17/04/2020
By creating the first Chair for Search, Sabancı University builds the academic framework for the study of search, a pioneering activity of the business community.
The Chair for Search, which will be led by School of Management faculty member Oğuz Babüroğlu, was introduced to the business community.
"In this new term, we have major breakthroughs in the pipeline."
The meeting was opened with speeches by the President of Sabancı University Yusuf Leblebici and the Chairperson of Sabancı University Board of Trustees Güler Sabancı. Yusuf Leblebici said that Sabancı University will make major breakthroughs in this new term. He said: "We will not be satisfied with ranking among the top universities in Turkey only, we will strive to be among the best in the world". Underlining that the Chair of Search in the field of Action Research is a step in this direction, Leblebicioğlu said that under the leadership of Oğuz Babüroğlu, the Chair for Search will be the driver for many breakthroughs by sharing its experiences with the academia, students and the business community.
"We created our first motto in a search conference"
Güler Sabancı underlined that Sabancı University is the first university ever to be created as the result of a search conference. She said that they coined the motto for the university "creating and developing together" in this first search conference.
Oğuz Babüroğlu introduced the Chair for Search and its objectives.
As he was introducing the Chair for Search, Mr. Babüroğlu started his speech by defining the concept of "search". He said that search is a paradigm, an action research approach, a methodology, and a participative consultation. He also added that "search" involves causality and a scientific approach. Emphasizing that search requires a collective effort, Babüroğlu expressed that search produces results by blending the existing singular wisdoms to obtain mechanisms for shared wisdom.
Also, touching upon how action research compares to operational research he said: "Action research is a more behavioral based, collaborative, face-to-face model". He said:" It captures reality with its dialog based approach and produces useful knowledge".
Babüroğlu added that search also offers consulting in strategy development, future scenarios, organizational development, innovation design, culture management, and sectoral cooperation as well as common interest formula design. Stating that there are academic projects based on their previous experiences, he said the Chair for Search is expected to accelerate the process for publishing them.
Planned to serve as a bridge between the business community and the university, the objectives of the Chair for Search include engaging postgraduate students in developing and supporting the academic aspect of action research projects in Turkey; empowering actively employed managers through an "industrial doctorate" program developed in cooperation with omit industry so that change can be backed by action research; collaborating with the faculty members in other departments of Sabancı University, who already employ this approach or are interested to do so, and obtaining their input in this postgraduate program; and developing effective cooperation with international institutions or scholars, who conduct action research. He underlined that their aim is to adopt an academic approach, which focuses on the generation of useful knowledge, as in the case of action research. He expressed that academia disciplines and positions the knowledge that is generated.
Mr. Babüroğlu informed the audience that a post-graduate program will be initiated through the Chair. He said that company employees and top management candidates can enroll in this program. Emphasizing that the business community will face a multi-dimensional and complex change in the future, he said: "We were looking for an academic program that can generate the knowledge needed for change management in government agencies, local authorities, private sector companies and omit NGOs. We believe that this will be a post-graduate level program built around a simultaneously running project in the field of action research.
Highlighting that they want to initiate an action research era in Turkey, Babüroğlu stated that this is also a change project, which intends to significantly improve the competency for change management in the community.
The doctorate program is intended for managers because its main purpose is to improve the capacity for cooperative reasoning through team work, and to develop environments for shared wisdom. He added that with its innovative and entrepreneurial genes, Sabancı University is pioneering this post-graduate program in the world. Stating that each student will participate in the doctorate program with a change project from his/her company, Babüroğlu listed the benefits for the enterprises:
- The post-graduate program will ensure that companies base their change projects on academic knowledge on one hand and support the academic knowledge generation process on the other.
- Top management candidates will acquire the competence to improve their reasoning capacity, to manage reasoning cooperatively and in a team, and to develop shared wisdom environments and programs.
- It is going to help businesses train their future top managers, and strengthen their competence for Change Management.
