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In the following case vignettes the students concerned are about to fail to get a Doctorate. For each vignette:
Vignette A Andrew was a journalist specialising in environmental issues. He wanted an academic career and started a doctorate on an environmentally topical issue. As a student he continued to write occasional newspaper articles to earn money. After producing a series of articles as his inadequate research proposal, his supervisor told him that he should carry out a survey. He designed a questionnaire and got a group of students to complete it. But he never analysed it - he said that he didn't see the point. Vignette B Barbara, a personnel manager for many years, developed an interest in a particular specialism (multi-ethnic HRM) and thought she would like to do research in order to establish herself in this new subject. She found that doing research was taking her more and more away from dealing with what she saw as the real issues of staff in organizations in favour of a measurement-orientated form of quasi-science to which she was unsympathetic. Vignette C Charles insisted that it would not be real research if he read up in books and journals what others had done on the problem which he wished to tackle; his thinking would be entirely shaped by what they had done and he would only have the chance of something minor to add. He felt that his only chance of being really innovative and of making an original contribution was to read nothing further in his field which he knew well from a practical point of view. When he presented his research design to his supervisor, Dr Cohen, she was not impressed. She searched the relevant periodicals on the Internet and found a paper reporting a research project on Charles's topic which (not surprisingly since it was completed and published) was considerably better than Charles's attempt at designing a study. She used this paper as an argument to him that he would have to make a comprehensive search of all the relevant published material if he were to have a chance of designing an adequate study which would make a contribution. Charles saw this as a negation of what he wanted to do. Vignette D While Dennis was carrying out the fieldwork stage of his research into the motivation of managers, he became very involved with his subjects and felt that it would be a betrayal if they got no benefit from the research because it would be written up in a dull academic book which no one would read. Most research was like that, Dennis maintained, and therefore got neglected by all except the next lot of researchers. But what was needed was a research report that could really communicate. Why couldn't we have a doctoral thesis that would read like a novel so that it would become accessible? Dennis took this idea very seriously. He wrote to a novelist whose works he admired for some suggestions on how to write the thesis. He took an extra year to write up the material letting no one see anything on the way, on the argument that you don't show a novel to anyone until it is completed. When he did finally present his complete thesis, his supervisor thought it was inadequate, unrigorous and indulgently subjective and Dennis was asked to rewrite it. But he was reluctant to do so. Vignette E Evi came to Britain on a Government scholarship from a country which has little tradition of empirical research in her field. She was allocated to a supervisor who had good practical experience but who had not, in fact, himself done any research. She worked away by herself with occasional comments from him that he thought a particular section very interesting. But he had so underestimated the nature of a Doctorate that when she submitted her thesis, the examiners said that it was so completely inadequate that there was no point in having the oral examination or a resubmission. Vignette F Frank was a management consultant who decided to take a three-year sabbatical in order to do a PhD and thus enhance his marketability. He had noted in his job that the time horizons that managers used when making decisions affected the decision which they made, and he decided to do his research on this topic to explore ways of helping managers to make better decisions. He took a typical consultant's approach, going round talking to a number of managers about their decision-making problems. He wrote up some particular cases, some particular problems and some suggestions for getting better decisions made. After some months, a few of his clients with whom he had kept in touch and who knew of his new interest, began to ask him for help and advice in improving decision-making in their firms. Frank felt that he helped them and therefore that his work was on the right lines. What he wanted to do was write up his knowledge and experience on managers' time horizon, present this as his PhD thesis, then publish it as a book, and henceforth be an authority on this subject and thus obtain more consulting opportunities. It took until the end of his first year to convince Frank that, while his approach was a sensible career strategy in itself and his consulting opportunities would certainly improve if he published a book which was interesting and useful to managers, it was not a strategy for obtaining a PhD. His approach seriously underestimated what is required and he was not doing research in the terms which are necessary for a PhD. Vignette G Gail was a financial manager who thought that a research degree would be a good