Earning an Online PhD in Management
Online doctoral programs in management prepare those in leadership positions with the analytical and organizational skills to take on high-profile roles in business, healthcare, and academia. Learn more about the strongest programs and courses to help you climb the ladder.
In every industry, thoughtful and resourceful leaders are needed to guide others and help the business be a success. The best leaders also work on career development for others, as well as themselves. In a climate where the business world can still be topsy-turvy, having an advantage by learning the latest leadership theories and practices can be a vital key to your own success.
One route to achieve this is to earn an online PhD in management. Receiving the highest management qualification available can potentially lead to a six-figure average salary. PhDs are in high demand in many industries, coveted for their up-to-date knowledge of managing people and resources in uncertain times, as well as their critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Moreover, earning your PhD or doctorate in management online can save you the stress and expense of relocating for your education. Programs provide flexible scheduling so you can balance your studies with work or family responsibilities. With that in mind, here are some factors to consider when exploring online doctoral programs in management.
PhD in Management vs. Doctor of Management
As you begin to research potential programs to earn your online PhD in management, you will notice a difference in what some universities offer for a degree: a Doctor of Management as opposed to a PhD in management. What’s the difference? Well, it can be a subtle thing, as both terminal management degrees confer the title of “doctor.” Generally speaking, a PhD is based on academic research instead of a professional doctorate, which may include some original research but is more focused on training you to lead at the highest levels.
At-a-Glance: PhD vs. Doctorate
| PhD | Doctorate | |
|---|---|---|
| Program Focus | Macro view of management as a field; research and independent study | Practical skill acquisition at the highest level of management; preparation for advanced business roles |
| Average Credits | >50 | >50 |
| Average Time to Complete | 4-5 Years | 3-4 Years |
| Top Careers | Business professor, senior management consultant | Senior management consultant, staff director |
| Program Focus | Average Credits | Average Time to Complete | Top Careers | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PhD | Macro view of management as a field; research and independent study | >50 | 4-5 Years | Business professor, senior management consultant |
| Doctorate | Practical skill acquisition at the highest level of management; preparation for advanced business roles | >50 | 3-4 Years | Senior management consultant, staff director |
Closer Look: Online PhDs in Management
As you explore different online PhD programs in management, you’ll need to consider factors including costs, specialization options, and course formats. While only you can decide what works best, we’ve highlighted a few programs whose combination of academic rigor, affordability, flexibility, and student support make them stand out:
Antioch University
This is an over 150-year-old educational institution founded by the abolitionist Horace Mann, which maintains a strong commitment to social justice in academia. Antioch offers a fully online PhD in Leadership and Change, an interdisciplinary program that combines management with philosophy, psychology, and education. Once enrolled in the program, you will have the opportunity to customize your focus of study and design a research project for your dissertation.
The program advertises itself as fully online, but there are brief residency requirements over the course of the program. During the first three years of the program, you will be required to complete two on-site and one virtual residency per year. These allow you to meet your classmates and instructors in person while still providing a flexible learning environment. Prospective applicants should have earned a master’s degree or other accredited postgraduate degree and should be able to demonstrate the capacity for independent study.
University of Maryland–Global Campus
Also known as UMGC, this is the distance learning branch of the University of Maryland system. They offer a variety of online doctoral programs, including a specialized Doctor of Management program with a concentration in community college policy and administration. This concentration, unlike the general online PhD in management, is intended specifically for people to earn a role at the highest administrative levels of a community college. This program begins with a core curriculum of management, leadership and change, and research methodology in addition to higher education policy before you begin your doctoral dissertation.
Interested UMGC students should have earned an accredited master’s degree or higher before applying. You also must complete a personal statement and submit letters of recommendation. Financial aid may be available to admitted students, including scholarship opportunities and payment plans.
Hampton University
Hampton is a private, historically Black university that offers a variety of online and hybrid degree programs, including a PhD in Business Administration. It is a remote-forward hybrid degree program. This program targets people with prior business experience looking to transition into consultancy or academia, and it requires two summer in-person residencies. Otherwise, it can be fully completed online. The doctoral dissertation takes place only after all coursework is done, and you also are able to publish at least one scholarly article.
Hampton prefers applicants who have earned a master’s degree at the time of applying but may consider students with nine credits of relevant master-level coursework in economics, accounting, or quantitative business analysis. Applicants are required to score 400 or above on their GMAT unless they already have earned an MBA with a suitable GMAT history. Financial aid may be available once admitted.
