Statement of Purpose
Applicant: xx      Program: Management and Organization/University of xx

Why the topic interest you? What you know about topic? What & how you would like to investigate? What your object is in pursuing this research degree?

Having received a most rewarding undergraduate program at xx School of Management, the most prestigious institution in teaching and research in the field of management, and having accumulated valuable professional experiences as business consultant and business development executive at xx Co., Ltd, a corporate consulting firm, I am interested in a Ph.D. program in Management and Organization at University of xx. In my proposed program, I would like to research on the relationship between marketing, human resource and enterprise strategy and how to coordinate the relationship to achieve an optimal condition.

Under this topic, I am interested in investigating the following three major areas: a. Is human resource system a mere instrument of management for an organization? b. how to realize the well-coordinated development between organization development and human resource development; and c. how to design an enterprise’s human resource development system and perform opportune and effective evaluation of the system’s credibility and efficacy.

It is universally known that management science in the strictly western sense is only a recent development of the past decade. Although China’s economic reform and the campaign of opening to the outside world  have been going on for about two decades, the management pattern of the state-owned enterprises remained dominant in the first stage of the campaign and, as a legacy of the centralized planned economy, the management practices were essentially characterized by bureaucracy and inefficiency. At that time, management science was not built into the standard academic structure of institutions of higher learning. It was only with the influx of foreign capital and investment and of an increasing number of joint ventures and multinational corporations into China that Chinese academia realized the need to learn from the advanced management theories and practices of the western countries. In the wake of this realization, teaching and research institutions of management science were created in universities and a substantial number of Chinese scholars went to the western countries to be trained in the methodologies of management teaching and research and introduced into China the latest research findings in the international academia.

Nevertheless, with only a decade-long history, Chinese management science in general is only in a stage of
infancy and the research on management and organization is especially limited. From the perspective of theoretical research, the study on organization structure, strategic management, human resource development and marketing planning is gravely inadequate. In the academia, the teaching in those fields has been based mostly on western case analysis and the research is primarily modeled on western patterns, and the practical research on organization and management with relevance to the Oriental (Asian) culture is even scantier. In the industry, the enterprises have been generally concerned with short-term tactics, overlooking long-term strategic management and the development of human resource as a key factor in maintaining this long-term competitiveness.

My interest in a Ph.D. program in Management and Organization stems from two important factors—a basic knowledge of the subject as an undergraduate and a two-year professional consulting experience in the field (together with the knowledge of the reality of China’s corporate world which so sorely needs the input from the study of management and organization). At xx School of Management, although I majored in accounting, the School’s strong management orientation provided opportunities for my interest to unfold in the field of management. In my curriculum included core courses like Marketing, Management, and Modern Management Science, in all of which I excelled, with much higher scores that accounting-related courses. By the end of my sophomore year, I obtained sufficient credits for graduation as an accounting major and in the rest of my undergraduate program I concentrated almost entirely on learning management. Harvard Business Review, Mckinsey Quarterly and Decision: Harvard Classical Business Cases allowed me to gain insights into the business world and corporate management whereas Practicing Organization Development: A Guide to Consultants by Rothwell and W. J. Sullivan (1995) and Organization Development: Behavioral Science Interventions for Organizational Improvement (6th ed.) by French, W. L. & Bell, C. H. (1999) cultivated my interest in organization and shaped my choice of consulting upon graduation. The liberal academic climate of xx University made it possible for me to broaden my horizon and perspectives, and to explore my true academic interest.

With a ranking of 25/110, I made conscious efforts to accumulate research experience. I became the sole undergraduate in a research team led by Prof. xx on xx. As one of the authors of the final research reports, I proposed the creative idea of incorporating into the market recruitment mechanism the past performance of the managerial professionals. I further proposed that the past performance can be quantified into a set of workable competitiveness indexes for potential recruitment. My propositions were readily accepted by Prof. Lu and were adopted in the final reports. In addition, I participated in editing the textbook xx (Volume B) published by xx University Press in December 2002. Finally, I honed my research skills in my thesis—xx. My investigation revealed that China’s existing accounting system and standards are marred by some important inadequacies. Those inadequacies are becoming all the more prominent in this rapidly changing era of knowledge economy, with its great uncertainties. I performed detailed analysis of those problems by focusing on several specific aspects and proposed corresponding solution measures. Finally, I linked the perfection of the accounting system and standards with the successful corporate management. Both my advisor and the Board of Examiners rated my thesis “Excellent” for its originality and foresights.

My formal experience of management and organization comes from my post-graduation career. Over the past two years at xx Co. Ltd., I have been promoted from an Associate Consultant to Consultant and then to Business Development Executive, the quickest succession of promotions in the firm. I have been involved in helping our clients identify their HR & employee training demands, measure their HR development and organization development system, diagnose and find the problems in the system and deliver the professional solution to improve the organization performance, develop their co-competence model, and finally follow up to ensure the solutions work well. My major clients include xx (Asia), xx, xx, xx, xx, xx, xx, xx, xx, xx, etc. Since April 2004, I have been working at xx Co. Ltd. as HR specialist (directly report to deputy general manager) responsible for recruiting consultants, identifying positions and help make performance check and set up compensation & Benefit System. As trainer, I have worked with functional managers to orient training subjects, preparing training materials and offer independent training. I also act as assistant to Personnel & Administration Director, ensuring intercommunication, assisting in project tracking and personnel administration, help maintain and develop public relations.                                              

In providing consulting services to both international and domestic corporations, I have developed an acute understanding that both the Chinese enterprises seeking development on the international market and multinational corporations pursuing expansion in the rapidly growing Chinese market as part of their global structure can be most strengthened by the research findings in organization and management, particularly those findings informed by a cultural awareness. Such findings can reduce the difficulty and uncertainties of corporate management. Singapore has long been recognized as the paragon of a perfect fusion of Oriental and Western cultures and the Business School of University of xx has evolved a distinctive and rigorous Ph.D. program that is especially geared to the practical needs of corporations operating in the Asia Pacific region. The cultural affinity of your program, your close focus on Asia Pacific economy, and your international research and faculty all convince me that my prospective program there would be most fruitful and rewarding.

To undertake your program, I will first do a complete spectrum of coursework in core subjects as well as supporting subjects. I will actively participate in the courses, seminars, workshops at a higher conceptual level. My most immediate object in pursuing this degree is to acquire the intellectual independence necessary to be an effective and aspiring scholar. I would like to identify Prof. x x x in the Human Resource Department as my potential supervisor because the research Prof. x x x has been performing very much parallel my own research interests.

Your Ph. D. Program will provide a crucial springboard for my future career development. Some of the prospects of my future career will be a teaching and research position at a major academic institution in China, a senior management or HR specialist at a multinational corporation, or the owner of my own corporate consulting firm offering services to outgoing Chinese enterprises entering international market and incoming international corporations operating businesses in China. Against the backdrop of economical globalization, I believe that I have a unique role to play and important self-actualization to achieve.