BEMM251 Dissertation in Management Module Handbook | UoE

Table of Contents

• Dissertation Timetable    
• Dissertation proposals    
• Dissertation submission    
• Extensions and mitigation    
• Ethics    
• What topic should I choose for my dissertation?    
• Criteria for choosing a topic    
• The major types of dissertations    
• Planning the dissertation    
• Supervision    
• Preparing the Dissertation    
• Some DO’s and DO N’Ts    
• Academic Honesty and Plagiarism    
• Appendix 1: Dissertation – Initial Proposal Form (formative)    
• Appendix 2: Dissertation – Final Proposal Form (summative - 10%)    
• Appendix 3: Individual ethics form for research carried out in [BEMM251 Dissertation (Management)] at The University of Exeter    
• Appendix 4: Guidance for Formatting of Dissertation    
• Appendix 5: Dissertation Cover Page    
• Appendix 6: Dissertation Title Page (with declaration)    
• Appendix 7: Example Dissertation Title Page (with declaration)    
• Appendix 8: Application for Examination of a Dissertation Submitted by a Candidate    
• Appendix 9: Checklist for Dissertation assignment    

Dissertation Timetable

Dissertation Proposals

There are two dissertation proposals to be submitted– one formative and one summative. 

Formative Proposal

The formative submission should be 800-1,000 words long. It should include a summary of your topic and suggest specific questions from this topic that your dissertation might cover. You must include a review of at least three academic articles related to your initial proposal. Your proposal must follow the structure of the initial dissertation proposal form (see Appendix 1). Once you have submitted your proposal, you will be allocated a supervisor (if not already agreed) who will give guidance on the focus of the dissertation and help you to develop a full research proposal. Please upload an electronic version of the proposal to ELE. Initial proposals do NOT directly contribute to your final mark on your dissertation in as since this stage is formatively assessed only.

Summative Proposal

The final dissertation proposal should be around 1,200 words. In your final proposal, you should confirm your dissertation title and develop your initial ideas, giving further detail on your proposed dissertation content, your research questions and how you will address them. Your proposal should follow the structure of the final dissertation proposal form (see Appendix 2 in the module handbook). You are strongly recommended to utilise the Easter vacation to finalise your research proposal. You are required to upload an electronic version of your final proposal through ELE. Final proposals contribute to 10% of the total mark for the module.

Dissertation Submission

An electronic version of your dissertation must be uploaded online. The Turnitin link will be made available for this purpose a couple of weeks before the submission deadline. It will therefore be possible for students to submit drafts before the due date for the final submission. Please note that it may take Turnitin up to 24 hours to process each submission and to generate the originality report. Do not leave any submission until the last possible moment in case of technological difficulties. You are encouraged to submit at least a few hours in advance.

Extensions and Mitigation

Extensions and mitigation are two separate processes, and you cannot have both for the same assessment.

• Extensions are granted before the deadline. No extensions are granted unless supported by written evidence. Extension requests must be in writing to the Student and Education Services (SES) and are only considered if supported by the appropriate evidence. Please email business-school-mitigation@ex.ac.uk for further information
   
• Mitigation can be considered after the deadline if your studies or assessments are affected by a significant problem. Mitigation can be used to request consideration for poor performance in coursework or examinations. Applications for mitigation will not be considered until supporting evidence is provided. If you have any questions or concerns about mitigation, please email SES - business-school-mitigation@ex.ac.uk.

Ethics

Students will need to complete an Ethics application form. Your proposal should follow the structure of the final dissertation proposal form (see Appendix 3 in the module handbook). You are required to upload an electronic version of your final proposal through ELE.

Application process:

• All students conducting empirical data collection must complete an ethical review of their research.
• Applications must contain attachments of any survey questions, interview protocols, consent forms, information sheets, other guides or statements made to participants, collaboration agreements with employers/organisations, non-disclosure agreements and evidence that access has been granted to organisations that you are seeking to access (e.g. emails of approval from CEOs, etc). Applications without the correct documentation will be declined by your supervisor and the Research Ethics Committee.