Advantages of a PhD in Management Online
While there are definite resources and support structures available with a traditional on-campus PhD or doctorate, there are also some clear advantages to studying online. Here are some points to consider:
Diverse Networking Cohort
Networking is one of the most important “soft skills” in business and management. As a student for an online PhD in management, you’ll have opportunities to network with instructors and classmates from across the country. You’re able to forge ties that can be helpful wherever you choose to go after you’ve earned that degree.
Access to Top Universities
Interested in a school far from home but not sure you’ll be able to relocate? Online study is tailor-made to answer this question, as you can study at a variety of top universities across the country without having to consider both the material and emotional costs of relocation.
Convenience and Flexibility
For students who want to work while they study or have family responsibilities to balance with a PhD, the flexibility of online learning can be a lifesaver. Many online programs offer asynchronous evening and weekend classes to fit into your schedule as you see fit.
Coursework Preview: Online Management PhD
As a PhD student, you can expect a combination of traditional lecture-style courses and independent research and writing over the course of earning your degree. This will include foundational courses in management and related topics, as well as research methodology training to prepare for writing your dissertation. Depending on your program, you may also complete an in-person residency that will require travel but can be a valuable source of networking opportunities with your cohort.
Popular Courses
You know you’ll be taking academic courses for your PhD – but what will your class schedule look like? While you will likely have some flexibility in registering for classes, there are some popular courses you’re likely to encounter in your degree. Here are some examples:
Leadership and Change
Management is about more than just keeping an organization going – it can also be a force for social change and a tool for an organization to weather changing times. In this course, you will study how leadership and change relate to each other in different types of organizations and will potentially complete a comparative analysis using real-life case studies from history or the present day.
Strategic Management
Management theory needs to be carefully mapped out before it can be implemented. This is where strategic management comes in, as this course teaches the theory and practice of developing and implementing strategies. It can combine multiple fields of study, including traditional business and economics, psychology, and social sciences like sociology.
Research Methods
This is a course that may not be specific to business management, but it will be crucial before you begin research for your doctoral dissertation. In this course, you’ll lay out a foundation for how to conduct original research to produce results that are not only accurate and legible but also arrived at safely and ethically. From formulating a research question to designing a plan to pursue it to how to report results, this course will give you a map for crafting your dissertation.
Organizational Behavior
Organizational behavior can be impacted by emotions and the social relations between the organization’s staff. This course, which can be highly theory-based, will look at organizations as entities, including how different organizations vary in their structure and hierarchies and what this means for upper-level management. Depending on your university, this course may include analysis of recent and foundational sociological research as well as organization theory.
Dissertation
This isn’t strictly a course, but your dissertation will likely take at least a year of your doctoral studies to complete. Your doctoral dissertation will be an original research project that you will design, seek approval before continuing, conduct on your own, and write up as the final portion of your doctorate. What exactly your dissertation requires and how long you’ll need to complete it may vary significantly from student to student.
Top 10 Management Specializations Across the Board
Not all PhDs in management are the same. Many schools offer either specialized doctoral programs in management or the opportunity to choose a specialization once you’re enrolled. Here are a few top management specializations across different fields which you might consider for your PhD:
Business
Business is one of the first kinds of management that springs to many people’s minds, and it’s an unsurprisingly popular PhD specialization. This is one of the most traditional types of management PhDs and will focus on economics and management. You may study both macro- and micro-economics before completing your dissertation, and graduates of this type of PhD often work for major consultancies if they choose not to pursue an academia career.
Emergency Management
In times of crisis, focused management is vitally important. That’s why a PhD in emergency management centers on techniques to handle emergency situations that ensure the best possible outcomes. This kind of program can combine traditional management courses with environmental science and disaster relief, and it may also cover how climate change will impact the future need for emergency services and relevant management and disaster mitigation strategies.
Engineering
Engineering is an advanced technical field requiring specialized management strategy, which you’ll study with a PhD program in engineering management. This program may be offered as a traditional PhD with a focus on independent research and an eye toward your future career in academia. It may also be a more career-focused Doctorate of Engineering, or DEng, a practical degree with engineering industry careers in mind.
Healthcare
This is one of the largest and most important industries in the country, which is why a PhD in healthcare management can be such an exciting opportunity. Many students arrive at healthcare management not only from a management background but also from healthcare careers such as nursing. This diversity of perspectives in both business and healthcare is an important part of the study for this type of PhD.
Human Resources
Human resources is a vital aspect of any organization, whether in the public or private sector. Conversely, it’s an increasingly vital field of study for management PhD students. In a program like this, you’ll learn both theory and upper-level practice of human resources, and you’ll not only be qualified for an academic career after completing your degree. HR roles often include crafting crucial, broad-reaching policy decisions in the business world.
