Management and Organizations

Research Proposal Template

Title:
Name:
Date:

To cite:
Reddy, CD (2018). Management and Organizations Research Proposal Template. From: https://
www.researchgate.net/publication/326199201_Management_and_Organizations_Research_Proposal_Template
 Follow this storyline
1. Phenomenon involving a management/organizational problem
2. Existing insights from a review of scholarly literature about this specific problem
3. Research problem: Identify a particular obstacle to resolving the problem and a solution for
which there is no evidence in the existing literature. Reword this as a research question.
4. Rationale and description of methods/experiments to answer research question or test specific
hypotheses
5. Significance/Contribution: Anticipate possible answers /findings to research question and
suggest proposed changes to our understanding relative to point 2 above
6. Possible limitations using your chosen methods, regarding the validity of solutions to
management/organizational problem
7. Project plan
8. References
9. Appendix
NB. Instead of a phenomenon (empirical problem) you could frame an interest around a particular theoretical
problem.
N.B. You could use aspects of this storyline to distill the “Introduction” to your proposal once you have detailed
out the following slides
Phenomenon involving a management/organizational problem

• Frame this in the real world

• Examples:
• Managers wish to increase employee motivation
• Organizations wish to increase profitability
• Entrepreneurs wish to become more innovative
• Countries wish to increase their entrepreneurial population
• Firms wish to strengthen their social responsibility
• Provide the background (where, who, when)
• Translate to a management/organizational question
• Example – how can managers increase employee motivation in the retail sector?
• Use abductive reasoning against the background (and a pilot interview, news articles, etc.) to arrive at a
tentative answer (quick and dirty hypothesis) that will help kick start a literature search

NB: Notice that each example has a “main character” – managers, organizations, entrepreneurs, countries, firms. If you can construct your
sentences using active verbs involving the main character you can easily arrive at active sentence constructions, which makes for more
interesting reading
 Existing insights from a review of scholarly literature about this specific problem

• Use the literature to identify all the obstacles in the way of manager’s / organization’s / main
character’s goals e.g. to increase employee motivation. Obstacles may have been framed as
either aspects within the main character (e.g. personality) or external to the main character.
• Answers to the management/organizational question can then be inferred or gauged directly in
case the research articles explain the actual processes
• For each source elaborate on the answer by providing an overview of the theoretical
framework/concepts that were used by the scholars to develop arguments and/or to interpret
their empirical findings (related to their chosen variables). Note the difference between concepts
and variables (e.g. concept = intelligence, variable = IQ).
• For each source also provide an overview of the research design that was used to answer the
research question or to test an hypothesis
 Research problem: Identify a particular obstacle to resolving the problem and a solution for which there is no evidence in the existing literature. Reword this as a research
question.

• Here you need to build an argument that to make progress on resolving the larger
management/organizational problem, you will need to answer a specific research question.
• Reflect on the answers available in the literature and identify perspectives about existing or new
obstacles (internal/external to the main character) or new ways or reasons for overcoming these
obstacles in the way of the main character’s goal (e.g. to increase employee motivation).
• You can tell if your research will be different/new if, for example, evidence about how the main
character overcame this obstacle is not available in the literature. Otherwise you will be merely
replicating what is already known.
• Develop an overall hypothesis/argument about whether/how/why the main character will
overcome the respective obstacle.
• Reword this overall hypothesis into a specific research question.
• You may end with a research question or, you might use existing theories from your management
textbooks and other monographs, or existing empirical findings to develop specific hypotheses to
your research question.
• For example, you may develop alternative solutions using alternative theories (e.g. transaction
cost versus agency theory). This way you might arrive at an often ignored perspective?
 Rationale and description of methods/experiments to answer research question
or test specific hypotheses

• To establish how the main character responds to the obstacles embedded in your research
question or hypotheses, design experiments/case studies/surveys etc.
• Have you chosen to use a theory/s with an existing relationship between certain concepts to
deduce relationships (hypotheses) between matching variables (matching each variable to a
respective theoretical concept)?
• Or would you rather remain with a research question and use an exploratory approach to
propose answers to your research question from the actual field work (e.g.
interviews/observations)? Note that it is still important to have a few conceptual frameworks in
mind to interpret your eventual observations and findings [this will help to discuss “why”
managers or organizations (or employees or customers or suppliers) might have acted/chosen the
way your findings reveal].
• Describe the proposed sources of data (give explicit company names and sectors where
applicable), the variables (and its relationship to each concept where applicable) and its
measurement (questions/codes/actual indicators like male, female, age, etc.). Propose how you
will analyze answers to your interviews or document analyses. Mention actual quantitative and
qualitative techniques including software (read books about this if necessary). Also look up the
specific methods used by the scholars cited in your literature review).
Significance/Contribution: Anticipate possible answers /findings to research
question and suggest proposed changes to our understanding relative to point 2 in
storyline

• To pay attention to your research, readers will want to know how their understanding of the main
character, set out earlier, will change
• You have to possess a thorough grasp of the current literature findings and
management/organizational theories to be able to argue this. Therefore return to review your
literature and management and organizational theory textbooks if necessary.
• Essentially this has the same motivation made towards your earlier research problem but in more
depth against the current state of knowledge about the main character
• Note that slides are not normally used for this purpose; it is just that I find it easier to develop a
horizontal storyline using slides before going on to develop a more detailed vertical story using
Word and other such writing software.
Possible limitations using your chosen methods, regarding the validity of answers to
management/organizational question

• You will suggest further research on the back of these limitations in your final
report
Project plan

• Tasks, start and end dates, deliverables

•
References

• ….
•
Appendix

• E.g. Sample research questionnaire (for each question, in brackets, point out the
related aspect of research question or hypothesis. It might even be a form of
control – controlling for alternative explanations)
•
Appendix – Check you story for consistency as you take this journey

Management/organizational
problem in Intro

Literature review of existing solutions (both

Discussion (reiterate specific research question and direct and inferred). Also provide empirical
provide specific resolution/new insights about and theoretical background for each
your main character to complete the circle) solution.
Conclusion (reiterate overall Research Problem (weakness with existing
management/organizational question and provide solutions), Research question.
broader resolution to complete the circle)

Theory/s and
Hypotheses (if
Results
deductive
approach is taken)

Methodology (How will I

answer the research
question or test my
hypotheses?)