Research methodology part 5/5

The form
 
The form is the appearance of work and its support. Codified, regulated, the deliverable can be directly related to the substance and deserves special attention.

1. The memory, extent, size and thickness

 
the body of the text does not exceed 50 pages by reference to a text in Times New Roman, size 12, interval 1.5 (tables and other illustrations not included)

Note: Quantity is not synonymous with quality. It is desirable that the assembly be printed on both sides. Parts, titles and chapters begin on the front.

2. Bibliographic standards

Depending on whether it is a dissertation in the field of economics and management or in the legal field, the provisions are different.

In the field of economics and management, the bibliography contains all the references used in the drafting of the dissertation. These references are listed in alphabetical order (names of authors). 

A. Review articles

Articles from journals are presented as follows:

1. list of authors including their full name and surname or the initial of their first name followed by a period and the year of publication in parentheses,
2. title of the article in quotation marks,
3. name of the journal in italics,
4. volume number,
5. number of the periodical in the volume,
6. number of the pages of the article.

Example:
 
NAME, First name (date), « title», name of the journal, volume, number, pages.

ERUTKU, Can and VALLÉE, Luc (1996), « Analysis of perceptions and preferences of workers as to their manager», International Management, vol.1, n ° 1, pp.23-33. 

B. Articles of collection / Chapters of a book

The articles from a collection and the excerpts from the works are presented in a similar way to the criteria written above:

List of authors of the article or chapter (year of publication), "title of article or chapter", mention "in", list of authors of the code or book, (date of publication) book, publisher, place of publication, number of the pages of the article or chapter.

Example:

TOULOUSE, J.-M. and BOURDEAU, G. (1995), "Growth rates and strategies of new technological enterprises" in NOEL, A., VERY, P. and WISSLER, M. (ed. ), Prospects in strategic management, Economica, volume III, pp.365-392.

C. Books

The books are listed as follows:
List of authors including their full name or first name followed by a period, year of publication in parentheses, title of work in italics, edition (if necessary), publisher, place of publication, collection.

NAME, First name (date), title, Edition, Publisher, Place edition, Collection.

Examples:

DEULCEUX, M. (1996), The major European policies, CETAI Publications, École des Hautes Études Commerciales, Montreal.

D. Proceedings of symposia

Citations of conference proceedings are treated as excerpts from books.

Example:

MALAM ALMA, N. (2001), "The difficulties of stabilizing young graduates in small high-tech enterprises", in AGRH, HRM in the information society, Proceedings of the 12th Congress, Liège, September, pp .915-932.

E. Websites

The references of the websites visited are also included in the bibliography. These references must, at a minimum, include the name of the site and its URL and the date of consultation of the site.

Example:

Walloon Telecommunications Agency (AWT): http://www.awt.be - (accessed on: 23 September 2003).

In addition, it is necessary to give precise information on the document (s) consulted from websites and also on their date of consultation.

They are therefore listed as any other document:
Name of authors, full or initial name, year of publication in parentheses, title of the document in italics, name of the site, address and full and exact address of pages consulted. 
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Sources:

B. Maréchal, Synthesis work, 2009
OTHER SOURCE
By Public Administration 

 

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Research methodology part 4/5

Evaluation Criteria for (GP)

The GP is evaluated on the basis of the written report and a defense. However, even an excellent defense will not be enough to compensate for a poorly written report, while excellent quality work will not be much downgraded by a more or less successful defense.

To clarify what constitutes a rating for a (GP), here is a non-exhaustive list of the criteria that the evaluators usually use, either consciously or unconsciously.

These criteria are grouped into 3 categories according to whether they relate to:

• the METHOD on which the work is based,
• the theoretical and practical content of the report,
• the form of the written report.

A. Evaluation of the method

Here are some of the key criteria for the method. Check that your written report satisfies each of these points:

• Is the research process and its steps clearly described?
• Is the research methodology justified in relation to the subject?
• Does the collection of data meet the appropriate scientific criteria?
• Are the sources of information well identified and verifiable?
• Are the analytical tools adequate for the data?

