The Methodology Chapter

It has finally been done...

1. Intorduction
2. The nature of management research
3. Research orientation: nominarist ontology + anti-positivist epistemology
4. Theoretical perspective: interpretivism, symbolic interactionism
5. Methodology: case study
6. Method: multiple methods
7. Issues on Case Study
8. Conclusion

My supervisor who recently submitted his own PhD thesis separated the "Research Design" part from the Methodology chapter. I follow this format at this stage.

Now, I can move onto writing Chapter 2: Literature Review. The reason for writing my thesis in reversed way is for quality assurance and improvement of consistency. I have already done my draft on this chapter. Thus, it is not actually "writing". Rather, it is at the revising stage.

Then, I will write Chapter 1: Introduction. I know this is the most critical part. I have started writing this chapter at the early stage then soon realised it is impossible to be completed until I finish Literature review and Methodology chapters. In qualitative research, it is very risky to have a priori assumptions, models, theories, and so forth. I have to write the Chapter 1: Introduction using the past tense anyway. It is impossible to write anything using the past tense because I have not done anything yet. I could write only one section, "Background of this research".

Tomorrow, I will visit an organisation to discuss about my plan and arrange a schedule for interviwing.