One junior faculty member says his field-based course development work will significantly strengthen his prospects for promotion when he is considered for an associate professorship this summer.
Docking junior faculty who focus on case studies, he says, “would be like the Red Sox penalizing people for getting hits.”
Another junior faculty member says his course development work helped him win a promotion to an associate professorship. The same professor says he has since focused less attention on case studies—a factor he says could, if anything, work against him in his bid for a tenured position.
But one junior faculty member notes that few business schools other than HBS consider case work to be a critical factor in tenure decisions. He says his research for academic journals will count far more than his field-based course development if he seeks a senior professorship outside of HBS.
A Web of Accusation
Watkins’ weblog, “World Events on Weekdays,” typically focuses on political issues, taking aim at the Bush administration officials and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government.
But he says his initial post on HBS tenure in January has drawn nearly 5,000 visits to his weblog, which is hosted by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School.
Watkins says that at first his ruminations on the promotion process were “just a way of venting a bit of steam.”
“I was quite surprised by the extent to which it began to take off,” he says.
Watkins says he is “not a rabble rouser,” but is “genuinely concerned about the institution.”
“My biggest concern is that I will be seen as trying to reverse the course of my tenure decision,” he says. “This is not the case.”
Watkins’ own tenure bid never reached the president’s desk, the Mass. Hall spokesperson says.
But Watkins says he is not concerned about the possible repercussions of his dissent on future job prospects.
“I also have good [job] options other than academic ones,” he says.
In September, HBS Press published Watkins’ The First 90 Days: Critical Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels, which is currently at number one on the management best seller list of the Toronto-based Books for Business, the world’s largest business bookstore.
—Staff writer Daniel J. Hemel can be reached at hemel@fas.harvard.edu.