How to formulate a proper dissertation project title [the agile literature review approach perspective]

How to formulate a proper dissertation project title [the agile literature review approach perspective]

Question 1: How to formulate a proper dissertation project title [the agile literature review approach perspective]:

Answer: The dissertation project title is derived from the core-focus-domain of theoretical framework level-0. An example:

The core-focus-domain has two items [i.e. the primary research objectives]:

1. to evaluate the marketing competence of ABC Ltd

2. to evaluate the talent management competence of ABC Ltd.

In this case the dissertation project title can be:

A case study research on evaluating the marketing and talent management competences of ABC Ltd.

The next question [question 2] is: where does the theoretical framework level-0 come from?

Answer: the theoretical framework level-0 is mainly derived from the management-concerns diagram constructed by the researcher as the main outcome of the dissertation project orientation phase.

What to achieve in the orientation phase of dissertation project that employs the agile literature review approach

What to achieve in the orientation phase of dissertation project that employs the agile literature review approach (ALRA):

The project orientation phase involves: (i) initial contact with the potential gatekeeper of the client organization, (ii) gathering first-hand data face-to-face and/or virtually, (iii) exploratory learning on the client organization, in parallel with preliminary literature review, (iv) some divergent and convergent thinking to study management issues, and (v) establishing rapport with the stakeholders of the client organization. Its major agile literature review approach (ALRA) deliverable is the management-concerns diagram of the dissertation project. Details on steps of this phase are as follows:

The dissertation project orientation phase [2 stages]

Stage 1: meeting the potential gatekeeper

To kickstart a dissertation project, the researcher makes an initial contact with the "potential" gatekeeper of a client organization. This initial contact, in the form of a meeting, aims at achieving:

1. mutual trust between the potential gatekeeper and the researcher.

2. some knowledge gained on some of the major management concerns of the client organization as perceived by the potential gatekeeper.

3. some thought by the researcher on which management concerns that the researcher is interested in studying for his/her dissertation project.

Stage 2: approaching the major stakeholders in the client organization with the gatekeeper's approval

1. learn the management concerns as perceived by the major stakeholders in/of the client organization.

2. reflecting on point 1 above, synthesize and formulate a broad picture of the SWOT status of the client organization.

3. (i) reflecting on points 1 and 2 above, and in view of the researcher's (ii) own intellectual interest and  (iii) knowledge gained from preliminary literature review, synthesize and formulate a management-concerns diagram for the dissertation project.

Note:

1. Make sure you have mentioned the orientation meetings made, the ownership of the management-concerns identified and your personal intellectual preference in your dissertation report, Chapter 1: Introduction, notably on describing your management-concerns diagram in this chapter.

2. Do not present a SWOT analysis in Chapter 1 as if your SWOT analysis is based on unquestionable facts and evaluation viewpoints [by you?] without clear "chain of evidence" from literature review and research efforts.

3. You should also ask the gatekeeper to sign on a gatekeeper consent form which authorizes you to do your dissertation project in the client organization.

4. Also study the interview method for the project orientation phase.

A multiple choice exercise on the agile literature review approach (ALRA): 3 questions

 A multiple choice exercise on the agile literature review approach: In total 3 questions:

Question 1: How is the following statement called in the agile literature review approach?

"To evaluate the marketing competence of ABC Ltd"

A. A high-level research task

B. A research objective

C. An agenda item to do literature review

D. B and C.

E. A, B and C.

F. None of the above.

Your answer is : _____________

Question 2: What kind of management concerns could be found in the management-concerns diagram of the agile literature review approach?

A. Urgent management concern

B. Management concern

C. Complex management concern

D. Emerging management concern

E. A and B above

F. A, C and D above

G. A, B, C and D

Your answer is : _____________

Question 3: The title of a dissertation project is primarily derived from:

A. ALRA diagram Zone 1 [environmental drivers]

B. ALRA diagram Zone 2 [organizational capabilities]

C. ALRA diagram Zone 3a [outcomes-related]

D. ALRA diagram Zone 3b [solutions-related]

E. C and D

F. B and C

G. The Core-focus-domain

Your answer is : _____________

__________________

Answers: Q1: E;  Q2: E; Q3: G

Housing dissertation progress report: main information to be provided

Housing dissertation progress report: main information to be provided:

Point 1. Some information direct from the dissertation report draft is useful: e.g. Chapter 1 information on introduction; chapter 2 information on literature review, and chapter 3 information about research methodology, etc.

