Dissertation - blank canvas

SenorCarlsberg

I'm in full time employment and completing a dissertation to finish off my Masters for June.

When it comes to subject/topic areas i pretty much have free rein. The trouble is, despite the interesting, economic times we live in, I'm having trouble choosing an area/topic to research and complete the dissertation on.

I'm open to all ideas that come my way - my background is in strategic management, supply chain management, marketing and H.R. I work in consulting.

Any suggestions?

Baron_Kunkel

Best of luck in your studies.....I did mine on a change management topic, assessing how project management can facilitate change within my organisation. Was sorry that I didn't do something more along the lines of Decision Analysis or something more focussed. Change Mgt was very broad and while I was happy with the final document it took me a long time to tie it down. The good side to this was that there was oceans of literature and scope.

SenorCarlsberg

:eek:

Baron_Kunkel wrote: »

Best of luck in your studies.....I did mine on a change management topic, assessing how project management can facilitate change within my organisation. Was sorry that I didn't do something more along the lines of Decision Analysis or something more focussed. Change Mgt was very broad and while I was happy with the final document it took me a long time to tie it down. The good side to this was that there was oceans of literature and scope.

That sounds very interesting. Tell me, what type of primary research did you undertake? I guess anything along the lines of Decision-making and change management is very appropriate at the moment, especially in the financial institutions.

I'll definitely look more into this area, thanks for the suggestion

Baron_Kunkel

(Entirely qualitative research) Case studies and interviews with key management and oversight personnel made up my primary research, however with a study on decision analysis I feel that questionaires with a greater quantitatative slant to the research might be more relevant.

SenorCarlsberg

And was it difficult to get senior manaer sin the companies you covered to agree to an interview? I've had bad experience with quantitative research in the past (especially using the programme SPSS) so i'm determined to go down the qualitative route.

Baron_Kunkel

Persistance and perseverance were necessary. I got 5 good interviews from the 6 requested. I plagued one or two until I got an hour of their time (regular emails and calls) and I sent them a full background on the topic and a list of questions so that they were prepared. I think that some potential interviewees can be intmidated and feel that their ignorance on a topic will be shown up, however given a list of questions and topics they can be more forthcoming.