Dissertation Structure Guidelines
It will be important to set some broad guidelines and ground rules as well as highlighting the dissertation structure that your supervisors would like their students to adhere to. Suffice to say these issues have already been highlighted and discussed with you in detail in your PRISM unit.
In summary, when you start working on your dissertation and develop your thinking and findings a bit more, you may wish to have a chat with your supervisor; a call or Skype or using some other online tool. Also a good idea to send your supervisor your chapters as you complete them so that they can provide their comments as you make progress on other chapters. However please consult your supervisor if he/she wishes to consider an alternative approach.
There is a document called Assessment Guidelines on this Moodle site that gives a very brief outline of the suggested chapters involved in your dissertation and an idea of the number of words that are usually expected in each chapter.
In the meantime, as far as your dissertation structure is concerned, let us just remind you that as a general rule, we would suggest the following chapters and sections for your thesis.
-Title: A clear, concise statement of the topic.
-Abstract: The abstract is a summary of the whole dissertation. It presents all the major elements of your work in a highly condensed form. Maximum of 500 words.
- Contents page: clearly describing chapters and any sub-sections and related page numbers.
- Acknowledgement- Chapter 1 - Introduction: You need to set the scene for your dissertation, tell a story by providing some background to the importance of your chosen subject. You should also make your aims and objectives of the report very clear, by for example providing half a dozen bullets clearly describing what you have in mind and what you wish to explore. You should clearly state your "Research Question (s)" and state why your research is important, what is the research gap, how it contributes to the body of knowledge and potentially it’s significance to the practitioner’s world, and, what benefit will be achieved in carrying out your chosen piece of work.
- Chapter 2 - Literature Survey (LR): This is a very important part of your dissertation (particularly if you only rely on acquiring secondary data and body of knowledge). The aim will be for you to provide robust and credible literature relating to the subject matter. Use of some models/frameworks is encouraged. You will also get a better mark by providing a sound critic in your LR, i.e. what you agree with and what you don't, and, the reasons behind your argument/rationale.
- Chapter 3 - Research Methodology: Here you should describe the methodology used in gathering the data and information. You should make reference to both the primary, if any, (interviews, questionnaire, case study ...) and, secondary research methods (literature review and library based work...). You should also describe an ...
Dissertation Structure GuidelinesIt will be important to set
1. Dissertation Structure Guidelines
It will be important to set some broad guidelines and ground
rules as well as highlighting the dissertation structure that your
supervisors would like their students to adhere to. Suffice to say
these issues have already been highlighted and discussed with
you in detail in your PRISM unit.
In summary, when you start working on your dissertation and
develop your thinking and findings a bit more, you may wish to
have a chat with your supervisor; a call or Skype or using some
other online tool. Also a good idea to send your supervisor
your chapters as you complete them so that they can provide
their comments as you make progress on other chapters.
However please consult your supervisor if he/she wishes to
consider an alternative approach.
There is a document called Assessment Guidelines on this
Moodle site that gives a very brief outline of the suggested
chapters involved in your dissertation and an idea of the number
of words that are usually expected in each chapter.
In the meantime, as far as your dissertation structure is
concerned, let us just remind you that as a general rule, we
would suggest the following chapters and sections for your
thesis.
-Title: A clear, concise statement of the topic.
-Abstract: The abstract is a summary of the whole dissertation.
It presents all the major elements of your work in a highly
condensed form. Maximum of 500 words.
- Contents page: clearly describing chapters and any sub-
2. sections and related page numbers.
- Acknowledgement- Chapter 1 - Introduction: You need to set
the scene for your dissertation, tell a story by providing some
background to the importance of your chosen subject. You
should also make your aims and objectives of the report very
clear, by for example providing half a dozen bullets clearly
describing what you have in mind and what you wish to explore.
You should clearly state your "Research Question (s)" and state
why your research is important, what is the research gap, how it
contributes to the body of knowledge and potentially it’s
significance to the practitioner’s world, and, what benefit will
be achieved in carrying out your chosen piece of work.
