Seeking Advice for Research Proposal Topic - TQM? Doing My Masters

[FLAME FROG]

hi, everyone

I am currently doing my masters, and a few weeks ago was assigned to
write a research proposal at any topic I fancy.

Since I have been crazy about TQM for a while, and just yesterday I found this great Forum. please give me some advice on what topic would be suitable for a beginner,I hope the topic would be something to do with TQM
and it will give me an easy entry to further study,

[Wes Bucey]

Originally Posted by FLAME FROG

hi, everyone

I am currently doing my masters, and a few weeks ago was assigned to
write a research proposal at any topic I fancy.

Since I have been crazy about TQM for a while, and just yesterday I found this great Forum. please give me some advice on what topic would be suitable for a beginner,I hope the topic would be something to do with TQM
and it will give me an easy entry to further study,

A "few weeks" is a long time to delay start of an assignment in my memory of graduate school.

One of our recent posts was from a guy with a company "challenging" the Deming Prize. The Deming Prize is all wrapped up with TQM.

Short of writing your thesis and defending it for you with the department, I can suggest a clever scholar interested in TQM would do well to research the connection, the history, and the current implementation of the Deming Prize approach to TQM.

If you were to go on and choose the topic for a Master's thesis or a doctoral dissertation, I can tell you we have several highly regarded academics here in the Cove who might consider reviewing your thesis/dissertation at various stages before you turn it over to your faculty advisor and the Committee.

Do we understand you are only responsible for laying out what you "would" research if given the time and funds versus actually having to do the complete research and thesis? (i.e. an outline and budget versus the actual research?)

Are you secure in your knowledge that you know a lot about TQM already?

[FLAME FROG]

hi, Wes

thank you very much for your response.
I can explain it clearly here, but might take you for a while.

The research proposal I am doing is not an actual research, actually it is
academic assignment for a postgraduate student( I am in New Zealand),
so there is no real budget concerns. but there sure is a deadline for the work.

I certainly heard about Deming Prize and some of his work, but I am sure that
I can only be a drop in the sea compared to your guys, so all advice would be precious to me.

If I took your advice, can you give me some clue on how to start it, (translate my topic questions into variables, then do the relevant data collection), sorry for the novice way I asked but this is what I have learned so far.

By the way, I have already made up my mind to take QM as my career development, so I certainly will dip myself in this area as far as I can go.
so please give me more advice.

[Wes Bucey]

Originally Posted by FLAME FROG

hi, Wes

thank you very much for your response.
I can explain it clearly here, but might take you for a while.

The research proposal I am doing is not an actual research, actually it is
academic assignment for a postgraduate student( I am in New Zealand),
so there is no real budget concerns. but there sure is a deadline for the work.

I certainly heard about Deming Prize and some of his work, but I am sure that
I can only be a drop in the sea compared to your guys, so all advice would be precious to me.

If I took your advice, can you give me some clue on how to start it, (translate my topic questions into variables, then do the relevant data collection), sorry for the novice way I asked but this is what I have learned so far.

By the way, I have already made up my mind to take QM as my career development, so I certainly will dip myself in this area as far as I can go.
so please give me more advice.

Why not post an attachment with the exact assignment as your professor has given it? (deadlines and requirements for inclusion)
Next, if you are a graduate student, what is your field? Do you attend a resident school or an on-line school? What Quality background do you have? What scholarly research background do you have?

I don't mean for this to be a koan by some sensei, but a teacher cannot begin to teach until he knows what the student knows.

koan
/koh'an/ n. A Zen teaching riddle. Classically, koans
are attractive paradoxes to be meditated on; their purpose is to
help one to enlightenment by temporarily jamming normal cognitive
processing so that something more interesting can happen (this
practice is associated with Rinzei Zen Buddhism).

[FLAME FROG]

well Wes, I totally agree with you.

let me explain to you the whole pic. The assignment acutually is an advanced research proposal for an advanced research method paper. so there is no certain field or level requirement from the professor.I can choose any subject I fancy so long as it meets minimum research proposal requirements.

the purpose of the assignment is to see how much I understand advanced research method. since TQM really takes my fancy, I think that would be an effective way of learning staff I like as well as complete this task.

As for my knowledge background, to be honest with you, English is my second language,but I did read some gurus' work and have a rough pic of what TQM is really about.

based on my knowledge background, I hope your could give me advice like an easy entry to this field, thank you very much.

