Dissertation on Sustainability leadership in higher education institutions: a case study on the UK

Proposal Structure

Working Title:
The title you propose comes from an area of interest to you which can start with an intuition, a curious thought, or possibly a critical look at an assumption.

It must be informed by keywords including variables, constructs and theories/models/ frameworks (i.e. underpinnings) from the modules below on your MA programme:

Term 1
International Leadership and Managing Diversity
Intercultural Communication in Business

Term 2
Communication in Professional Contexts
Strategies for Sustainability Leadership

You might be able to use a past work area or context so that you can apply your experiential knowledge, and synthesise the practical insights with theory from the modules.

Alternatively, it could be an area you would want to work in after graduation.

You must discuss (F2F in seminars or via email) your initial thoughts about your title with your lecturers and also with your own contacts in the industry/business world.

Note that your proposed title will almost certainly need to be further developed in the light of the feedback you receive formally or informally and through your own reading and learning on the programme.

Introduction
Set the context of your interest and provide a brief background to this area

Offer the broad motivation/rationale for your chosen title
By clearly expressing the purpose of this research here (i.e. the gap or problem), this section will lead to your research questions below.

Research Aims and Objectives (or Questions and Hypotheses)
Research aims are broad and introductory rather than specific and focused. They usually refer to the main goal or overarching purpose of a research project.

Research objectives indicate in more detail the specific research topics or issues the project plans to investigate, building on the main theme stated in the research aim. It is good practice to put these in a numbered list so they can be clearly identified later.
The questions are the direct sites of your investigation, which are derived from the problem/gap you have identified.
You may decide to provide research hypotheses (instead of questions) here, which are presented as statements to be tested.
The questions are extremely important because they will frame your whole study and its structure, and will be applied both to the literature review, and the empirical study (for those opting to do primary research).

Review of Key Literature
Do a brief review of the key literature on the topic that can contribute to addressing your research questions by presenting what is already known or understood about the topic (e.g. relevant theories of interest).
The review of literature will help identify variables and constructs (/concepts) that you might have initially overlooked. Beside rendering your literature necessarily more detailed, these can help you refocus your research questions and enhance them.

Methodology
Provide brief details of your research design, methodological approach, and methods of data collection and analysis.
Justify your methodological choice (qualitative, quantitative, mixed) and method(s) of data collection and analysis (e.g. interviewing, observing, theorizing, surveying, statistical analysis). Do you have (or Do you have the time to develop) the necessary skills to conduct your research in line with your methodology?

Proposed Timeframe
Propose a realistic timeline for completing the various stages of your full dissertation from the 20 working days required for feedback and marks after you submit till your final dissertation submission.
This could be presented in the form of a clear and well-formatted table or chart (e.g. a Gantt chart)

Word count: 1,000 words
Bibliography
You are expected to use a minimum of SIX sources at this stage from varied media (e.g. academic journals, newspapers, news, websites, social media, printed books, company reports, Office for National Statistics, government reports, case studies, online videos, posters, advertising, TV programmes).
All references must be in APA 7th edition format.