MBA 522 Consulting/Research Project The Consulting/Research Project is the principal focus of the UCW MBA. It is a substantive effort of synthesis and application of the material covered during your course work. You will be expected to pro..

MBA 522 Consulting/Research Project

The Consulting/Research Project is the principal focus of the UCW MBA. It is a substantive effort of synthesis and application of the material covered during your course work. You will be expected to produce a document that details the work done in this research or consulting project including description of the project, conclusions or recommendations, and a literature review. This is a directed study project where you will complete a great deal of work independently under the supervision of a Supervisor who will serve as:
1 your mentor during the project period; 
2 your instructor providing direction as to the requirements that you have to fulfill during the completion of the project; and,  3 the person who will evaluate your work and assign a grade for the course. 

This project will result in a significant document, contributing not only to your learning at UCW, but also to your sponsor organization, whether that is your own workplace or another organization if you are doing a consultation, and to the body of knowledge related to your topic of interest.
The finished product will be a substantial demonstration of your practical research that is fully documented and open for scrutiny by both the university and the sponsor organization. The document will be retained in the UCW electronic library and available for examination by other students, our faculty and members of the public.
You will:
1 Propose a consulting project supported by action research or a primary research project on a topic of your own choosing, subject to the approval of the Dean; 
  2. Perform a comprehensive consultation or research project: 
  a.  A full consultation which will include an organizational analysis, a comprehensive literature search on the issues identified in the analysis, conduct primary or secondary data collection related to the issues, make an intervention which could involve either problem solving facilitation as a process consultant, or a series of conclusions and recommendations for actions that you propose should be taken by the client; or,
  b. A research study to answer a specific question or test a specific hypothesis, supported by a comprehensive literature search to discover the existing body of knowledge in the topic area, collection of primary data (or approval to analyse secondary data), analysis of the data, formulation of conclusions and recommendations that further the body of knowledge.
2 Present your results, and
3 Submit a final written report of between 75-120 double spaced 250 word pages plus appendices and bibliography. 

Expectations for Your Work On This Project#p#分頁(yè)標(biāo)題#e#
The expectations for what has to be accomplished during the MBA 522 project include:
  • Self directed work, using your supervisor as a mentor, whereby you conduct a comprehensive search of the literature in the area of your topic, submit the required
  deliverables in a timely fashion, utilize the feedback given by the supervisor to improve your work, arrive at a consulting agreement with a client that you have found on your own initiative if this is to be a consulting project, workin

g with the UCW English Language Writing coach to improve your written work, conduct your data collection after approval by the Research Ethics Committee, utilize basic statistical processes to analyze any data that you have collected, and derive conclusions and recommendations.
  Approximately 320 to 360 hours of work on a major project, which can either be a consultation based project or a primary research based project.
  A comprehensive examination of the literature relating to the topic area. You are expected to build a reference library, containing at least 20 academic papers plus at least 10 industry reference articles addressing the subject at hand. You are expected to perform a critical analysis of your references.
  Submission of a written project proposal along with a completed Ethics Research Proposal to the Ethics Research Committee containing a preliminary literature review, a formulated question to be answered or hypothesis to be tested, and a clear description of the methodology to be used in the study (how data will be collected for the research component and how the consultation will be done if a client is involved).
  An effective literature review of the body of knowledge covering approximately 30 pages or one third of the final paper, included as an early chapter in the finished report.
  Collection of data (either primary or secondary sources) to be used to answer the posed question or to test the research hypothesis. Use a variety of research methods in the process of collecting supporting information for this project.
  • Production of several draft versions of the final paper, in the following stages, for review by the supervisor:
  o Proposal
  o After Comprehensive Literature Review
  o After Analysis of data
  o Final report containing conclusions and recommendations.
  The final paper is expected to be approximately 18,000 to 30,000 words in the body of the paper (approximately 75 to 120 double spaced pages containing five hundred (250 words), plus an appendix containing supporting documents, and a bibliography.
  The work in the final paper should ideally add to the body of knowledge in the topic area in some way.
  The final paper should meet an academic standard for formatting of references and bibliography such as APA. 
  • The English language writing in the final version of the project paper must be acceptable for publication in the UCW eLibrary #p#分頁(yè)標(biāo)題#e#
  o Work with a writing coach to improve your written work during the project period (this person will not edit your papers but will teach you how to write more effectively)
  o Have the English language writing in the final report, after the final grade has been assigned, upgraded by a copy editor at your expense, if required by your supervisor.
 

