¶ … opportunity that my research will address. Then, it will explain why it is important to explore this opportunity. It is important to note that just because the questions are about my research, this is not about my research. I will have to figure out how to include 5-10 different sources from the literature, perhaps explaining why it is important for me to do my research. Basically, Section A is going to be very difficult. The questions are simple and can be answered in a line or two, but I will need to use 3-5 paragraphs and a mountain of sources. I will need further clarification about this part of the assignment because there is something I am missing here. Section B. is the literature review. The literature is divided into three types -- contextual, seminal and recent. It is not normal that these would be strictly divided, at least in any journal article I've read, so presumably this exercise is for structural purposes. In Section B, I will outline my research, with an array of sources from each type, described in paragraphs by type.

Section C. is about the gaps in the literature. No subject should be considered to be covered in its entirety, so there should be gaps. This is a bit trickier than the other parts in that instead of recapping what has already been written, Section C. requires critical thinking to determine where the opportunities for future research are, and what threads might exist for future research. How many gaps and how big they are is subject-dependent. There is no shortage of subject matter than has massive gaps, but the focus should be on the gaps that are going to be addressed with my research.

There is little doubt that Section A is going to be a real problem. At this point, I do not think I really understand that Section, because I see a set of questions that can be answered very easily in a short paragraph or two, without the use of sources. I am talking about my own action research, which at this point is just getting started. So I don't see where all the sources come in and I certainly cannot imagine writing so many pages on these questions. I will need to get further advice and guidance on this, or my Section A will be disappointing for all parties.

Phase 2 Individual Project

My project is to explore instituting managerial change at a not-for-profit organization that has been struggling recently. The organization has been in existence for several years, is run by volunteers, and most of them have also been with the organization for several years. My early discussions revealed that there is a certain amount of organizational inertia -- that while leadership expresses a desire to change, nobody in the organization seems to know how to change.

The project interests me because it fits in well with my area of study in management, being that this is a fairly common problem in management, especially when outside consultants must come in to initiate and guide a change process. That is why the receptiveness of the organization to change is as interesting a subject to me as the change itself. If you look at organizational change and not-for-profit management, these are areas of interest for me so putting them together was a bonus, though I had also looked at Organizational Change issues in general.

The literature reflects the relevance of this study. The challenge of inertia in organizational change process has been studied since the 1980s (Hannan & Freeman, 1984; Kelly & Amburgey, 1991), but is a problem yet to be resolved. The issue is still studied today as a result (Haag, 2014). There are even studies that have been conducted that are specific to this issue in the not-for-profit sector (Chen, 2014). So there is a range of research that is seminal, from the 80s and 90s in particular, that outlined the specific issue. Research since that point has defined the contextual issues and continues on in the modern day.

The seminal research started out focusing on organizational change, without the emphasis on organizational inertia, though the latter was identified early as a key component of change. From there, there was a lot of exploration of critical concepts to identify which research threads were going to be the strongest -- institutional theory (Greenwood & Hinings, 1996) and strategy both as key threads in the research (Milgrom & Roberts, 1995).

There is less research specific to not-for-profit enterprises, however. Most of this research on context focuses on management of non-profits in general (Pinho, Rodrigues & Dibb, 2014) or on tangential issues that ultimately may or may not...

Newer research on the subject emphasizes the quantitative as above, or it get explore the issue from other perspectives, such as sociology, psychology or organizational theory (Rerup & Levinthal, 2013).
Yet, there are clearly gaps in the research. First of all, much of the research is focused on corporate, but the corporate sector has some significant differences to the not-for-profit sector, so there are limitations on how well findings from the corporate sector can be applied to the not-for-profit sector. Furthermore it becomes clear early on in the literature review that most of the research conducted these days is quantitative. Quantitative is trending, and while that can provide us with a lot of hard data, the reality is that it also means that quality qualitative research is in short supply. Action research on the subject can definitely help to fill that gap.

Phase 2, Discussion Board 2

Section D. is about assumptions and biases. Basically, we all have our own biases, and this section will involve me delving into some of mine, in particular as it affects this research. This is action research, so there are inherently going to be biases -- most research has more biases than the researchers are willing to admit. After all, research is typically structured by a school, filtered through the lenses of advisors and past scholars on the subject and then finally through the lens of the student/scholar. The key is not to pretend that these biases do not exist, but to be realistic about the fact that they do exist, and to understand what they are. This Section will go through a chart that outlines the different biases that I believe I am bringing into the research and trying to understand where these biases come from, and how they might affect the research.

Section E. is about the research question. The basic underlying assumption is that it will take a fair bit of brainstorming and refinement to get a research question, so there needs to be some sort of semi-formal process by which potential research questions are explored. This section works through that process, using a framework based on breaking down the results of the literature review, among other things. At the end of this exercise, it is believed that the result will be something close to a credible research question, but also a table outlining some of the ways that the question can be framed.

I expect that I will find the trickiest of these to be E. I have a certain amount of self-awareness that will help with the Section D. Section E. will not be difficult, but I'm not exactly accustomed to putting my through process on the page like that. So while getting a finalized potential research question should not be too hard, especially using the handy framework provided, there might not be too much depth to the section because stopping to write everything down while I'm trying to brainstorm is not conducive to brainstorming, at least not for me.

Phase 2, Discussion Board 3

Section D.

Your role

Your bias, assumption, worldview

Realization

Awareness (immediately or targeted exploration)

Growing up

I had exposure to non-profit entities growing up, and that has definitely affected the way I look at some of those organizations

I didn't grow up in the U.S., so there's a big difference in the dynamics of NPEs in different cultures

I will need to set aside my predispositions as much as possible, because they are rather out of context

Student

As a business student, I have a certain set of ideas about how a business ought to be run. These tend to be rational.

In a large corporation, it is much easier to apply rational decision-making. It is more difficult to do so with a family-run business.

In this, I know that I will have to draw heavily on what I have learned. It is the source of my expertise, and something I can offer that the client doesn't have. But I have to know that there are limitations.

Past work experience

I also draw upon my past work experience for knowledge about how to handle certain situations or issues

Those past situations might be quite different from the current one.

I will need to be able to recognize when the past experience can provide relevant knowledge to inform the current situation, and when it cannot.

Section E.

Research Question 1. How receptive will an old-established not-for-profit…