Lecture 1 Dissertation Development Overview

7/28/2019 Lecture 1 Dissertation Development Overview

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MGT7091: Research Methods

and Techniques Module

Overview

Professor Mark Palmer

Queens University Belfast


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Lecture aim

to provide students with an appreciation of theResearch Methods and Techniques module


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Learning outcomes

To introduce the challenges and issues associated

with conducting an academic piece of research

To provide insights into successful academic

research within a variety of settings

To help you to identify a topic for your final year

dissertation

To develop a provisional Research Proposal for your

final year Dissertation

To introduce the 2 main philosophical approaches to

research

To introduce the nature of the research methods

associated with the main philosophical approaches


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Core Reading Saunders et al. Any edition


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Professor of Marketing

Previously Head of the Marketing Department, Birmingham Business

School, University of Birmingham, January 2011 December 2012 Aston Business School, Aston University, Birmingham, July 2003

December 2010

Member of the Advanced Institute of Management

Research expertise lies in market driving behaviours, institutions and

innovation within the value chain

Business consultancy programmes for Goldman Sachs, Sainsburys,

Tesco, DHL, ABCAM

Over 80 articles in refereed journals, books and conference

proceedings

Your Host Dr Mark Palmer

BA MA PhDDipM AIM PGCTL MCIM Chartered Marketer


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Queen's University

Management School

Queen's University Belfast

Room 02.039

Riddel Hall

185 Stranmillis Road

Belfast

Northern Ireland | UK |

BT9 5EET: +44 (0) 28 9097 5612

F: +44 (0) 28 9097 4201

E:[email protected]

www.qub.ac.uk/mgt

Contact Details


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Lecture and Tutorial StructureLectures

Week 1: Overview of the

course, academic research

and the philosophy of research

Week 2: What is a

dissertation?

Week 3: Selection of topic and

problem

Week 4: Conducting an

analytical literature review and

developing a conceptualization

Week 5 Methodology (Part 1)

Week 6 Methodology (Part 2)

Tutorials

Week 1: Thinking deeply

Week 2: Idea generation,

problem solving and objectivesetting

Week 3: Assessment Writing

your dissertation proposal

Week 4: Searching for

secondary data and building a

literature review

Week 5: Hypotheses

Development, Protocols,

Discussion and conclusions

Week 6: Managing yoursupervisor


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Assessment Assignment One-100%

Assignment Title: MSc Dissertation Research

Proposal. An individual Assignment

An Research Proposal for your dissertation

Defining your topic

Initial background reading and research Designing a research strategy

Number of Words: 3,500 (+ or 10% rule

applies)


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Assignment Deadline & Instructions for Submission:

Assignments must be submitted by 4.00pm Tuesday 8th May 2012.

All assignments will be retained for consideration by the external examiner.Students should therefore submit two copies of their assignmentto the

QUMS Student Office, Riddel Hall, 185 Stranmillis Road and signed for

under the supervision of QUMS Student Office staff on or before the date

above.

A copy should also be emailed to your MSc Coordinator.

Penalties for late submission will be applied. Thus assignments

submitted after the deadline will be penalised at the rate of 5% (5 marks) off

the assessed mark awarded for each working day late up to a maximum of

five working days (i.e. Monday to Friday excluding days of official University

closure) after which a mark of zero will be awarded.


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Instructions for Submission:

Formatting: Assignments should be submitted

in size 12 font, with double line spacing. All

readings should be clearly referenced using the

Harvard Style.


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Why should I produce a research

proposal?

An opportunity to organise your research ideas and get a

focus

Identify the scope and boundaries of the investigation

Kick starting the research process

Evaluating the feasibility of your proposed research A means of establishing a focus for when you

communicate with your dissertation supervisor


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Recommended Proposal Outline

Introduction: context, topic to be addressed, outline of research question(s), aims and objectives,

potential contribution of the research to literature and management practice, potential research

problems and/or constraints (500 words).

Review of relevant literature: justification of topic chosen, bodies of literature being addressed,

what is already known, gaps in what is already known, how the literature reviewed informs the

design of the research (1,500 words).

Methodology: how you intend going about answering the research question(s) and addressing

the research objectives (1,500 words):

Summary of ontological and epistemological assumptions underpinning proposed research

Summary of research approach and purpose

Detailed research design methodology including proposed data collection method(s) and dataanalysis, strengths and potential weaknesses of proposed approach

Potential ethical issues

Timeline (Gantt Chart)

Possible resource requirements.


