BUSI0011 Dissertation Module Handbook 2025/26 | University of Greenwich

Table of Contents

1    Welcome message from your Module Leader    
1.    Key contacts (academic queries)    
2.    Module details and learning outcomes    
3.    Employability    
4.    Schedule of teaching and learning activities    
5.    Assessment    
6.    Resit assessments
7.    Resource recommendations    
8.    Additional module information    
9.    Changes to the module    

BUSI0011 Module Details and Learning Outcomes

Host faculty: Business School  
Host school: Business, Operations, and Strategy 
Number of credits: 30 
Term(s) of delivery: Term 1 & 2 
Site(s) of delivery: Greenwich
Pre-requisite modules: RESE1170 Business Research Methods (Year 2)

BUSI0011 Aims

The module is designed to facilitate and support students to: develop an individual research project relevant to management practice; acquire and try out data collection skills; demonstrate their understanding of what research is, how it is designed, carried out, and reported on; demonstrate a critical approach to existing and published research; demonstrate their competence in writing a well-structured and elaborated research report.

BUSI0011 Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module, a student will be able to: 

1) Generate an answerable and researchable research question. 
2) Find, summarise, and critically engage with relevant literature related to a chosen area of study in the field of business management, human resource management, or business psychology. 
3) Demonstrate the ability to design research, collect, analyse, and interpret research data in an appropriate, rigorous, and ethical way. 
4) Professionally present their research and its findings in a dissertation, situating their analysis within theoretical frameworks/concepts and existing empirical literature. 
5) manage a project, sustained task independently, from initial formulation to completion.

Glossary:

• A pre-requisite module must have been completed successfully before taking this module.
• A co-requisite module must be taken alongside this module.
• A learning outcome is a subject-specific statement that defines the learning to be achieved through completing this module.

BUSI0011 Employability

The value of the dissertation goes far beyond you learning how to write academically or collecting and analysing data. By completing what for most of you is their first long-term project, you will learn how to project manage, resolve complex problems that require you to think critically, obtain new skills (e.g., writing a Literature Review or working with Excel), often under serious time constraints, requiring you to juggle multiple responsibilities (other modules, work, home, etc.), plan your time, meet pre-set goals (the various dissertation deadlines) and coordinate with others (supervisors, participants, etc.). Even if after completing this module you never have to write another literature review or dissertation again, all the skills that you learned and practiced while writing your dissertation will help you in your future career.

Information about the Career Centre is available at: Employability and Careers | University of Greenwich.

You can also use LinkedIn Learning to gain access to thousands of expert-led courses to support your ongoing personal development. More information can be found at: LinkedIn learning | IT and library services

BUSI0011 Schedule of Teaching and Learning Activities

BUSI0011 Assessment

Assessment schedule

Your assessment brief:
 
Please find the assignment briefs and templates for each assignment on the Moodle page.

Guidance:

Your assessment brief: 

Summative Assignment 1: Research Proposal (Term 1)

Objectives

In this submission, you will identify a feasible research question and relevant literature (drawing on a minimum of 10 academic or quality practitioner articles). You will also outline your proposed research design for answering your research question. This work is weighted at 20% of your overall dissertation grade and should be 3,000 words.

In addition, we expect you to include appendices showing (1) print screens for evidence of passing the tests on the research ethics module (EPIGEUM), (2) the participant information sheet & consent form, and (3) your proposed research instrument (survey or interview schedule).
 
NOTE: These appendices are not graded but reviewed by your supervisor to assess any ethical risks of your study and approve your ethics application.

Deliverable

You will submit a 3,000-word research proposal outlining the dissertation introduction, literature review, and proposed method. You should also try to submit your ethics application documents as appendices.

Research Proposal Structure 

1. Chapter: Introduction – (c.a. 500 words). The introduction to the dissertation should provide the rationale for the research, the question that your research will try to answer, and why answering this question is important. 

2. Chapter: Literature Review – (c.a. 1,000 words). An abridged literature review summarising the key literature in your research area. (Minimum of 5 academic articles). The literature review should outline the theoretical concepts and constructs that your research is based on, as well as key empirical studies published in your research area, which relate to your research question.

3.    Chapter: Research Methods – (c.a. 1,500 words). This chapter should:
Re-state the research question (RQ)

3.1. Methodology:
 
Outline the methodology (qualitative or quantitative), and justify why this is the best method for answering the RQ. 
Outline the method used (online survey / semi-structured interview / document analysis), and recognise the strengths and limits of this method for your project. 

3.2. Instruments & Measures:

Describe the research instrument (questionnaire or interview schedule), its key features, and how it links to (or operationalises) the concepts and constructs raised in the literature review. While the method section does not list every individual question (e.g., for a survey only one example question for each scale construct), a copy of your whole survey/interview schedule should be displayed in Appendix I. 

3.3. Sample: interview/document

Describe the criteria for sample inclusion. Who is eligible to participate in this research? How will you recruit them (called a sampling strategy)? Is this a probability or non-probability sampling strategy? 

