BUS7B63 Research Study Options & Proposal
PROPOSAL BRIEF
| Module title | Research Project |
| Module code | BUS7B63 |
| Module leader | Dr. Delyth Wyndham |
| Assessment title | Research Study Options & Proposal |
| Launch date | 1st February 2023 |
| Submission deadline | 5th May 2023 |
| Expected date for return of feedback | TBC |
| Module outcomes assessed | N/A |
| Assessment weighting | N/A |
| Word count (if relevant) | Approx. 1,000 (depending on option selected) |
| Assessment task details: | |
| Complete the proposal proforma (see below). Select between the research study options and where prompted provide further detail on the research study you have chosen. Choose between three research study options*: Empirical-based research study Literature-based research study Project-based research study: Type A: Choose a project led by a supervisor (see the Project Overviews) Type B: Develop your own research project and pitch it to the Programme Team Once you have completed the proforma, complete your research study ethics application (see Moodle for the form). *Subject to availability. It is not guaranteed that all options will be available for each intake at all sites. Please confi rm the available options with your module tutor/supervisor or the dissertation stage lead. | |
| Submission instructions | |
| Format of submission: Submission 1: Compete your research study proposal proforma Submission 2: Compete your research study ethics application How should it be submitted? Moodle submission points Submission 1: Proforma | Submission 2: Ethics application Note feedback will be provided on your proposal via Moodle. |
| Hints and tips |
| Additional Guidance: Step 1: Choose between the three research study options Step 2: Choose your research topic (or project for project-based research studies) Step 3: Compete the research study proposal proforma (below) answering in full Step 4: Compete the research study ethics application (your supervisor will issue your approval once they have reviewed your research study proposal in conjunction with your application – do not start your research until you have formal approval otherwise this is a breach of the WGU ethics regulations) Refer to the module content as necessary to help you prepare your proposal. Carefully consider the implications of the research study option you select. For MBA dissertations your research must have a management or organisational focus. If you are unclear, it is important that you speak to the module leader or your supervisor. Do not rely on advice from fellow students or information found online. For empirical-based research studies it should be clear how you are collecting your data and what this data will be (for example, a questionnaire or series of interviews or a set of policy documents you have collated). Where relevant make sure you have gatekeeper approval before committing to your study. This is permission to complete your research using the organisation as the focus from a senior manager at the organisation. Note that this can sometimes be difficult to obtain. You cannot complete your research with employees of a specific organisation without this gatekeeper permission. The gatekeeper permission needs to be formal (e.g. an email) and will need to be shared with your supervisor. Remember that for this option, your data should be empirical. If you want to use only existing literature as the focus of your research this means you will be completing a literature-based research study (see below). If you are not clear please ask the module leader to clarify which option your study will be. For literature-based research studies you will need to select your topic focus carefully. You needed to ensure that your review question is specific enough so that your search results in a manageable (yet sufficient) number of research studies to analyse. Select one database as a trial run and see how many results you get. Remember you need to justify the inclusion and exclusion of each item in the search results. Ensure that your keywords or search sentence and limiting criteria gives you a set of results in the range: less than 150 but more than 20 (approximately). If you get too many results, consider adding additional keywords e.g. a specific country or limiting the date range e.g. the last five years only. If you have too few you may need to remove or edit a keyword. You should be looking to identify research studies, conference papers, literature reviews and meta-analyses, but not opinion pieces, book reviews or anything else that does not report the outcome of existing research. Remember to note down the details of your search in full – see the literature-based research study dissertation template on Moodle for details of what you will need to include in your dissertation. For project-based research studies – Type A (Project led by a supervisor) you will need to ensure that you have carefully read the Project Overview. Does the topic align with your route if you are taking a specific MBA pathway (such as MBA Project Management)? It is a requirement that your dissertation topic has a clear connection to your MBA route specialism. Does the topic align with your interests and future plans following your MBA? For this option you will need to follow the instructions given by your supervisor and complete the requirements of the Project Task Outline in full. It is not possible to change once you have committed, so consider your choice very carefully using the details provided in the Project Overview. For project-based research studies – Type B (Develop your own research project) you will need to spend additional time preparing a pitch. This will be reviewed by the Programme Team to ensure it is suitable for your MBA. Therefore, you must provide as much detail as possible on the proposed project. You must ensure that you have all permissions in place to ensure that you can access the relevant data and make use of it before committing to this option. An example project could be: a student works at an organisation that has just completed their annual staff questionnaire. The student’s manager has agreed that they can use this data for the basis of their project along with the staff questionnaire for the last five years. The student develops a clear research problem, aim and objectives based upon the data available from the existing questionnaire and agrees it with their line manager before submitting their pitch. For all research project options make sure to review the specific dissertation template and option brief. All templates and briefs are available on Moodle. All submitted work is expected to observe academic standards in terms of academic writing, use of language, etc. Failure to adhere to these instructions may result in your proposal needing to be resubmitted. |
