Developing a convincing argument in your thesis

Richard ThorpeBAM Conference – Portsmouth - September

2015

Doctoral WorkRef: drawn from March and Birch – the nature of Scholarship

Scholarly work Recognised by others working in a similar area

Original Takes a different angle Adopts a different methodology Provides a different explanation

Situated Is located with knowledge of other literatures

Critically reflexive Of other literatures Of its own limitations Of the theories generated

Logically consistent Is not internally contradictory

Methodologically coherent Methods and data collection and analysis support the aims and objectives Offers a critically informed rationale for the selection of particular methods

Synthesis Provides a synthesis of theory and data

Audience Addresses primarily an academic rather than a practitioner audience

What does a Ph.D. contain?Contribution to knowledge

BSC, MSc, Ph.D. Pattern Recognition Generalisability Realism of Context (problem Set) Replicability

Training in research To perfect a Methodology BEING ‘SCIENTIFIC’ COMES NOT FROM WHAT YOU STUDY AND

WHAT YOU DO WITH IT BUT THE METHODOLOGY.

Implications for policy and or practice Dissemination, pathways to impact Impact ? Benefits Knowledge transfer Developed within the thesis but explicitly articulated within the conclusions

with some confidence (candidates often find this difficult for students to do

Coherence– disciplines and paradigmsViews differ on what constitutes proper

research

Different disciplines within the field of management do take a different emphasis

Different stakeholders value different styles Unilateral –vs- collaborative (coproduction) Investigate – vs – Discover Realist vs constructionist (ontology)

Multidisciplinary research often encounters conflict of styles and these can lead to discussions about coherence

Mixed Methods?Reconnecting with Ontological and

Epistemological Commitments

What is being mixed?Is it method within one family (Qualitative or quantitative) or...Between families (Qualitative and quantitative data) or .....Between epistemologies

How data is being assembled - data collectione.g. Triangulation (different perspectives on the same issue)

or..In the facilitation (the sequence; which dominates) or are

methodsFilling gaps?

AnalysisCross dressing – using quantitative data from essentially

qualitative studies

It often depends on what is being mixed.......

POSITIVISM, CONSTRUCTIONISM and MIXED

Ontology and Epistemology

Ontology Realism Internal Realism

Relativism Nominalism

Single Truth

Truth is obscure

Many truths No truth

Facts exist to

be revealed

Facts exist but are hard to uncover

Facts depend on

view of observer

Facts are all created

Epistemology

Positivism

Constructionism

Epistemology and Methodology

POSITIVISM CONSTRUCTIONISM

Positivism / Constructionism

POSITIVISM

Epistemology

‘Hard’ POSITIVISM

Aims Discovery

Starting points

Hypothesis

Designs Experiments

Data types Numbers & data

Analysis Verification & Falsification

Outcomes Confirm theories

Positivism / Constructionism

Epistemology

Soft Positivism

Soft Constructionis

m

Aims Exposure Convergence

Starting points

Propositions

Questions

Designs Large surveys

Cases & small surveys

Data types Numbers and words

Words and numbers

Analysis Correlation Triangulation

Outcomes Test and generate theories

Theory generation

CONSTRUCTIONISM

Epistemology ‘Hard’ CONSTRUCTIONI

SM

Aims Invention

Starting points

Critique

Designs Engagement

Data types Words; experiences

Analysis Sense making; understanding

Outcomes Insights and actions

For:Richer results; more credibility; explaining why;

depth and breadth; longitudinal and cross-sectional; [OK]

Just in caseBetween epistemologies

Against:Ontological incompatibility; conflicting purposes

Issues for and against mixed methods

You need to be aware of consistency in epistemologies both as a judge and when you yourself are being judged.

Its probably OK to mix weak epistemologies, provided you indicate your awareness of what you are doing.

Beware of 50/50 studies, its probably better to lead with one and add value to the study with the other.

Its probably the case that hard epistemologies can’t be mixed

It is also probably the case that adjacent ontologies can be mixed but no further?

Some thoughts on the issue of mixed methods

What is scholarship? Research is not collecting data and packaging a solution

it is justifying your results and explaining why you chose to go down one route rather than another.

Research substantiates, regulates, organises or generates our theories and produces evidence which may challenge our own beliefs and those of society in general

(May, 1993)

GOODTRUTH BEAUTY

USE

Other Issues Offering evidence of

the quality of the data, including caveats

Use of personal voice to bring into the thesis a reflective or reflexive dimension

Consider the innovative nature of the work -high dives and low dives

Stephen Toulmin and Argument Analysis

Issues related to the oral defenceFirstly the forms* (university of Leeds –PhD)

That the degree of PhD be awarded That, subject to minor editorial corrections, the

degree of PhD be awarded That, subject to the correction of stated minor

deficiencies, the degree of PhD be awarded That the application be referred for resubmission

for the degree of PhD

* Caveat: Institutions differ considerably in their regulations

Its good practice to ask for a mock viva To get attuned and used to answering

questionsTo get used to answering questions you didn’t

know were issuesGet an early insight into any potential gaps or

weaknesses in in the thesis in advance

What you might do before the oral defence Re-read the thesisConsider the contribution to knowledge

PhD in the field of X Where the gap lies What I’ve done is ? And addressed abc and found

xyz And this has implications for 1,2,3...

Prepare your John Humphrey test

Oral defenceStanding your groundDon’t defend the indefensible That got me thinking....I’ve never thought of it in that way......

There are different processes in operation

The role of the internal and external with and without a panel

ChairsVideo