Menu

CEGE Connection

Share.Learn.Inspire.Transform

Connect and Join the Dialogue

Archives for Research

CEGE Reflections – Dr. Oksana Shkurska

“As human beings, we communicate not only to exchange information, but also to satisfy our basic social needs, including a sense of connection and inclusion, which comes with belonging to a particular group. We need to love and be loved, build and sustain relationships, as well as give and receive empathy. It means we all have the need to connect emotionally with others on a personal level. We need to know that other individuals understand us and take our desires into consideration.”

– Dr. Oksana Shkurska-

Dr. Oksana Shkurska, Assistant Professor, Rowe School of Business

Read Dr. Shkurska’s full article here

Welcome to Dalhousie Campus

This summer we welcome our students back to campus; the first time since December 2019!!

The MIM Management of Privacy class arrived on August 4th; and the MBA FS/Leadership International Business class followed on August 5th.

Between August 4th – August  26th we will have the pleasure of hosting 10 intensive sessions representing 275 students.

For students who joined the program after January 2020, this will be their first time coming together in person for an intensive and we are delighted to meet you!

CEGE Reflections – Dr. Rick Nason

“Success, like utility, is a function of the individual.  You should celebrate the fact that what gives you utility (happiness) is as unique to you as your thumbprint or your DNA.”

– Dr. Rick Nason-

Dr. Rick Nason, Associate Professor, Faculty of Management

Read Dr. Nason’s full article here

 

Katie Moran: On Blended Learning and Management Skills

“I think there is no replacement for that in-person collaboration. I really feel it was instrumental in my learning process”.

Katie Moran, MPA(M), Class of 2022

 

Republished from Faculty of Management, News & Events

So much to learn: Katie Moran

Posted by Suzanne Bowness on June 22, 2022 in Students, Alumni & Friends

MPA(M) graduate appreciates blended learning and the opportunity to formalize management skills

Katie Moran, a white woman with wavy blonde highlighted hair wearing a turquoise shirt, in front of an Indigenous wood carving. When Katie Moran began to research masters’ programs, she was interested in finding one that would allow her to keep working full-time, and that combined online learning with face-to-face opportunities. “I attended an information session and what really drew me to Dalhousie was the blended online delivery, because I find online training pretty dull. To me, the real learning happens when you’re able to engage with others and collaborate,” says Katie.

Levelling up

Choosing the Master of Public Administration (Management) helped her move up several levels in the federal public service: when she started the program in 2017, she was a supervisor at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Today she’s Funding Manager for the Terrestrial Cumulative Effects Initiative (TCEI), an interdepartmental initiative led by Environment and Climate Change Canada. The TCEI is an accommodation measure for the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion project, which funds Indigenous-led projects that study the cumulative effects of natural resource development. Katie is a key lead on the design, implementation and delivery of project funding.

Even though she was already in middle management when she started the program (and an employee of the federal government since 2005), Katie says that the MPA helped her increase her knowledge about management within the public service. “If you want to be in management, or even on the policy side, there’s just so much that you can learn. I’m always, even with lots of thought, just hitting the tip of the iceberg,” she says, adding that the courses in the MPA even helped her to formalize her knowledge of some of the latest terminology and buzzwords in the public service. The classes also gave her a new connection to a range of public servants in different areas, a helpful expansion of her network.

While in the program, Katie was pleased to discover many opportunities to apply her learning through assignments that she could base on her work. In her Intergovernmental Relations course, she wrote an intergovernmental framework on collaborative development. “I was able to write it on my own initiative, which helped me not just learning the course material, but being able to dive deeper into what I was doing in my actual job,” she says.

Collaborative learning

In her Public Service Leadership course, a group project explored Indigenous leadership, something that relates directly to her new position. “Again, that was super helpful for the work that I do because I’m often working with Indigenous leaders,” she says. Today her work with the TCEI has her doing both of these things, working collaboratively with Indigenous communities.

Katie also engaged with the in-person intensives, travelling to Calgary and Ottawa to meet with her cohort until that element went virtual after 2019 due to the pandemic. “It gave me a great chance to meet people from different levels of government, as well as in the private sector. We had lots of really great discussions, and it’s harder to have those online. I think there is no replacement for that in-person collaboration. I really feel it was instrumental in my learning process,” she says.

