Dr. Carolan McLarney: Lessons of Exploration

October 26, 2021 denisehinds Leave a Comment

The Rowe School of Business through the Faculty of Management has many innovative and exceptionally talented Professors.

Dr. Carolan McLarney is one of them as evidenced by her recent collaboration efforts to facilitate a virtual presentation with a Dalhousie alum who recently climbed Mount Everest.

Professor McLarney enhances the Strategic Leadership and Change capstone experience with lessons of exploration, communication and leadership that resonate and inspire program participants involved.

Dr. Carolan McLarney and Dalhousie alum Kevin Walsh (DDS’90)
in the new state-of-the-art studio in the Centre for Executive and Graduate Education in the Faculty of Management.

Dr. McLarney’s virtual presentation during the Strategic Leadership
and Change capstone course (MBA FS/L).

What lessons can students gain from the Mount Everest lecture and presentation?

Dr. Carolan McLarney:

There are three big lessons that come from the Everest lecture and were reinforced by Kevin’s presentation. First, we need to be more open to others. We must listen to what they tell us, understand what they see in us, and know that at their core they are genuinely good. Second, we need to create safe places within our teams (be they at work, in our communities or at home). These need to be places where all ideas are discussed and people engage in constructive dialogues. Finally, we need to be more accepting of the complexity in our world. Given what we have experienced over the past 18 months, I hope we have learned that many times in life things happen that are unexpected and difficult to perceive or comprehend. However, if we are open to those around us and have created safe spaces for everyone, then we can do the impossible: we can climb our own personal Everest.

Republished from Dal News

Stephen Abbott – August 27, 2021

MOUNT EVEREST ASCENT CARRIES CAREER LESSONS FOR DENTISTRY ALUM

Stephen Abbott – August 27, 2021

Rappel practice. (Provided photos)

From the peak of the highest mountain in the world to his dental practice in Windsor, Nova Scotia, Dalhousie alum Kevin Walsh (DDS’90) has learned a lot about leadership and strategy. It’s those lessons he shared with Dal graduate students this week.

Dr. Walsh, who summitted Mount Everest earlier this year, spoke with Carolan McLarney’s Strategic Leadership and Change capstone course for students in the MBA Financial Service and MBA Leadership programs.

For years, Dr. McLarney has been teaching a case study about the 1996 Everest disaster where eight mountaineers died in a blizzard. She asks what can be learned from the tragedy, from the perspective of a business professional. So, when Dr. McLarney saw an article about a Nova Scotian Dalhousie alum climbing Mount Everest in the middle of the pandemic, she wondered if he’d be interested in speaking with her students.

“I found his email address off his dental practice and wrote to him. He wrote me back and said, ‘I would love to chat about my time on Everest and climbing — but I’m in Kathmandu,” she says. When he got back in Canada, Dr. Walsh called her up and they were able to arrange a virtual presentation through the new state-of-the-art studio in the Centre for Executive and Graduate Education in the Faculty of Management.

Chain of command

In his presentation, Dr. Walsh discussed all the different aspects that go into summiting Everest, from training to preparation and communication.

He got hooked on mountaineering while stationed in Germany as a military dentist. He and his brother came across a mountain-climbing school and decided to try it out. At the time, he never thought he would climb Everest, but eventually after gaining more experience that once far-fetched idea became reality.

“Eight years ago, I decided I was ready for Everest, and I needed to make sure I had the proper training and planning,” he says.

After his extensive training, he left Nova Scotia earlier this year and his group summitted on May 23. It takes about 60 days to safely climb the almost 9,000-metre-tall mountain.

“Mountaineering is inherently a risky undertaking, especially if you’re not prepared. Leadership is so, so important,” Dr. Walsh says. “We had a great leader. I picked the guy I wanted to go with.”

“The chain of command has to be clear. If anything goes wrong, there needs to be a ‘buck stops here’ approach from the leader. It has to be clear who is in charge of what.”

‘Almost anything is possible’

Dr. Walsh, who has operated his family dental practice for 27 years, is no stranger to running a business.

“Getting your headspace around an expedition of this magnitude — planning, preparation is key and that applies to the business world. Having faith in your coworkers, or in the mountaineering case your fellow climbers is super important. You rely on each — you’re hanging off a rope together — and I think that lesson is also true in the corporate world.”

