Richard Thorpe
BAM Conference – Portsmouth - September 2015
Doctoral Work
Ref: 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
paradigms
 Views 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
It often depends on what is being mixed.......
 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 collection
 e.g. Triangulation (different perspectives on the same issue) or..
 In the facilitation (the sequence; which dominates) or are
methods
 Filling gaps?
 Analysis
 Cross dressing – using quantitative data from essentially
qualitative studies
POSITIVISM, CONSTRUCTIONISM and MIXED
Ontology and Epistemology
Ontology
Realism
Internal
Realism
Relativism
Nominalism
Single
Truth
Truth is
obscure
Many truths
No truth
Facts depend
on view of
observer
Facts are all
created
Facts exist Facts exist but
to be
are hard to
revealed
uncover
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
Constructionism
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’
CONSTRUCTIONISM
Aims
Invention
Starting points
Critique
Designs
Engagement
Data types
Words; experiences
Analysis
Sense making;
understanding
Outcomes
Insights and actions
Issues for and against mixed methods
 For:
 Richer results; more credibility; explaining why; depth and
breadth; longitudinal and cross-sectional; [OK]
 Just in case
 Between epistemologies
 Against:
 Ontological incompatibility; conflicting purposes
Some thoughts on the issue of 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?
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)
TRUTH
BEAUTY
GOOD
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 defence
Firstly 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 questions
 To get used to answering questions you didn’t know
were issues
 Get 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 thesis
 Consider 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 defence
Standing your ground
 Don’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
 Chairs
 Video