Joseph KK Ho's work diary

For the GW Business Management Degree programme, part-time students are required to produce a Management Consulting report (in 1,500 words) derived from a dissertation project (in 5,000 words). As most of these part-time students are not actually employed by specific clients as Management Consultants, their Management Consulting projects are very often not genuine consulting projects. They are, instead, virtual management consulting projects : there is no actual consulting contract between the student (as a consultant) and the client system; indeed, there is no actual request from the client in the client system to the student to provide consulting service in this case. There is no consulting fee paid for the virtual consulting project done by the student. Nevertheless, like a real management consulting project, there is a specific client system with clearly identified client's concern/ problems to be addressed by the consultant, and this consulting context needs to be explained i...

The following is a list of notes on the topic of Corporate Governance : http://josephkkhoworkdiary.blogspot.hk/2012/04/corporate-governance-tutorial-1.html http://josephkkhoworkdiary.blogspot.hk/2012/05/corporate-governance-topics-2.html http://josephkkhoworkdiary.blogspot.hk/2012/08/corporate-governance-notes-aug-15.html http://josephkkhoworkdiary.blogspot.hk/2012/09/directors-remuneration-study-notes-in.html http://josephkkhoworkdiary.blogspot.hk/2012/09/study-notes-on-corporate-governance.html http://josephkkhoworkdiary.blogspot.hk/2012/09/corporate-governance-notes-sept-26.html http://josephkkhoworkdiary.blogspot.hk/2012/10/corporate-governance-notes-oct-4.html

By now, I have received some Independent Study (IS) proposal ideas from students; most students offer me a list of research questions, especially in the form of hypotheses.   Pls bear in mind that you need to discuss how your research questions are related to a common research theme and a few research objectives;  the research theme, the research objectives and research questions need to form a coherent body of ideas. You also need do some literature review and see how your research objectives can be related to some management theories, so that the findings can be analyzed with these management theories. By doing so, your IS report has more academic value and stronger quality of reasoning. You also need to indicate the practical value of your study by indicating who would be your targeted readers and what they can gain from reading your IS report. Finally, you need to figure out a feasible research design, which should be related to your res...

For Research Methods workshop 2, 2013 (GW Business Mgt/ Marketing), the topic is on dissertation structure : http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2011/09/proposal-abstract-and-dissertation.html A sample of dissertation proposal: http://www.scribd.com/doc/17320747/Sample-Research-Proposal#source:facebook Dissertation report samples (HKU): http://hub.hku.hk/advanced-search?field1=title&thesis=1

Some Independent Study (IS) students are very much interested in topics that do not require primary data (e.g. interview, survey questionnaires). I would suggest the following topics: Capital structure (e.g. gearing ratio)-related analysis Housing price analysis Exchange rate-related analysis Anyway, topics that make use of economic data, financial ratios, and financial market data enable you to avoid gathering primary data.; these secondary data are easy to obtain via the Internet search. Having said that, you still need to do a proper literature review and you probably need to apply some statistical analysis, e.g. multiple regression analysis and chi-squared test. You may need to construct some charts based on your statistics for analysis. Pls note that, if you choose to make use of financial ratios for analysis, do not just perform a financial ratio analysis because IS is not just a financial analysis exercise. You need to demonstrate that you know how to do literature re...

I have recently attended a focus group. The focus group topic is related to " An evaluation of Stakeholders' views on overseas Accounting Degree Programs in HK ". Before I attend the focus group session, I have done some theoretical  review of the topic and have identified the following three analysis perspectives: Perspective 1: The words "non-local" and "accounting degree courses" could be subject to a semiotic analysis. Perspective 2: Stakeholders' expectations analysis can be enhanced using Ackoff's Social Systems notion. Perspective 3: Stakeholders' expectations can be examined in terms of what stakeholders are expecting now and what they should expect, using Critical systems heuristics. In my view, the accreditation of a degree programme is only one of the criteria to evaluate a Degree programme; other evaluation criteria are: (i) the University culture, (ii) the programme syllabus and (iii) the words of mouth on the Degree pro...