For Katie, the opportunity to meet other public servants was a real bonus of the program, and her advice for fellow students is to lean into both the programs and those relationships, to get as much out of the experience as they can. “Really being able to understand and get an appreciation for the different kinds of work that public servants do at the different levels of government, like municipal and provincial, that I was really grateful for, being able to meet and really just understand more from other classmates,” she says.

CEGE Reflections – Terry Lampropoulos

“With a background in sciences, learning about topics like accounting, finance, marketing, and international business was a humbling but very worthwhile experience because I, like many of the alumni finishing MBAs, work in the banking industry.  I can say with confidence that the Dal MBA helped me progress in my career while I was a student, but it did something else – it helped me become a better teacher.”

-Terry Lampropoulos MBA(FS) Class of 2019-

Terry Lampropoulos MBA(FS) Class of 2019

Read Terry’s full article here

Jack Skerry: On Priorities, Perspective and Confidence

“it’s critical to be able to look at the same scenario from several different angles”.

Jack Skerry, MBA(L), (Class of 2021)

Jack Skerry & family 2021

One thing is certain when pursuing a graduate degree and that is balancing your priorities becomes essential. Family, friends, career and studies all require our attention. CEGE reached out to a recent Dal Alum to hear how he managed it all.

Since graduating in 2021 with a Master of Business Administration (MBA), Leadership degree, Jack Skerry shares his thoughts from the experience and some great learnings from his time in the CEGE MBA program.

 

Jack Skerry

Now that I’ve had a bit of time to sit back and reflect on what I pulled from my experience with the Dal MBA program, 3 distinct learnings come to mind:

  1. Figure out what’s important and prioritize it. Working full time (lots of travel), raising 2 very young children, and completing my MBA forced me to prioritize. The first step is to figure out what’s important. The next step is to prioritize the important stuff and deprioritize everything else.
  2. You need to look at a scenario and consider it from multiple perspectives. Looking at a scenario from a singular perspective will likely leave out some information, it’s critical to be able to look at the same scenario from several different angles.
  3. Learning is a skillset that needs practice, and this practice breeds confidence. For this reason, once I finished this program, I jumped outside of my comfort zone and took on a new role in a new functional area of business that I knew very little about.

CEGE Reflections – Heather Heggestad

“My time at DAL taught me many things but time management stands out beyond any others.  I learned to be selfish with my schedule, efficient with administrative tasks and productive at a very early hour!  It also taught me to stop and enjoy the little things along the way.  As strange as it sounds, I valued the time with my husband and children more and felt that I gave them more of ‘me’ during our time together because I knew that there was less of it to go around.”

– Heather Heggestad MBA(FS) Class of 2019-

Heather Heggestad MBA(FS) Class of 2019

Read Heather’s full article here

Research Profile: Heidi Weigand, Nyasha Mandeya, David Kerr, Kristin Williams, George Frempong, Kim Brooks, Rick Nason

Republished from Faculty of Management, Research, Research Profile

FoM Research Profile

Understanding collaboration practices guiding the road to economic well being of African–Nova Scotian communities

Collaboration exists as a midpoint on a continuum ranging from cooperation to partnership. Collaboration involves two or more parties acting together to achieve a common goal and can be used as a strategy to empower community economic prosperity. Despite the growing body of literature investigating ways to build collaborative relationships with Indigenous populations, there is a dearth of similar literature addressing collaborative relationship-building with Black communities. One objective of this community research partnership is to fill a gap in our understanding of the collaboration process with the goal of creating knowledge that can be used in an academic setting, workplace setting and in the community. Historically, there have been harmful relationships between Black communities and researchers, resulting in mistrust. By engaging in participatory action research (PAR), the project is putting an emphasis on building trust between participants in the study and the research team. PAR is an applied research approach in which participants—those with a stake in the outcomes of the research—take on an active co-researcher role. Our goal is co-create knowledge with community on how collaboration between organizations (e.g., academic institutions, government, non-profit) and the community can create innovative opportunities to remove systemic barriers for economic prosperity for marginalized African–Nova Scotian and Black community members in Halifax.

