writing up your MBA dissertation

Introduction

The Dissertation is an academic document in which you critically analyse your project, with full reference to current academic thinking. It is a structured argument which should reach some conclusions or recommendations.

The formal assessment mark for your Dissertation is based on your written submission alone. It is therefore important that the style and approach you take is appropriate.

The dissertation can be daunting to many students, the best approach is to just start writing so that you can submit sections and get useful feedback from your supervisor. Break the dissertation down into sections which you can tackle one by one. Remember the order in which you write the sections is not usually the order in which they will be in the finished dissertation e.g. the introduction should be one of the last sections written.

The explanations below offer guidance and information on writing up your dissertation. Extracts from supervisors and past participant interviews provide practical advice based on their own experiences.

What should I include?

Generally a dissertation should include all, or most of, the following. Please note this is only a suggested structure and you should discuss with your supervisor what would be a relevant structure for your individual dissertation.

Executive Summary

This is generally the last thing you write.

Contents page

With page numbers (remember to number pages throughout the dissertation)

Introduction

This section you will write towards the end of your P&D period.

• Specify the objectives you are trying to achieve, the project scope and an overview of your strategy.
• Give a brief summary of the description of the company and explain any company jargon used, etc (remember that the people marking the dissertation will know very little about your organisation)

Literature Review

A thorough literature review will provide a framework for the rest of your research and as such will be one of the earliest pieces of work carried out. This is one of the main sections – and one with which many students have a lot of trouble as expectations are often quite low about the amount of work that needs to be done.

• Do a full literature search to try to find articles on the themes that you are researching as part of your dissertation.
• Ultimately this will produce a framework and give you a series of decisions or questions that you need to ask as part of your research.
• Do not be tempted to simply take the basic textbooks (which often have no research basis whatsoever) and think that this is the most absolutely accurate piece of theory that you can apply. Academic theory in respected journals is arguably the soundest source of information.

Research Methodology

A summary of the research methodology used, alternatives considered, and a justification for the method selected.

Presentation of Results

• Basic data is tabulated and shown, but the majority of information gathered is either absent from the thesis completely, or is produced as an appendix. Only the results are summarised in the body of the text.
• Analysis of the data and discussion of the validity, reliability and generalisability of your results

Discussion of results

The discussion section should be a very substantial part of your dissertation, covering:

• Your analysis of the results.
• What is interesting about your results, in relation to the literature.
• How your results may impact on any decisions or recommendations you might be taking in the future.

Outline of implementation with evaluation (if your scope extended this far)

Reflective Discussion

A full reflective discussion including a critical appraisal of your project work with lessons learned and identification of areas for further work.

Conclusions and recommendations

Summarise your main findings and recommendations. Don't be shy about committing yourself to clear conclusions, or clear decisions that your employer might have to make.

Bibliography and list of references

Appendices

You may find it beneficial to look at some sample dissertations in the MBA dissertation library for the different structures used.

You may also like to refer to some very useful notes provided by Marketing & Strategic Management academics which contain detailed tips on dissertation structure:

Presentation guidelines

The presentation is significant to the overall assessment of the dissertation. It is important, therefore, to agree with your supervisor on the style and detail to be followed. Some general points on this aspect, however, are given below:

• The dissertation should be typewritten on good quality, A4 size paper. (Students based in America may use standard letter paper.)
• There should be at least a 20mm margin on both sides of the paper. Ideally, the line spacing should be 1.5 (one and a half) and the text printed on both sides of the paper.
• The dissertation can be printed in colour or black and white, but please make sure that you prepare any charts and diagrams accordingly.
• The dissertation must be presented in bound form. It may be spiral-bound or soft-bound. (See images below.) If preferred, students may submit hard-bound copies, but there is no requirement to do so.
• There is a standard format for the title page which should be adopted. (Include a confidentiality statement if appropriate.)