Dr. McLarney says she thinks the MBA students — who come from a diverse range of industries — walked away understanding “what it is to pursue your passions and be a good global citizen.”

Dr. Walsh echoed that sentiment while reflecting on his experience. “If you set your goals and have a plan and put it all in motion, almost anything is possible. I wouldn’t have guessed 10 years ago that I would have been standing at the top of the world back in May, but with the right approach you can get stuff done.”

Dr. Carolan McLarney: The Power of Ideas

May 25, 2021 rbudd 1 Comment

Dr. Carolan McLarney

Like many times in my life, what started off as a fleeting idea turned into an exhausting but rewarding experience.

On Sunday April the 4^th, I had an idea, to see if we could try to replicate, as close as possible, a classroom experience. I thought “What if during our International Business students could sit in front of their laptops at home at the office or wherever and look at me as if I were standing right front of them in the classroom.” How would we do that? So that evening I wrote an email to Derek, Cassandra and Michelle and said “Do you think there’s any way we could actually try and replicate a classroom experience? What if you filmed me in a classroom and we just pretended as though the students were sitting in front of me?”

On April the 7^th, I walked into the Executive Classroom (which many of you would know) and there was Derek (masked) with three different cameras, two different microphones, this massive TV screen, tons of lighting and every kind of technology you could ever imagine. Online was the CEGE team, who had given up part of their day to see if this technology could work. We experimented for a long time that day to figure out what camera angle worked, were to stand , how to move. Morgan had great ideas in terms of the presentation itself…. the font size, the colour, the background, what would work best on camera. Sarah was great at telling me when I was out of range. She would say….you need to hit your marks.

At one point, we got some masking tape and put X’s on the floor to where I could stand and where I could not. Cassandra was great for saying “you know when you’re standing this way your voice is kind of trailing off a bit”. Michelle, as always saw it the way the students would see it, she would say if you looked at the camera more often that would probably be a great idea. And throughout all this, Derek is running around changing the lighting, the microphones, and the camera angles. We rehearsed again the next week and we had our last dress rehearsal on the 19^th, two days before we went “Live”.

On Wednesday April the 21st at 9:00 o’clock we started with students that were across this country literally, from Newfoundland all the way across Canada out to Victoria. We started and we said to them this is an experiment it may go badly but we hope it doesn’t. For the next three days Derek and I (masked , socially distanced, with lots of hand washing) ran the IB intensive. I taught the same way I would teach if the students were sitting in front of me. We had the students interacting. We had students working in breakout rooms, we had guest speakers and at the end of it I came away and thought that’s about as close as we’re going to get. Then Derek turned to me and said “Oh I think we can do even better. We can do even better….you just wait to see what we can do so for SLC this summer!”

To the students that were with us on this new adventure, I want to thank you. It was an experiment and it was a tough one at times. At times the mic went down, or I was kind of out of range, and at times the lighting didn’t work. At one point in time Derek and I actually were hauling in a coat rack so we could mount a light on top of it so that half my face did not make me look like the I was the stand-in for the Phantom of the Opera.

For the students, I think the real take away from this was that it was a different experience they had than for other virtual intensives. The idea that they could sit across from me, with each other and all of us interacting well that came true.

While this was a stopgap measure until we can get ourselves sitting literally in front of each other I think it may be part of the future. If we can make this a way that you can sit anywhere and be engaged, be challenged, to stretch your thinking, to be able to interact with each other, then what a wonderful tool to have in our toolkit.

What started out as an idea turned into three dress rehearsals, three different cameras, multiple microphones, every kind of lighting system you could ever imagine, a massive TV screen, and complete destruction and restoration of the Dean’s Boardroom. It involved incredible support and help from my TA Irena who managed to monitor and moderate all of our discussions. Derek who was my unfailing audience all the way through this who often put his hand up when nobody was answering any of my questions. To Michelle and Sarah and Morgan and Cassandra who gave me invaluable advice, thank you for helping turn the idea into reality. The feedback from the students from both Intensives (yes, we did this twice over 10 days) agree that this was an intensive unlike others, which at the end of it all was the whole point of the exercise.