Community Partner: Delmore Buddy Daye Learning Institute, Dr. George Frempong and Sylvia Parris.
Grant Funder: Mitacs Accelerate Grant – $30,000

EY Park: Personal quest and continued research

“The MIM at DAL has been a source of energy and enabling knowledge”.

EY Park, MIM, Class of 2021

EY Park, MIM, Class of 2021
Photo Provided

EY Park graduated in 2021 from Dalhousie University’s School of Information Management’s, MIM Program. CEGE reached out to EY to learn more about what this education experience has meant and what plans EY has since completing the program.

EY Park

The MIM at DAL has been a source of energy and enabling knowledge. My Master of Information Management degree has reignited and pushed my personal quest in search for purpose in the theory/mechanism/implications behind the use, and the inherent bias of “data”.

My experience at DAL and the hybrid (pre-Covid) MIM program has been exceptional, from the faculty to my peers.  I have taken back with me cherished memories and a love for Halifax!

Look forward to extending for my doctorate and continuing research in bias of ontologies in the future years to come.

Patrick Law: On Grade Advice and Program Success

“Be openly curious of those not in your industry when on the discussion boards. Respectfully compare experiential similarities and differences. Cross pollination of ideas is equal to innovation in this grad school program”.

-Patrick Law, MBA(L), Class of 2022-

Patrick Law, MBA(L), Class of 2022
Photo Provided

Having first met Patrick Law in 2018 in Dr. McLarney’s International Business course, there was always something to learn from him. A few months later we represented Dalhousie University at an on-line International Business Strategy Simulation competition against 10 to 11 other universities and business schools to become the 2018 GLO-BUS BSI “Grand Champions”.

Fast forward to 2022 and Patrick’s influence can be seen to those who reach out for GLO-BUS advice or those looking for guidance through the online ‘MBA FSL Community Connection’ site. Patrick recently completed his MBA, Leadership degree with top marks through the CEGE program at Dalhousie University. Patrick speaks with experience and offers great advice for those just starting out or considering this grad school program.

Patrick Law

I enjoyed the CEGE program for my MBA at Dalhousie. Here are some things I am grateful for and would like to pass on to those currently in the program on how I have or seen others get good grades.

⁃ Lean in with your experiences. Don’t be shy in telling your professors of the valid and on topic experiences you have had in business that either ratify or contradict prevailing business teachings.

⁃ Expand your human and business vocabulary through experimentation. There is no better time to try on wildly different philosophies of business than in this community. Humbly displaying this type of courage will be rewarded with up grade skew.

⁃ Be openly curious of those not in your industry when on the discussion boards. Respectfully compare experiential similarities and differences. Cross pollination of ideas is equal to innovation in this grad school program.

⁃ Keep up on as many of the readings as possible. This will give you the breadth of the education being offered. But ignore the breadth of readings when you find a rabbit hole you like. These welcome stops will keep you fresh for the marathon of readings.

⁃ Be willing to abandon grades for the sake of your education. The program is surprisingly resilient to these deviations and your grades may actually improve because of it.

⁃ Comparative economic advantage exists. Allow those who are obviously superior than you to do most of the hard work on group projects. Do all you can of the other stuff to make it an equal trade.

⁃ Intellectual humility causes competitive advantage. Even when it may seem obvious to you that a teacher or student is wrong, dig into what makes them believe they are right. It will protect you from short-term bias errors and allow you to identify competitive advantages in business later.

⁃ Be obsessed with the truth. This is a graduate program not a parrot school. No professor wants to hear the same old. They will routinely tell you so. Listen to them.

⁃ Be ritualistically creative. Read your response to an assignment, on camera, to your four year old like it was Dr. Seuss and submit that. If your response was half decent it will get you the A+.

⁃ Familiarity breeds good grades. Routinely call up you professors during their office hours to discuss the responses you will be giving to assignments prior to submitting your assignments. You will learn, and when they see your assignment, they will be prepared to grade you well.

⁃ Procrustes was wrong. Those who are unwilling to modify their approach to the program will lose motivation. It is up to you to optimize your education.

 

TOP