The following discussion agenda is on "Performing research access and interventions" in the subject of
Dissertation and consulting management:
A. Consulting Management Perspective (based on Wickham (2004)
- Identify opportunities and issues by the client organization
- Evaluate the problem
- Evaluate assistors and inhibitors (re: Table 7.1 of Wickham (2004.)
- Problem analysis, specification and quantification
- Brainstorming
- Grouping causes and identifying root causes
- Setting objectives, defining desired end state/ outcomes, and formulating actions
- Reconcile your objectives as a consultant with those of your client
- Develop a strategy for the destination
- Formulate a project charter
- Team members
- Project scope
- Project time frame
- Project measurements
- Consultant-client engagement for the project implementation
- Spectrum of consultant-client interactions
- Benckmark project progression
- Hand over ownership of the project
B. Action Research Perspective (based on Checkland and Holwell (2007).)
- The cycle of action research in human situations
- Real world problem situation
- Research themes
- Action in the situation
- Reflection on the intervention
- Findings
- The process of action research
- Enter the problem situation
- Establish roles
- Declare methodology and frameworks of ideas
- Take part in change process
- Rethink the process of intervention
- Exit
- Reflect on the experience
- The "recoverability" criterion and the "transferability" of results to other situations
Class discussion:
compare and evaluate the approaches of Wickham and Checkland and Holwell
Specific discussion on Research methods as related to
Marketing:
- http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2012/01/example-of-quantitative-research-in.html
- The main article as related to Qualitative Research is Walsh, K. (2003) "Qualitative Research: Advancing the Science and Practice of Hospitality" Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administrative Quarterly, April, pp. 66-74. (re: http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2012/01/rationale-of-conducting-qualitative.html)
- The academic article for illustration of Qualitative Research Methods in Marketing is Homburg, C., Workman, Jr., J.P. and Jensen, O. (2000) "Fundamental Changes in Marketing Organization: The movement toward a customer-focused organizational structure", Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 28(4), pp. 459-478. See also diagram below that captures the main idea:
Lecture notes:
In this case: the table of content of the dissertation report has the following structure in general:
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Literature reivew
* Literature review of theories -> formulation of a theoretical framework
Chapter 3: Background of the study
* Literature review of the subject matter/ area of concern
Chapter 4: Research design
* Describe a theory-driven research design with clear justifications; there should be a methodology, e.g. on Action Research, that further clarifies the research design; an example of a methodology is the soft systems methodology of Peter Checkland:
http://members.tripod.com/ssm_delphi/ssm4.html
Chapter 5: Findings and Analysis
Chapter 6: Conclusions and recommendations
Chapter 7: Lessons learned and future research efforts
References
Appendix
In the lecture, I have also briefly mentioned the quantitative method of multiple regression analysis:
http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/12/research-method-based-on-multiple.html
References
- Checkland, P. and Holwell, S. (2007) "Chapter 1: Action Research" in Kock, N. (editor) Information Systems Action Research, Springer.
- Wickham, P. (2004) Management Consulting, Prentice-Hall [Mainly chapters 7-8]
- On Project Charter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_charter
- Overall teaching schedule on Research methods and Consulting practices: http://josephkkhoworkdiary.blogspot.com/2012/03/lecture-agenda-for-dissertation-and.html
- On Qualitative Research Methods: http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2012/01/rationale-of-conducting-qualitative.html
- Gill, J. and Johnson, P. (2010) "Chapter 7: Qualitative methodology: the case of ethnography" Research Methods for Managers, Sage.
- Marketing forum: https://www.facebook.com/josephho33?success=1#!/groups/282669242406/