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Lecture Attendance

Formal lecture

Tutorials (Q&A)

Six formal lectures, Thursdays, 1- 3pm 3 Tutorial Groups (3-5 Thursday & Fridays 9-11am and

11am to 1pm

Lectures provide the bones of the subject

Preparatory reading required to get the most fromlectures


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Module outline

Lecture notes

Assessment Readings (3-4 Journal articles in PDF format for

each lecture)

NoticesN.B. Access to the files is either through Microsoft PowerPoint or

through the file manager / windows explorer

Queens Online


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Surgery Office Hours Attendance

Fridays 1-5pm

Your chance to bring issues of concern. What you dont understand from lectures and

readings

Ask Mark

Low risk environment. I cant help if you dont ask

"A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner."

English Proverb


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Lecture Room Etiquette

Talking Eating, Drinking and Smoking Mobile Phones, iPods, MP3 players and similar interactive electronic

communication devices Concentration, taking notes and asking questions Good Manners is Good Business!


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Creating the The Red Queen Effect in the Classroom!

Any company, in trying to keep ahead of thecompetition, constantly seeks ways to improve its

efficiency and performance. Often, this searchresults in organizational learning that increasesthe companys competitive strength. Similar to achain reaction, this turns rivals into strongercompetitors and thus again triggers learningresponses (search for improvements) in the firstcompany. In this way, organizations learn overtime as a response to competition, which in turnintensifies competition in a self-reinforcingprocess (Barnett et al., 1994; Barnett andHansen,1996).


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The ant on a balloon flat or round??


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Mindful of Mindwandering A state ofdecoupled attention

Harvard study

said left them happy

and sharply focused.

It was, they said,"making love."


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A Wandering mind is an unhappymind?

During waking hours, peoples minds seem to wander about 30 percent of

the time

Those seated in the front third of the lecture experienced significantly fewer

(Lindquist & McLean, 2011)

The everyday cognition tradition focuses on the investigation of thinking in

contexts more akin to those that individuals encounter in the course of their

day-to-day lives (Cohen & Conway, 2008). This tradition provides a

welcome complement to mainstream cognitive psychology that focuseslargely on tasks that bear little to no resemblance to tasks one might

encounter beyond the confines of the laboratory (Neisser, 1978).


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Implications for your researching?

Our working memory -- the part of our memory system that guides

us through our daily chores, from remembering where you left thecar keys to telling the difference between a red light and a green

light -- lets us simultaneously juggle multiple thoughts

This study shows that our mental lives are pervaded, to a

remarkable degree, by the non present (Killingsworth and Daniel

Gilbert, 2011)


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On Becoming an Academic Researcher

Everything is possible in academic research until itis proven otherwise

Ideas are your currencydont throw your currencyaround

Only share ideas once your work is published

Researchers always leave a trace!

Maliciously record your tracks every step of theway


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Academic research

It is sometimes possible to explore basic questions in the university

that are tough to raise in other settings. John Gardner (1968, p. 90)

put it well when he said that the university stands for:

things that are forgotten in the heat of battle

values that get pushed aside in the rough and tumble of everyday

living

the goals we ought to be thinking about and never do

the facts we dont like to face

the questions we lack the courage to ask


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Were all entrepreneurs now!

We identify market opportunities for our ideas

We find sources of funding for them, if needed

We allocate resources to these ideas

We produce and market these ideas to various

audiences


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And marketing managers too!

We manage a portfolio of ideas

We promote these products

Distribute them

And price them too from time to time


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The Nature of the Academic

Entrepreneur of knowledge an emancipationof work

Plough the lonely furrow independence.Master of your own destiny. Your Business.

Becoming the Rocky of the Academy: pain,rejection, written off. Bounce Back! TheLazarus effect

Resilient stubborn, tenacious, hope, positive

They are human!


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Imprisoned by ourselves? Stanford studies August

1420, 1971 The Stanford prison experiment was a

study of the psychological effects of

becoming a prisoner or prison guard.

Twelve students were selected out of

75 to play the prisoners and live in a

mock prison in the basement of theStanford psychology building. Another

twelve of the same 75 were selected to

play the Guards.

Roles were assigned randomly to the

24 men. The participants adapted to

their roles well beyond what wasexpected, leading the officers to

display authoritarian measures and

ultimately to subject some of the

prisoners to torture.

Implications for you?


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Academic Research Why does it Matter?

Rigour or Relevance - the tyranny of the Or

Evidence management

Who reads it? Academics, practitioners, policy makers?

