At the end of last semester, one of our professors said, "By the end of spring semester, you'll need to decide what your thesis is going to be". What she didn't say is that, basically, we need to know what our research question will be by the 3rd week of the semester.
I feel so unprepared to figure out what I want to spend the next year and a half researching - especially since most of the topic I am interested in just aren't feasible to take on for a Master's Thesis.
My interests are in team work (many aspects), leadership development, change management and organizational citizenship behavior. Most of the research topics I have thought of require access to populations that may be hard to gain access to and projects that require some element of a longitudinal study (i.e. certain communication styles in virtual teams and their effect on team performance).
Needless to say, the lack of a thesis idea at this time is causing me great stress. I keep reminding myself that it's only a thesis project and it's not that big a deal ... but then I remember that this is something I am going to be sick of by the time I am done, so I'd better love it now. And that it's probably better to choose a topic that I want some expertise in so that when I have finished my degree, I have some marketable skill and knowledge above and beyond the coursework I will have completed.
Obviously research should also extend our knowledge of some topic and be of some benefit to the public.
What's most interesting (to me) is to watch myself through this process ... to notice the times when I just completely shut down vs. the times that I gather my will and charge of in another direction to explore possibilities.
Today, I am in the middle. Obviously, the fact that I am blogging right now shows some form of avoidance and lack of effort. I don't always do so well with the big unknown.
Here's the latest thesis idea: tell me what you think.
I've always been fascinated with how we behave at work. For many of us, the way we express ourselves at work is quite different than how we express ourselves outside of work (especially those who work in the corporate environment). One possible research question is to discover if there is a correlation between an individual's percieved level of freedom of expression and their job satisfaction. In other words, if you feel completely free to express yourself at work are you more/less satisfied with your job than someone who feels restricted in their expression?
That ... or the effects of mass quantities of fried foods and chocolate on my gut.
1 comment:
I like your idea too. As i was reading, what sprung to mind was you studying my place of work. i have no idea whether that would work out in all the various ways it would need to, but i'm throwing it out there just for brainstorming purposes. it's a not-for-profit environment (also known as social profit), of course, so the context of your research question would likely be different from that in a corporate environment, though i'm sure there are lots of similarities. i've not worked in a corporate environmment more than a few months, so my experience there is limited. there's so many ways to define "freedom of expression;" that in itself intrigues me.
i think this whole genre of study is highly intriguing and also useful - i find myself vicariously excited that you're in it.
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