are, there are also good news, e.g. Gravier and Farris’ (2008) analysis of logistics pedagogical literature that just appeared in IJLM.

Train the (SCM) trainers

SCM courses have traditionally included simulation exercises – if nothing else, playing the beer game. There are lots of educational games on the market, and as we all know, our students are quite “game-literate”, having grown up with PlayStation, Nintendo, Second Life, you name it. Just, who trains the trainers, i.e. where do educators get a chance to develop their own gaming skills; what is more, skills to use simulation exercises in the classroom?

Considering this question, it came to me as a surprise that there are some free(!) train the trainer courses for SCM educators – see LINKS‘ simulation exercises. Sure it’s a free-bee for the company to get their simulation exercises being used, but in any case, we all need further training as SCM educators, don’t we?

Gyöngyi

PS. Having just participated in the International Teachers Programme, I can nothing but recommend taking some pedagogical courses – especially once ITP will be organised by nobody else than Sunil Chopra at Kellogg‘s / Northwestern (in 2009/10 and 2010/11). At least you know what you’ll get for breakfast :-)

Shift security

Web 2.0 issues relate to all sorts of aspects of our lives, even as researchers and educators. Previously we’ve discussed the idea of publishing 2.0, faculty 2.0, and the vision students have of education. Similar stuff, including similar videos (again from TeacherTube, where one can also find SCM-related videos!), exist also for elementary schools and high schools; relating educational matters to globalisation in general and the one-laptop-per-child (OLPC) project in particular. What is most interesting, though, is the security aspect of educational shifts: one of the “hot topics” in the discussion forum of “shift happens” is how to create secure environments for school kids to connect to each other, blog, surf the web etc. While children are already “there” in terms of using new technology, educational platforms and technology plans are left behind. Dangerously irrelevant, some call it. I just wonder, while teaching issues related to material and information flows, just how trained are we to manage such information flows in the (virtual) classroom?

Gyöngyi

PS. Thanks to Pontus Cerin for making me aware of the video – even if for completely different reasons :-)

Sustainable agenda in textbooks?

The sustainable agenda has yet to find its way into textbooks within SCM. Besides sporadic paragraphs, and a occasional chapter (very rare!), most textbooks are centered around traditional performance objectives followed by related strategies and structures. Even titles of the textbooks contain more or less the same wording but in different order; operations, logistics, management, strategic, supply chain, planning, production………

Gyöngyi and I (Árni) want to do something about that.

We want to bring the sustainable agenda into the class-room in a format other than of journal articles. We want to experiment with disintermediation and the idea of open access.

More to follow on…..SCM for societal impact.

Árni

New book: Northern Lights in Logistics & Suppy Chain Management

Northern Lights in Logistics & Suppy Chain Management (edited by Jan Stentoft Arlbjørn, Árni Halldórsson, Marianne Jahre, and Karen Spens) has now been published by CBSPress, Denmark, and is available from their website.

This is how the editors introduce the book:

“Northern Lights in Logistics & Supply Chain Management” portrays the past, present and future research of the subject in the Nordic countries. The NOFOMA conference – a network of Nordic researchers within the field of Logistics and Supply Chain Management – has been a focal point in the contribution to the continuous improvement and further development of Nordic research. The network has also opened up for interaction with fellow researchers from other countries.

There are sixteen chapters in the book that in its own way colours the Nordic rainbow of research within Logistics and Supply Chain Management. The chapters are structured in four themes: 1) Origins and strategic aspects; 2) Research approaches in the Nordic countries; 3) Advancement of distribution strategies and; 4) Emerging application areas of logistics and SCM. The chapters provide an understanding and, perhaps more importantly, consciousness for scholars that are part of this research environment: Where are we now, what have we been influenced by, and in what area are we able to provide positive impact? The aim of the book is also to contribute to increased visibility to fellow international scholars within Logistics and Supply Chain Management.

