An example of dissertation proposal - on unbounded systems thinking

An example of a dissertation proposal for reference

Project (Dissertation) Title

An evaluation of ABC Project in XYZ Company based on Unbounded Systems Thinking: a case study [Note: ABC project is an organizational change initiative, e.g. an IT-enabled change and an introduction of a new logistics system, etc]

Synopsis (250 – 300 words)

The project is a case study to evaluate an organizational change initiative, e.g. an IT-enabled change or an introduction of a new logistics system, etc, to be introduced in a specific organization. In this case, the research method used is the case study research method; it is mainly a qualitative research. It explicitly applies Unbound Systems Thinking to conduct the evaluation of the change initiative. The main aims of the projects are: a.     To evaluate the desirability as well as the impacts of introducing the change initiative in a specific organization b.    To evaluate the usefulness of Unbound Systems Thinking as an evaluation methodology c.     To enhance evaluation theories as applied in organizational change initiatives To conduct this project, the student needs to have approved access to a specific client system, e.g. as an employee of the client system.  The student also needs to conduct literature review on the type of organizational initiatives involved. For example, if the organizational initiative is a kind of IT-enabled change, the student needs to apply IT-enable change theories in the project as well. For students who are interested in Project Management, it is feasible to incorporate ideas on project evaluation/ project selection from the Project Management literature into Unbound Systems Thinking. See references as related to Project Management below. As an alternative, it is also possible to employ Unbound Systems Thinking to conduct a post-implementation review of an organizational change initiative. References Mitroff, I.I. and Linstone, H.A. (1993) The Unbounded Mind, Oxford University Press Yin, R.K. (1989) Case Study Research: Design and Methods, SAGE Publications References as related to Project Management Agarwal, N. and Rathod, U. (2006) “Defining ‘success’ for software projects: An exploratory revelation” International Journal of Project Management 24, pp. 358-370. Daniel, H.Z., Hempel, D.J. and Srinivasan, N. (2003) “Project selection: a process analysis”, Industrial Marketing Management 32, pp. 39-54. Lopes, M.D.S, Flavell, R. (1998) “Project appraisal: a framework to assess non-financial aspects of project during the project life cycle” International Journal of Project Management 16(4), pp. 223-233. Wateridge, J. (1995) “IT projects: a basis for success” International Journal of Project Management Vol. 13(3) pp. 169-172.