Point 2. Some review on your project progress made: 1. major dissertation tasks (with regard to the dissertation table of content conceived as a to-do list) performed so far, 2. behind or ahead of project schedule?, 3. some adjustment of research method direction and literature review efforts due to technical and non-technical factors, e.g. some interviewees not cooperative and discovery of new research issues involved, etc. ?.

Point 3. Some discussion of project difficulties and constraints encountered and how they have been and are to be addressed. Some discussion on the intellectual learning gained so far from the dissertation project up to this stage should also be provided.

Point 4. Some discussion of (i) how satisfactory is the project progress so far, how optimistic/ confident you feel that you could finish your dissertation project satisfactorily and (ii) how satisfactory and engaging with your intellectual learning so far in doing the dissertation project.

Most students are able to provide information on point 1 [about 60-65% of the progress report content], but there should also be some discussion on points 2-4 [about 35-40% of the progress report content].

In a nutshell, the dissertation progress report presents, until now, what has been done, experienced and learned about the dissertation project, with some personal reflection on the project progress performance [as compared with the dissertation goals on time, quality and scope] so far. It is not a document showing the incomplete draft of the dissertation report content produced up to now.

It is useful to pick up some ideas on progress report (in general) and apply the orientation in your housing dissertation progress report writing.

Note: I offer to review the dissertation project draft from my supervisee once per supervisee.

The implications of research methods mapping in theoretical framework level 1c (ALRA): a note

The implications of research methods mapping in theoretical framework level 1c, in the agile literature review approach (ALRA):

[In the theoretical framework level 1c, as in level 1a, the academic ideas should possess the one or more of the values for research project work: (i) explanatory, clarifying and evaluative power, (ii) useful research practice and problem solving advices, and (iii) empirically observed patterns in social reality with actionable value].

By mapping research methods onto theoretical framework level 1a to produce theoretical level 1c, the student indicates the following 3-points research methodological position:

1. the full set of research methods to be used in the dissertation project within an encompassing intellectual response scaffolding that is management-concerns driven (re: theoretical framework level 0);

2. the purpose of each of the research methods to be used: i.e. to conduct investigation on a specific research objective [or a number of research objectives]. Specifically, to use a specific research method to to gather and analyse data to produce knowledge so as to achieve a targeted research objective [or a number of research objectives];

3. an explicit recognition that certain chosen academic ideas [re: theoretical framework level 1a] are employed to inform the research method design, e.g. interview research questions formulation, and subsequently, the theory-driven analysis on the research method findings. In this regard, the research methods design is explicitly informed by the literature review findings [re: chapter 2 of the dissertation report].

With the research method architecture made explicit in the form of of a diagram, the student can then describe, evaluate and justify the research methodology of his/her dissertation project with a clear blueprint; this written work is done in chapter 3 of the dissertation report. At the same time, his/her dissertation project supervisor can more easily monitor and provide feedback on the dissertation project research methodology.

No ideas on what dissertation project topic to do: some suggestions

No ideas on what dissertation project topic to do: some suggestions:

Student A: I have no ideas what dissertation project topic to do and, to make matters worse, I have just lost my job. Any suggestions?

Professor: [step 1] try to find a case study to do; the potential case study sources can be: from your ex-employer, your friends, and your own new venture [or potential new venture], your family member. Step 2 is to learn the nature of the business of the case study, especially its SWOT issues. Step 3: extract a subset of the related SWOT issues [re: step 2] that you are interested in studying. outcome is a management-concerns diagram. Step 4: convert your management-concerns diagram into theoretical framework level 0.

With the management-concerns diagram and the theoretical framework level-0, your dissertation project topic now becomes quite concrete and proper. In short, you (i) don't imagine a dissertation project topic, but to identify a topic you are interested in from an organization's SWOT issues and (ii) adopt a dissertation project topic, the nature of which is depicted in the management-concerns diagram and the derived theoretical framework level-0.