We encourage you to become involved in implementing your project recommendations wherever possible.
Course Instructor:
You should first ide

ntify the topic area on which you will be focused during your MBA 522 project, and then identify which of the faculty you think has the expertise and interest in that topic. Before you contact the faculty member, discuss with the Dean, or Associate Dean, your wish to work with that faculty member, with an explanation as to why that particular faculty member. If the Dean, or Associate Dean approves of the choice, you can then contact that faculty member to seek their agreement to work with you on the project. 
Once you have agreement, you must notify the Dean, or Associate Dean, that you have an agreement. A contract for your supervisor will be prepared and once accepted by the faculty member, you can work with that individual on your project.
References:
  Charles J. Fombrun, Mark D. Nevins, The Advice Business: Essential Tools and Models for Management Consulting, Prentice Hall (2004).
  John W. Creswell, Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches, 2nd edition, Sage Publications (2003)
  Philip A Wickham, Management Consulting: Delivering an Effective Project. Second Edition, Prentice Hall, (2004)  ISBN 0-273-68347-0 (Same as the one used in MBA506)
   Michael I. Harrison, Diagnosing Organizations: Methods, Models, and Processes. Third Edition, Sage Publications (2005) (Useful collection of business diagnosis methods.)
   Deborah Rumsey, Statistics for Dummies. Wiley Publishing Inc. (2003)
  R. Paul and L. Elder, The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools, The Foundation for Critical Thinking, P.O. Box 220, Dillon Beach, CA 94929;
 

www.criticalthinking.org
Course Deliverables
The course deliverables include:
1. The written proposal describing:
  a.  Introduction pointing to topic, question or problem to be investigated either as a research study or a consulting intervention
  b. Review of literature related to topic to be investigated
  c.  Clear statement of hypothesis to be tested or question to be answered or problem to be solved
  d. Description of proposed methodology (sample sizes, data collection processes, data collection tools, how the data will be analyzed)
  e.  Bibliography for materials used to prepare proposal

1 The Research Ethics Proposal on the prescribed form #p#分頁(yè)標(biāo)題#e#
2  Literature Review - the chapter for the final report which is the comprehensive literature review. This chapter is summarizing the state of the body of knowledge before you conduct your study and should point to the hypothesis, question or problem that you are going to address.
  4. Final report for grading containing:
  a.  Introduction pointing to topic, question or problem to be investigated either as a research study or a consulting intervention
  b. Review of literature related to topic to be investigated
  c.  Clear statement of hypothesis to be tested or question to be answered or problem to be solved
  d. Description of proposed methodology (sample sizes, data collection processes, data collection tools, how the data will be analyzed)
  e. &n

bsp;Summaries of data collected in graphic and tabular form, with statistical analysis
  f.  Conclusions
  g. Recommendations
  h. Bibliography
  i.  Appendices
3 Submission of a library copy – generally acceptable in electronic form as a pdf file (may be submitted to Dean as a MS Word file to be converted without change to a pdf file.)* 
 

