Consolidation and expansionism in the agile literature review approach (ALRA) diagramming: a note

Consolidation and expansionism in the agile literature review approach (ALRA) diagramming: 2 examples:

Example 1: how diagramming consolidation** and expansionism are done

In the management-concerns diagram of ABC Ltd

1, Concerned about the weak managerial competence on staff recruitment

2. Concerned about the weak managerial competence on staff retention

In theoretical framework level 0

Poor formulation:

1. To evaluate the managerial competence of ABC Ltd. on staff recruitment

2. To evaluate the managerial competence of ABC Ltd on staff retention

Improved formulation:

1. To evaluate the human resource management competence of ABC Ltd, with special reference to staff recruitment and retention

Example 2: how diagramming consolidation and expansionism are done

In the management-concerns diagram of ABC Ltd

1, Concerned about the poor customer information quality in ABC Ltd

2. Concerned about the poor competitor information quality in ABC Ltd

In theoretical framework level 0

1. To evaluate the marketing information system of ABC Ltd, with special reference to customer and competitor information.

** consolidation means combining 2 or more items (notably in the management-concerns diagram) into 1 item in the theoretical framework level 0.

Underlying rationale: Diagramming consolidation and expansionism foster a more complicated, holistic and strategic comprehension [in the form of the theoretical framework] on the the management concerns of an organization under investigation.

The topic of vision, mission and objective in agile literature review diagramming: a discussion

The topic of vision, mission and objectives [VMO] in agile literature review approach [ALRA] diagramming: a discussion:

Some students want to examine the topic of vision, mission and objectives [VMO] in their dissertation projects. They suggest that the VMO concern be located in Zone 1 of the agile literature review approach [ALRA] diagrams (i.e. management concerns diagram and the theoretical framework diagrams]. To start with, zone 1 deals with environmental drivers. These factors influence an organization but the organization cannot "control" nor "create" them. VMO is formulated by the top management of an organization, under the stewardship of its board of directors. It is, by definition, not an environmental driver.

There are two ways to deal with the topic of VMO, if it is an important one to be examined in the student's dissertation project, namely, the explicit way and the implicit way:

The explicit way involves introducing a zone 4 [VMO] in the management concerns diagram and the corresponding theoretical frameworks. Zone 4 in this case has linkages with Zones 1, 2 and 3a/3b. This way of treating VMO is mainly useful for dissertation projects with VMO being treated as a core-focus-domain item.

Statement examples: 

Management concern [zone 4]: Concern about the VMO of the company being unclear (or unattractive).

Theoretical framework [zone 4]: to evaluate the VMO of ABC Ltd in terms of its feasibility and attractiveness to the stakeholders involved.

The implicit way is to bring up the the topic of VMO in the literature review and findings analysis of the student's dissertation report. This way of treating VMO is more appropriate when it is not a core-focus-domain item in the dissertation project work.

Two more questions to consider:

Question 1: who is to decide whether VMO is a core-focus-domain item or not? It is decided by the dissertation project student who is sufficiently informed about the management concerns and the prevailing situation of the organization under investigation.

Question 2: what if (a) the topic of VMO is not a core-focus-domain item but still of some significance to the dissertation investigation and (b) the student feels confident to work with ALRA diagrams with 4 zones [i.e. a bit more complicated than  3-zone diagrams]?. In this case the explicit way can be employed. This case is a borderline one on the choice of implicit and explicit ways.

A guideline on how to assemble theories on specific management domains for organizational capability analysis in ALRA

 A guideline on how to assemble theories on specific management domains for organizational capability analysis in the agile literature review approach (ALRA): 

For literature search and review of analytical ideas to conduct high-level research tasks as identified in the theoretical framework [of the agile literature review approach], sometimes it is not easy to find analytical ideas for evaluation on a specific management domain, notably on organizational capability [Theoretical framework zone 2].  In this case, do the following steps [my suggested guideline], 

Step 1. find out the main activities involved in the management domain (e.g. production management, marketing communication, cost and management accounting, etc). For example, what are the main processes, tasks and sub-functions involved in the management domain. Do literature research on the models and ideas to gather useful concepts (group 1 concepts)

Step 2. adopt the resource based view (and core competence view) by considering what resources (tangible and intangible) are involved (re group 1 concepts on the processes and tasks involved) and what management capability required to manage these resources to create competitive advantage for the company concerned. Do literature review on the topic of resource-based view and core competence to gather useful concepts on these two topics (group 2 concepts)

Step 3. blend groups 1 and 2 concepts together to make up a tailor-made intellectual framework to inform the conduct of the high-level research task to evaluate the organizational capability of your chosen management domain, such as "to evaluate the production management capability of ABC Ltd" a high-level research task] and "to evaluate the marketing communication capability of ABC Ltd" [a high-level research task].

These steps are especially useful if you cannot find any specific organizational capability theories on the management domain [in zone 2] that you have chosen to study.

Some advice on linkage-type research objective in the agile literature review approach

 Some advice on linkage-type research objective in the agile literature review approach:

An example of a linkage-type research objective:

Example: to evaluate how managerial competence affects frontline employee turnover of ABC Ltd.

Comments on this objective in six points:

Point 1. to evaluate how managerial competence [zone 2 item] affects frontline employee turnover [zone 3a item] of ABC Ltd.

Point 2. Changed to [revised linkage-type research objective]: to evaluate the managerial competence of ABC Ltd, with special regard to its influence on the frontline employee turnover

That is: "to evaluate how managerial competence affects frontline employee turnover of ABC Ltd." changed to "to evaluate the managerial competence of ABC Ltd, with special regard to its influence on the frontline employee turnover"

Point 3. The revised linkage-type research objective has two sub-objectives

Research objective 1.1: to evaluate the managerial competence of ABC Ltd. [zone 2 item]

Research objective 1.2: to evaluate how managerial competence affects frontline employee turnover of ABC Ltd. [a linkage item {an arrow in the theoretical framework level 0 connecting two items} between zone 2 and zone 3a]

Point 4. Note that in Zone 3a, there is also a research objective on employee turnover as follows:

Research objective 2: to evaluate the frontline employee turnover status of ABC Ltd.

Point 5. Alternative, just express your interest in the revised linkage-type research objective in the theoretical framework level 0:

Zone 2: "to evaluate the managerial competence of ABC Ltd"  ----->

Zone 3a: "to evaluate the frontline staff turnover status of ABC Ltd".

If you adopt Point 2, the dissertation title becomes: 

An investigation to evaluate the managerial competence of ABC Ltd, with special regard to its influence on frontline employee turnover

If you adopt Point 5, the dissertation title could become: 

An investigation to evaluate the managerial competence and frontline staff turnover of ABC Ltd 

Point 6. I need to remind students that you need to do relevant literature review on these three research objectives explicitly in this case. 

Research objective 1.1: to evaluate the managerial competence of ABC Ltd.

Research objective 1.2: to evaluate how managerial competence affects frontline employee turnover of ABC Ltd.

Research objective 2: to evaluate the frontline staff turnover status of ABC Ltd.

The advice given endorses the agile literature review approach principle of "fostering a more complicated [including comprehensive, systemic and richer] view on management concerns and theoretical frameworks" in dissertation project.

What can be done with assignment turnitin similarity index is high - some advice

 What can be done with assignment turnitin index is high - some advice

The student question: my assignment turnitin similarity index is high (at 27%); is it OK?

Reply: it is not OK; try to reduce the similarity index to within 15%; study the following videos and reduce the index:

1. how to do quotation

2. how to paraphrase

3. how to avoid plagiarism

** Also ensure you do proper harvard referencing.