IS THERE SUBSTANTIAL BENEFIT OF SHORT-TERM DOCTORAL WORKSHOPS IN MANAGEMENT?

Short-term doctoral workshops may help students in obtaining relevant knowledge and information need to prepare dissertations and papers. In addition, workshop is good place for discussing how the editorial process works in academic journals, how to claim a theoretical contribution for dissertation, how to use adequate research methods properly, and so on. It gives special occasion for sharing experience in doing and publishing research with eminent scholars who are supposed to lead these workshops.

The International OFEL conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia, hosted a Doctoral Student and Junior Faculty Workshop organized in collaboration with the two divisions of the Academy of Management: Managerial and Organisational Cognition Division (MOC) in period 2012.-2015 and Organization and Management Theory Division (OMT) in 2016. The mission of this workshop is to foster interaction among doctoral students and junior faculty from South East Europe, and between them and international scholars and editors of high ranking journals. Also it aims to transfer essential know-how on preparing dissertations and reputable papers. In the four years about eighty students attended these workshops.

We have conducted survey to identify participants’ satisfactions about workshop and to examine their benefits in preparing dissertations and papers. The paper examines the impact of workshop experience on participant research capabilities. It stresses problems that student faced on, including some other shortcomings and ambiguities that are related to such two-days workshops, as well.

This paper aims to provide a sound argumentation in favour of organisation short-term doctoral workshops in management area and lists subsequent benefits for participants who are expected to enter a competitive world of academia.