What I expect as your supervisor.

I expect to receive regular drafts of your work at key stages and a guide is included at the end
of this document.

The dissertation should read as a story with you guiding the reader through the dissertation
through to the conclusion.

Your fist task is to scope your dissertation to ensure that everything is achievable in the
following way:-

I would suggest that you aim to limit your dissertation perhaps to one
organisation that you can use an organisation to apply some of the
theories/models that you think most appropriate.

The role of the MBA is to put ‘Theory into Business Practice’.

I would suggest that you develop a research question that is something similar to
‘A study of why agents deviate from rationality in their decision making
in ???? Organisation’. This will give a focus for the research and make it
achievable. You do not need sub-questions to the research question, as these will
automatically come out of the research.

In order to give you a focus on the dissertation you should set clear Aim and
objectives of the dissertation based round your research question. These will aid
the structure of the dissertation and maintain focus. At the end of the
dissertation you should be able to see that these have been achieved in the
conclusion.

Some examples of possible Aims and objectives:

Aim:

Develop the understanding of why individuals deviate from rationality in their

decision making in the financial markets.

Objectives:

• Research the academic arguments/theories/concepts of ‘rationality in

decision-making’.
• Investigate ‘decision-making models’ and how they apply to the financial
sector. You may want to narrow your field of study to a number of /or an
organisation that you have access to.
• Etc

Some key words that fit well into objectives are, (4 -6 objectives for your
dissertation they should be achievable and measurable. Include words such as
research, investigate, critical evaluate, critically analyse, identify, distinguish,
explore, scrutinise).

The first task before you run headlong into your dissertation is to now move to
enhancing your dissertation to a pilot in the form of scoping your dissertation, I
would firm up you proposal with about 2000 words looking briefly at each
section.

250 words introduction to the topic.

Why you choice this dissertation brief background to the organisation

concerned, structure of the dissertation. Brief note at this stage would be
fine. Also Aim and objectives.

500-750 words looking at the Literature available.

Try at this stage to form the structure of the Lit Rev starting from a brief
overview of the topic leading to details and onto the specific. You are
trying to lead the reader through the academic literature on the topic.
Assume the reader has no/or little prior knowledge. Ensure all work is
referenced.

To reference an idea then you would use:-

According to brown, (2008) they indicate that the reason for the drop
in .....

“the reason for the drop in employees of the correct age is the
commutation in the market for skilled employees” (Smith J, H, 2008,Pg34).

250 on the research methodologies that you may use.

Identify the most appropriate research methodology to use for this topic.
Try to identify appropriate sources of data and how you will access. Try to
identify and justify the sample size you will use, ensure that this follows
well establish criteria for gathering research data. However, always keep
in mind this is an MBA dissertation and not a PhD. Saunders research
process onion

250 on the data collection and analysis.

How will the data be organised analysed?

This is not a waste of effort on your part as most of it will go into the final
dissertation but it allows us at an early stage to identify if there are any
problems such as lack of literature on the topic, the methodologies may
not be appropriate, cannot achieve the data collection etc. Treat this as a
 scoping exercise that gives us confidence in the material that is available,
and allows changes in emphasis at an early stage.

Some examples of Objectives.

1. Research various leadership theories and their influence in the

corporate business.

2. Identify the most critical theories or models that have been

effectively used by successful multi-national companies.

3. Critically evaluate to what extent leadership is used in companies in

etc.

4. Evaluate how leadership models are used by organisations in ??? to

gain competitive edge in their industry.

5. Identify the critical issues of the leadership models that can be

applied in ???.

A Guide Timescale:
Week 1

I expect at a very early stage (next week), that you to identify your aim and objectives
of the dissertation. Along with a research question for the dissertation.

One Aim and 5-6 Objectives.

Week 3

Draft Literature Review- with the correct referencing style (Harvard Method).

Week 4

Draft Research Methods section to include the research philosophy, method and data
collection method you are going to use. Justification of the methods is required. This
section should also contain a sub-section on the design of any data collection method
and a discussion of the sample size to be used against total population etc.
Week 5-7

Draft of the data and analysis section. Use graphs etc.

Week 9-10

The conclusion and evaluation/further research section.

Week 11-12

The final draft of the dissertation.

Layout of Classical Dissertation:-

1 Introduction 2000 – 2500 words

1.1Background to your selection/interest in topic.
1.2 History of topic subject
1.3Importance to current economy/society/organisation.
1.4Brief overview of topic.
1.5The research question/ dissertation Aim/4-6 objectives of the study.
1.6Introduction to the chapters that follow.

2 Literature Review 5500 – 7500 words

2.1definition of topic
2.2Brief history of topic
2.3General discussion of topic
2.4At the end lead the reader into a Focus on specific area of the topic to be
studied in Chapter Data and Analysis. This will also give a guide to the
Research Methods chapter.

3 Research Methods 1500 – 2000 words

3.1Introduction to research methods.
3.2Discuss and justify your research philosophy, research approaches, research
strategies, time horizons, and data collection methods.
3.3Discuss in detail your data collection methods that are most appropriate and
their design.
3.4Discuss and justify the sample size you have selected compared with the total
population.
3.5Consider how the data will be presented.
3.6Ethical Issues of Dissertation data collection/confidentiality etc.

4 Data and Analysis 3500 – 4500 words

4.1Presentation of your secondary data with its analysis link where supported by
Lit Rev.
4.2Presentation of primary data and analysis link where supported by Lit Rev
and secondary data.
4.3Summary of data and analysis
5 Conclusion 2000 – 2500 words
5.1Conclusion should lead the reader through the dissertation of how you have
come to your conclusion.
5.2The reader should be able to tell where the Aim and objectives have been
achieved or reason why not.
5.3The research question should have been answered either positively or
negatively and the discussion of its meaning.
5.4Nothing should appear in the conclusion that is not in the proceeding
chapters. We should not introduce anything new at this stage.

6 Recommendation 1000 – 1500 words

6.1These should come out of the conclusions in a more concise way (bullet
points if necessary).

7 Evaluation of Research
7.1Discuss how the research could be taken further and any issues that may
have come up that would help future research into this topic.

Bibliography- list of Books, Journals, Article, Web-Sites used in the dissertation should show
majority within last 5-8 years. Normally Pre 2000 for background.