Timing of ethics application:

• Please apply as early as possible. In a previous year, over 30 applications made in late August and September were not approved – you have been warned.
• Please note that retrospective approval cannot be granted. Applications made after the data has already been collected will be rejected. You will NOT be permitted to use any data that has been collected without gaining ethical approval.

Ethics contact

For questions regarding Ethics, please contact Dr. Steven Boyne: S.Boyne@exeter.ac.uk, who is the Departmental Research Ethics Officer for the Department of Management or Beth Kewell: E.J.Kewell@exeter.ac.uk, who is the Departmental Research Ethics Officer for the Department of SITE. If you are unsure which to contact, ask your supervisor which department they are in and submit accordingly.

What Topic Should I Choose for My Dissertation?

There is no one standard way to write a master's dissertation. The finished articles take different forms and are necessarily marked according to different criteria. However, irrespective of the approach you take, you need to remember that the outcome must be an account of a piece of substantial original research undertaken into a management issue. This means that you must either analyse original pieces of information (primary data) or existing information (secondary data) within an original framework, against objectives.
 
The dissertation you submit will be around 8,000-10,000 words long (excluding appendices, bibliography, glossary), which comprises chapters or 'parts' that achieve the following:

i) A clear statement either of a hypothesis or hypotheses that you wish to test or research questions that you are going to set out to answer. You are recommended not to set more than three of either.

ii) Discussion of the underlying rationale for your study. What practical and/or academic debates are you going to contribute to? How is your dissertation positioned vis-à-vis existing literature in your field?

iii) A critical review of existing literature in your field of study. You need to ask yourself (and then answer) the following question: How far does existing literature provide an answer to my research questions/hypothesis? You should aim to do more than simply give a descriptive account of what other writers have said about the issues.

iv) A section setting out and justifying the methodology you have chosen to adopt. You will need to say why you chose your methodology and why it was the most appropriate of those available to you. You will also need to explain what limitations you faced and locate your chosen approach in wider debates about research philosophies.

v) Two or three sections setting out your research findings and then analysing and discussing them in detail. How far do they provide answers to your initial research questions? How far do they support or fail to support your original hypothesis?

vi) A conclusion which relates your findings to the literature review and shows how you have contributed to knowledge. This section may well involve further critical review of existing literature in the light of your research findings and will state how your research might itself be taken forward by others in the future.

vii) A section either making practical recommendations to managers in general or to those in the specific industry or organisation you have researched. As with everything else in a master’s dissertation, your recommendations will need to be effectively justified.

Criteria for Choosing a Topic

Occasionally, students who register for a Master 's-level degree fail to complete it or end up with a lower mark than they expected or could have achieved. You can greatly reduce the chances of this happening to you by making a careful choice of topic area and approach when you first start planning your research. You would be well-advised to make your choice according to the following criteria:

i) It must be a topic area which you genuinely find interesting. There is no point in working hard for several months in an area in which you have little interest, which you do not consider meaningful or which you do not fully understand. Remember that you will be living with the topic area and reading about it in more depth than any other subject you have considered in the past. It is essential that you are interested in trying to contribute to debates and taking knowledge forward in your chosen field.

ii) The dissertation must have an appropriate scope. If your topic is too narrowly focused you will struggle to find sufficient literature to study and may find it difficult to collect sufficient data on which to write 8,000 words. However, you also need to avoid topics which are too wide and which prevent you from exploring clearly defined issues in sufficient depth. Once you have chosen the broad area of study your supervisor will be happy to advise you on the appropriate scope.

iii) Your research aims must be achievable in a practical sense. It is pointless setting high ambitions for yourself at the start which you then struggle subsequently to deliver. Research data access is important here. Are you going to be able to collect the data you require via case studies, interviews, questionnaires and/or library-based work? You also need to be mindful of the time that you have available to you. Your data must be collectable in a relatively short period of time. This makes it impracticable, for example, to embark on a longitudinal study which involves observing developments as they occur over long periods of time.