- Chapter 2 - Literature Survey (LR): This is a very important
part of your dissertation (particularly if you only rely on
acquiring secondary data and body of knowledge). The aim will
be for you to provide robust and credible literature relating to
the subject matter. Use of some models/frameworks is
encouraged. You will also get a better mark by providing a
sound critic in your LR, i.e. what you agree with and what you
don't, and, the reasons behind your argument/rationale.
- Chapter 3 - Research Methodology: Here you should describe
the methodology used in gathering the data and information.
You should make reference to both the primary, if any,
(interviews, questionnaire, case study ...) and, secondary
research methods (literature review and library based work...).
You should also describe any ethical considerations, potential
constraints or drawbacks
associated with the methodology, such as small sample groups,
confidentiality, commercial sensitivity etc ....
- Chapter 4 - Results and discussions: Clearly presenting results
of your primary data - interviews, questionnaires etc ...) and
analyse them fully. It is sometimes useful to use charts or
3. diagrams to present the results. We would also like you to
discuss what the results mean and their potential implications
on the company and/or chosen sector.
- Chapter 5 - Conclusions: A comprehensive appraisal and
summary of the key outputs of the report and its findings. Has
the report gone some way in addressing the main aims and
objectives of the dissertation which were highlighted in your
Introductions chapter? What the results mean and the potential
implications.
- Chapter 6 - Recommendations for future work. Providing
tangible recommendations on how a company and/or sector
could implement your findings and its potential implications,
and, what further research could be undertaken to explore the
subject matter in more detail.
- References: Please provide all references (library and web
based material) in the usual APA 6 referencing format.
- Appendices: Provide any additional information in particular
relating to the company and/or chosen sector in the Appendices.
Finally, let’s also highlight a number of other important ground
rules that you should adhere to and be aware of:
· All supervisors have been allocated limited time to supervise
their dissertation students; as you know we have a very large
cohort on this Master programme; more than 250 students on the
cohort.
· Unfortunately we cannot accept drafts during the last two
weeks before submission. Modify the time as desired.
· We will be able to give only one feedback per chapter.
· Remember every dissertation must have a signed ethics form
included before your final submission; see attached document
explaining how you should complete the latter and a copy of the
form itself.
4. · The dissertation marking form is already placed on the
Dissertation Moodle site which you may find useful – an Excel
file called “Assessment Guidelines”.
· One more important issue to bear in mind, the word count for
your dissertation is around 12,000. The attached excel provides
you with our assessment criteria and some good ideas rel ating
to the suggested word count for either the “library based”
(mainly secondary data and LR) or “investigatory” (primary and
secondary data) reports.
UP946331
Project Management Skills in Sports Event Management
5. of Contents
Introduction
...............................................................................................
.................................2
Background and Specific
Literature............................................................................ ....
..........2
Aims and Objectives of the study
.............................................................................................2
Research Objectives
...............................................................................................
..............2
Research Questions
...............................................................................................
..................3
Research
Gap................................................................................... ......
..................................3
Conceptual framework
...............................................................................................
.............4
Methodology
...............................................................................................
...............................4
Philosophical Position
...............................................................................................
...............4
6. Overall Research Methodology
...............................................................................................
.6
Sampling Method
...............................................................................................
.....................6
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Data Collection Procedure
...............................................................................................
........6
Data analysis
...............................................................................................
............................7
Research
Hypothesis..............................................................................
..................................7
Critical Evaluation
...............................................................................................
........................7
References
...............................................................................................
...................................9
Appendix 1: Summary of references used in the study
..............................................................10
7. Appendix 2: List of questions to be used in the study
................................................................12
Introduction
Background and Specific Literature
Project management refers to a set of skills required when
undertaking a project to
ensure that the project is successful in meeting the set
objectives and goals for the project during
the implementation stage. Just like other organizations, sports
management also requires project
management skills, especially in the planning and
implementation of sporting events (Mallen, &
Adams, 2017). Major sporting world events like the Olympics
and the world cup normally require
a lot of strategic planning, including logistics, hosting venues,
gaming officials, players, fans,
among many other stakeholders who help in making the event a
success (Cucui, & Cucui, 2016).