| Marking and moderation |
| Formative feedback will be provided on your proposal via Moodle. Your supervisor will issue your ethics approval once they have reviewed your research study proposal in conjunction with your application. |
BUS7B63: Research Study Options & Proposal
| Proposal Proforma: You MUST complete this section | ||
| Name: | ||
| Student Number: | ||
| Programme: | ||
| Remember that your research topic and your programme must be aligned. For example, if you are taking MBA project management your topic must have a project management element. | ||
| Academic Year / Trimester: | 2022/23 / 2 | |
| Declaration: | ☐ | I agree that: I will ensure that my research study complies with the University’s Code of Practice on Ethical Standards for Research and that I will seek clarification from my supervisor or the module leader where I am unsure After completing this proposal, I will complete my Ethics Application in full I will not start my research data or source collection until I have had written ethics approval from my supervisor |
| Research Study Options: (make ONE choice then procced to the specific section – you should only complete ONE section) | ☐ | Empirical-based research study (primary or secondary data collection) → Go to section 1 |
| ☐ | Literature-based research study (secondary source collection) → Go to section 2 | |
| Project-based research: | ||
| ☐ | Type A: Project led by supervisor (following the project task outline provided) → Go to section 3A | |
| ☐ | Type B: Project you develop (outlined by you and pitched for approval) → Go to section 3B |
Section 1 Empirical-based research study
| Instructions | Please complete the following details to outline your proposed research. Complete all parts of this section. | |
| Working Title/Topic This will evolve during your research – it does not need to be your final title at this stage | ||
| Does the topic being proposed align with your MBA programme route? (make ONE choice) | ☐ | Yes |
| ☐ | No | |
| Research Question This should have a question mark ? at the end | ||
| Research Aim This is one over-arching statement linked to your question | ||
| Research Objectives | 1. | |
| List four objectives e.g. ‘to | 2. | |
| analyse…’, ‘to establish…’, ‘to review…’, ‘to examine…’. ‘to | 3. | |
| recommend…’ | 4. To recommend | |
| Why is the study needed? Give a reasoned justification for the study – a brief statement on the organisational/business/ management reason for the study. Examples may be due to a performance issue which could be people, process or resource based. |
| What sampling strategy will be used? (make ONE choice then choose which sub- type) | ☐ | Non-probability |
| ☐ | Convenience (e.g. invite everyone you know) | |
| ☐ | Snowball (e.g. invite everyone you know and ask them to share the link) | |
| ☐ | Self-selection (e.g. post an invite to a forum) | |
| ☐ | Purposive (typical-case, extreme/deviant-case/outlier, maximum variation, homogenous, stratified purposeful, random purposeful) | |
| ☐ | Quota (e.g. invite 25 men and 25 women) | |
| ☐ | Other (please state): | |
| ☐ | Probability Remember a probability sample requires randomisation to be introduced. This usually needs a list of all members of the population (sampling frame). For example, given a list of all employees in the department you invite every third person on the list to take part. The sample MUST be random (in the statistical sense of the word) to ensure that each potential participant in the population has an equal probability of being selected. | |
| ☐ | Simple random (e.g. use a web-based random number generator to select from the sampling frame) | |
| ☐ | Systematic random (e.g. every 3rd element of the sampling frame is chosen for the sample) | |
| ☐ | Stratified random (take a random sample from various strata (homogeneous subgroups of members)) | |
| ☐ | Cluster (divide the population into groups/clusters; take a simple random sample of the clusters; all members from the selected clusters are sampled) | |
| ☐ | Other (please state): | |
| Will the study collect primary or secondary data? (make ONE choice) | ☐ | Primary |
| ☐ | Secondary |
| ☐ | Other (please state) | |
| What type of data will be collected? (make ONE choice) | ☐ | Quantitative |
| ☐ | Qualitative | |
| ☐ | Other (please state): | |
| How will the data be collected? (make ONE choice) | ☐ | Questionnaire |
| ☐ | Structured interviews (qualitative questionnaire) | |
| ☐ | Semi-structured interviews | |
| ☐ | Existing data set | |
| ☐ | A data set will be collated | |
| ☐ | Other (please state): | |
| How will the data be analysed? (make ONE choice) | ☐ | Quantitatively – Descriptive statistics and data visualisations |
| ☐ | Quantitatively – Inferential and descriptive statistics and data visualisations | |
| ☐ | Qualitatively – Thematic analysis | |
| ☐ | Qualitatively/quantitatively – Content analysis | |
| ☐ | Other quantitative (please state): | |
| ☐ | Other qualitative (please state): |
Section 2 Literature-based research study
| Instructions | Please complete the following details to outline your proposed research. Complete all parts of this section. | |