“In cases where the project is a consultation involving a client where students are to been given access to critical, confidential or sensitive information by a company, the client may request that the work is not made available for public view at any time. A non-disclosure agreement between the student, University Canada West and the client would restrict access to this information to these limited parties and their representatives. In such cases, the finished paper would be submitted to the Supervisor, graded and then submitted marked with ND in the file title to the Dean and retained in confidence.”
Grading rubrics for each of the three elements of grading in the course have been posted in MyUCW in the course attachments. Please acquaint yourself with them prior to doing the work. 
This is an individual project. It is highly desirable that there is no personal relationship between a client and a learner, or an instructor and a learner.  The overall time contribution is planned to be from 6 to 9 months depending on the learner’s major area of interest. It is expected that the learner will dedicate an average of an average of 320-360 hours on the project.
At the discretion of the instructor and/or the Dean, the student might be asked to work with a professional English language copy editor (at the student’s expense) if the quality of English language writing is not deemed to be at a satisfactory level for public access in our electronic library.
Learning Goals:
For a business oriented consulting project:

A management consulting business oriented project focuses on solving/addressing a specific business problem, using mainly primary research methodologies. The consultation can involve a process facilitation where the client is helped to solve their own problems, or an expert consultation intervention where the consultant conducts his or her analysis and recommends to the client what the client should do. The end result of this activity is expected to produce: #p#分頁(yè)標(biāo)題#e#
  A Current situation assessment and problem identification. 
  A comprehensive literature review.
  Identification of Potential Solutions/Options.
  Analysis of solutions and options.
  Conclusions and/or Recommendations.

The learners are expected to identify their ，specific area(s) of expertise and approach businesses that may require that expertise. They will then offer their services in the form of an applied management consulting project.
In such a project, the student is expected to follow and comply with the UCW Research Ethics policy, submitting t

he required proposal to the Ethics Committee and obtaining approval before any consulting intervention is to occur.
For a research oriented consulting project:
A business oriented research project tends to explore topics of interest (like trends, expertise, knowledge bases, etc.), to businesses or other entities. The research project will involve use of primary research methodologies (with secondary research methods acceptable in some situations) to answer a specified question or to test a specific hypothesis. The end result of this
activity is expected to produce:
 

  A research topic of interest to the chosen stakeholders.
  A comprehensive literature review.
  An identification and choice of research options and their potential sources (heuristic, empiric, applied).
  The compilation of research data (primary and/or secondary as required).
  The application of appropriate data analysis and/or statistical methods.
  A report and presentation outlining the research results.

In such a project, the student is expected to follow and comply with the UCW Research Ethics policy, submitting the required proposal to the Ethics Committee and obtaining approval before any research involving subjects is to occur or a client organization is asked to provide confidential information.
By the end of the course the learners should be able to:
- Develop the skills to think critically about the business consulting and research
processes; -Apply a range of management consulting and research theories and techniques;  -Customize, create and lead a process for their consulting/research project’s specific
needs; and -Become discerning, highly knowledgeable and effective in management consulting/research.
Grading
Grades will be assigned for course work as follows:
Requirement  Percentage contribution to final mark
Project Proposal and Ethics Research Committee submission  15%
Comprehensive Literature Review  20%
Final Report  65%
Total Mark  100%

The grading system for this graduate course (MBA Program) will be as follows:
 
Descriptor  Percentage  Letter  Numeric
  Grade  Value
Excellent  90% - 100%  A+  4.33 #p#分頁(yè)標(biāo)題#e#
 85% - 89%  A  4.00
 80% - 84%  A- 3.67
Good to  75% - 79%  B+  3.33
Satisfactory  70% - 74%  B  3.00
 65% - 69%  B- 2.75
Failure  60% - 64%  C+  2.33
 55% - 59%  C  2.00
 50% - 54%  D  1.00
 0% - 49%  F  0.00
  N*  0
  IP**  0

* Did not complete course requirements - Equivalent to F ** In Progress
Late Assignment policy and “In Progress” status
The project is to be completedhttp://www.400190.com/ within nine (9) months of the project initiation date. The initiation date is the date on which the student registered in MBA 522.  Failing to complete the full project within the nine month course period without proper justification (medical or other emergency), results in an “In Progress” designation and the requirement that the student obtain an additional extension of three months at an additional fee specified by UCW. A student may purchase a reasonable number of extensions until the course is finished. nished.