Today sporting events are more of business with sporting events
such as world championships,
bringing in huge profits. Considering the importance of sporting
events to both the sports fans
and also huge economic gains related to sporting events, there is
a need for using project
management strategies to maximize the chances of success for
the event.
Aims and Objectives of the study
The primary aim of this research project is to evaluate if the
use of project management
skills influences the success rate of sporting events. In this
study, we are going to evaluate how
8. the use of the following project management skills Risk
management, Leadership, Cost control,
Scheduling, and how they influence the success rate of holding
sporting events.
Research Objectives
1. Identify the relationship between the success rate of a
sporting event and the use of risk
management skills in the planning and execution of the event.
2. Identify the relationship between the success rate of a
sporting event and the use of
leadership skills in the planning and execution of the event.
3. Identify the relationship between the success rate of holding
a sporting event and the use
of cost control skills in the planning and execution of the event.
4. Identify the relationship between the success rate of holding
a sporting event and the use
of scheduling skills in the planning and execution of the event.
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Research Questions
RQ1: Does the use of good leadership skills in event sport
management significantly influence the
success rate of the event?
RQ2: Does the use of good risk management skills in event
9. sport management significantly
influence the success rate of the event?
RQ3: Does the use of good cost control skills in event sport
management significantly influence
the success rate of the event?
RQ4: Does the use of good scheduling skills in event sport
management significantly influence
the success rate of the event?
Research Gap
The success of a sporting event will vary to the set objective of
the sporting event (Kirby,
Duignan, & McGillivray, 2018). From previous research on
major sporting events held across
different parts of the world, the use of project management
skills is evident, which ensures that
most of these events meet the desired objectives and keep the
fans wanting more creating
business for a later time. However, the research does not
consider how the use of project
management skills may impact sporting events.
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Conceptual framework
10. Figure 1: Conceptual model for the study
Methodology
Philosophical Position
Competition sporting events are the most common sporting
occasions, and it usually
comprises of smaller events within the major event. For
example, a league cup in football where
a certain number of teams play each other and gain points from
winning. The winner is normally
crowned after all teams have played together and the team with
the highest points is the winner.
Tournament events are also very popular but do not normally
take as much time as competitive
sporting events. An example of a tournament is an athletic
sporting such as a marathon event
held to raise funds for a cause. Both types of sporting events are
different in planning due to the
different objectives for the sporting events. In competition,
more planning and resources may be
required since it might be longer as compared to a tournament
event (Ryan, 2016). However,
borrowing from sports management, the general overview of the
planning and implementation
of both sporting events is almost similar, though the two
sporting events may have different goals
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and objectives. The success of an event is also defi ned using
11. different variables, including time,
cost, and also the quality of the event.
However, due to the great expectations on major sporting
events project management
defines the success of a sporting event since some sporting
events require to hold over a long
period and others will likely cost more as compared to others
hence the success of the sporting
events can be measured by the quality of the event and also
management tools used to deliver
the event (Greenwell, Danzey-Bussell, & Shonk, 2019). In
project management, the focus is on
team building to ensure that every stakeholder in the project is
aware of their role, and they are
in a position to operate in that role in a timely and accurate
manner to ensure the success of the
project (Holmes, Nichols, & Ralston, 2018). According to
publications of use of project
management in organizations indicate that for the process to be
effective, there must be
effective leadership from the management and also effective
communication to all the
stakeholders in the project.
According to research conducted by Emery (2009) found that
project management skills
play an important role in the success of the event, in this study
he defined sport event
management as a rife and when it is mismanaged it will lead to
crowd unrest with issues rising
from ticketing problems, venue issues, financial problems, and
many others (Emery, 2017). In
some cases, the problem is so big that there is a need for outside
intervention like police officers
employed to break down unruly crowds who are not happy with
12. the event. The need to ensure
the success of both local and global events the discipline has
led to the emergence of the event
management discipline, which employs the use of project
management skills to ensure the
success of both types of projects (Kirby, & Crabb, 2019).