B. Evaluation of Content

The second aspect on which your (GP) will be judged is on the content of the written report. Do the exercise yourself to appreciate your work before you file it, by answering the following questions:

C. Evaluation of Form

Ask yourself if your (GP) meets each of these criteria and if it does not, review it before handing it over to your advisor for evaluation.

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By Public Administration
GP: Graduation project

OTHER SOURCES

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Research methodology part 3/5

  Structure of momerie

  

«The student must take into account the disciplinary specificities and requirements of the Promoter »   Allard van Riel

Chapter 1: Introduction (5 - 10 pages)

-Introduction (context description)
-Purpose of the research (how this research responds to a need) -Management motivation & Scientific motivation
-Issue Statement: Research Question and Sub-Issues
-Contribution (What are the expected benefits of the study?)
-Demonstrate that the results of the study meet the needs identified in the motivation of the research presented
-Approach (memory structure)
-What are the steps required to meet the objectives?

Chapter 2: Review of the literature (15-20 pages)

 
-Conceptual part (include the statement of the problem in the research tradition: state knowledge).
-Link your research to existing studies, develop a theoretical framework.
-Answers to sub-questions (to be repeated for each sub-question).
-Arguments of the articles.
-Model (summary and visualization of relationships)

Chapter 3: Methodology (5 pages)

  

-Choice of sample, method, execution of research, etc.

Chapter 4: Results (5 pages)

  

-Objectively report test results.

Chapter 5: Discussion (5 pages)

 
Subjective interpretation of the results. In this part you can explain what your results actually mean. If you do not find what you expected, give alternative explanations, extend the existing theory.

Chapter 6: Conclusion (5 pages)

 
-Brief summary of the study,
-Theoretical implications of the study,
-Managerial implications of the study
-recommendations
-Limitations and suggestions for future research.

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Research methodology part 2/5

1. Research process: a three-phase process  

«All research work consists of three main phases: preparatory, realization and final. The same is true for the end-of-study project » Mathieu Guidère

Preparatory phase:  

allows to define the subject of study, to establish the guidelines of the intervention on the ground, to judge the general feasibility of the project within the given time and to validate these choices with the advisor.

The realization phase: 

is normally the longest and the one that will mobilize the most your time and energy. It has a theoretical part and a practical part although these are often entangled during the process, one coming to feed the other. 

The finalization phase: 

is the culmination of the PG and ends with the delivery of the final mark, when the required corrections to the final document have been made. It involves:

A. complete the written report

B. depositing the work,

C. preparing the defense

D. defend his project before the jury.

2. Defend his / her project of study before a jury (Advices)  

 - Have someone else read your work

- Seek constructive criticism to improve his project

- Avoid all forms of plagiarism

- Make a defense plan

- You should be able to:

- Present the land where you made the project

- Specify the problem studied

- Briefly describe the steps and methodology

- The next few minutes should be devoted to the highlights that emerge from your study and the findings or recommendations you arrive at.

- The last few minutes will serve as a buffer zone if necessary but can be usefully used to specify the limits of the work as well as the sequences or extensions that it could have

- Be concise!

- Do not Overload Slides

- Relevance and parsimony should prevail

- A maximum of 20 slides looks realistic

- plan to have additional slides or transparencies that you will use if necessary to answer the jury's questions.

- Take time to practice and timing your presentation

- Highlight the originality of your contribution

3. Tips for completing the dissertation

5.1 Project planning:

First, draw up a tentative plan and list all the steps you think you should do. Next, ask for priority, which ones take the most time, which ones are made without others being completed. If necessary, use a Gantt chart to help you manage tasks and schedule them.

5.2 Sources of information:

There are a number of documentary sources that you can use to draw a portrait of the organization being studied:

A. official corporate documents, by public nature:

charter, articles of incorporation, annual reports, website, prospectus for the issue of shares or bonds, catalog of products, etc.

B. internal documents:

are for the exclusive use of members of the organization such as: strategic plans, market studies carried out by the marketing department, feasibility study of particular projects, annual financial reports, management reports, etc.