Student A: IC; so I do not need to withdraw from my study and ask the university to refund my school fee...

Professor: you are talking about a non-academic topic; kindly discuss direct with the university admin for that. Nonetheless, to develop the intellectual competence to work out a useful dissertation project title, you need to keep strengthening your "business sense".

Note: there are students who have difficulties to do a detailed case study of a company. In this case, the core-focus-domain can cover two items in Zone 1 [environmental drivers], leaving the Zone 2, 3a and 3b items as non-core-focus-domain items. An example is to study the servicescape of a fast-food-restaurant chain with participant observation and consumer interviews as the core-focus-domain, and the brief interview research with a few branch managers on the restaurant chain strategy [zone 3b item] and managerial competence evaluation [zone 2 item].

Two kinds of research tasks in zone 3b in the agile literature review approach

Two kinds of research tasks in zone 3b [solutions related] in the agile literature review approach are (i) to formulate [with some evaluation effort] .... a new solution... and (iia) to evaluate the existing solution......(iib) to evaluate a proposed solution...

Specific examples:

Example 1: "To formulate [and evaluate] a new salesforce training program for ABC Ltd"

Example 2a: "To evaluate the existing salesforce training program for ABC Ltd"

Example 2b: "To evaluate a newly proposed executive coaching program for ABC Ltd".

Literature search for Example 1 should focus on "to formulate [with minor evaluation effort]" while literature search for Example 2 should focus on "to evaluate". The direction of literature review effort differs between the two examples.

Examples of references to use for Example 1 [to formulate....] are:

Reference 1: How to Create an Effective Salesforce Training Program

Reference 2: How to create a successful Salesforce training and adoption plan?

Examples of references to use for Example 2 [to evaluate...] are:

Reference 1: Sales Force Training Evaluation

Reference 2: Measuring and Evaluating Sales Force TrainingEffectiveness: A Proposed and an Empirically Tested Model

A side topic is that it is possible to come up with a high-level research task likes this:

A zone 3b item [solutions-related]: "To evaluate the newly formulated salesforce training program of ABC Ltd".

The focus is on "to evaluate" while the object is on "the newly formulated salesforce training program", not "the existing salesforce training program".

To evaluate competitive advantage as a zone 3a item in the agile literature review approach

To evaluate competitive advantage as a zone 3a item in the agile literature review approach, it is important to do literature search on "how to measure competitive advantage" because the item of "to evaluate the competitive advantage of ABC Ltd" is a zone 3a item [outcomes-related]. In this case, the following references are clearly relevant:

1. Review of Competitive Advantage Measurements: Reference on Agribusiness Sector

2. Developing a measure of competitive advantage

3. How To Measure Competitive Advantage

There are altogether 3 literature search tasks for zone 3a items, but this one on measurement is the prime one.

Three literature search questions for a zone 3a item in agile literature review approach

Three literature search questions for a zone 3a [outcomes-related] item in agile literature review approach [ALRA]:

Take the popular example of employee morale: "to evaluate the employee morale of ABC Ltd" [the item]

As the item is located in Zone 3a [outcomes-related], the first literature search question that comes to mind is:

Literature search question 1: What theories and ideas are related to the measurement of employee morale?

There are two additional literature search questions that are relevant to the study of the item of "to evaluate the employee morale of ABC Ltd":

Literature search question 2: What theories and ideas are related to the explanation of employee morale status in an organization? 

Here we are interested in the influencers and their mechanisms [i.e. the causal factors/ independent variables] on employee morale status [the effect/ dependent variable].

The last question, literature search question 3: What are the impacts and consequences of the employee morale on the organization and the individuals concerned?

A quick way to spot some useful concepts and methods to address the three literature search questions is to do search keyword search on Google and Google Scholar. Additional effort can also be made to do literature search on the university e-library.

Since the item of "to evaluate the employee morale of ABC Ltd" is very often not a core-focus domain item, the literature search and literature review tend to be brief. The literature review findings have to be relevant, nevertheless.