Education centres sometimes have difficulties to appoint a class representative for a class of students; many part-time students are unwilling to take up the duties of a class representative. They are also not willing to receive class rep. training from the University. In this case, the duties of a class representative are shared among a number of students on an ad hoc/ rotation basis. The most important thing is: one or two of these students will turn up at students/school  meetings when requested to do so by the education centres. They disseminate information and conduct opinion surveys in Facebook forums created for their class. In a general sense, the social networking (e.g. Facebook) forums for students support e-learning and issues management related to their study. As students study on a part-time basis, it is not easy for class representatives to do information dissemination and opinion survey exercises in classroom as, for example, some students ...

Independent Study tutorial 2 topics, 2013 http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2011/11/conducting-quantitative-analysis-with.html http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2013/01/advanced-statistical-analysis-in.html http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2012/01/designing-research-design-discussion.html http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2011/08/use-of-theoretical-frameworks-in.html References Regression analysis: https://www.facebook.com/aggie.ieong?ref=ts&fref=ts#!/media/set/?set=a.10150112164422090.322140.713727089&type=3 Chi-squared test: https://www.facebook.com/aggie.ieong?ref=ts&fref=ts#!/media/set/?set=a.10150114248382090.323264.713727089&type=3 Tutorial 1 notes: http://josephkkhoworkdiary.blogspot.hk/2013/01/independent-study-tutorial-1-notes-2013.html FB forum on business research: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151391199857090.543740.713727089&type=1#!/groups/194088197319308/ Some relevant articles: http://josephkkhoworkdiary.blogspot.hk/2013/01/usin...

The following questions were presented to me by a private education centre: [ABC centre] How has your background in industry and consultancy led you to lecturing? And why have you chosen to specifically teach at ABC centre ? I have been doing part-time teaching since the early 80s, and I enjoy teaching. My industry experience is valuable for my teaching activity in Business Studies and all the subjects I teach are practical subjects; many of my students are part-time students with full-time jobs. Students are interested in learning knowledge relevant to their career development, so my industry experience is part of what I teach to students. Thus, lecturing actually predates my career in the industry. What do you think makes ABC centre a unique learning environment? The ABC centre is a small centre; it is not bureaucratic. I feel relaxed when conducting lectures in its centre. It has a very practice of offering textbooks for subjects I am appointed to teach. ...

In my opinion, at the university, we should learn for: wisdom self-actualization intellectual curiosity self-learning capability The following learning objectives, when perceived single-mindedly, are quite problematic: employability material wealth recognized academic credentials superior social status social networking As my teaching experience is in business education, my opinion is toward the business education in this case.

On marking business dissertation reports for this centre, I notice that many students adopt the same topic, same theories and same research methods. In this case, students use SERVQUAL to evaluate service quality and the research  method is survey questionnaire. The quality of the reports is reasonable. The main problem is, research works become a standard exercise with a clear set of procedures to deal with a well defined concern and problem. The students will get reasonably good marks and it is also easy for me to do the marking. The problem is, in this case, students do not learn how to use research skills in problem-solving, especially on soft and wicked problems in a dynamic real-life setting.  They miss the chance to develop intellectual skill and critical thinking. In short, a research work becomes a routine; then, it is not a research work any more .

A question on solely using secondary data in Independent Study (IS) report : Student question: can I just use secondary data for my IS report? Answer: it is acceptable to use secondary data (e.g. data from the Government and financial portals); in this case, you do need to apply some statistical analysis to meet learning ou tcomes; e.g. multiple regression analysis , chi squared test, etc.. just plotting line graph may be acceptable but it would not be sophisticated enough to impress the marker. If you use secondary data, pls discuss in your IS report on the accuracy and reliability of using your set of secondary data. Student question: Could I just rely on one source of secondary data in my IS report? Answer: It depends on your research question; sometimes, you may find it useful to use secondary data from more than 1 source in order to carry out the statistical analysis, e.g. financial data from a financial portal and some economic statistics from the Government. In designing ...