iv) You want to strive for originality. High marks are achieved by those who make a genuinely original contribution. You should avoid simply replicating someone else's existing work. You do not need to reinvent the wheel, but you should think about using different methodologies to explore familiar research questions, applying past approaches to new organisations, industries, labour markets or countries, or asking questions that nobody has asked before. If things go well, a sufficiently original set of findings will enable you to publish your research after you have submitted your dissertation, as several students have in the past.

v) Ideally, you want to choose a topic that will be of practical relevance to you in the early stages of your chosen career. Employers are likely to ask you at interviews to discuss your dissertation, so you need to choose a subject that will be of interest and, if possible, practical use to you and/or a future employer. Remember that the postgraduate qualifications are about demonstrating 'mastery' of a subject. This is your opportunity to develop expertise in an area of study, so it makes sense to focus on a topic area that will give you useful expertise.

The Major types of dissertations

The following describes the approaches that are most commonly chosen by students and that have led to successful completion in the past. This does not mean that you cannot do something rather different, but you should seek advice from staff if you are thinking about doing so. You might also like to take elements from two or more of these alternative approaches in formulating your own research design.

i) A questionnaire-based survey

If you are interested in the application of quantitative methodologies, you may choose to opt for a questionnaire-based dissertation. It is possible to base your findings entirely on responses to a questionnaire, although it is common for students to send a questionnaire out to employers (or to employees within one organisation) and to follow this up with interviews to explore issues in greater depth. A common problem with a questionnaire study is a poor response rate, such that you are unable to draw meaningful conclusions. It is important, therefore, not to underestimate the number of questionnaires you will need to send out or the importance of phrasing accompanying letters appropriately to maximise response rates. It is also wise to have some kind of contingency plan prepared in case your response rate turns out to be very disappointing. The minimum sample size should meet various assumptions/requirements.

ii) An interview-based dissertation

This can be combined with the questionnaire approach, or can be adopted as an effective approach in its own right. If the latter, you are choosing to adopt a qualitative or interpretive methodology. Interviews allow you to explore a range of topics in more depth. Each interview that you undertake informs future ones, allowing you to build up a good, deep understanding of your chosen topic area. You will be able to see where people agree and where they disagree, and will be able to ask in more detail about past and future activity than is possible with a questionnaire. The drawbacks are research access, which is not always easy to gain, the possible lack of generalisability of your findings, and the justification for your interpretation of the data. Furthermore, if only four or five people agree to be interviewed, you will not end up with sufficient data, and you will be unable to make any kind of general conclusions about your topic. You will thus need to focus your research on a particular type of organisation or type of employee. As a general rule, if your only original data is sourced from interviews and assuming each lasts for an hour or so, the minimum number of interviews you will need to complete to get sufficient data will be 10-15, as a guide. You must reach the theoretical saturation point to stop data collection.

iii) Laboratory Approaches

The other form of observation – for which you should also seek advice from your supervisor – is the laboratory approach. This approach requires you to set up a study using the principles of laboratory work, giving subjects (i.e., people) some form of experience and then observing their reaction. There is a long-established tradition of laboratory approaches in work carried out by psychologists, and it enables the researcher to have more control over the behaviours they wish to study. Because these are unusual approaches for master's students, you need to give particular attention to your methodology section so that you can convincingly and authoritatively explain and justify your chosen approach. They also take a considerable time to set up.

iv)  Observation ‘in the field’

Another option to consider involves gaining data through the observation of people rather than asking them about their perceptions. Such approaches are highly original and can be enjoyable, but are also difficult to set up and can be time-consuming and have more ethical challenges. It is essential that you take advice from your supervisor if you are thinking about embarking on this research approach. Observation in the field involves participating in a workplace by taking a job/role that allows you to observe co-workers at close quarters. This has the advantage of exploring behaviour in a ‘real’ setting, but it can be challenging to gain access and to interpret the data, as you have limited control over what you want to observe and in establishing cause and effect.

v) Using organisational data

The final approach involves evaluating or manipulating data that has been collected by an organisation and to which you are able to gain access. Many such dissertations are quantitative in nature, involving regression analysis of the data in order to draw statistically significant conclusions. Where the data is qualitative in nature, then the dissertation will be more interpretative in nature. Clearly, success in this area depends entirely on your being given access to the information you require.
 