| Working Title/Topic This will evolve during your research – it does not need to be your final title at this stage | ||
| Does the topic being proposed align with your MBA programme route? (make ONE choice) | ☐ | Yes |
| ☐ | No | |
| Review Question This should have a question mark ? at the end. For example, ‘What contemporary research studies from the last 5 years consider ‘topic x’?’ | ||
| Review Aim This is one over-arching statement linked to your review question | ||
| Review Objectives List four objectives e.g. ‘to analyse…’, ‘to establish…’, ‘to review…’, ‘to examine…’. The final objective should be ‘to recommend…’ | 1. 2. 3. 4. To recommend | |
| Why is the study needed? Give a reasoned justification for the study – a brief statement on the organisational/business/ management reason for the study. Examples may be due to a performance issue which could be people, process or resource based |
| . | |
| Which academic databases will you search for sources? For example, you could search databases: JSTOR; ProQuest Central; SAGE Journals; Science Direct/Elsevier; Web of Science; Wiley Online Library; PsycINFO; ACM; Westlaw UK; etc. or database aggregators such as: Resource Finder; Google Scholar; etc. for contemporary research studies on your research topic. | |
| Which keywords will you use to search for sources? Ideally this should be a Boolean search string (e.g. “human resource management” AND “paternity leave” AND “UK”) AND returns results where both keywords are present (limit results).OR returns results where either or both key words are present (expand results).NOT excludes results where the key words is present.? (question mark): e.g. organi?ation = organisation and organization* (asterisk): e.g. Manage* = manger, management, manages, managerial, managing, etc.$ (dollar sign): 0 or 1 character Example: colo$r gives color and colourQuotation marks “ ” these exact words, in this exact order |
| How will you narrow the search results (inclusion and exclusion criteria)? (e.g. studies from or after 2015; articles in English only; etc.) | ||||
| What sampling strategy will be used? | ☐ | Non-probability | ||
| ☐ | Purposive (select all that meet the inclusion criteria) | |||
| (make ONE choice then choose which sub-type) | ||||
| ☐ | Quota (e.g. 10 quantitative studies and 10 qualitative studies – note: you must justify why the quota is appropriate) | |||
| ☐ | Other (please state): | |||
| ☐ | Probability Remember a probability sample requires randomisation to be introduced. This usually needs a list of the population (sampling frame). For example, given a list of all articles you could select every third study on the list for the study. The sample MUST be random (in the statistical sense of the word) to ensure that each potential study in the population has an equal probability of being selected. | |||
| ☐ | Simple random (e.g. use a web-based random number generator to select from the sampling frame) | |||
| ☐ | Systematic random (e.g. every 3rd element of the sampling frame is chosen for the sample) | |||
| ☐ | Other (please state): | |||
| How will the sources be analysed? (make ONE choice) | ☐ | Qualitatively – Thematic analysis | ||
| ☐ | Qualitatively/quantitatively – Content analysis | |||
| ☐ | Other quantitative (please state): | |||
| ☐ | Other qualitative (please state): |
Section 3A Project-based research study: Type A – Supervisor
| Instructions | Please complete the following to outline your proposed research for your dissertation. Make sure to carefully review the Project Overviews. Does the project align with your route if you are taking a specific MBA pathway? Complete all parts of this section. | |
| Which project have you chosen? (make ONE choice) | ☐ | Econometric analysis: Regression and forecasting to produce a time series analysis of the stock market; crypto currency; or other economic indicators. |
| ☐ | Market research to establish the need for a new SME offering ‘HR as a service’ in the Wrexham area. | |
| ☐ | NHS England Access Times Recovery Post Covid-19. | |
| Does the project selected align with your MBA programme route? (make ONE choice) | ☐ | Yes |
| ☐ | No |
Section 3B Project-based research study: Type B – Pitch
| Instructions | Please complete the following details to outline your proposed project pitch. Complete all parts of this section. | |
| Does the project you are proposing align with your MBA programme route? (make ONE choice) | ☐ | Yes |
| ☐ | No | |
| What is the research project problem or question? | ||
| What is the research project aim? This is one over-arching statement linked to your problem/question | ||
| What are the supporting objectives? List four objectives e.g. ‘to analyse…’, ‘to establish…’, ‘to review…’, ‘to examine…’. The final objective should be ‘to recommend…’ | 1. 2. 3. 4. To recommend | |
| What is the management issue being considered? | ||
| What type of data will be used? (tick all that are appropriate) | ☐ | Primary (collected specifically for the purpose of the project) |
| ☐ | Secondary (collected for another reason) | |
| ☐ | Qualitative (text-based data) | |
| ☐ | Quantitative (numeric data) | |
| ☐ | Other (please state): |
| Where will the data be retrieved from? | ||
| How will each dataset be analysed? | ||
| Why is this project important? Why is the project necessary? (rationale for the project) | ||
| If your pitch is not successful, which research study do you wish to pursue instead? (make ONE choice) | ☐ | Empirical Based Research Study (primary or secondary data collection) |
| ☐ | Literature Based Research Study (secondary source collection) | |
| ☐ | Project Based Research Study (Type A – following the project task outline provided by your supervisor) | |
| ☐ | Econometric analysis: Regression and forecasting to produce a time series analysis of the stock market; crypto currency; or other economic indicators. | |
| ☐ | Market research to establish the need for a new SME offering ‘HR as a service’ in the Wrexham area. | |
| ☐ | NHS England Access Times Recovery Post Covid-19. |