Research Methods

Guidelines for Assessment Task 1: Topic identification and relevance

In the first few paragraphs of any research study, the researchers must describe their substantive topic, and make a persuasive case for its relevance to organizations, workers, society, and knowledge/theory.

Your task for the first assessment is to (1) comprehensively describe your topic of interest; (2) persuade your reader that the topic has broader impacts to orgs, workers, society, and theory; and (3) justify your specific choice of topic using the principles described in the unit's readings. These three elements of your assessment map onto the first three criteria in the assessment rubric (shown on pp. 3-4 of the document, pp. 13-14 of the unit outline).

Recommended structure:

• Use the first section (1-2 paragraphs) to describe your research topic comprehensively. Define the phenomenon of interest (and note if people seem to disagree meaningfully on the definition). Describe the phenomenon to us so your readers can understand and visualize what's going on. Share trustworthy statistics on the prevalence and importance of the phenomenon. Tell us about what the research says are the causes or antecedents of the phenomenon, as well as the established effects of the phenomenon for people, organizations, and stakeholders. Tell us about contexts in which the phenomenon is more (or less) common.
• Use the second section (1-2 paragraphs) to explain the broader impacts of your research topic. Sell us on the importance of the topic. Show us the economic impact of the phenomenon ($$ values are always highly compelling!). Are lives at stake? How many lives might be lost because of the phenomenon? What are the impacts on people's livelihoods and/or well-being? In what way is the topic especially timely today-how is it relevant to the big, hairy, audacious problems that face society today? Sell us on the idea and why it matters.
• Use the third section (1-2 paragraphs) to link your choice of topic back to principles in the unit's readings. For example, Colquitt and George identify 5 criteria for a good topic: significance, novelty, curiosity, scope, and actionability. Persuade us that your chosen topic fulfills most (if not all) of these criteria. You may draw on criteria from the other readings on topic choice as well (Grant & Pollock, 2011; Waldman, 2008; Ashford, 2013; Suddaby, 2010; . Whenever you draw on criteria from the readings, please be explicit. For example, you might say that "this topic relates to the 'scope' criterion by Colquitt and George, which refers to .... This topic relates to scope because ..."

General guidelines

• Use at least 10 recent, high-quality scholarly journal articles on the substantive topic of interest (alongside other trustworthy sources, like government statistics and policy reports). Please review the unit guidelines on high-quality sources ). The 10 articles may be a mix of mostly journal articles with a few non-academic trustworthy sources-in addition to the course readings on topic choice.
• Word limit is 500-750 words. 500 words should be more than enough. You may use fewer than 500 words; that's not an issue. However, you should certainly not go over 750 words. Generally speaking, if you find yourself going over 750 words, you are probably doing something wrong. The word limit excludes references.
• High-quality writing is important. Researchers need to be understood by the general public. The most important thing is that the writing is organized logically. A few grammatical errors will not be too bad. However, writing with no logical structure or sense will earn poor marks.

Description in EUO:

Assessment task 1: Topic identification and relevance

The purpose of this assessment task is to identify a research topic and make a compelling case for its relevance.

The assessment task consists of two parts:  

§  First, you will need to identify a research topic. This involves clearly defining the nature of the phenomenon/problem you wish to focus on, and its conceptual demarcations, and how it is similar or distinct from related phenomena. Those studying OHSE must choose an OHSE related topic or problem;

§  Besides clearly articulating the nature of the phenomenon/ problem, you need to also provide compelling arguments for why this topic should be studied, using the characteristics of good research topics from the prescribed literature. This may involve highlighting its (increased) pervasiveness, its scope (e.g., local, global), its timeliness, and possibly also growing recognition by scholars and practitioners of the need for more research on this topic. Personal relevance may be a contributing factor too (although it should not be the only factor). If you frame your topic as a problem, then clearly discuss why it is a problem, how big the problem is, to whom it is a problem, and why the problem should be solved now (rather than later), how research could contribute to solving this problem, and the extent to which the solutions/ knowledge from this research would be actionable and relevant to practitioners.

This assessment task requires you to use the prescribed literature on characteristics of good research topics, as well as a using a minimum of 10 recent, high-quality scholarly journal articles on the substantive topic of interest (alongside other trustworthy sources, like government statistics and policy reports) in order to provide a clear description of your topic of interest and compelling case about its relevance.

The essay has to be coherent, logically structured, clear, well-argued and precise