Dr. Carolan McLarney: Value in the Virtual

November 24, 2020 rbudd 1 Comment

Dr. Carolan McLarney
Professor
Faculty of Management
Dalhousie University

I was recently interviewed for a Dal Magazine article about moving my undergraduate course to a virtual environment. At the time, I was reflecting about the beginnings of the MBA (Financial Services) Program. I started teaching in the program in 1999 and at the time there was no such thing as BrightSpace. We did not have webpages where students could post questions or comments. We did not have course videos. We had lesson notes, but they were in paper form only. Students would fax in their assignments. We had a “discussion space” kind of thing, where students could post questions to me and I could post them back, but it was really no more than a Listserv.

I think of where we are today with completely virtual classes within the MBA (Financial Services/ Leadership) Program. We have remarkable technology that we use now in terms of videos and quizzes and interactive tools . My ability to successfully move COMM 1010 (Business in A Global Context), my first year undergraduate class to an online environment was due to the fact that I had spent 20 plus years teaching in the MBA (FS/L) Program.

There is so much that has changed in those 20 years, but not the nature of the students. Our students are adaptable, flexible, and smart. They know how to use technology and they know how to use it to their advantage. I hope you enjoy the article as it gives me hope. When I think about our undergraduate and our graduate students, I know they will thrive and grow in any environment in which they find themselves. My hope is that if we can excel at teaching online it will open us up to even greater possibilities and greater opportunities for all our programs

Excerpt from the DALMAGAZINE: Shifting Gears

How can we best prime students for life as business professionals? That’s the underlying objective in Carolan McLarney’s Business in a Global Context course, a large first-year class aimed at undergraduate students interested in business.

While the answer to the question naturally shifts from year to year as the world itself changes, 2020 brought about a more dramatic upheaval than most as the pandemic battered economies and reshaped the way business is done. Remote work became the norm for many businesses and organizations, a trend that seems to have stuck is some cases even after restrictions loosened and a way of working that could become the new normal in the event of future outbreaks.

Dr. McLarney says her course this fall provides an opportunity for students to hone their digital savvy to meet the needs of this new era, given that—like most other courses at Dal—it’s being taught entirely online. “If anybody can work anywhere in the world now, then if you are exceptionally good at doing remote work, the possibilities for you as an employee are endless,” says Dr. McLarney. “That’s what we’ll be trying to teach them.”

Adapting a course for hundreds of students, including a large contingent of international students positioned in different countries and time zones, was no small feat. Dr. McLarney made a point of incorporating both synchronous (happening at a specific time) and asynchronous (can be accessed anytime) elements into the course to allow students flexibility. She holds two live synchronous lectures each Thursday, which are then made available as recordings. Students are divided into smaller groups for tutorials, which this year are pre-recorded and available each Friday. And rather than office hours, students book individual appointments.

“I think in a way this move to online is going to make us much better for every student,” she says. “I speak very quickly, and for students whose first language isn’t English, I think it can be a little overwhelming. So, wouldn’t it be great if you could just go back a few frames or go forward or pause and make some notes? This will probably make my course much more accessible.”

What won’t change are expectations of students. They’ll still be required to give presentations, do group work, take part in a business simulation, present themselves professionally, and complete assignments on time—only now, they’ll do so virtually. Even an annual networking event that’s organized in partnership with Dal’s Management Career Services is moving online, with students being offered opportunities to drop into different rooms and meet representatives from various companies.

If this fall is done well across the university, Dr. McLarney says, it could reveal a major opportunity to grow Dal’s student population and equalize education. “If we get very good at this, then we can reach parts of the world and portions of the population who don’t have access to education,” she says. “Wouldn’t that be just remarkable?”

Dr. McLarney on Marks vs. Scholarship

October 1, 2019 rbudd 2 Comments

Dr. Carolan McLarney
Professor
Faculty of Management
Dalhousie University

International Business was my opening MBA (FS) course. In my first e-mail to Dr. McLarney back in 1999, I asked how would I know whether I was on track with my studies. Rather than highlighting “marks,” she suggested that I give voice to my ideas, solutions, arguments, which were to be based on solid research and objective analysis but tempered with humanity and compassion. It was a liberating answer.