This is more likely to be achievable if you are currently working in or have close ties with an organisation and can gain formal approval to analyse the data for your master’s dissertation. Whatever the nature of the data, it remains important that your dissertation is rooted in a specific body of literature and that this informs your research objectives.

vi) Focusing on a single organisation

You may focus on a single organisation. This could be your current or previous place of work, or one in which you have undertaken a placement. The topic area will invariably be significant for the organisation and will lead to you making recommendations that you can expect to be implemented in practice. Remember: a master-level dissertation is an academic piece of work, not a management report. Aside from any practical recommendations, it must also be academic in nature, building on the literature and making a contribution to knowledge in the widest sense. The academic/theoretical objective is not always easy to achieve if the initial research questions are wholly practical in their orientation.

vii) Comparative organisational studies

A comparative approach involves making a comparison of the practices prevalent in two or more organisations. The aim is to establish how the approaches are similar and how they differ, typically with a view to making recommendations about which (or which combination) is most appropriate in different situations. You may choose to look at two or three separate employers in some depth or at a dozen or so in less depth. Either approach is feasible provided sufficient data is collected to enable you to produce a master’s s-level dissertation. It will usually be appropriate to focus on organisations that have something in common so that the comparisons you make between them have some purpose. You might, for example, want to look at retail groups, or at small firms or at different divisions within the same larger organisation.

viii) A library-based dissertation

It is possible to undertake a dissertation that is very heavily reliant on library-based research. However, it is important to understand that this is by no means an easy option. You still have to contribute to knowledge to gain a master's qualification, and your dissertation must still amount to a substantial piece of original research. A successful library-based dissertation thus comprises a great deal more than just an extended literature review and is NOT appropriate for all topics. You need to think of your library research as comprising your data-gathering stage (i.e., the equivalent of the interviews or questionnaires in a conventional dissertation), so you are looking to use libraries as a source of information (i.e., raw data) through which you can develop your own original findings and proposals. This does not mean that you can't make use of research published by others, but it does mean that you have to do more than just evaluate what others have already said. Library-based projects can, for example, involve looking at reports about developments in a field of management or about an aspect of the business environment. Alternatively, you could analyse published case studies or analyse large data sets such as those you will find on the Office for National Statistics website. It would also be feasible to focus, for example, on advertisements or at any other kind of business-related information that is published in newspapers or journals. Library-based projects are particularly suitable when you want to draw on data sourced in other countries or when you want to study historical developments. Whatever the topic area, there must be outcomes which are clearly identified as your own work (e.g., proposals for new / reformed legislation, a new model, a critique of an established theory or a meta-analysis of published data).

As there is no primary data collection for this form of dissertation, supervisor approval is necessary for a literature review-based dissertation.

Planning the Dissertation

There are several criteria that you should consider in planning your dissertation:

i. Is the dissertation feasible? All dissertations are conducted within certain boundaries, and the MSc dissertation is no different in this respect. Although you might be interested in human resource management in the British Secret Service, you might have problems collecting data or establishing contacts. It might be rewarding to conduct a two-year study into how British companies are responding to the Euro, but an MSc dissertation must be completed in only a few months. Whilst a cross-cultural investigation into accounting practices would be a worthwhile subject, it is important to take into account the resources needed to conduct such a project. Factors such as these all need to be carefully considered before deciding how to proceed with the dissertation. The most common problem in dissertations is a too wide a topic. Researchers often underestimate the time needed for each stage. Here, you need your supervisor’s guidance.

ii. Who is going to supervise my dissertation? You will receive some guidance from a member of staff with knowledge of your subject area. You will be informed who this person will be after you have submitted your initial proposal, if you have not already identified an appropriate supervisor. You are advised to meet with this member of staff to discuss your research before submitting your final proposal. Your supervisor will devote a total of 5 hours to meetings, reviewing the proposed structure of your dissertation and reading a draft chapter.

iii. The role of ‘theory’ in the dissertation. Once you have established the general nature of the dissertation, you will need to carry out a literature review to help you understand the issues and how to address them. Start by reading around your topic to obtain a deeper understanding of the topic and learn from the experiences of others. Keep a careful and full record of all references. You will need to consult research texts. This will help you develop a strong and integrative framework and allow you to evaluate the worth of existing theories and build on them from your investigations, or even modify or severely criticise them. The literature element of the dissertation is not just a checklist or description of relevant theories. It demonstrates that your analysis and recommendations are informed by existing theories and research on the topic. You must use the theory in subsequent discussions, i.e. there must be a link between the literature and your analysis and recommendations.