C. public documents, which do not originate from the company:

For a company, for example: reports, articles in regional or local press, financial analyzes carried out by third parties (case for publicly traded companies), sectoral classification in comparative studies

D. information that can be collected through an interview

it is often preferable to opt for a semi-directed interview, that is, using open-ended questions and leaving room for maneuver to tell the story.

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OTHER SOURCE

By PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

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Research methodology part 1/5

1. Definition

 A paper containing a substantial text based on original research, written according to the editorial standards of a scientific document, is considered as a thesis. The thesis is in the field of economics and management or in a legal field related to economics and management. A final project must mobilize the students' abilities in terms of:

• analysis
• devaluation
• synthesis and creativity   

 

 SOURCE: By Pubic Administration. Inspired in P.A Bertholet, 2004

  

2. From the common sense approach to the scientific approach

For the realization of the Project Graduation (PG), the student must normally adopt a scientific approach which aims to establish his analyzes as his conclusions on the rigorous study of the facts (ie the data collected) and on their critical appreciation in the light of the theoretical knowledge acquired during its formation. It follows that the scientist is not satisfied with the impressions or prejudices which he may have on the question he is studying, but rather that he seeks to validate by concrete facts. Similarly, it will not immediately credit all information gathered, but will verify the credibility of the sources, the accuracy of the information, and the degree of reliability of the information.

3. Some elements of methodology 

3.1 Issues and research questions

Defining one's problem is knowing what one is doing and why one is doing it. Moreover, the issue must be translated into research questions. For example, if we are interested in the field of Human Resource Management, and we are looking at the issue of staff turnover, we will still have to specify the angle to which we want to address this problem. One can thus see the process of defining the (PG) from the analogy of the funnel. From a very broad definition, the field of research is gradually reduced to more and more specific questions which will in turn influence the type of approach appropriate to research.

SOURCE: Public Administration

3.2 Deductive or inductive approach
Generally there are two different ways of generating knowledge.A.Induction: 

it starts from the empirical observation of facts or events to reveal the regularities that will serve to establish statements likely to turn into laws. Often the inductive approach is used to document and describe phenomena and the relationships between certain variables, when we do not have a theory that can guide us.

B.Deduction:  

proceeds the reverse, starting from a theory established a priori, one speculates on what one thinks to find on the ground and one checks that the events confirm or invalidate our anticipations. Deduction is possible only when the theoretical corpus is already fairly well structured in a field of research.
 

3.3 Qualitative or quantitative approach
there are different ways of approaching a problem, depending on whether you want to understand and describe or want to predict and explain. Therefore, depending on the research questions:

A.The qualitative approach:

May be judicious when one wants above all to describe and understand a situation. It uses data collection techniques such as:

• interview
• Case study
• Participating or non-participating observation,
• Life history (biographical method),
• Text analysis

B.Quantitative approach
Quantitative research generates numerical data or information that can be converted into numbers.

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The woody language

The woody language sometimes called humorously xyloglossia or xylolalia, is a rhetorical figure consisting of avoiding presenting a reality by the use of turns of phrase and usual expressions.

It is a form of communication that can serve to conceal an incompetence or a reluctance to approach a subject by proclaiming abstract, pompous banalities or appealing more to feelings than to facts.

It is less a matter of impressing the interlocutor by passing for more learned than one is than evading the subject in order to avoid answering a question or an embarrassing subject.

SOURCE 1

SOURCE 2  

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The Gantt chart:What is it?

The Gantt chart, commonly used in project management, is one of the most effective tools to visually represent the progress of the various activities (tasks) that constitute a project. The left column of the diagram lists all the tasks to be performed, while the header line represents the most suitable time units for the project (days, weeks, months, etc.). Each task is represented by a horizontal bar, whose position and length represent the start date, duration and end date. This diagram allows to visualize at a glance:

    -The different tasks to consider
    -The start date and the end date of each task
    -The expected duration of each task
    -The possible overlap of tasks, and the duration of this overlap
    -The start and end date of the project as a whole

In summary, a Gantt chart lists all tasks to complete the project, and indicates when these tasks should be performed (the schedule).

SOURCE 1
SOURCE 2 

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