Fast forward to 2017, I asked Dr. McLarney to recall her advice on the importance of scholarship. She graciously agreed to share her thoughts in an open letter to our alumni community.

Hello Everyone,

I first want to congratulate everyone who has made CEGE Connection a reality. This is a great opportunity for our alumni community to share knowledge and experiences.

Rebecca shared with me the email below that I had sent her in the early days of her first course: International Business. As I read what I had wrote to her I began reflecting on my time here at Dalhousie as an educator, researcher and scholar. I have included both the original email and my current thoughts on “marks vs. scholarship:

From Fall 1999:

“A discussion on marks vs scholarship really struck a chord within me. Not for the obvious reason, my profession, but rather I was reflecting on my days as a doctoral student.

When I had made the decision to pursue a PhD. I really had no real clue what I was getting myself into. I remember my conversation with David, my Managing Director, centered on my desire to teach. He said I could stay with the firm and teach part-time if I wanted to, or I could pursue a doctorate and come back and consult and teach. So, for me I had a wonderful safety net in my toolbox as I entered my PhD. Once I entered the program, it quickly became evident to me that completing a PhD had nothing to do with teaching and we were told very early on to drop that dream. My office mate Ed, who now is my writing partner also wanted to teach, so we became this little band of undercover teachers. All these years later Ed and I still write and still teach with passion and commitment.

Being a doctoral student is a terrifying but freeing experience. An MBA does not prepare you in any way for a PhD. It is never about marks or assignments. When I started, the course syllabus was often a list of 50-70 books, 300 articles and this sentence “On (insert last day of class) you will submit a journal ready article”. It was expected that you would then submit that article the next semester to the journal you had chosen. It was a daunting experience, but one that was the best training as a researcher. My work was about creating new knowledge, defining my scholarship – not about getting an A. That was a major paradigm shift for me.

My hope for MBA students is that they will experience a “shift” when they engage in their studies. And for a vibrant alumni community I send out this reminder: that we are continually challenged by measurement systems. Instead of reaching for the mark, reach for a greater prize: scholarship. That choice has made all the difference in my world.”

Fast forward to Winter 2017

“I am now 25 years into my career as an academic and the one thing that I know is that you never finish anything completely. This may seem strange, but for me I feel I am a “practicing academic”. No lecture or paper is ever perfect; they can always be improved.

My teaching has evolved, and hopefully improved, to address the ever-changing student body. When I began teaching in the MBA-FS program the majority of the students knew of a life before the internet, today the majority know of no life before Google or Amazon (not the river). When I began, students in our program “faxed” their assignments into the OEGP office, today everything is done thorough our learning platform Brightspace. I have had to adapt and to adopt new ways of teaching and connecting with students. What has not changed is my belief in the power of ideas, the written word, and setting aside time to think. I always start the intensive for capstone course with this: “What I want this week to be is a time for reflection, a time to think about the past number of years you have spent in the program, and time to ponder the challenges and great opportunities that lay ahead.” This is what I hope for our Alumni, that you have continued to carve out time to think. Time to sit with a problem, an issue, an idea. Time to let your thoughts percolate. Time to let your mind wander.

When I look at my research over the years, I also see it has evolved. My early days were spent trying to get parts of my dissertation published. My dissertation was the largest research project I had ever completed. It was also the worst because it was the first. Today, and three dozen articles later, and I can say I am better. I am better at articulating my ideas, better at structuring research studies, better at reaching my intended audience. My doctoral supervisor once said to me that I was entering the most wonderful profession, “They are going to pay you to think, to write and to disseminate what you find.” He was right, but what he failed to tell me was the enormous obligation to get it right. So, I continue each day to “practice”. To think and re-think an idea. To write and re-write and re-write, again, a paper. To present paper after paper until my ideas are heard.

To all of our students and Alumni, I want to encourage you to continue to practice all that you learned in your time with us. Always take the time to reflect and appreciate all of your accomplishments.”

Take Care

Dr. M

Dr. C. McLarney
Professor
Faculty of Management
Dalhousie University
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

From the CEGE Connection Archives: First published March 21, 2017

Dr. Carolan McLarney: Home and Away -The Effective Use of Simulations in Graduate Blended Learning Programs

July 2, 2019 rbudd Leave a Comment

“The one lesson I wanted to share with the audience is that simulations are a powerful tool, but they only work if all parties, both students and instructors, are fully engaged. This requires a combination of vigilance and enthusiasm on all sides.”

