2,000 Word Written Essay: Qualitative Research Proposal The written research proposal is worth 70% of the assessed grade for this module. This is an individually produced piece of work in which you are invited to develop a qualitative research proposal. The proposal will identify an organisational problem or area of interest for research. This problem or issue may be of academic and/or commercial interest. Each student has the freedom to choose an area of interest to them. The aims of this exercise are to assess your abilities to: Contextualise qualitative research methods within broader epistemological and theoretical discussions; Develop knowledge and skills to generate and analyse qualitative data through interviews, field observation, online methods, etc. Reflect on ethical and methodological issues in relationship to qualitative research projects. Think about what ethical issues will be raised, as well as how they will be addressed. To successfully complete this assignment, you will: Independently identify an organisational problem or area of interest and develop a valid Research Question (RQ) Review relevant literature and synthesise the existing knowledge to inform the RQ Develop a suitable research strategy discussing sampling, selection, analytical approaches and use of theory Reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of your approach Although the choice of problem/issue is up to you, you cannot choose an organisational problem or issue that you have used for coursework in a different module – nor may you explore the same issue as used in for the group assignment in this module. THE PROPOSAL The report should include four key sections. The word counts for each section are only guidelines. You are free to organise your report in any way you feel would help present your study. You can include images and figures in the main text of the report. Introduction (400 words) A general introduction to your identified organisational problem or area of interest for research. This should include a discussion of why you chose to undertake the study of this particular issue and a clear description of your overall aims and objectives. If you have a clear research question or set of research questions at this stage, then outline them here. Stylistically, you might try and grab the attention of the reader in this section. Literature review and theoretical background (500 words) In this section you might contextualise your identified organisational problem or area of interest for research by discussing what is already known about this (or similar issues) and what gaps remain in our understanding of it in empirical and theoretical terms. This will require you to review relevant academic and/or non-academic sources and craft a narrative that convinces the reader of the need for your research. Proposed Method & Approach (700 words) A description of the research process you plan to undertake which is likely to include answers to the kinds of questions below: How will you gain access to the settings, engage participants, collect materials? The nature of the material you will gather, for example the number of time you plan to undertake fieldwork observations, when and where you will gather your data, interview plans, and/or focus group plans, documents for analysis. How will you address any ethical issues raised by your study? Are there any specific problems you will need to solve to gain access and/or collect data? Data analysis plans: i.e. will you take an inductive and/or deductive approach and (how) will you use theory to interpret your findings? How will you know when you have generated sufficient data? Research timeline (not included in word count) A Gantt chart outlining the main research tasks and an indication of the time needed in which to complete these. Reflections (400 words) The final section offers you the opportunity to reflect upon the strengths and weaknesses of your proposed research plan. Can you identify elements that might be problematic, and if so how might you minimise the risk of failure?
