Job Opportunity for Research Associate at ISDM in Noida

Location: Noida

Reports to: Director, Knowledge & Research Center

Position: Research Associate

About ISDM

ISDM got seeded as an idea in early 2016 when its founders came together with a common vision to launch a first-of-its-kind educational institution that would develop and groom the next generation of professional leaders and managers for the development sector. ISDM envisions building Development Management as a stand-alone domain and an aspirational choice for professionals in the development sector – similar to what Harvard Business School did for the corporate sector by introducing Business Administration in 1908. 

By 2025, ISDM aims to become the go-to management institute for top professionals wanting to transform the development sector for a greater impact on people’s lives. In order to achieve this aim, ISDM has identified three broad focus areas:

• Continuously building the one-year-long Post-Graduate Program in Development Management (PGP-DM);
• Creating a strong research function that will lay the foundations for Development Management and leadership as a unique domain and discipline;
• Launching Strategic Capacity Building Programs aimed at influencing and up-skilling middle to senior leaders in the social sector through special workshops, short-term courses, and customized convenings. 

Since launching its flagship (and India’s first) PGP in Development Management (the equivalent of a one-year MBA) in 2017, the Institution has placed 200 young professionals on an accelerated path to build, manage and lead Social Purpose Organizations (SPOs). ISDM has successfully executed 46 short-term Open Programs across three cities, inducting 142 development professionals from 49 SPOs as ISDM alumni who are now redefining what “impact at scale” means in the development sector. ISDM has created a national character for itself, attracting a diverse range of students and recruiting organizations from across the country. Over these years, ISDM has also built strong partnerships with leading philanthropists, academicians, advisors, and practitioners.  

ISDM has audacious ambitions to build a world-class institution, become a global fountainhead of development management knowledge, and define the domain of development management for the Social Sector. The belief is that Management for the Social Sector (or Development Management) will significantly scale up the positive impacts on the lives of people in sustained ways.

ISDM Knowledge and Research Centre

The ISDM Knowledge and Research Centre seeks to enable a thriving Development Management praxis in Social Purpose Organisations through codification and co-creation of existing and new knowledge. Our engagement with some of the leading academic institutions and faculties from across the world has led to a growing recognition of a very nuanced yet substantial difference between the usual practice of management as a discipline in the business domain and the paradigm of its application and learning in the social impact sector.

Our mission is to establish an empirically driven and collaboratively created process of co-creation, collation, and curation of the existing tacit and explicit knowledge on the subject into a coherent, grounded, and robust evolutionary Body of Knowledge (BoK) on Development Management (DM). The ISDM Knowledge and Research Centre is undertaking various research projects and studies to achieve its goal of establishing and strengthening the domain of DM. Please read more at www.isdm.org.in

Job Description

The Research Associate, ISDM Knowledge and Research Centre, is an opportunity for young scholars to contribute to unique research studies to understand, synthesize and document the meaning and implications of management practice within the development sector. The studies conducted by the Centre span across a broad range of stakeholders inside social purpose organizations, donors, the investor community, and the thriving support ecosystem that has emerged around the sector. This includes those who provide a range of services related to management, finances, legal, research, and others.

The RA shall support the co-creation and curation of knowledge artifacts (reports/case studies/papers) on development management. Facilitate and support team processes for seamless delivery of planned outputs and goals. As well as contribute to the teaching courses at ISDM within its post-graduate and continuing education offerings. As an RA, you will have an opportunity to work directly with senior faculty members and researchers with the center across the entire research cycle. Your work will involve co-creation of research study designs, development, and validation of research tools, extensive support in data collection & analysis, and synthesis & dissemination of study.

Young and aspiring researchers with a keen interest in looking at and learning from organizations’ experience, leadership, and management principles and wishing to pursue further research and study in organizational development and management practice will find this role and opportunity rewarding in shaping their perspectives and areas of further research.

Key Responsibilities

• Support execution of research projects and seminal studies through secondary research data collection and analysis (both quantitative and qualitative), production of reports. 
• Co-author and support creation of research papers, reports, case studies, and other knowledge collateral as per the annual plans of the ISDM case center.
• Co-author of knowledge dissemination content, emerging from seminal research studies/projects.
• Support maintenance of knowledge infrastructure for BoK projects.
• Support design and organization of online group consultations, seminars, and conferences. 
• Support Facilitation of capacity-building workshops for ISDM research partners. 
• Support working of collaborative teams within and outside ISDM (Academic, outreach, admissions, etc.)
• Support teaching courses at ISDM through academic assistance for ISDM faculty, holding tutorial spaces, and supporting course design and assessment for the courses. 
• Representing ISDM in workshops, seminars, and conferences 

Educational Qualifications and Experience Required

• Post-graduate or equivalent in management studies/ social sciences/ liberal arts /development studies / public policy/ public administration from a nationally/internationally known/ esteemed university.
• Excellent language and communication skills – written and oral
• Proven ability to support good quality research, knowledge/understanding of the social sector.
• Ability to work within short timelines and in mixed teams.
• Ability to learn on the job.
• Knowledge of research designs and methodologies
• Exposure to social sector organizations.
• 2 to 5 years of experience engaging with research and academic teaching support. 

Please send in your applications to people@isdm.org.in 

Remuneration shall be commensurate with experience and qualifications.

ISDM is an equal opportunity organization with a particular emphasis on affirmative action. The culture of the organization is one of professionalism while also one that greatly values relationships.