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.