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PhD Programme

Why do your PhD at London Business School?

The Ph.D. programme in Organisational Behaviour is designed to train students to become scholars in the field and take academic jobs in research-oriented universities around the world. We expect students to take four years to complete the Ph.D., during which we expect them to learn to conduct original empirical research, tutor and teach, and internalise the professional values and traditions of the field.

First among the objectives of the program is to develop students' research skills. This objective includes helping students to learn to 1) formulate research questions that are important and interesting; and 2) design and conduct high quality research to address those questions. The requirements of the doctoral programme are designed to address these two objectives. For example, required seminars in Organisational Behaviour, as well as other disciplines, will familiarize students with theory and research that is viewed as central to the field; research methods courses and research assistantships will help students understand the practical and theoretical issues underlying high-quality studies; required papers will ask students to execute and develop skills; and evaluations by faculty will provide feedback on the progress made toward becoming independent scholars. More detail is provided below, but the essential point here is this - programme requirements are designed to facilitate the development of high-quality scholars, who will be equipped for careers in leading international academic institutions.

Structure of the programme

We expect students to take four years to complete the PhD. In that time, students will be required to:
• Complete coursework in theory, methodology, and statistical methods (12 courses over the first two years)
• Conduct original research - we encourage students to get involved in research as soon as possible and to collaborate with different faculty members. Faculty members are very interested in working with students, in supporting students' ideas, and in finding resources to help students in their research agendas. Simultaneously, we understand that students need guidance and the programme requirements are geared towards helping students build their CVs so that they are ready to present, publish, and teach upon graduation.

Research topics

The mission of the Organisational Behaviour subject area is to be the most creative, top quality OB Group in the world, through its distinctive high profile research agenda, teaching portfolio, and executive education involvement. Current work engages issues such as leadership, corporate boards, creativity, group dynamics, cross-cultural teams, family firms, HR/careers, negotiations, and organisational design, considering how these relate to business performance and entrepreneurship. Our work is both theory-driven and close to practice, taking advantage of our position in the heart of London as a leading global centre for business.

Faculty in the Organisational Behaviour group are focused on both Micro Organisational Behaviour - the study of individual and group behaviour in an organisational context, and Macro Organisational Behaviour - the study of how institutional and social forces affect organisations and the people in them. We draw heavily on theory from psychology and sociology, and often publish in discipline-based, as well as management journals. Some primary outlets for our work include: Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, American Sociology Review, Human Resource Management, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Organization Science and Research in Organizational Behavior.

Research Culture and Facilities

The LBS OB group thrives on being an open-minded intellectual community where faculty and students engage in a critical but supportive dialogue about research ideas. To that end, we have several speaker and workshop series. As part of our OB Speaker Series, sometimes in conjunction with our colleagues in the SIM group, we regularly invite scholars from other universities to share their research with us. It is expected that students will attend these talks. They are a wonderful way for faculty and students to learn about what is going on in new and state-of-the-art research by prominent scholars.

The OB group also sponsors a Brown Bag series. These more informal workshops are designed to allow our own faculty and students a venue to present work-in-progress. These are valuable opportunities to get feedback on current work and to get a sense of the kinds of projects our colleagues are working on.

LBS has many resources that facilitate research productivity. Online databases make it possible to do a lot of "library research" from the comfort of our desks. Simultaneously, for students interested in conducting experimental research, LBS has a behavioural laboratory with the latest software and programmes and is managed by a full-time lab manager.

Current Organisational Behaviour PhD Students

Shruti Bhutada
Jungwoo Ha
Johann Joh
Kawon Kim
Margaret Lee
Sunyoung Lee
Martin Schweinsberg 
Anna Steinhage 
Gang Zhang