Dr. Carolan McLarney

Dr. Carolan McLarney was the keynote speaker at the 7^th Teaching & Education Conference organized by the International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences

Dr. Carolan McLarney:

On May 21st I was honoured to give the keynote address at the annual International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences Conference held at the University of London in London, England. The speech was entitled Home and Away: The Effective Use of Simulations in Graduate Blended Learning Programs.

It was centred on the concept that simulations can be effective tools in creating deeper learning. “It is a technique to replace and amplify real experiences with guided ones, often “immersive” in nature, that evoke or replicate substantial aspects of the real world in a fully interactive fashion.” (Lateef, 2010).

The first part of the talk explored the impact of three factors (individual, group and organization) on the overall efficacy of the simulation. Each of the factors can singularly effect simulation outcomes, but often they work in tandem. For instance, systematic biases at the individual level can exacerbate issues of team effectiveness. Similarly, an ineffective team would have difficulty overcoming organizational complexity. This means that instructors must be cognizant of the possible deleterious effects of the three factors on the simulation and on the desired outcomes for the course.

Dr. Carolan McLarney

In the second half of the presentation I walked through the four different simulations I have used in the MBA(FS/L) program beginning in 1999. They vary in delivery mode (paper to on-line) and in timelines (an afternoon to full semester).

The Kalimantan Paper Project is a paper-based, three-hour negotiation simulation where groups of students work to create a “sellable” deal. The Global Shoe Company is an on-line competitive simulation that we have run over the course of a four-day intensive. We have used the Everest: Leadership & Team Simulation in the Capstone Strategy Class for the past number of years. It is an on-line interactive simulation where teams attempt to climb Everest. Finally, GLO-BUS is a full semester on-line competitive simulation where teams try to win global market dominance in the Drone and Wearable Camera industry. Interestingly the first year we ran the simulation our winning team went on to eventually becoming the 2018 GLO-BUS BSI “Grand Champions”.

The one lesson I wanted to share with the audience is that simulations are a powerful tool, but they only work if all parties, both students and instructors, are fully engaged. This requires a combination of vigilance and enthusiasm on all sides.

Dr. Carolan McLarney

Dr. C. McLarney

Faculty of Management
Dalhousie University
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Editor’s Note: The Centre for Executive and Graduate Education (CEGE) provides opportunities for deeper learning by delivering robust course content in ways that engage students to study, integrate and apply what they have learned. Deeper learning fosters competencies required to participate within our social milieu: critical thinking, collaborative and communication skills. CEGE’s commitment to their students was dramatically evidenced in the GLO-BUS Simulation introduced by Dr. Carolan McLarney in the 2018 winter semester of International Business.

Dr. Carolan McLarney: Mary Parker Follett on Leadership

March 27, 2018 rbudd 2 Comments

“Leadership is not defined by the exercise of power but by the capacity to increase the sense of power among those led. The most essential work of the leader is to create more leaders.” Mary Parker Follett

Dr. Carolan McLarney

Dr. Carolan McLarney has explored the remarkable life of Mary Parker Follett since her doctoral days. 2018 is the 150th anniversary of Follett’s birth as well as the 100th anniversary of her book, The New State: Group Organization the Solution of Popular Government. To honour this milestone, Dr. McLarney has graciously agreed to give a series of interviews over the course of 2018 which will highlight her research on Mary Parker Follett. What will surprise you, as it did me: many “cutting edge” concepts we think came from our “modern time” had their origins in the writings of Mary Parker Follett. We invite you to join the discussion over the coming year and welcome your thoughts and comments.

Dr. Carolan McLarney

Mary Parker Follett lived in the United States from 1868 to 1933. A writer, political analyst, social activist, philosopher, lecturer, colleague and friend, she lived in a time when the United States was undergoing great changes resulting from increased urbanization and industrialization. It was not the age of the feminist, but somehow Mary Parker Follett penetrated the inner sanctum of some of the world’s leading organizations (Rowntree’s of England and Dennison’s of the United States to name two). She observed and commented on the workings of these organizations, and from them, she formulated an encompassing theory of leadership.