3.4. Ethical considerations: 

Briefly outline any ethical issues. Appendix II should include print screens of your EPIGEUM module test results, and Appendix III should consist of your participant information sheet and consent form.
 
4. References – in Harvard style. Please ensure that you are following the Harvard style both in-text and in the final reference list. The reference list is not part of the word count.
 
5. Appendices* 

You are expected to include the following in three appendices: 

3.5. Appendix I: copy of the proposed questionnaire / interview schedule.
 
3.6. Appendix II: EPIGEUM results (you need to pass at 80%). EPIGEUM is the name of a research ethics training course that you will complete this semester. 

3.7. Appendix III: copy of the participant information sheet (PIS) and consent form. 

Important Note: Appendices are not graded, but you cannot proceed with data collection without these documents. For your data collection you need explicit ethics approval from your supervisor. Collecting data without approval is a serious academic offense resulting in failing the dissertation. ou should communicate with your supervisor soon after the assessment deadline to get these documents ready for their approval, if you have not done so already.

Summative Assignment 2: Dissertation (Term 2)

Objective

You will submit a research dissertation that seeks to apply existing theory and knowledge to answer a research question/problem relating to management, organisations, and/or human resources.
This submission should define concepts and terms well, and refer to existing research knowledge. The work presents an analysis of data to reach original conclusions which can be used to help answer a research question. The work should discuss those findings in terms of their conceptual and practical implications for organisations and other stakeholders who are involved with such organisations.

This work is weighted at 80% of your overall dissertation grade and should be 7,000 words (excluding reference list and appendices). You may revise and reuse the 3,000 words from Assessment 1 to form the first part of the dissertation. You do NOT need to paraphrase your own work for this module.  

Deliverable

You will submit a 7,000-word research dissertation (including a revision of the 3000 words from Assignment 1). 

Dissertation Structure 

*Title page, Content Page, Reference list, and Appendices do not add towards the word-count.

1.    Title Page*

2.    Content Page* – Content table. Add below the actual word count of your work, excluding title page, Content Page, Reference list, and Appendices.

3. Executive Summary (Abstract) – (c.a. 300 words). This is an executive summary outlining the research question/problem, the methods, and key findings. It is not part of the word count. 

4. Introduction – (c.a. 500 words). The introduction to the dissertation should provide the rationale for the research, the question that your research will try to answer, and why answering this question is important. This can be revised and reused from the first assessment. 

5.    Literature Review – (c.a. 1,000-1,500 words). A literature review summarising the key literature in your research area. (Minimum of 5 academic articles). The literature review should outline the concepts/scale constructs that your research is based on, as well as key empirical studies published in your research area. You can expand this based on the advice and guidance from our supervisor from the first submission.

6.    Research Methods – (c.a. 1,000-1,500 words). This chapter should:
Re-state the research question (RQ

6.1. Methodology: 

• Outline the methodology (qualitative or quantitative), and justify why this is the best method for answering the RQ.
• Outline the method used (online survey / semi-structured interview/document analysis), and recognise the strengths and limits of this method for your project.

6.2. Instruments & Measures:

Describe the research instrument (questionnaire or interview schedule), its key features, and how it links to (or operationalises) the concepts and constructs raised in the literature review. While the method section does not list every individual question (e.g., for a survey only one example question for each scale construct), a copy of your whole survey/interview schedule should be displayed in Appendix I.

6.3. Sample:
 
Describe the criteria for sample inclusion. Who is eligible to participate in this research? How will you recruit them (called a sampling strategy)? Is this a probability or non-probability sampling strategy? 

6.4. Ethical considerations: 

Briefly outline any ethical issues. Appendix II should be your EPIGEUM results, and Appendix III should be your participant information sheet/consent form. 

7. Results/Analysis – (c.a. 2,000 words). Present the findings of your analysis of your collected data. Typically, quantitative findings chapters are called ‘Results’, while qualitative work is usually called ‘Analysis’. Quantitative results may be shorter than qualitative results. This is okay.
 
8. Discussion & Conclusion – (c.a. 1,700 words). Depending on how long your results/analysis chapter is, this may be between 1,000 and 1,500 words. Here you will critically discuss your findings and relate them to previous research on this topic. You will discuss the theoretical and practical implications of your findings, including any recommendations. You may acknowledge the limitations of the study and provide suggestions for future research. You can end with a short conclusion.

9. References* – in Harvard style. Please ensure that you are following the Harvard style both in-text and in the final reference list. This is not part of the wordcount. 

10.    Appendices* (You need to have four appendices):
 
10.2. Appendix I: copy of the questionnaire/interview schedule.

10.3. Appendix II: print screen of your EPIGEUM test results (you need to pass at 80%). EPIGEUM is the name of a research ethics training course that you will complete in Term 1. 

