You are required to design a research proposal in your cognate area of specialisation i.e. – MBA Health Management, please ensure that you are writing a research proposal pertaining to your specialization. For example, if you are studying MBA Finance, then you should not write a research proposal on an area of HR, or vice versa. The research proposal (and dissertation) is a significant part of your study because your future clients, colleagues and potential employers, etc. will read your credible dissertation that relates to your strengths and aspirational career. You may also adhere to ‘action research’ by writing a research proposal for your own business or the company you work for, which will be useful for your aspirational career. In addition, you should focus on a recent topic or ‘currency’. For example, some topics are outdated: ‘Analysing Customer Opinion through Fax Survey’ or similar should instead involve analysis via mobile or online survey, as no one sends surveys through fax anymore. Your research proposal and dissertation should reflect your sense of pride, achievement and future aspiration. Relevant examples for Assignments One and Two will be provided in class to enable you to achieve the highest mark possible. We will ask no questions about your data; we are more interested in how you analyse data and interpret the computer outputs correctly. For the research methods, you will employ hypothetical data, but you will use real data when completing the dissertation. As a postgraduate student, you are free to devise your own structure (headings, subheadings, etc.), using a format such as Sections 1, 2 and 3, etc. or Introduction, Methodology, Research Questions, Conclusion. Assigment One is a 1,050 word assignment excluding tables, figures, references, appendices, calculations etc. However, the word count is a guide only; it will not be applied mechanically to determine your marking; please see the above masters level marking criteria. The analysis and interpretation of the hypothetical data should be briefly provided and recommendations for further research in the form of a wish-list for successfully implementing the real dissertation. The intention of this assignment is that it can be used as a mini dissertation to guide you when writing your full dissertation to complete your MBA study. The following additional guidelines will be applicable: If you intend to collect secondary numerical data from the Office for National Statistics, Bloomberg, Welsh Government or the International Monetary Fund, then the SPSS software should be used to analyse the data quantitatively using the regression, correlation analyses or other quantitative tools. If you intend to collect primary data from individual respondents, such as by conducting interviews or obtaining qualitative data from websites or the internet, then the NVivo software should be employed by using the thematic analysis, storytelling, content analysis or other qualitative tools to explore the data. If you intend to collect primary data from individual respondents, such as by conducting survey questionnaires, posting the survey online and asking for the respondents’ opinions using multiple choice answers, then the SPSS software package should be employed to analyse the data.