insurance should she wish in the future to become a management lecturer. She wanted to do her research on the financial control systems of her firm about which she naturally knew a very great deal. She thought therefore that it would be easy to do some research into a topic on which she was one of the experts, but she seriously underestimated that research means finding good questions as well as good answers. She was not able to formulate research questions herself, and when her supervisor began suggesting a number of questions that she might investigate, she would take them up enthusiastically in discussion and then give "the answer" as she knew it to be. After treating a series of possible topics in this way, it became clear that she really did not have any need to do research since she knew all the answers anyway - at least at a level that satisfied her. After it was borne in on her that research requires actively challenging old explanations and finding new ones if necessary, her enthusiasm waned. Vignette H Professor Hardy is a supervisor very few of whose students finish their PhDs. This is surprising because he is a well-known academic in his field, has a lively intelligence and an outgoing personality - which is why he continues to attract students to supervise. But Prof. Hardy believes in treating research students as adults, as he puts it, forgetting that, in research terms, students are babes in arms! He believes that it is the supervisor's job to challenge his students, to mentally shake them up, to bombard them with new ideas. He goes on doing this right throughout the duration of the research, even when more convergence, more limitations are required to complete the study. Because of this overestimating, many students who have taken on too large a project which they do not see becoming more focused get disheartened. Vignette I Ian's supervisor, Prof. Illing, was one of the leading academics in Britain in her field. She died tragically when Ian was at the end of his second year. His supervision was taken over by an experienced researcher whose range of concerns was different and who had only a general interest in Ian's topic. Ian did not think it necessary to tell his new supervisor in any detail what he was doing, having it all sorted out in his mind that Prof. Illing would have given her approval. He thus worked without supervision for a further 18 months. The result of this was that, when he came to submit his thesis, the examiners felt that he had suffered from lack of supervision, which in the circumstances should be taken into account, but still felt that they could only award him an MPhil not a PhD degree for the work. He appealed but in due course the University confirmed the MPhil decision. Vignette J Julia got bogged down 18 months into her project. After a long session with her supervisor, Dr Jackson, she decided that she wanted to change direction. Dr Jackson said that it was impossible to do that at this stage and she should carry on - even though it was now clear that more work would be required than originally envisaged, with a weaker outcome anyway. Julia did not want to do that and tried to persuade him to allow greater modifications. Dr Jackson explained that that was not sensible within the possible time-scale, and pressed her to carry on with the original design. They saw each other less and less because Julia felt that they were talking at cross-purposes. After 4 months they ceased to have any meetings; after 6 months Julia was observed deliberately rushing into a lecture room to avoid Dr Jackson whom she saw coming towards her along the corridor. Vignette K Keith started out to study factors affecting industrial marketing strategies. This is a large field and he was only able to tackle the issues rather superficially. Some of the chapters in his thesis report made some good points, others were rather poor, but none of the aspects were at all related to the others in a cumulative way. The examiners said that his thesis "did not add up to anything" and rejected it. Vignette L Laura was the Administrator of a voluntary organisation. She registered for a Doctorate because she felt that not enough was known about how to manage such organisations; more research was needed to make administrators in this field more professional. She spent her first year reading a great deal about administration and thinking how the ideas could be applied to voluntary organisations to help administrators. When she was asked how this research could help them, she said that she wanted to write a textbook describing good administrative practices. There then followed a long period of trying to get through to her that, without a thesis, this would not make a PhD though it may well be a useful thing to do in itself. Vignette M Martin, in his late thirties, felt trapped in his job in a local authority and was desperately looking for a way out which would lead to a new career. He decided to come as a full-time Doctoral student and live on a scholarship (somewhat supplemented because of his age and two children) and his wife's earnings. But at the end of the second year he felt he could no longer stand the strain of the financial hardship. He took a job, switched to part-time registration for his Doctorate, and moved to another part of the country. He fully intended to carry on writing up his research results, but found it increasingly difficult to find the time to do the work or meet his supervisor. His registration time was running out. © D.S.Pugh |