Traditional impact channels primacy of the peer ranked journal

being questioned by the social influence agenda

Scientific activity in the modern world is more importantself-

appointed-online-pundits

Boundaries between science and non-science have become eroded

by disruptive technologies such as Google, Wikipedia etc

An insatiable demand for new scientific knowledge

More spent in bailing out the banks than on the entirety of science


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The Dissertation Journey

Prejudices you carry a prejudices into yourresearch. Things are not always what they

appear to be.

Inertia you stop acting when you stumbleupon a problem

Procrastinationyou dont want to

Joy and elation when you find out stuff


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Prejudices

We often have closed ears and then prejudice and our

own ignorance of the communities we serve tempts us

to parodies of what we think people might want

(Marland and Rodgers, 1991).

We bank, therefore we think we understand

banking!

We are exposed to marketing, therefore we

think we understand marketing!

We use a smartphone, therefore we think we

understand technology!


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My Style & Course

Interaction and a number of small exercises

Challenging but rewarding!! (deep learning rather than strategiclearning)

Using rhetorical questioning can lead to better decisions (i.e. playing devils advocate)

can be informative. (i.e. questions are used to introduce course content,topics and to request clarification)

can help to identify and challenge assumptions, but also to explore andimagine alternatives

Benefits include: enhances your ability to recognise the virtues of strong and weak

arguments

makes them sceptical of single answers to questions (2 sidedarguments)

most effective means through which ingrained assumptions can bechallenged


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Lecture Style & Course

Textbook is the core reading Saunders et al. Research Methods forBusiness Students

Using Journal articles as supplementary reading for the course randomquestions about articles

Expectations that you read TWO articles per week (How?)

The Benefits:

More informative and situational specific. Knowledge is best conveyedin specificsituations/contexts

More timely and up-to-date than dated text books

Illustrative of MBA-centric learning

Research-driven teaching and knowledge dissemination

Avail of the vast electronic databases available for students in the library(e.g. emerald, Sciencedirect etc.).

More cost effective

Environmentally friendly


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Philosophy of Research

The Chambers twentieth century dictionary

defines philosophy as:-

..pursuit of wisdom and knowledge.

..knowledge of the causes of things.

Research is defined as:-

..systematic investigation towards increasing the

sum of knowledge.


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Science

Science is defined as:-

..knowledge ascertained by observation and

experiment, critically tested, systemised and

brought under general principles.. Science is also cumulative with each generation

building on the ideas of the preceding ones

either through rejection and change or

conformity and development.


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Science, Philosophy & Research So Philosophy uses Research to test established ideas and identify

their limitations which in turn provides the basis for the formulation of

new explanations and continues the process of philosophical

evolution. Science provides the mechanisms through which Research is

conducted.

New scientific knowledge defined as new theory that articulates or

has the potential to articulate new phenomena (Lakatos, 1970).

The term "theory" a variety of forms including abductive theory (i.e.,

theory prompted by surprising observations -- Hanson, 1958) and

theoretical models that posit causal relationships among terms (cf.

Suppe, 2000).


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Differing approaches to research

Data collection

methods

Research strategies

Time horizons

Research approaches

Research philosophy


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Philosophical Issues and Debates Scientific knowledge producers see the world through TWO distinctiveontological and epistemological lenses.

The lens you adopt will have real consequences in terms of the organization

of knowledge production.

There are two fundamental philosophical issues which have influenced the

development of science:

The nature of reality

The ontological questions are:Do scientific theories represent reality?

What can be known for certain?;

Ontology concerns the analysis of the types of things or relations that

can exist. In science, a major ontological issue concerns whether

scientific theories represent reality -- objects, events, and processes

outside the human mind; or whether scientific theories comprise

explanatory fictions whose terms (such as "electron") are conveniencesinvented to guide research.


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Philosophical Issues and Debates

The epistemological questions are: Is there such a thing as

absolute truth?

Does science gets closer and closer to the truth?

Epistemology concerns how one gains access to

knowledge and the relationship between knowledge and

truth. In science, a major epistemological issue concerns

whether or not scientific theories over time move closer

and closer to the truth.


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Philosophical Issues or Epistemology Debates

Therefore need to consider the basic questions of meaning (i.e., ontology)

and knowledge (i.e., epistemology) in order to either study/research.

There have been two paradigm shifts in Western thinking. But there are a

variety of positions across the two spectrums, but broadly speaking the aretwo positions.

These are Positivism (scientific method) and Interpretivism.

