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MPA
8002 and MPA
8300 |
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The comprehensive examination is a capstone activity of a Master's degree program. The purpose of the comprehensive examination is not for students to regurgitate all of the content they have learned in their degree program. No, at the completion of their academic program, the comprehensive examination challenges candidates for the Master's degree to provide evidence of a more sophisticated capacity to engage in scholarly discourse concerning an area of academic expertise and to do so skillfully and competently, as educated women and men do. In approaching the comprehensive examination, then, it is important for students to envision—as their primary objective—being able to exhibit conversancy with the broad topics associated with their academic program and to demonstrate competency in using the language and tools used in scholarly discourse about those topics. After all, students could have read all of the textbooks and discussed the contents with a friend while imbibing in an adult beverage at a bar. What the comprehensive examination seeks to accomplish is to challenge the student to integrate the textbooks, projects, and classwork into statements that trace the intellectual history of one's field, indentifying ideas and their authors, the development of the field from its first inceptions to its present status, and potential future areas of exploration. The comprehensive examination questions... Several purposes guide the design of the comprehensive examination questions. First, the questions are designed to solicit from students their broad understanding of organization theory and leadership ethics. A thorough response to the questions identifies major theoretical notions (e.g., frames, images, metaphors, theories) that serve to describe organizations and provide insight into how they function (or don't) and what leadership ethics is (and isn't). In addition, a thorough response explicitly links these theoretical notions with their authors (and importantly, their writings in which the author explicated these notions) through appropriate identification and citation. The purpose for this first activity is to provide Master's degree candidates the opportunity to indicate their familiarity with the study of organizations and leadership ethics as well as those individuals who have made scholarly contributions to these areas of inquiry. It is not enough for students simply to restate the theories they have learned or to "name drop" (for students could accomplish all of this simply by reading books and never matriculating in a degree program). To achieve this outcome, as students review course related materials in preparation for the comprehensive examination, they might craft an outline using, as a perspective, a fictitious (or, perhaps actual) conversation they have had with a co-worker or friend about the materials studied in MPA 8002 and 8300. If a co-worker or friend were to ask where one might read further about the theoretical notions the students were discussing, where would the Master's degree candidates direct them? Second, the question is designed to solicit from students the concepts that guide scholarly discourse about organization theory and leadership ethics. A thorough response to the MPA 8002 and 8300 comprehensive examination questions demonstrates the students' academic sophistication, that is, students evidence the refined capacity to engage in substantive discourse about organizations and their functioning as well as leadership ethics by invoking otherwise unfamiliar terminology had the students not studied organization theory and leadership ethics and citing the literature appropriately. The purpose for this second activity is to provide Master's degree candidates an opportunity to communicate their broad understanding of organization theory and leadership ethics by using the terminology which indicates that students have carefully studied and grappled with the concepts of "organization" and "leadership ethics." Again, it is not enough for students simply to use disciplinary terminology but to use it in such a way that indicates one's conversancy with these concepts. To achieve this outcome, students should conceive of their responses to the comprehensive examination questions as if, at the completion of MPA 8002 and 8300, they went to a local pub and had a spirited discussion about organization theory and leadership ethics with the professor and other classmates. What terms would the professor expect the students to use and, were they to use jargon, would—in a friendly way of course—correct their misuse of language? Third, the questions for the comprehensive examination are designed to challenge students to relate the theories and terminology of organization theory and leadership ethics to practice episodes. A thorough response to the questions indicates the ability to relate theory to practice, that is, to make wise judgments about what may work (and why) or what will not work (and why not) in practice episodes. The purpose for this third activity is to provide Master's degree candidates an opportunity to bridge the divide frequently separating "theory" from "practice." Throughout MPA 8002 and 8300, it was asserted that theory does apply to practice and that it is important for managers/leaders to discern what theories do apply in the organizational context in which those individuals find themselves and the way in which those theories can be applied to solve the issues confronting managers/leaders and followers. While it is important that Master's degree candidates be capable of applying the theories and skills learned in MPA 8002 and 8300, in particular, and their degree programs, in general, to actual practice episodes, it is more important that students communicate how wise and ethical decisions are made and, ultimately, how managers/leaders bear personal responsibility for their decisions. Fourth, comprehensive examination questions are designed to challenge students to discuss potential areas where current theory is silent and may be important areas of intellectual pursuit and, eventually, professional practice in the future. This is perhaps the most important aspect of the comprehensive examinations for it reveals the degree to which the student has (or has not, as the case may be) developed insight into organization theory and leadership ethics. Having questioned, thought about, formulated, and tested all that one has learned, it is now time for students to state where these areas of inquiry have come from and presently