BUSI48060: DISSERTATION (PT/EXECUTIVE)

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• To provide students with the opportunity to conduct an in-depth investigation at an advanced level of an issue which is applicable and relevant to business and/or management. The positioning of the dissertation at the end of the programme is intended to promote integration of material covered in the core and elective phases.

• Students can choose to pursue either of two types of dissertation: a business project in which they work with a host organisation; an issue-led investigation which is not focused on just one organisation but instead examines a management issue by, for example, conducting and analysing a survey of practice in a number of organisations.
• The topic (which is formally approved by the Board of Examiners) should be one that is suitable for in-depth investigation.
• MBA dissertations have typically been based in a wide variety of organisations, including: profit-seeking companies in both manufacturing and the service sector; nationalised industries; public agencies and local authorities; non-profit seeking organisations; global multinationals; and owner-managed small firms.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• By the end of the module students should:
• be able to critically analyse a specific issue or area of management or business in depth and to explore its significance in practice.

Subject-specific Skills:

• By the end of the module students should:
• be able to critically apply knowledge and different forms of reasoning to form a discriminating analysis of issues currently being experienced in specific organisational and business contexts;
• be able to conduct an independent piece of advanced research, over a longer period of time than has been possible on the programme hitherto, thereby further developing analytical and research skills needed to explore business and management problems in depth;
• produce a substantial piece of written work demonstrating critical analysis of a specific issue.

Key Skills:

• By the end of the module students should:
• have further developed the skills of self-organization and motivation in managing time and activities in working to a deadline.

• Individual meetings with the appointed supervisor, up to 8 but normally 5-6 during the dissertation period. This is considered appropriate, as the dissertation module is underpinned by the core module 'Methods of Inquiry'. One-to-one meetings enable monitoring of progress towards achieving the learning outcomes.

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