Assignment Task:
You are required to produce a research proposal for a dissertation in a management related field. The proposal prepared may be the one which you follow for your dissertation but this is not essential. If you eventually choose another topic for your dissertation you will have to go through a similar process as that required for this assessment on that topic. It would therefore be sensible to think carefully about the topic choice and decide now what your dissertation will be about. For those on an MBA named route the eventual dissertation must relate to that route.
Your answer should include the detail below.
Format:
The format should broadly follow the plan provided below. Diagrams and charts may be added to clarify and illustrate points.
Research Questions & Objectives
Explanation of the problem/issue and justify why it is important, both from an organisational and a personal perspective, and a series of precisely written objectives, to include observable outcomes, that flow from this.
Literature review
Demonstrate knowledge of relevant literature by identifying key debates: concepts and theories within the topic area and how the literature will be utilised to inform your research.
Methodology
Explanation of fundamental issues in methodology followed by a full description of the methodological approach to be adopted. This and your data collection methods should be justified and you should explore issues of validity, reliability and generalisability of the research proposal and make reference to ethical issues. You should also discuss relevant practical issues relating to the research to be undertaken e.g. organisational consent and timescales. A more detailed project plan should be appended.
I have received an approval for the following topic:
Brief Background context:
This topic will focus on the change of technology in transport industry specifically mobile phones and measure the impact on those changes with the current services and products as the new technology requires changes in the way the current services and products are provided to customers.
Quality management is a key area for an organisation to implement its methodologies and techniques. Quality processes, changes and its initiatives are challenging to a firm on which how it operates to provide quality services.
Research question:
How does a change in the technology will impact on the firm’s quality of services and products?
Objectives:
• Identify the specific changes related to the new mobile phone technology in transport industry.
• Measure the impact of those technology changes with the current services and products.
• Assess on the approach to measure the quality of services towards achieving the company’s objectives by utilising the new mobile technologies.
• Provide a strategy to overcome the impact on the current services and the products.
• Draw a plan on how long it takes to achieve the goal to measure the impact of the new technology on the service quality.
Research Questions and Objectives
Clearly explains problem/issue, justifying why it is important both from an organisational and a personal perspective and provides precisely written research questions and observable outcomes that flow from this 15%
Indicative Literature Review
Demonstrates knowledge of the relevant literature by identifying key debates, concepts and theories and explains how the literature will be used to inform the research design
Methodology — 45%
Provides an explanation of fundamental issues of research methodology. 15%
Explains and justifies the research strategy and data collection methods to be used and in relation to the proposed research explores the concepts of validity, reliability and generalisability and ethical and practical issues. A detailed project plan should be appended. 30
Overall Structure —— 10%
Uses report format and presents items in a logical structure. Uses Harvard referencing in text and bibliography
30%