Note: They are often in warring camps.

Some see these oppositions as false and detrimental to research.


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Positivism

Auguste Comte, 1798-1857

R h hil h


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Positivism (a.k.a Logical Positivism andObjectivism)

Positivists attempt to mirror the methods of the naturaland physical scientists.

Through observing reality you can produce laws of the social

world which can be generalised from one context to another

e.g Laws of Supply and Demand in Positive Economics.

Stylised facts - facts uncontestable

Research philosophy


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Positivism or Objectivism

Your role is to be an objective analyst, collecting data and

interpreting it in a value free way.

You are detached, neither affect nor are affected by the

subject of your research.

Emphasise the quantifiable, the observable, and replication

(the ability to repeat research)


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Interpretivism and Phenomenology

Edmund Husserl, 1859-1938


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Interpretivism (e.g. Phenomenology) emphasises -

That the world is too complex to be reduced to a series oflaw-like generalisations.

the uniqueness of people, and circumstances

and the constant nature of change.

details matter - in an attempt to dig into deeper

layers of reality.

subjective reality matters.


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Interpretivism could be used to study -

Organisational culture layer by layer the visual symbols

the mission statement, and the hidden world of taken

for granted assumptions which influence thinking, feelingperceptions in the workplace.

Warning!

Finding the reality working behind the reality may be

too challenging for some!


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Logics that profoundly affect the research of

professional scientists


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Choosing a Research Approach

A deduct ive app roach?

You develop a theory and design a strategy to testhypotheses.

A close ally to the philosophy ofpositivism.

A scientific approach.

An induct ive approach?

You collect data and develop a theory as a result

of your data analysis

A close ally to the philosophy ofphenomenology.


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Summary

The justification of scientific activity is increasingly important in themodern world in which the boundaries between science and non-

science have become eroded and in which there is an insatiable

demand for new scientific knowledge

Logics of action are encoded in the routines of training, monitoring,

disciplining, and rewarding of professionals

Drawn attention to the philosophical questions about what we know

for certain and absolute truth.

Through the scientific revolution philosophers tried to develop

methodologies that could establish the absolute truth.

The lesson that this provides to today's researcher is that the results

from scientific work are never absolute.

there are many different approaches to obtaining knowledge;

that the knowledge gained depends upon the approaches

adopted


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Further Reading

Davis, M. 1971. Thats interesting! Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 1:

309-344.

Grant, A. M., & Pollock, T. G. 2011. From the Editors: Publishing in

AMJPart 3: Setting the hook.Academy of Management Journal, 54: 873-879.

Lewis, M. & Grimes, A. 1999. Metatriangulation: Building theory from

multiple paradigms.Academy of Management Review, 24: 672-690.

Miller, D. 2005. Paradigm prison, or in praise of atheoretic research.

Strategic Organization, 5: 177-184. Pfeffer, J. 1993. Barriers to the advancement of organizational science:

Paradigm development as a dependent variable.Academy of Management

Review, 18: 599-620.

Cannella, A. & Paetzold, R. 1994. Pfeffers barriers to the advancement of

organizational science: A rejoinder.Academy of Management Review, 19:

331-341.


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Further reading

Bryman, A. (2012) Social Research Methods. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press Chapter 1.

Bryman, A. and Bell, E. (2007) Business Research Methods. 2nded. Oxford: Oxford University Press Chapter 1.

Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. (2012) Research Methods for Business Students. 6th ed. England: Pearson

Chapter 1.

Bryman, A. (2012) Social Research Methods. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press Chapter 2.

Easterby-Smith, M., Thorpe, R. and Jackson, P. (2012) Management Research. 4th ed. Thousand Oaks, C.A: SagePublications Ltd Chapter 2.

Huff, A.S. and Huff, J.O. (2001) Refocusing the Business School Agenda. British Journal of Management, Vol. 12, pp. 49-54.

Starkey, K. and Madan, P. (2001) Bridging the Relevance Gap: Aligning Stakeholders in the Future of Management

Research. British Journal of Management, Vol. 12, pp. 326.

Saunders, M., Lewis, P and Thornhill, A. (2009) Research Methods for Business Students. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ:FT Prentice Hall Chapter 1 and 4

Tranfield, D. and Starkey, K (1998) The Nature, Social Organisation and Promotion of Management Research. British

Journal of Management, Vol. 9, pp. 341-353.

Weick, K. (2001) Gapping the Relevance Bridge: Fashions meet fundamentals in Management Research, British Journal of

Management12 pp 71-76.

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