Mary Parker Follett wrote about leaders and leadership in the early part of the last century. Her work in leadership theory from a historical Organizational Behaviour perspective finds resonance in the theories from 1902 all the way to to-day. There is no single theory which seems to encompass her writings, but rather there are elements scattered throughout the over 3,000 empirical studies on leadership. Mary Parker Follett’s view of leadership can be found in the early literature on Trait Theory, which argues that leaders are born possessing the affinity and characteristics for leadership, to Fielder’s Contingency Theory which focuses on style and control over a situation. She also believed that there were a number of qualities that comprise leadership. In the Essentials of Leadership, she wrote:

“…tenacity, sincerity, fair dealings with all, steadfastness of purpose, depth of conviction, control of temper, tact, steadiness in stormy periods, ability to meet emergencies, power to draw forth and develop latent possibilities of others…” (1933, p. 45)

While Mary Parker Follett believed that these qualities enhanced leadership, she did not accept that these qualities were the only aspect of leadership. She believed that leaders were neither born nor simply created, but rather there exists an element of both in a good leader. Leaders could not be simply identified by just their traits or just their behaviours. Miss Follett felt leadership could be learned and strongly endorsed leadership training. Leadership involved gaining an understanding the organization and management; in other words, she felt that as a successful leader you had to know your job. A good leader knows their place in the organization and “his relation to all the other parts.”(Leader and Expert, 1930)

Mary Parker Follett wrote in The New State: Group Organization the Solution of Popular Government, that a leader can only lead the group from within the group. It is within the group that the leader can come to understand what the group’s goal(s) means to each member of the group. It is within the group that the leader can determine the varying interests of the group members and harmonize any conflicting interests through two-way communication. Only from within can they reconcile these interests to the group’s goal(s).

“…the leader of our neighbourhood group must interpret our experience to us, must see all the different points of view which underlie our daily activities and also their connections, must adjust the varying and often conflicting needs, must lead the group to an understanding of its needs and to a unification of its purpose.“(1918, p. 61)

Mary Parker Follett did not finish her theory with the search for universal behaviours, she broadened her view with the idea that leadership is situationally influenced. Miss Follett understood that leadership depended and changed according to the situation within which the group found themselves.

Dr. Carolan McLarney, Professor
Rowe School of Business

Prior to completing her doctorate, Dr. McLarney held management positions in various companies in the hospital, transportation, and consulting sectors. Her research interests include the interface between small businesses and international business strategy, and the use of strategic alliances to garner success. Dr. McLarney also explores issues relating to board governance, particularly the use of outside directors.

In Search of Mary Parker Follett

December 18, 2017 rbudd 4 Comments

“Our political life is stagnating, capital and labor are virtually at war, the nations of Europe are at one another’s throats – because we have not yet learned how to live together. The twentieth century must find a new principle of association. Crowd philosophy, crowd government, crowd patriotism must go. The herd is no longer sufficient to enfold us.”

Mary Parker Follett, The New State, Introduction, 1918

Borthwick Institute for Archives, University of York

Last year, on December 18^th, I was preparing for the holidays, wrapping last-minute presents and meeting up with friends to celebrate the season of peace, hope and joy.

This year, I am remembering that Mary Parker Follett passed away on this day, in 1933. While this may seem a solemn event, out of sync with this festive time of year, I find it appropriate to be commemorating a life well-lived. I am grateful that I have been introduced to a woman who lived a remarkable life, and shared, without hesitation, her extraordinary insight on organizational theory and organizational behavior.

I had never heard of Mary Parker Follett. Nor did I know that she is considered the “Mother of Modern Management” and is deemed, even now, as a foremost authority on democracy and social organization. January 2017, Dr. Cam McLarney introduced me to Mary Parker Follett when she invited me to be her research assistant.

Dr. McLarney was awarded a Dalhousie University Rowe Research Grant to build upon her current research on Mary Parker Follet. Dating to her doctoral days in 1992, Dr. McLarney had focused her research and writing on Mary Parker Follett’s work, specifically in the areas of leadership and vision. This project would expand into the areas of corporate governance and social responsibility, and explore the role of management consultants in this area.