Preparing the Dissertation

It is difficult to specify exactly what needs to be in dissertations because they differ in content, style and focus. However, a dissertation’s format should be broadly as follows:

a) Abstract – A concise summary (200-300 words) explaining the purpose (focus) of your work, the approach you took and your conclusions.

b) Introduction – This defines your objectives (the questions you aim to address) and explains briefly why your subject is interesting to study. Summarise your methodology, i.e. how you will rigorously address your research questions. The introduction should also summarise what follows in the rest of the dissertation.

c) Literature review – A thorough and critical review of the literature in your chosen area of study, demonstrating knowledge of theoretical frameworks that have been used to inform understanding of your subject area.

d) Methodology – This describes your methodological approach, e.g. case study or survey. Explain why you chose the approach, highlight its strengths and note its weaknesses. If you are conducting a critical review of a particular subject, your approach could take various forms, e.g. comparing two different theoretical positions on a topic; discussing two or more different examples of a business phenomenon that would need to be set out here. This chapter should also address ethical considerations.

e) Results – If you are analysing data, give details of your data (large amounts of data should be in an appendix), your analysis and your results (this may require two chapters). Explain any limitations of your data – scope, quality, etc. Present your results in a clear and ordered manner and relate them to the questions you posed at the beginning. Explain whether they support the argument. Make sure you make this connection to your research questions and objectives. If the results do not support your argument, say so and discuss possible reasons why not. The dissertation is not judged on its results, but on your process for posing and researching your question and for explaining and documenting your arguments and results.

If you are conducting a critical review of literature in a certain area, you will not have a results chapter. Instead, you must consider how to present your critical analysis logically and rigorously. You may not need a chapter called a literature review, as your whole dissertation is in effect a critical review of the literature.

f) Conclusions – Summarise your main conclusions. You may wish to identify the problems you would have addressed if you had had more time. Relate the results to recommendations either to the business and/or policy makers.

g) Appendices – Place relevant data and information that is too long to include in the main text of the dissertation in appendices.

h) References – Provide a bibliography of all the work you reference. You must reference all sources of information in the text of your dissertation. Appendices 3-7 give guidance on presenting and submitting your dissertation.

Some DO’s and DO N’Ts

• Do have a clear aim for each chapter; keep it front of your mind as you write, to avoid irrelevant material and help you keep to the word limit (8000-10000 words).
• Do write a conclusion for each chapter with the aim of that chapter in mind.
• Do, in the text, explain/discuss/conclude from all diagrams, tables, charts, etc. presented. Do not reproduce, in the text, masses of information contained in tables or charts: be selective.
• Do not relegate to an appendix material which is not essential to the main argument (appendices do not count in the word limit.)
• Do not make unsubstantiated statements or assertions.
• Do make sensible use of referencing. There is rarely any need to reproduce details of standard textbook-type analysis. Refer freely to where such analysis can be found.
• Do identify and state gaps/shortcomings/future research questions. (These could be in a section headed ‘Limitations of the Research’ in the final chapter.) Dissertations at this level and undertaken in the time available will usually have gaps in the analysis and/or coverage compared with an MPhil or PhD thesis. Indicate what further analysis you would have undertaken if you had, for example, a particular set of data or more time: this conveys to the examiner some command over the subject.
• Do conclude together in the final chapter, which should not be a summary. Write your conclusions with the overall aim of the dissertation in mind.
• Do present your work neatly.
• Do proofread the ‘final’ version thoroughly and make any necessary corrections.
• Do make a backup copy as you proceed as a precaution against loss or damage to your disk.
• Do act on the advice of your supervisor.