Leadership and Management
People who want to lead resources as well as people — and at the highest levels — often go for a PhD in leadership and management. These PhD programs can vary significantly from school to school, but one common thread will be how management strategy affects the culture, vision, and mission of an organization. This program may also focus on management as a tool for social change.
Project Management
Project management is relevant in industries ranging from construction to state and local governments, and earning a PhD in project management will qualify you for top roles in many of these organizations. Project management can share close ties with engineering – and that’s why some project management PhD programs may be offered in conjunction with engineering departments. This type of program can be popular among students with significant prior career experience.
Sports
If you want to combine your love for athletics with business and strategy, a PhD in sports management may be the right fit for you. Sports management can range from managing individual athletic teams, to franchising businesses like the NFL and other organizations, to even international questions facing sporting events like the Olympics or the World Cup. You may also study sports medicine and safety considerations in the professional sports world.
Supply Chain
The effects of the pandemic showed the importance of supply chains all over the world, and you can become an expert on this aspect of the industry with a PhD in supply chain management. In this program, you’ll be studying the challenges and practical considerations that face supply chain management at its highest levels. These include physical logistics of shipping, air transport, and freight rail, and also key factors such as international law and policy, and hiring across multiple states and countries in an increasingly globalized world.
Technology
Some PhD programs in management specialize in the technology, or mathematical sciences, behind management. This program can explore computer programming and higher-level math from a management perspective, with an emphasis on conducting relevant research. This is a specialization option that could be ideal for people with a STEM background as they explore a transition into upper-level management or an academic career that can offer the best use of your knowledge and talent.
How Much Does a PhD in Management Cost?
Before you begin your PhD, you may be wondering how much you’ll need to pay for it. This is an important and valid question, as graduate school can be a major financial commitment. While costs vary significantly, you should be aware of the total cost burden before you start your doctorate or PhD, and you need to have some financial aid lined up. This could be need-or-merit-based aid from your university, federal or private student loans, or grants or scholarships from private organizations – or a combination of all of the above.
Examples of Online PhD Costs
| School Name | No. of Credits | Cost/Credit | Est. Total Tuition Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Antioch University | Not listed | $26,788/year | $107,152 |
| University of Maryland–Global Campus | 54 | $1,087 | $58,698 |
| Hampton University | 61 | $695 | $42,395 |
Frequently Asked Questions: Online Management Doctorate
Will I need to complete a dissertation or research project?
Your doctoral dissertation will be the final, and in some ways most important, step in your online PhD in management. Completing original research, and writing and presenting it as a dissertation, is one of the things that sets a doctorate apart from other types of postgraduate degrees.
What should I look for in an accredited management program?
It’s crucial that your program be accredited by a regional accrediting body, like the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) or a similar body. Who the accreditor is will not be as important as the accreditation itself. This will ensure it’s recognized as legitimate as you use it in your career.
What are the prerequisites for admission into a doctoral program in management?
While every university has different admissions requirements for their PhD programs, there are a few common requirements you should be aware of. They may not ask for all of these, but it’s not uncommon for your application to include:
- A postgraduate degree from an accredited institution
- A minimum undergraduate/postgraduate GPA (often between 2.5 and 3.0)
- Letters of recommendation from two to three academic or professional references
- A statement of purpose
- GMAT scores acquired within the last five years
What is the typical time required to complete an online PhD in management?
Most online PhDs in management will take at least three to four years of full-time study, or a longer period of part-time study, to complete. How long it takes you to graduate can vary depending on how long it takes you to complete the research and writing required for your dissertation.
Can I get a management doctorate exclusively online?
It is possible to earn your doctorate in management through a 100% online program. While some online programs do have a small in-person component, such as a summer residency, it is also possible to find completely online programs that don’t require any travel to a campus or location.
Is a PhD in Management Worth It?
Whether your PhD in management is going to be “worth it” to you is a highly personal question, but one important aspect to consider is career opportunities once you’ve graduated. With a PhD in management, you’ll be able to choose from lucrative upper-level careers in research, academia, business, and the public sector, including some of the career options highlighted below.
Doctoral Management Careers that Need a PhD
Once you’ve graduated, you’ll have a variety of lucrative career options to pursue with your new PhD. Here are a few in-demand, well-paying careers for you to consider:
| Career | Median Annual Pay | Job Growth |
|---|---|---|
| Management Analyst | $95,290 | 10% |
| Human Resources Manager | $130,000 | 5% |
| Financial Manager | $139,790 | 16% |
| Top Executive | $100,090 | 3% |
| College Professor | $80,840 | 8% |
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023