10.4. Appendix III: A copy of the participant information sheet (PIS) and consent form.

10.5. Appendix IV: ETHICS APPROVAL. This is a print screen of an email (or similar) from your supervisor stating that the supervisor has reviewed the documents in Appendix I, II, and III, and has approved your ethics application on EPIGEUM, therefore, has allowed you to collect data for your research project. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT (YOU WILL NEED TO RESIT AND THUS CANNOT GRADUATE WITHOUT ETHICS APPROVAL!).
.
6.2  Formative assessments: Throughout the term, students will be supported towards the summative assessment through activities in weekly lecture and 4 meetings per term with their supervisor (8 in total). Supervisors provide a brief oral or written feedback on their students’ assignment draft once per term, if the draft was emailed to the supervisor no later than 2 weeks before the submission deadline. If it is emailed afterwards, supervisors can refuse to provide feedback.
  
6.3 Feedback for summative coursework: Markers provide written feedback on the research proposal submission and the dissertation submission, encompassing 1) what you did well in this assignment; 2) what you could improve in this assignment; 3) what you can take forward to your next assignment. The dissertation will be double-marked. When the markers finished the double blind marking and concluded for a final grad after a discussion of their markings, it will be moderated by an internal examiner and an external examiner. Written feedback on the assignment will be provided via Moodle within 15 working days. 

6.4 Marking Rubric: 

The marking rubric can also be found on the module Moodle page under the section Assessment Support. 

Marking Rubric Assignment 1: 

 Marking Rubric Assignment 2: 

The marking rubric can be found on the module Moodle page under the section “Module Handbook and Assessment Information (Brief, Templates)”. 

Coursework is marked on the understanding that it is the student’s own work on the module and that it has not, in whole or part, been presented elsewhere for assessment. Where material has been used from other sources, this must be properly acknowledged in accordance with the University’s regulations regarding Assessment Misconduct.

BUSI0011 Resit Assessments

Assessment schedule:

If you have failed to meet the minimum requirements of this module, you may be invited by the Programme & Awards Board (PAB) to resit the assessment. You should carefully review the extensive feedback provided by your supervisors and work to revise and improve areas of weakness. Your supervisor will write detailed comments outlining what you would have to do to pass this module. Please note that resits at capped at a pass mark (40%) unless you have a claim for deferral which has been accepted.

BUSI0011 Resource Recommendations

The following are suggested readings for the module. Additionally, more detailed reading recommendations will be provided for the module topics. 

BUSI0011 Additional module information

Activities:    

Students conducting quantitative research will have to load the Analysis Toolpak in Excel and/or follow the guidance on Moodle for downloading and using the statistical software SPSS. Please make sure to load the add before Term 2, as you will need it for your analyses.

Students conducting qualitative research are encouraged to use the automatic transcription feature available from Word for the Web to save time transcribing (note that a 45-minute interview, if transcribed, takes 8 hours of transcribing; that is time that you could be using writing your dissertation). Of course, you will need to double-check the correctness of the transcription, and there may be issues when speakers have strong accents.  

Resources:

Academic referencing

• Use the Harvard Style for referencing: consult this handy guide on how to cite in-text and in the reference list.

Academic expression 

Enrol in the “Referencing and avoiding plagiarism” library workshop to help you refine your academic expression, improve paraphrasing, and referencing standards. This will greatly help your future assessments. 

Costs:

There are no module-specific additional costs.

Changes to the Module

At the University of Greenwich, we value feedback from students as well as External Examiners and other stakeholders and we use this information to help us improve our provision.

To address this feedback from students and staff, the module leader has made three changes to further improve the supervision with a view to improve students' evaluation of their supervision experience and feedback received on this module last year. These changes improved student evaluations and will be kept for this year: 1) Supervisor Allocation is now done via a Supervisor Allocation online survey on a first come first serve basis to give everybody the same chance to get the supervisor they prefer. 2) Supervision Process is now clearly outlined in the Supervisor Feedback Meeting Schedule, which contains the meeting agenda for each meeting. Students are now expected to meet with their supervisor four times per term to receive feedback on their project. Students are asked to fill in and email Meeting Forms, one for each Supervisor Feedback Meeting, in advance of the meeting to their supervisor to ensure students receive feedback regularly and stay on track to achieve their milestones. 3) Progress Tacking Excel tool is used by supervisors to keep an overview who attended meetings, and to spot students who are falling behind early on before it is too late.

Important note: The University of Greenwich will do all that it reasonably can to deliver the module and support your learning as specified in our handbooks and other information provided. However, under some circumstances, changes may have to be made. This may include modifications to the: 

• content and syllabus of modules, including in relation to placements
• timetable, location and number of classes
• content or method of delivery of your module 
• timing and method of assessments.

This might be because of, for example:

• academic changes within subject areas
• the unanticipated departure or absence of members of university staff
• where the numbers expected on a module are so low that it is not possible to deliver an appropriate quality of education for students enrolled on it
• industrial action by university staff or third parties
• the acts of any government or local authority
• acts of terrorism.

In these circumstances, the university will take all reasonable steps to minimise disruption by making reasonable modifications. However, to the full extent that it is possible under the general law, the university excludes liability for any loss and/or damage suffered by any applicant or student due to these circumstances.