Your assessment is a 4500 words (+/- 10%) individual executive summary of your business dissertation and will be considered a comprehensive report on your findings and overall project context as well as learning gains.

Submission Deadline

Marks and Feedback

Before 10am on:

20 working days after deadline (L4, 5 and 7)15 working days after deadline (L6)10 working days after deadline (block delivery) 

Click or tap to enter a date.

Unit title & code

MAR042-6 Business Dissertation

Assignment number and title

Assignment 2: Individual Dissertation: Executive Summary

Assessment type

Individual Report

Weighting of assessment

90%

Size or length of assessment

4500 words (+/- 10%)

Unit learning outcomes

1. Demonstrate the following knowledge and understanding:

Demonstrate a critical understanding of the key issues in your subject area by appropriate current academic discourse and debate can be applied to integrate theory and practice to ensure specific objectives and targeted outcomes are informed by current research.

1. Demonstrate the following skills and abilities:

Demonstrate effective self-management in terms of planning, behavior, motivation, individual initiative and enterprise in order to meet the demands of a graduate of your subject area whilst taking responsibility for personal learning and continuous professional development. In so doing, apply current thinking in your subject area to deal with complex issues both systematically and creatively.

What am I required to do in this assignment?

Your assessment is a 4500 words (+/- 10%) individual executive summary of your business dissertation and will be considered a comprehensive report on your findings and overall project context as well as learning gains.

Your executive summary is a concise explanation of your dissertation that includes:

1. A definition of topic area of your interest including research aim and objectives (1000 words)
2. A discussion and summation of the research findings (2500 words)
3. A reflection on the dissertation process and a recommendation on how you would do it differently (1000 words)

Please note that in order for the executive summary to be considered there are three staged submissions that each student is required to submit in weeks 5, 7, 9. These staged submissions must be included as Appendices in the final submission of the 2^nd assessment.

Furthermore, If there is no work submitted in the staged submissions then a viva may be triggered after submission of the executive summary. Attendance to the viva is compulsory as per University guidelines.

The staged submissions required are as below (Deadlines for each stage will be communicated by the unit coordinator):

1. Staged submission 1 in week 5: Chapter 2: literature review, 2,000 words
2. Staged submission 2 in week 7: Chapter 3: Method of analysis, 1,500 words
3. Staged submission 3 in week 9: Chapter 4: Analysis and Findings 2000 words

Final Submission: The complete dissertation, an executive Summary (4,500 words) including introduction, a discussion and summation of the research findings, a reflection on the dissertation process and a recommendation on how you would do the dissertation differently.You must Include all three stages of submission literature review, method of analysis, analysis and findings in appendix A. Failure to do so will result a fail grade. All written staged submissions for this unit will be screened via a plagiarism checking software. Your dissertation will not be marked unless you have submitted/attended all activities (3 staged submissions and if required a check viva). Please note that a student, who cannot produce a piece of work for staged submissions, will be required to attend a viva at the end of the unit. 

Mitigation against high risk assessments:

In order to ensure that students submit their own original work, the nature of the two assessments is such that the majority of the student output is very closely related to original creative development and actual performance making it difficult for a student either to resort to contract plagiarism or copying from their peers. As a result, the staged submissions and the viva are all aspects of the risk management of assessment.

Note: SafeAssign will be used for all submissions to check for plagiarism. We also reserve the right to initiate a viva voce examination if we have concerns regarding the originality of your submission. Dates of the Viva will be provided during the induction week. You need to be available for such an event following the submission of your dissertation.

Mentoring

To maximise your experience and indeed, your performance or grade, you need to ‘harvest’ the experience and knowledge of your research mentors and engage with the process outlined in this form. Research mentors are allocated to support each student in the capstone project period. During the 12-week project, the student is required to hold four sessions with the research mentors plus attend the taught session provided by the mentoring team. The one-to-one mentor sessions are held in weeks 1,3,4,6,7,9,10 and 11 and aim to provide feedback on various staged submissions. Such feedback will student to improve their work for assessments 1&2.

What do I need to do to pass? (Threshold Expectations from UIF)

 In order to pass Assessment 2 you will need to:

• State research objectives while the wider context is evident
• Apply knowledge of the relevant literature, to the discussion of your findings with some evidence of critical evaluation
• Interpret data/information with some reference to the project objectives and the chosen management theories/concepts;
  • Evaluate the research process and propose a reasoned argument for what you would change if you repeated experience of doing the dissertation
  • Submit an executive summary with evidence of convincing arguments and correct use of academic referencing
  • Include all three stages of submission literature review, method of analysis, analysis and findings in appendix A

How do I produce high quality work that merits a good grade?

We will be filling this section in together in class on 00/00/0000 make sure you have downloaded/printed out the Assignment Brief and bring it to the session with you.

Your final assessment will be an individual business dissertation which will be a considered and comprehensive response to your research objectives agreed with your supervisor.It is an individual executive summary of your business dissertation and will be considered a comprehensive report on your findings and overall project context as well as learning gains.