[Wes Bucey]

Originally Posted by FLAME FROG

well Wes, I totally agree with you.

let me explain to you the whole pic. The assignment acutually is an advanced research proposal for an advanced research method paper. so there is no certain field or level requirement from the professor.I can choose any subject I fancy so long as it meets minimum research proposal requirements.

the purpose of the assignment is to see how much I understand advanced research method. since TQM really takes my fancy, I think that would be an effective way of learning staff I like as well as complete this task.

As for my knowledge background, to be honest with you, English is my second language,but I did read some gurus' work and have a rough pic of what TQM is really about.

based on my knowledge background, I hope your could give me advice like an easy entry to this field, thank you very much.

So, what are "minimum research proposal requirements"?
What degree do you expect to receive? Are you in a resident school or an on-line one? You have to help us help you by answering the questions we ask in return to narrow the scope of the inquiry.

Here's a syllogism for you:
the major premise is: Advisors need access to facts to help advisees
the minor premise is: You want advice from advisors
The conclusion is: you help advisors get facts to help advise you

I envision the assignment to be equivalent to creating the thesis or dissertation proposal to be approved by course professor plus department committee. Many of my close friends are academics. Some even hold endowed chairs at their universities. One is a department head in metallurgical science. A quick round of phone calls this afternoon informs me that your professor should certainly have provided you with a list of requirements to be met in the proposal (mostly mechanics of form, length, references, time table, etc., but completely open on the subject you intend to research.) In addition, the department reviewers would expect the subject to be plausible and feasible for the general field of study (I guess this means no references to telekinesis or teleportation in a course on aerospace engineering.)

When I made a proposal for a dissertation long ago, I recall the outline for the proposal:

• Title page
• Abstract
• Table of contents
• Introduction
• Dissertation statement
• Approach/methods
• Preliminary results and discussion
• Work plan including time table
• Implications of research
• List of references

Did your professor give you something like this?

[qualitygoddess]

Originally Posted by FLAME FROG

well Wes, I totally agree with you.

let me explain to you the whole pic. The assignment acutually is an advanced research proposal for an advanced research method paper. so there is no certain field or level requirement from the professor.I can choose any subject I fancy so long as it meets minimum research proposal requirements.

the purpose of the assignment is to see how much I understand advanced research method. since TQM really takes my fancy, I think that would be an effective way of learning staff I like as well as complete this task.

As for my knowledge background, to be honest with you, English is my second language,but I did read some gurus' work and have a rough pic of what TQM is really about.


based on my knowledge background, I hope your could give me advice like an easy entry to this field, thank you very much.

IMHO: if you are being evaluated on the ability to do advanced research, I suggest you choose a topic that will allow you to do primary, secondary and tertiary research. A topic like Six Sigma or TQM would work well. You could interview local companies or people who use the Cove about either topic (primary research). You could read lots of books or search the Web about either topic (secondary and tertiary research), trying to create a focus point within TQM or Six Sigma that you could research. For example, in Six Sigma, how did the company create its Six Sigma strategy? Did they use methods described by Motorola, GE, etc.?

Here's an interesting book from Butterworth and Heineman: Quality Beyond Six Sigma by Ron Basu and J Nevan Wright (a New Zealander at Auckland U). The two authors have written a thesis to support a quality improvement idea they call FIT SIGMA. As you can well imagine, it is a book about making six sigma fit a particular organization. The concepts presented in the book make sense. The authors (or the editor) appear to have rushed the ending of the book, and there is one chapter about process controls that isn't very well written. Almost like the publisher's editor took a vacation and someone else edited the chapter............ Otherwise, it's a interesting critique of the way "big" companies are doing six sigma. It helps smaller companies see that six sigma can work for them.

--Jodi

[FLAME FROG]

hi, Jodi
although I have not read that book you recommend, your advice certainly helps me a great deal, thanks a lot. I will follow your advice on doing the primary and secondary data collection. but what you said about tertiary research puzzles me, can you explain.

please exucuse my ignorance, now swipe the situation, if you were assigned to do research on how companies(or small companies) create their 6s strategy? what would you write about? I know it is funny to answer the question you ask yourself, but if you could put more details on this research topic such as an outline of headings, it would certainly enlighten me.