The next step is search out an issue. Again you can start from the broad issue, so the
question might be: What sort of human recourse management for UK acute hospitals? There are different
ways to answer on this question:
- Talking with prospective supervisor;
- Looking at the library at the key journals,
books, and other academic publications
- And discussions on the Research Methods
After that you may decide that motivation is a crucial area for todays NHS human
resource management and start to research it. However, even this soon becomes too broad. What aspect of this might you consider?
Think about motivations implications for, for instance:
Again your supervisor supports in deepening the research. Suppose you choose the third
of these. Now you appear to have narrowed down the topic enough to carry yourself to the proposal stage: The Employee Commitment
Implications of Motivation in NHS Acute Hospitals.
That sounds narrow enough to be doable. However, if you did not consider about methodology
and literature and did choose topic in a vacuum, then it would be pure lack whether you really have chosen a researchable
Below the checklist of attributes of a good research topic adopted from Saunders
et al (2000):
C Does the topic fit the specifications and meet the standards set by the examining institutions?
C Is the topic something with which you are really fascinated?
C Does your research topic contain issues that have a clear link to the theory?
C Do you have, or can develop within the project time frame, the necessary research skills
to undertake a topic? (For example, it is obvious that you will not be able to learn foreign language to interview properly
foreigners if for instance you are doing cross-cultural research)
C Is the research topic achievable within the available time?
C Is the research topic achievable within the financial resources that are likely to be available?
C Are you reasonably certain of being able to gain access to data you are likely to require
for this topic?
C Are you able to state your research question(s) and objectives clearly?
C Will you proposed research be able to provide fresh insights on this topic?
C Does your research topic relate to the idea you have been given (perhaps by an organisation)?
C Are the findings for this research topic likely to be symmetrical that is of similar value
whatever the outcome?
C Does the research topic match your career goals? (Saunders et al, 2000)
Rights Reserved ©2005 Verena Vaneeva