are and to judge where these areas of inquiry may be headed. This is how the program culminates in the comprehensive examination, namely, the demonstration on the part of the student that one not only can think on one's own but also has insight into one's are of intellectual inquiry. To achieve this outcome, students should first review the sections of MPA 8002 and 8300 (the readings and class discussion) that focused upon ethics and ethical decision making. Then, students should reflect upon their MPA 8002 and 8300 projects (especially the section of the MPA 8002 organizational change plan where students critiqued the various resolutions proposed in the frame analysis section as well as the section that deals with one's learning as a consequence of completing the project and the MPA 8300 leadership ethics statement). Students should develop a clear, coherent, and concise statement synthesizing these materials. Some notes based on real experience... It is not at all unusual for students to approach the comprehensive examination with an admixture of dread, fear, anxiety, and doom. Much of this has to do with the perception that the comprehensive examination is designed to fail students. Nothing could be farther from the truth! As students progress through their Master's program, they take their courses and tend to view them as independent entities, for example, checking off each requirement as it is completed. As students take organization theory, research techniques, finance, human resources, leadership ethics, and courses dealing with legal issues and communication, students tend not to integrate what they are learning because students are very busy learning the content associated with each course. The comprehensive examination, then, provides candidates for the Master's degree the opportunity to conceive of their academic program as a single entity and to "tie the whole package together." In this sense, the comprehensive examination provides students the opportunity to impress others with their breadth of knowledge and understanding as well as their intellectual sophistication in being capable of integrating broad areas of scholarly inquiry into comprehensible syntheses. Understanding the comprehensive examination from this perspective should allay some of the dread, fear, anxiety, and doom if only because students are not expected to "know everything" in "minute detail." Some of the dread, fear, anxiety, and doom actually is good, however, because it provides a potent motive for students to engage in the hard work of synthesizing all of the academic work that precedes taking the comprehensive examination. As students begin their proximate preparations for the MPA 8002 and 8300 comprehensive examination questions, it is recommended that they overview the texts they have read, the notes they have taken, and the course project. This overview will serve to reorient students with course-related content. It is then recommended that students review the three purposes implicit in the design of the MPA 8002 and 8300 comprehensive questions identified above. When students have completed this activity, proximate preparations are finished. It is highly recommended that, once each student has prepared for the MPA 8002 and 8300 comprehensive examination questions, that all of the candidates for the comprehensive examination form a study group or Internet chat room. Students should duplicate their answers for (or e-mail them to) one another, discuss their responses, clarify conceptual ambiguities, and identify specific sources of theories. This activity provides an excellent opportunity to expand each student's response to include notions that may have been overlooked, to update one's knowledge base, and to refine one's response so that one is fully prepared to respond to the question. The only danger to avoid, however, is the "group think" effect whereby the members of the group convince themselves that they have achieved their collaborative purpose when, in fact, they have failed to do so. [NOTE: If the study group forms a chat room, it would be good to include the e-mail address of the professor who is writing the question so that the professor can engage in the conversation as is necessary and helpful.] Throughout the process of preparing for the MPA 8002 and 8300 comprehensive examination questions, should any student be unclear about a particular concept or theory or wondering if the direction one is charting is on target, that student should feel free to contact the professor who is writing the question. E-mail is an especially helpful medium for this as individual and group questions can be responded to immediately. The fear of failure... Over the years, a tiny fraction of candidates for the Master's degree has failed the MPA 8002 and 8300 comprehensive examination question. This fact cannot be denied nor should it be overlooked by students as they prepare for the comprehensive examination. What students should know about this fact and use to their advantage as they prepare for the comprehensive examination is that, in each case where a student has failed the MPA 8002 and 8300 comprehensive questions, it is because the student did not demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of organizational theory and leadership ethics that could otherwise have been acquired simply by reading books and restating what one has read. Why, it must be asked, should one spend thousands of dollars and countless hours sitting in classrooms, reading books at home and work, and completing projects and papers only to acquire knowledge that one could have otherwise acquired on one's own? This is not what a Master's degree program is designed for; neither is it what the comprehensive examination questions for MPA 8002 and 8300 are specifically designed to achieve. The critical difference between passing and failing the MPA 8002 and MPA 8300 comprehensive examination questions has to do with being able to provide evidence of a sufficient depth of knowledge, understanding, the ability to apply what one knows and understands, a refined ability to engage in scholarly discourse, and doing so using the conventions associated with academic work (that is, referencing and/or citing one's sources). A passing grade on the MPA 8002 and 8300 comprehensive examination questions certifies that the candidate has mastered these areas of scholarly inquiry, demonstrated the development of insight, and provided factual evidence of this ability in a concise, clear, and commendable way. Success is verified when professors are impressed by their students! |
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