Project management takes sport
management as a business and categorizes the industry into
three categories; consumers of
sports projects, sports, and products and behind the scenes
sports projects. It also gives the
organization a corporate look where the participants are
regarded as the employees, and the
spectators are regarded as consumers.
In sports management, there are three types of sporting events;
sports project event,
project performance optimization, and project new; all these
sporting events have different goals
and objectives. The goal of holding a sports project event is for
the event to be a success; it is
normally a one-time thing or periodical event that happens after
a certain amount of time has
elapsed. In most cases, event as a sports project does not
comprise of sub-projects within the
main event project. In the project performance optimization
sports project, the goal is to improve
the performance or the quality of the sport (Abson, 2017). In
most cases, these types of sporting
events project the goal is to improve the performance and also
enhance the player/athlete and
also the whole sport in general.
The primary goal of holding a new sporting project is to
introduce something new in the
game or the sport, maybe a new competition, however, the new
13. event normally borrows from
an already established sports organization. All the types of
sporting have different characteristics
due to different objectives and goals of the events; however,
most of the project management
skills employed to all three are almost the same, including
research, planning, implementation,
and closure of the events (Hwang, Shan, Zhu, & Lim, 2018).
Project management skills stress on
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the use of research, which helps in identifying problems that
may arise during the
implementation process of the project.
During the initiation process, the team gathers information
about how similar projects
have been carried out, both successful and unsuccessful
projects. The team then evaluates how
well the project can be achieved, minimizing chances of failure;
in most cases, time and resources
play a big role in the success of a sporting event (Wallace &
Kilili, 2018). Hence during data
collection, the team also evaluates the different ways in which
other projects raised money
through sponsorship. Sporting events greatly rely on sponsors to
achieve the set objective for the
project. Findings from the data evaluation are then used in the
planning process.
Overall Research Methodology
In this research study, a quantitative resign design will be
14. adopted as the main research
method. A quantitative research design employs numerical
methods in both data collection and
data analysis. Due to the financial constraints, the study will be
carried out within the local setting
with interviews from some identified managers belong to sports
organization. The study aims at
evaluating how project management's skills impact the success
rate of holding sporting events in
the community.
Sampling Method
Participants in the study will be drawn from being drawn from
project sports managers,
using simple random sampling. Simple random sampling is a
probabilistic sampling method that
assumes that all participants in the target population have an
equal probability of being selected
to be in the sample size; thus, all sports management personnel
have an equal chance of being
selected in the sample size.
Data Collection Procedure
The study will be based on primary data collected during the
research activity procedure.
The study procedure requires all the participants to given their
opinions on different sporting
events that were organized and carried out in different parts
around the world. It will include the
four stages of strategic planning of a sporting event, including
the initiation process, planning
process, implementation process, monitoring process, and the
closure of the event process for
each project. Afterward, participants will be asked to answer
questions on how they feel about
the success of sporting events. The respondents will also be
15. asked questions on the use of project
management skills. These skills include risk management,
leadership, cost control, and
scheduling during the planning and execution of sports events.
The four events include different
tournaments and competitive sporting events, each consists of a
sporting event that failed and
an event that was a success. Demographic data will also be
collected for all participants in the
study.
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Data analysis
Empirical data analysis will be carried out to evaluate the
relationship between project
management and hosting and management of sporting events.
The analysis will involve both
descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics will
comprise of measures of central
tendency and also frequency analysis, while inferential statistics
will include bivariate correlation
analysis and binary logistic regression. Results will be reported
in summary tables and graphs,
the variables of interest for the study include success rate and
use of project management skills
in planning sporting events.
Research Hypothesis
16. H1: Good risk management skills positively impacts the success
rate of holding sporting events.
H2: Good leadership skills, as described in project management,
positively impacts the success
rate of holding sporting events.
H3: Good cost control skills borrowed from project management
positively impacts the success
rate of holding sporting events.
H4: Good scheduling skills, as borrowed from project
management, positively impacts the
success rate of holding sporting events.
