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In the last
couple of years, certainly in the UK, the PhD and the DBA have both been
the focus of more academic attention. This has focused particularly on
the way that PhD/DBA programmes are managed, on trying to ensure that
research students complete their programmes of study (either completing
them in a shorter period of time and, in many cases, getting students to
complete them at all) and on improving the quality of the student's
experience of the research process.
As a research
manager with a foot in many camps on the professional circuit, there is
currently much discussion about improving not only the effectiveness and
efficiency of the processes that support someone actually completing a
PhD but also ensuring that the PhD and the DBA both continue to meet the
high academic standards that are expected of them. It is in this context
that I will review the Remenyi and Money book.
The fact that the
book is addressed at both students and their supervisors not only
increases the market for this book but it also emphasises that both
students and supervisors need to develop a more informed and shared
understanding of what the PhD process is all about. The book covers the
whole process in considerable detail - right from choosing a research
question to helping the student to publish parts of their thesis
postcompletion. Perhaps the most important features of this book are,
first that it has been written by two authors who have both considerable
experience in supervising PhD students and also in working with
supervisors to improve their skills; and, second, that the book is full
of incredibly helpful practical advice that is clearly grounded in
experience.
Not only is the
advice very sound, it is also presented in a very concise and accessible
way. While it is still important that prospective students are
confronted with issues about the various 'ologies' that they need to
address (epistemology, ontology, methodology....), this book does not
primarily seek to do that. Rather the book focuses more on addressing
the practical and operational issues that often form the rocks on which
many a PhD student and their supervisor have foundered.
The book
comprises 22 relatively short chapters - though at 220 pages the book
does adequately cover the field. The chapters are arranged to reflect
the sequence of events as they normally confront a PhD student and cover
important issues such as 'choosing a research question', 'choosing a
research strategy', 'research ethics' and 'relevance, rigour and
originality'. Each of the chapters is well written and each contains
reference to a range of (often web based) support material that should
help the student and the supervisor access insights to good practice
from a wide range of international sources.
The fact that the
book achieves width of coverage clearly affects the depth at which
specific topics are addressed. For example, the chapters on research
strategies and tactics present the student with a wide range of possible
options but the depth of discussion on each of these options is
necessarily limited. I felt that the signposting of students to texts on
different research strategies and tactics could have been more
exhaustive here.
While the book is
of relevance to PhD students and their supervisors from a wide range of
fields, the book is far more focused towards the social sciences
generally and the business and management field (widely defined) more
specifically. For example, the book does contain reference to (but not a
detailed discussion of) various contemporary issues in business and
management such as the rigor/relevance debate and debates about
different modes of knowledge production (i.e. the Mode 1/Mode 2 debate).
The book should
certainly appeal to newer research supervisors (particularly junior
faculty who may have recently completed their own doctorates and who are
looking to build their own research careers) and (certainly) intending
and newer PhD students. Given that the book covers the whole PhD
process, it could be used as a supervision aid throughout the life of
the PhD both to forewarn the student of the delights to come and also to
act as a checklist continually to review if key milestone have been
achieved and standards have been met. Indeed, newer (and even more
experienced) supervisors would be well advised to use the book as a tool
to support their supervision: many of the topics and chapters in the
book could effectively be used as issues for one-to-one discussions or
themes for workshops in those aspects of a PhD or DBA that might be
delivered collectively rather than individually.
While I consider
the book to achieve its purpose and to provide first-rate advice to
students and supervisors, I do have some points that later editions
might address. First, the tone of the book seems to be more oriented
more towards supervisors than towards students - a chapter focusing on
choosing the right supervisor might be helpful as would a student's
perspective on what to do when things are going wrong. Second, a more
detailed analysis of 'how to put things right when they are going wrong'
using anonymised case studies might be helpful particularly if this
could be written from both student and supervisor perspectives. Third, a
more thorough treatment of 'what contributes a theoretical contribution'
would be useful as this is something that perplexes many students,
supervisors and even examiners. Fourth, there are some well used, known
and respected research texts that could be better signposted - as could
documentation from the ESRC on their review of what constitutes
effective research training for example. Finally, I thought that the
issue of 'reviewing the literature and engaging with current discourse'
could have been treated more explicitly as many students try to
catalogue the literature rather than review, critique it and expose gaps
and contradictions within it. A chapter that tries to synthesise what
experienced examiners look for might also assist both students and
supervisors as this would provide both of them with a context for
'reverse engineering' the thesis and evaluating various sections of the
thesis.
However, while I
feel that addressing the above issues would have improved the text, I do
not consider them to be major flaws.
My overall view
is that this is an excellent book that I would fully recommend to both
students and supervisors: its excellence derives from its practical
value in supporting both the strategic and more day to day aspects of
the PhD; from its accessible and concise style; from the fact that it
does much to demystify and debunk the PhD; and, from the fact that it
has been written by two academics who both have considerable experience
in supervising to completion. The book should become recommended reading
for prospective and new supervisors and students and it will usefully
complement other texts on research methods by providing a well crafted
'helicopter view' of the whole process.
Prof. Les Worrall
Associate Dean (Research)
Management Research Centre
University of Wolverhampton Business School
May 2004
The reviewer:
Professor Les Worrall (PhD) is Associate Dean (Research) at University
of Wolverhampton Business School where head directs the Management
Research Centre. He is a Council Member of the British Academy of
Management; a member of the Association of Business Schools (ABS)
Research Sub-committee and a Fellow of the Chartered Management
Institute. He has published extensively in the areas of public sector
management; technology management and organisational change and
development. |