This research project sent me to the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York, in the United Kingdom. At the same time, I conducted my personal unofficial and undocumented mini-research project that involved asking everyone who I met if they had every heard of Mary Parker Follett. Not one person recognized the name!

Borthwick Institute for Archives

2018 is the 150th anniversary of Follett’s birth as well as the 100th anniversary of her book, The New State. To honour this milestone, Dr. McLarney has graciously agreed to give a series of interviews over the course of 2018 which will highlight her research on Mary Parker Follett. What will surprise you, as it did me: many “cutting edge” concepts we think came from our “modern” time, had their origins in the writings of Mary Parker Follett.

We invite you to join the discussion over the coming year. We welcome your thoughts and comments.

Rebecca Budd MBA(FS) Class of 2003
Blog Coordinator, CFAME Connection

Dr. McLarney on Marks vs Scholarship

March 21, 2017 rbudd 6 Comments

Dr. Carolan McLarney

“My work was about creating new knowledge, defining my scholarship – not about getting an A.”

Dr. Carolan McLarney, Professor
Faculty of Management
Dalhousie University

International Business was my opening MBA (FS) course. In my first e-mail to Dr. McLarney back in 1999, I asked how would I know whether I was on track with my studies. Rather than highlighting “marks”, she suggested that I give voice to my ideas, solutions, arguments, which were to be based on solid research and objective analysis but tempered with humanity and compassion. It was a liberating answer.

Fast forward to 2017, I asked Dr. McLarney to recall her advice on the importance of scholarship. She graciously agreed to share her thoughts in an open letter to our alumni community.

Hello Everyone,

I first want to congratulate everyone who has made CFAME Connection a reality. This is a great opportunity for our alumni community to share knowledge and experiences.

From Fall 1999:

“A discussion on marks vs scholarship really struck a chord within me. Not for the obvious reason, my profession, but rather I was reflecting on my days as a doctoral student.

When I had made the decision to pursue a PhD. I really had no clue what I was getting myself into. I remember my conversation with David, my Managing Director, centered on my desire to teach. He said I could stay with the firm and teach part-time if I wanted to, or I could pursue a doctorate and come back and consult and teach. So, for me I had a wonderful safety net in my toolbox as I entered my PhD. Once I entered the program, it quickly became evident to me that completing a PhD had nothing to do with teaching and we were told very early on to drop that dream. My office mate Ed, who now is my writing partner also wanted to teach, so we became this little band of undercover teachers. All these years later Ed and I still write and still teach with passion and commitment.

Fast forward to Winter 2017

My teaching has evolved, and hopefully improved, to address the ever-changing student body. When I began teaching in the MBA-FS program the majority of the students knew of a life before the internet, today the majority know of no life before Google or Amazon (not the river). When I began, students in our program “faxed” their assignments into the OEGP office, today everything is done through our learning platform Brightspace. I have had to adapt and to adopt new ways of teaching and connecting with students. What has not changed is my belief in the power of ideas, the written word, and setting aside time to think. I always start the intensive for capstone course with this: “What I want this week to be is a time for reflection, a time to think about the past number of years you have spent in the program, and time to ponder the challenges and great opportunities that lay ahead.” This is what I hope for our Alumni, that you have continued to carve out time to think. Time to sit with a problem, an issue, an idea. Time to let your thoughts percolate. Time to let your mind wander.

When I look at my research over the years, I also see it has evolved. My early days were spent trying to get parts of my dissertation published. My dissertation was the largest research project I had ever completed. It was also the worst because it was the first. Today, and three dozen articles later, and I can say I am better. I am better at articulating my ideas, better at structuring research studies, better at reaching my intended audience. My doctoral supervisor once said to me that I was entering the most wonderful profession, “They are going to pay you to think, to write and to disseminate what you find.” He was right, but what he failed to tell me was the enormous obligation to get it right. So, I continue each day to “practice”. To think and re-think an idea. To write and re-write and re-write, again, a paper. To present paper after paper until my ideas are heard.

Take Care

Dr. M

Archives for The Power of Ideas

MOUNT EVEREST ASCENT CARRIES CAREER LESSONS FOR DENTISTRY ALUM

Chain of command

‘Almost anything is possible’