Critical Evaluation
Carrying out this research study will be beneficial to all the
students who take part in this
course as it will be useful for them in future studies as a
roadmap for the evaluation of the role
of project management skills in sports events management. The
study is also meant to help
sports events managers and other individuals comprehend the
role played by using project
management skills in planning and execution of local sporting
events. The study also gives
students examples of real-life sporting events that have been
conducted and their success rate.
In terms of the design of the statistical study, rules will be
applied, including estimation of sample
size, data collection, data analysis, and also drawing and
reporting of the information obtained
from the data (Page & Flanagin, 2017). The study will also
employ research ethics that will ensure
that all the rights of the respondents are not violated during the
study. Participants will also be
17. recruited voluntarily and privacy will be guaranteed all through
the study process.
The research employs quantitative research methods, which
include the use of numeric
data, which is easy to correct and also easy to handle in the
analysis as compared to qualitative
data. Quantitative research methods normally take less time,
since the data collection can be
done electronically, thus allowing for many respondents to take
the survey at the same time.
Quantitative also allows for creating a large sample size giving
more study observations as
compared to other research methods such as qualitative data
where focus discussions hold a
maximum of five respondents for every focus discussion (Knotz
& Lindvall, 2019). In this research
study, the quantitative data collection method employed is
probabilistic to ensure randomization
during data collection.
The use of randomness helps in the reduction of error, which
increases the credibility of
the information obtained from the collected data. Personal bias
is a simple random sampling like
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the one employed in this research study removes
personal/human bias during the determination
of the sample size since all the participants in the target
population have the same probability
for being selected to be in the sample size (Sousa, Lima &
18. Martins, 2016). The use of quantitative
methods also removes duplication errors. Variables that will be
used in this research study are
Likert scales with a range of 1 strongly disagree to 5 strongly
agree, and a respondent can only
pick one of the choices. The questions to be used in data
collection are all closed questions, thus
ensuring reducing error and also ambiguous answers that would
not be used to achieve the set
objective of the study (Taguchi, 2018).
The quantitative use methods allow for the formulation of other
measures that will be
used in the analysis. During analysis, a 10 item Likert questions
for evaluating the success rate of
the different sports events in the study, will be used to compute
an overall success rate index
which will be used in the predictive analysis. The use of project
management skills in event
management evaluated by an 8 item Likert scale questions will
be computed to give the overall
use of project management skills in event organization and
execution, which will be used in the
predictive analysis of success and failure of organizing sports
events. During data analysis
reliability test will be carried out to evaluate how well the data
fit for all the variables computed
using the Likert scales. Though all this is made possible
because of using a quantitative research
design, the design also has its disadvantages, and the biggest
one is that quantitative methods
do not answer all the research questions such as why and what.
WORD COUNT: 2457
19. UP946331
References
Abson, E. (2017). How Event Managers Lead: applying
competency school theory to event
management. Event Management, 21(4), 403-419.
Cucui, G. G., & Cucui, I. A. (2016). Event Management Process
within the Sports Structures. In
World LUMEN Congress.
Emery, P. (2017). The bidders’ and promoters’ perspectives. In
Routledge handbook of sports
event management (pp. 39-60). Routledge.
Greenwell, T. C., Danzey-Bussell, L. A., & Shonk, D. J. (2019).
Managing sports events. Human
Kinetics.
Holmes, K., Nichols, G., & Ralston, R. (2018). It's a Once-in-a-
Lifetime Experience and
20. Opportunity—Deal with it! Volunteer Perceptions of the
Management of the Volunteer
Experience at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Event
Management, 22(3), 389-403.
Hwang, B. G., Shan, M., Zhu, L., & Lim, W. C. (2018). Cost
control in megaprojects: efficacy,
tools and techniques, key knowledge areas, and project
comparisons. International
Journal of Construction Management, 1-13.
Kirby, S. I., & Crabb, L. A. (2019). Priming Host City Physical
Legacy Plans: The Bidding
Chronicles of Brazil's Derailed Sporting Event Infrastructure
Projects. Event Management,
23(4), 627-640.
