I need your help again, pleaseeeee. My first topic was rejected. I am attempting this again. Hopefully, one final time. I've changed my focus and to be honest, I am even more excited about this topic than I am about the last, so at least my professor/chair was on to something. Anyway, my problem is that although I know what I want to write about, I don't know how to nail down topic so that it sounds right and says exactly what I aim to say. It just doesn't sound right, the way it is. Sounds disjointed to me. My proposed topic is: Conflict Management at the executive leadership level. Addressing emotional intellect, cultural diversity, leadership styles and occupation: A Study of 5 U. S. Multinational Corporations and 5 U.S. Domestic Corporations. I don't know if 'occupation' is the correct word for this topic but I want to address how a professional's educational background and training may or may not contribute to dysfunctional conflict in executive teams. For instance, just because a physican, or an engineer may be the best in their fields, does this make them good at leading organizations - do they contribute to conflict or does this not have a bearing at all? I'm saying this to determine if perhaps I should use occupation or another word, that means the same thing, in its place. Anyway, I really need help because I have pounded this topic into the ground, and basically worn out my local library's chair, researching it. I'm ready to have just one night sleep, without this on my mind. Besides, I have to submit my prospectus to my professor/chair by next week. The truth is, even though I would never quit, I can see why quite a few people give up and remain ABD's. I have a ton of respect for anyone working on a degree at any level, but I also have great admiration for those that have proceeded beyond the dissertation stage. If it's not too late to say it, Happy New Year to all of you!
Shay, Does current or past occupation matter? I would drop occupation all together. Your study could focus on the differences/similarities between multinational and domestic corporations with regards to the initial attributes. If, however you are going to stay with "occupation" then consider changing occupation to profession, business line, or consider being specific and address the corporations under study, (for instance, aircraft manufacturing). From your second paragraph I believe you are describing professional/personal attributes rather than occupation and might consider using something along those lines. Best of luck...
Welcome to my world. Oh even if your topic is approved, until it is finished, it your dissertation will ALWAYS be on your mind. Trust me on this one. You still have to research, write, and defend. The proposal is the easy part, so just a heads up. As far as your topic goes, it sounds to me like you are talking about the Peter Principle, but from a conflict management view, which does sounds interesting. I would look for other dissertations on that subject and look at what they did, and then think about how you can put your own conflict management spin on it. What you have now seems way too broad. You need to narrow it down. Five multinational corporations and 5 domestic companies? And at the executive level? Seriously? Why 5? How are you going to get data for all that? What about methodology? Remember, you are trying to graduate, not go out and change the corporate world. There is plenty of time to do that after you get your PhD!
My take on it would be something along the lines of: Executives and Conflict Management: Emotional Intellect, Cultural diversity, Leadership Styles and Occupation in Multinational and Domestic Corporations. OR Analyzing the Relationship between Executives and Conflict Management in Multinational and Domestic Corporations. Does your school have a hard and fast rule about the number of words in the title? At Nova, we were limited to something like 10-13 words for the title. I hope this helps!
Thank you so much for helping me muddle through this important but stressful phase. It feels great knowing that I have the support that I do from this group. Thanks seems so little but in this instance, you can take it for all that the word is intended to be. Thank you so much!
Thank you so much for the tips. I've employed them all and will submit my disssertation topic to my professor in a few minutes. I will keep you posted of what happens. You know, I hope I'm not sounding selfish by saying this but it feels good knowing that I am not alone in feeling the way I do. For a while there, I was ashamed to come here and admit that I feel like I'm falling short of the mark of what a student at the dissertation stage is supposed to be. Your words have more motivation to me than you may realize. You are one of the people I've always thought were very intelligent and if you are having problems sleeping - and I am having problems sleeping, then I may not be the failure that I think I am. It seems funny that my divorce is not what is making me stay up at nights, but my degree is. LOL. Oye! Big Hugs,
Way to broad, to cover emotional intellect, cultural diversity, leadership styles adequately each would need a definition section, literature review, analysis of what is impact, and then survey analysis. Perhaps you need to focus on one of these that has not been studied much before. Also looking at only 10 organizations may be insufficient to give enough firm data (considering response rate). Also picking 10 can give problems (check out central limit theory and the theory of large numbers - (quick summary you need 30 or more for a representative sample)) as trying to compare Google to Chevron. Try limiting to a particular industry. Even within a particular industry you will get a wide divergence, an example was the merger between Chevron and Texaco about 15 years ago. The issue you describe caused headaches for this organization.
You are not alone. If you want some really bad horror stories, check out http://www.phinished.org/ . My first proposal was torn to shreds also. Hang in there!
I went through two topics, and wrote about 60 pages on the second one, before I switched chairs and found the winning topic.
