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PhD in Managementonline or on-campus

Study & research holistic management

Are you ready to become a leader in the field of holistic management? In MIU’s PhD in Management, you’ll explore how organizations can profit while producing positive impacts for society and the environment, develop the skills that you need to succeed in sustainable business, and grow as a person through daily meditation practice.


Program structure

The PhD in Management has four phases:

  • Doctoral Course Work. Students take a program of courses that consists of a PhD Core of 6 courses covering consciousness-based managing for sustainability. There is also a required Research Methods Core of 4-5 courses, Professional Development seminars in teaching and writing, and a sequence of courses in the Science and Technology of Consciousness, which students learn to integrate with their academic studies in sustainable management. Classes are offered at a part-time pace, meaning 4 credit courses over a period of 2 months and 2 credit courses taught over 1 month.
  • Written Comprehensive and Oral Qualifying Exams. Students undertake a written comprehensive exam and a written and oral qualifying exam. When a student successfully completes the qualifying examination, the student is advanced to PhD candidate status. The core work and qualifying exams can be completed in the first two years of enrollment in the program.
  • Dissertation Proposal. When a dissertation proposal is accepted, the student is advanced to PhD researcher status.
  • Dissertation Research and Defense. The PhD researcher must write the dissertation research and successfully complete an oral defense of the dissertation.

Get started by contacting Pedro

Pedro Ugalde, admissions counselorPedro Ugalde is this program’s admissions counselor for US students. Pedro will provide you with all the details of becoming a student, including connecting you with the program director or faculty.

Contact Pedro >

International applicants may connect with us through our international inquiry form.


More about the program

Entrance Requirements

To enter the Doctor of Philosophy in Management program, a student must:

  • Hold an MBA, master’s degree in a business-related field, or a master’s degree and substantial business-related work experience
  • Have taken the GMAT or GRE and received an adequate score
  • Have written a substantial research paper as evidence of academic writing.
    The paper may have been submitted for required course assignments or as a thesis in the student’s master’s degree program. This should be a paper written by the student alone, not a project by a team of students. This writing sample may be accepted as a substitute for scores on GMAT or GRE.
  • At least two years of professional work experience in a business is preferred.

Additional requirements

English language verification

International applicants must submit official English proficiency test scores within the past 2 years of at least 110 on Duolingo, 6.5 on IELTS Academic, 90 on TOEFL iBT or 58 on PTE.

Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique

All MIU students practice the Transcendental Meditation® technique. If you have not learned it yet:

  • Once accepted as a US student, the cost of TM instruction is covered through a grant offered by MIU
  • Students can either learn TM upon arrival or prior to enrolling
  • Contact your admissions counselor for details
  • Find information on the TM technique or search for a TM teacher at TM.org

FAQ

Featured faculty

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Sabita Sawhney

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Sabita Sawhney is Director of the PhD in Management and Associate Professor of Management. She teaches courses in operations management, supply chain management, marketing management, and marketing research. Her areas of research interest include green supply chains, buyer-supplier partnerships, self-development, and trust. She has presented papers at several prestigious conferences including Purchasing and Operations Management Society (POMS), Decision Science Institute (DSI), and Midwest Business Administration Association (MBAA).

Anil2

Anil Maheshwari

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Anil Maheshwari is a Professor of Management Information Systems and Director of Executive Education. His research papers in leadership, technology, and consciousness have been published in <em>The Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion, Creativity Research Journal, Humanistic Management Journal, Family Business Review, the Journal of Development Research</em>, and other scholarly journals. He teaches courses in data analytics, strategic management, leadership, enterprise performance management, and more. He is the author of a dozen books on technology, management, and spirituality.

College of Business Administration Faculty

Featured students

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Sayeh Khamoushi

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Sayeh Khamoushi holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and a Master in Information Technology Management. During her bachelor’s degree, she competed in multiple RoboCup events and was several ranked in the domains of coach and Rescue Simulation. In addition, the top student in the master’s degree came from one of Iran’s leading universities. She worked as a tester, analyst, and manager in IT organizations for 14 years before joining MIU in 2020 to pursue a Ph.D. in management.

Sayeh became interested in Vedic meditation and understanding about six years ago and began on this path. She was captivated by meditation science’s breakthroughs and a new way of life and quickly incorporated it into all aspects of his life.

Sayeh became acquainted with the transcendent meditation technique, the block system, and the MIU from a friend in 2020. She chose this option and moved to Turkey to engage in TM courses, where she completed the TM and Residence Course courses. In order to participate in doctorate classes and continue her studies, she began living in Turkey away from her family owing to many obstacles and a lack of access to the university’s site and server from her home country and her first year of doctoral studies is now completed online.

Sayeh stated, “I believe life is all about challenges, and I believe I can choose the obstacles that make my life more valuable, and I believe MIU is valuable.”

Sayeh realized that using the TM® technique would help her achieve the awareness she thought was her most important aim in life.

She is currently employed in the IT department of MIU, where she previously worked.

Sayeh was one of ten Ph.D. candidates worldwide to receive a Fetzer Scholarship from the Academy of Management Conference this year.

Sayeh is now conducting research for her dissertation topic. Although she has not yet finalized her topic, she believes that increasing awareness through the TM technique is the most effective way to build a mindset that can aid others with varied perspectives so that they can operate in organizations harmoniously and accept one other’s contradictions.

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Kennedy Kamfwa

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Kennedy Kamfwa is from Zambia and works as a Wealth Manager in Johannesburg, South Africa. He manages funds for retail, high net -worth and institutional clients over a medium to long term investment horizon. His clients receive effective and efficient service such that they develop a sense of happiness. As a qualified Chartered Financial Analyst, Kennedy gets to construct optimal portfolios that help clients attain long-term financial goals.