Kirby, S. I., Duignan, M. B., & McGillivray, D. (2018). Mega-
Sport Events, Micro and Small
Business Leveraging: Introducing the. Event Management,
22(6), 917-931.
Knotz, C., & Lindvall, J. (2019). Using Quantitative Methods to
Study Welfare State Reforms.
SAGE Publications Ltd.
Mallen, C., & Adams, L. J. (Eds.). (2017). Event management in
sport, recreation, and tourism:
theoretical and practical dimensions. Taylor & Francis.
Page Hocevar, K., & Flanagin, A. J. (2017). Online research
methods, quantitative. The
International Encyclopedia of Communication Research
Methods, 1-8.
Ryan, W. G. (2016). How do you "do" event management
education (EME)? A case study of event
management for higher education awards. Event Management,
21. 20(1), 69-80.
Sousa, M. J., Lima, F., & Martins, J. (2016). Project
Management in 2016 Olympic Games. In New
Advances in Information Systems and Technologies (pp. 511-
521). Springer, Cham.
Taguchi, N. (2018). Description and explanation of pragmatic
development: Quantitative,
qualitative, and mixed methods research. System, 75, 23-32.
Wallace, M., & Kilili, R. (2018). Examining the Sports Tourism
Infrastructure in Two Major Cities
of Northern Cyprus.
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Appendix 1: Summary of references used in the study
Sources to be used in the study Aims and Objectives Topics to
be discussed
Abson, E. (2017). How Event Managers Lead:
applying competency school theory to event
management. Event Management, 21(4),
403-419.
Project management skills
employed in event
management
22. Risk management,
Leadership, Cost
control, Scheduling
Cucui, G. G., & Cucui, I. A. (2016). Event
Management Process within the Sports
Structures. In World LUMEN Congress.
Overview of event
management in sports
Types of sports events,
Tournaments,
competitive sports
Emery, P. (2017). The bidders’ and
promoters’ perspectives. In Routledge
handbook of sports event management (pp.
39-60). Routledge. Events sports management
Mega sports events
and small sports
events
Greenwell, T. C., Danzey-Bussell, L. A., &
Shonk, D. J. (2019). Managing sports events.
Human Kinetics. Managing sports events
Financing, leadership,
sponsors in sports
event management
Holmes, K., Nichols, G., & Ralston, R. (2018).
It's a Once-in-a-Lifetime Experience and
Opportunity—Deal with it! Volunteer
Perceptions of the Management of the
23. Volunteer Experience at the London 2012
Olympic Games. Event Management, 22(3),
389-403. Events sports management
Mega sports events
and small sports
events
Hwang, B. G., Shan, M., Zhu, L., & Lim, W. C.
(2018). Cost control in megaprojects:
efficacy, tools and techniques, key
knowledge areas, and project comparisons.
International Journal of Construction
Management, 1-13.
Project management in
sports event planning
Risk management in
sports event
management
Kirby, S. I., & Crabb, L. A. (2019). Priming Host
City Physical Legacy Plans: The Bidding
Chronicles of Brazil's Derailed Sporting Event
Infrastructure Projects. Event Management,
23(4), 627-640. Events sports management
Impacts of project
management on sport
event planning
Kirby, S. I., Duignan, M. B., & McGillivray, D.
(2018). Mega-Sport Events, Micro and Small
Business Leveraging: Introducing the. Event
Management, 22(6), 917-931. Events sports management
24. Impacts of project
management on sport
event planning
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Knotz, C., & Lindvall, J. (2019). Using
Quantitative Methods to Study Welfare State
Reforms. SAGE Publications Ltd.
Quantitative Research
methods
Sampling techniques,
simple random
sampling
Mallen, C., & Adams, L. J. (Eds.). (2017).
Event management in sport, recreation, and
tourism: theoretical and practical
dimensions. Taylor & Francis.
Project management in
sports event planning
Cost control,
scheduling, and
communication as
used in event
management
Page Hocevar, K., & Flanagin, A. J. (2017).