Your executive summary is a concise explanation of your dissertation that includes:

1. A definition of topic area of your interest including research aim and objectives (1000 words)
2. A discussion and summation of the research findings (2500 words)
3. A reflection on the dissertation process and a recommendation on how you would do it differently (1000 words)

Please note that in order for the executive summary to be considered there are three staged submissions that each student is required to submit in weeks 5, 7, 9. These staged submissions must be included as Appendices in the final submission of the 2nd assessment.

Furthermore, If there is no work submitted in the staged submissions then a viva may be triggered after submission of the executive summary. Attendance to the viva is compulsory as per University guidelines.

Your dissertation will encapsulate your approach to the research, the research methods that you have deployed, an analysis of the knowledge generated as part of the investigative process and a reflection on your personal development as a consequence of this research project experience.It will need to demonstrate your understanding of the topic area in the context of contemporary academic theory, models and debate. Your dissertation will comprise a number of integrative elements all of which will contribute to the achievement of the learning outcomes for this unit.

The following points should be observed:

The format is an academic structure, the style must be formal, serious and ‘research-based, therefore we recommend that you avoid writing in the first person (“I”); rather the third person is recommended (e.g. it can therefore be suggested that...).

The best report will demonstrate a deep understanding of the key issues of your debate (derived from your research) and ownership of the material resulting in critical conclusions. The main assessment criteria are listed in your unit Handbook, and the assessment grading grid is also included in this brief. It is also available to access / download on the unit’s Breo site.

Indicative content of the report

Section

Details/ guidance

Title page

The title should be clear and succinct and accurately describe the contents of the Dissertation. Do not write the abstract or summary on the title page or the recommendations or conclusions.

The title page must also include: Your name

The date

The name of the course

The name of the department and University Any statements of confidentiality (page ii).

Abstract

The abstract should succinctly set out what the Dissertation has accomplished in terms of:

The stated aims and objectives What it looked at (the problems)

How it looked at it (research methods, concepts, models) What was found

The limitations of the research

What conclusions can be drawn and recommendations made.

Keep the abstract brief (around 250 words); it should not be too detailed, but must provide the salient points of the research. Remember, you cannot write the abstract until the report is finished!

List of Contents

List of Contents including page no

List of Figures and/or Tables (if applicable)

List of Figures and /or Tables including page no

The complete dissertation: an executive Summary including introduction, a discussion and summation of the research findings, a reflection on the dissertation process and a recommendation on how you would do the dissertation differently.

• Your executive summary is a concise explanation of your dissertation that includes: A definition of topic area of your interest including research aim and objectives (1000 words). The introduction should state the purpose and intention of the project by setting out:

Background history/information The detailed aims and objectives Identification of the problem

Any definition of terms (if no Glossary)

The general methodology to be used in the investigation Keep it brief and stick to the significant points only. For those counting words, remember that appendices are useful for providing supplementary information and backing up arguments and discussions and can be excluded from the word count.

• A discussion and summation of the research findings (2500 words)
• A reflection on the dissertation process and a recommendation on how you would do it differently (1000 words)

Conclusions (and Recommendations where appropriate)

Conclusions and recommendations can be combined or dealt with separately though the latter is more usual in larger research projects. They should be clear and precise and they are better listed with headings. Conclusions should draw out the implications from the main body of the work. They should always relate to the conceptual/theoretical framework of the report and you should not introduce new material into this section.

Recommendations should be based only on the explicit conclusions and should describe a clear course of action.

References

A list of all sources cited in the text should be provided at the end of the document following the Harvard Reference Systems, e.g. EJIS style (European Journal of Information System). The university library web site has “A guide to academic referencing” at http://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/help/guide-to-ref.

Appendix

You must Include all three stages of submission in appendix A. Failure to do so will result a fail grade.

Staged submission: literature review, 2,000 words Staged submission: Method of analysis, 1,500 words Staged submission: Analysis and Findings 2000 words

Dissertation supervision

A supervisor will be allocated to support each student in the dissertation period. During the 12-week dissertation, the supervisor and the student are scheduled to have progression meetings at least eight times (weeks 1,3,4,6,7,9,10 and 11 of the dissertation) and provide feedback to help the student improve their report. To maximise your experience and indeed, your performance or grade, you need to ‘harvest’ the experience and knowledge of your supervisor, you must keep contact with your supervisor for feedback on your progress.

Time Management

The capstone unit of your Masters’ programme comprises 2 blocks (12 weeks) and accounts for 60 credits towards your final degree classification. The work is, however, to be carried out by you, with support from us.

• YOU need to ensure you attend ALL the introductory sessions’ delivered in the capstone induction week and teaching week
• YOU need to regularly access and review the materials (particularly in the Guided Learning Area) on Breo
• YOU need to attend and prepare for the periodic meetings with your supervisor
• You are required to submit three staged submissions in weeks 5, 7, 9

How does assignment relate to what we are doing in scheduled sessions?

Please refer to the PAP5: Be More Prepared for Successful Research schedule, There are 8 hours of teaching content provided one for each teaching week. They cover a range of themes including:

• Dissertation Process & Sources of data
• Literature Review