Currently, Kennedy is pursuing a Ph.D. in management at MIU, focusing on consciousness to create a dignified organizational culture. He is looking into the possibility of how moral commitment, freedom, ethics, and accountability would activate human dignity and capabilities. Previous research indicates that satisfaction, empowerment, justice, pride, well-being, and community participation generate citizenship behavior and increases retention rates while reducing counterproductive behaviors. Therefore, Kennedy is interested in demonstrating that dignity and well-being will inspire innovation, productivity, engagement, stakeholder goodwill, and, ultimately, build customer loyalty.

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Emanuel Schachinger

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Emanuel Schachinger is currently a Ph.D. researcher in Sustainable Management at MIU, where he studies the connections between sustainability, human development, and organizational change and teaches for the College of Business Administration as well as the Department of Sustainable Living for which he spent 6 months in Hawaii developing a new program, centered on leadersahip, sustainability, Hawaiian culture, and consciousness. He received his MBA in Sustainable Business from MUM.

Amongst other classes, he has taught Leadership for Sustainability, Strategic Management for Sustainability, Conceptual Maps for Change Makers, Managing for the Environment, and Socially and Environmentally Responsible Management, and is co-author of a chapter on Consciousness Development for Responsible Management in “Educating for Responsible Management: Putting theory into practice.” He worked with sustainability-consulting firm True Market Solutions as a consultant, with the non-profit Bonnell Building Project to help organize community events, and with MUM as a facilitator and workshop host. Besides that, he is excited about growing vegetables in his garden, transforming our society into a more sustainable one, riding his bike, and traveling to new and exciting places.

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Ye Shi (Linlin)

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Ye Shi was a senior officer in the Taxation Department in China for 10 years, supervised the collection of business taxes, and educated organizational and individual taxpayers on tax codes. She has been working at Maharishi International University since 2009, and teaches courses in accounting and lean management.

Ye Shi and Andrew Bargerstock recently co-authored Are We Leaning Away from Standard Costing? This paper has been recognized as the 2017 IMA Lybrand Gold Medal Award winner for the Best Article published in the peer-reviewed Strategic Finance journal.
Shi and Bargerstock also co-authored a management accounting ethics paper that was named IMA’s 2014 Carl Menconi Award: Best Case Study in Business Ethics (title: Watson Water Technologies).
Ye Shi is also a two-time national award winner for Lean Accounting accomplishments (2013, 2016).

Vikram Gulati

Vikram Gulati

Vikram Gulati

Vikram Gulati holds electrical engineering and MBA degrees and spent 30 years leading IT companies before joining MIU in 2019 to pursue his PhD in management.

About 16 years ago Vikram developed an interest in Vedic knowledge and began studying the Vedic literature. He became fascinated with the intersection of science and spirituality and the idea of consciousness being the central principle of existence.

In 2019 Vikram met a student of Maharishi and learned about the Transcendental Meditation® technique, the unified field theory, and MIU. He wanted to transition from the corporate world to academia and, after attending a Visitors Weekend, he enrolled at MIU. He completed his coursework online and recently moved to Fairfield with his wife.

“I realized that at MIU I can bring together the three things I love: teaching, using my management experience, and studying the Vedic tradition,” said Vikram.

Vikram found that the practice of the TM® technique has helped him in this major transition of his life and several other challenges he faced due to the pandemic. “All of these were stressful events, but I didn’t feel them as much,” he said.

For the past two and a half years Vikram has taught various management courses through MIU’s distance education programs in China, Ethiopia, and South Africa.

Earlier this year, Vikram was one of 20 PhD students in the world to receive a Fetzer Institute scholarship to attend the Academy of Management’s August virtual conference. He was also the only PhD student from MIU to be a panelist in three professional development workshops by the Management, Spirituality, and Religion interest group of the Academy.

Vikram is now researching his dissertation, which explores the ambidextrous mindset—the ability to incorporate the dualism of innovation and efficiency—as a leadership quality critical for organizational success. He postulates that the development of consciousness, through the practice of the TM technique, is the most efficient way of cultivating a mindset that can facilitate the coexistence of these opposing values.

Cost & Aid, 2025-26

Courses may include

Congratulations 2022 PhD Graduates!

Janet Ho gown

My experience of the PhD in Management

Janet Ho gown

“Upon the completion of my Ph.D. degree, I would like to proclaim the accomplishment of an experiment that I have been performing for ten years at MIU—unknown to anyone else. The first year I was a student in the Master in Maharishi Vedic Science program, I saw the suggested daily schedule in a syllabus.

I started my experiment on the suggested daily routine. The hypothesis was that the more one is aligned with the suggested daily routine, the more significant achievement one gains. Early to bed, Early rise to finish the assignments, regular exercise, regular meals, and practicing Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi twice daily. Thanks to Dr. Cathy Gorini and many others who have been my dear companions in this practice. Their company multiplied in me all the incentives to enjoy the practice, which gave me incredible inspiration and strength. I finished the MA in MVS, the MBA, and the Ph.D. in management programs.

Today if there is anything within me or anything I have done that can be called successful, it is just a piece of evidence to prove that the hypothesis is true. The more one is aligned with the suggested daily routine, the more significant achievement one gains. Thanks to this wonderful daily routine suggested by this great university MIU with an exceptional faculty and staff team, under President John Hagelin’s outstanding leadership, together with this fantastic community. Thanks to all!” – Dr. Janet Ho

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