Árni

New book: Logistics and Supply Chain Management

After receiving it twice within a week, it’s time to have a look at Patrik Jonsson‘s new textbook on, as it says, Logistics and Supply Chain Management. As a completely new book it has the advantage of working in SCM thoroughly through all of it – as opposed to 7th editions of other books… Patrik managed to avoid the logistics functions trap, i.e. has chapters on “the material flow” instead of treating each function separately. Well done. Most of the mini-cases in the book are European ones (including many Nordic ones, for all of those who talk about “going to Europe” when crossing the Baltic Sea or the North Sea ;-) ), not surprisingly, McGraw-Hill also positioned the book for the European market.

Gyöngyi

PS. A pity it’s written in English, though – I’m hunting for a good book in Swedish for our basic course…

SCM paper competition

Nay, this is not another dissertation award or best paper of a conference or a journal. Rather, it’s a competition for undergrads (whatever that means in an US context, assuming it’s BSc/BBA students). SCM-related papers can be entered in the competition till May 1, 2008.

Gyöngyi

Dissertation awards

There are lots of awards for supply chain excellence for corporations – as well as for research. As for the latter, the University of Arkansas just announced its 2008 SCMRC doctoral dissertation award. Dissertation proposals of 15 pages (plus CVs of the applicant and her/his supervisor, and a letter of application) should be submitted by Aug 31 ( 2008 ) to Jim Crowell who also answers questions about the award.

However, there are other awards as well, practically every SCM-related professional organisation has its own award. Some are for dissertation proposals, but more commonly, awards are given for people who have recently finished their doctorate (PhD / DBA / DSc). Mind you, most awards have some regional restrictions; LOGY in Finland only giving awards for people who finished their PhD at a Finnish university etc. Still, here are some to watch out for or to inspire as to where one could find similar awards “at home”:

- One of the awards for young PhDs (anyone who defended their doctoral thesis in logistics / SCM since Jun 1, 2007) is CILT UK’s dissertation award for which applications are due on May 16.

- CSCMP’s dissertation award is usually open for applications by the end of February (past for 2008, but doctoral students should keep this in mind for 2009). Again, this is for young PhDs.

And, apart from these, there are always best paper awards at conferences (LRN, Nofoma, POMS… you name it). Nofoma even gives a special best paper award to doctoral students – BUT, only those qualify who wrote a paper alone and/or with other doctoral students. This is to ensure that it’s not the supervisor’s work ;-)

Gyöngyi

SCM course books – revisited

There are a number of interesting new books on the SCM course book market, e.g. HUBS’ co-operative effort of a book on “global logistics and supply chain management“. Having said so, it is always difficult to find THE course book on SCM. Apart from mastering the content, a course-book should be well written, and ideally, be easy to adopt in a particular class. The last bit is tricky as it depends on the level of the class, the focus of the course, as well as e.g. regional interests in particular topics.

Thus a bit more than a year ago we discussed the issue of demand management related to course books. Things obviously changed since then – although publishing houses still visit us way after we have to make our decisions for the next year, some have implemented Árni’s idea of customised books on demand. Apparently a big hit in the US, custom publishing is now entering the European market as well. This will certainly facilitate innovative courses and a differentiation in the “course market”, plus the adaptation of course materials to questions of particular regional interest.

Out of curiosity, has any of you SCM educators used this kind of a system? What are your experiences with it?

Gyöngyi

“Pay attention” — do educators know their students?

Bloom’s Taxonomy to classify forms of learning was a frequent reference at a teaching competence programme I attended some years ago; a simple pyramid in several layers. But has technology changed the means educators — or more imporantly, students — can access to facilitate learning experience?

The notion of Faculty 2.0 discussed here was a welcome for educators that have not grown up with the same type or access to technology as their students. This piece on TeacherTube — Pay Attention — is a brief but gentle overview of core learning objectives and how our view on and experience with technology may differ.

Árni