For formulating Independent Study proposals [of the Accounting and Finance students] , students can pick up some topic themes and research questions from the following sources: a. Academic journals: for this, you need to access the university e-library b. Discussion questions in subject textbooks: most subject textbooks have "questions for discussion" at the end of each chapter of the books. c. Identify some current news and related topics: for that, you could take a look at some of my Facebook forums, among others: Accounting and Finance: https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/285637757376/ Company secretaryship: https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/101268536591624/ General business studies: https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/273416946615/ Marketing: https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/282669242406/ Once you have identified a topic theme and questions to study, you need to spend additional time to do more literature review around the theme and related questions befo...

At an academic meeting, students aired their concerns about the heavy workload in study; while the education centre stressed the desirability of compressed degree programmes as well as the cost implications of lengthening of degree programmes. All interested parties shared the same concern of improved learning support during the study and afterward (e.g. further education and career development) for students/ graduates. The topic of social media has been raised. At this point, I mentioned that social media platform can be exploited to provide improved learning/ career support to students with highly compressed degree programmes without increase in cost of operations. I am not prepared to elaborate on it here; I need to point out, though, that the social capital of students/ graduates can be exploited via the social media platform, to contribute to all the desired goals at the same time. It is worthwhile to investigate this possibility of social media exploitation for e-learning ...

In my discussion on plagiarism in recent workshop, I mentioned that plagiarism was bad, while intelligent copying was quite acceptable. In formulating dissertation proposals, students sometimes had difficulties to come up with appropriate proposal ideas and related research design. I encouraged students to browse through relevant academic journal articles and, using a specific academic journal article, a student can then adopt and adapt the research theme, the research questions, research design and business/ management theories so as to come up with their own proposals. For example, if the academic article was about a study in manufacturing sector, yours could be on the service sector. If the academic article studied female employees, yours can be on male employees. If the academic article employed a sophisticated statistical analysis, your dissertation project can employ a much less sophisticated statistical analysis. In the process, you still need to do your own literature revi...

In academic board meeting, all the staff and students talked about pursuing professional exam after graduation with ACCA and HKICPA; none of them mentionsed CIMA or AIA. It was not convenient for me to raise this ommission as I have already talked too much on using social media to support students during the meeting. Finally, it is also an option to study for the HKICS.       References CIMA: http://www.cimaglobal.com/ AIA: http://www.aiaworldwide.com/ HKICS: http://www.hkics.org.hk/

The following notes are for Independent Study (IS) tutorial 1, 2013 Jan.: Re: Facebook link (public): https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151391199857090.543740.713727089&type=1#!/media/set/?set=a.10151391199857090.543740.713727089&type=1 IS students for conducting surveys with classmates: https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/groups/143861262337078/ References Previous note: Note 1:   http://josephkkhoworkdiary.blogspot.hk/2012/01/tutorial-1-for-independent-study-class.html Note 2: http://josephkkhoworkdiary.blogspot.hk/2012/03/independent-study-tutorial-2-topics.html Note 3: http://josephkkhoworkdiary.blogspot.hk/2012/04/is-tutorial-3-topics.html

Some students have difficulties to tell the difference between a theoretical framework and a research design . I would like to refer to the following two blog articles on these two topics for reference. Essentially, a theoretical framework can be a major output of the literature review while Research Design should be explained in the Chapter of Research Methods in a dissertation report: On research design: http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2012/01/designing-research-design-discussion.html On theoretical framework: http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2011/08/use-of-theoretical-frameworks-in.html The research design should be formulated in a way that produces data that can be analyzed using the theoretical framework produced from the literature review exercise. The research design should be driven by the theoretical framework in your dissertation report. Your theoretical framework can be employed to explain, predict and evaluate your findings from your executed research des...

In my recent meeting with a local education centre on Management Education, I identified the following 3 strategic options to the boss of a local education centre: Conventional Degree programmes franchised by overseas universities, relying classroom-based teaching to part-time students Online Degree programmes, with online examination/ assessment Customized Management Education to corporations to facilitate corporate change/ organizational learning initiatives. These three strategic options require different competences; on the other hand, as compared with 1996, the Management Education market in 2013 is different. The market segments for the three strategic options above have changed a lot over the years. If the Management Education Centre cannot adapt, it will perish..