25. Online research methods, quantitative. The
International Encyclopedia of
Communication Research Methods, 1-8. Research methods
Data collection
process, use of
questionnaires in data
collection
Ryan, W. G. (2016). How do you "do" event
management education (EME)? A case study
of event management for higher education
awards. Event Management, 20(1), 69-80. Event management
Risk management in
sports event
management
Sousa, M. J., Lima, F., & Martins, J. (2016).
Project Management in 2016 Olympic
Games. In New Advances in Information
Systems and Technologies (pp. 511-521).
Springer, Cham.
Project management in
sports event planning
Mega sports events
and small sports
events
Taguchi, N. (2018). Description and
explanation of pragmatic development:
Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods
research. System, 75, 23-32. Quantitative Research
26. methods
Probabilistic and non-
probabilistic research
designs
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Appendix 2: List of questions to be used in the study
Demographic Questions
What is your age?
What is your gender?
Level of education?
What is your profession?
What sports events do you manage?
How many years have you been a manager?
Interview Questions
27. What are the day to day duties of a sports event management
position?
What do you like/dislike about the management of sports?
When is an event considered a success or failure?
Respondent's perception of risk management skills as used in
sport events
Respondent's perception of leadership skills as used in sport
events
Respondent's perception of cost control skills as used in sport
events
Respondent's perception of scheduling skills as used in sport
events
Respondent's perception of the general management of sport
events
Why do prefer to manage the sports events you are currently
engaged in?
What recommendations would you make to managers of sports
events?
What skills make you stand out as a manager?
Do you think the success of sports events is reliant on project
management skills?
What have you learned over years in sports event management?
28. What is the best project management skill needed for the
success of sport events?
BAL TAUGHT STUDENT ETHICAL OPINION FORM v.4.2
2017Ethical opinion form for Faculty of Business and Law
(BAL)taught undergraduate and postgraduate students (except
MRes)
Instructions to student
This form should be completed by the student, referring to the
Guidance Notes to accompany this form and the ‘Research
ethics – issues to consider’ guide (also to be found as an
appendix to the Guidance Notes). If you are not collecting
primary data or data that are identifiable with individuals, then
you should answer Qs 1-4, then Q11 and as many of the
questions between Qs 12-20 as are relevant in your case. The
completed form should then be passed to the supervisor prior to
a review of the possible ethical implications of the proposed
dissertation or project. Students should read the guidance that
accompanies this form to help them complete it.
No primary data collection or recruitment of potential
participants must be undertaken before a final version of this
form has been approved.
If, following review of this form, amendments to the proposals
are agreed to be necessary, the student should provide the
supervisor with an amended version for endorsement.
If, following the completion of the review process, your
supervisor and, where relevant, any independent reviewer is
unwilling to grant you a favourable ethical opinion, you have a
right of appeal to BAL Faculty Ethics Committee. If you wish to
exercise this right, email the Faculty Ethics Administrator
(email address available from your supervisor), stating your
name, HEMIS no., the relevant unit and course, and briefly
stating your grounds for requesting that BAL Faculty Ethics
Committee review the decision. Attach your completed ethics
29. form and any supplementary documentation and include any
relevant correspondence about the case.
A final signed and dated version of this form must be bound in
to however many copies of the dissertation you are required to
hand in. The form MUST be signed and dated by both the
student, the supervisor and, where required, any peer ethics
reviewer. If the dissertation is submitted without a fully
completed, signed and dated ethics form it will be deemed to be
a fail. Second attempt assessment may be permitted by the
Board of Examiners.
1. What are the objectives of the dissertation / research
project?
This project aims at evaluating whether the use of project
management skills has an influence on the success rate of
sporting events. This project evaluates the use of risk
management skills, leadership skills, cost control, and
scheduling and looking at how these skills influences the
success rate of holding sporting events. This research will also
help in identifying the relationship between the success rate of
sporting event as well as the use of risk management skills in
planning and execution of event. This study will also identify
the relationship that exists between the rates of success in
sporting event and leadership skills in planning and execution
of event and lastly, identifying the relationship existing
between the success of holding sports event and the use of
scheduled skills.
2. Does the research involve NHS patients, resources or
staff? NO
3. Does the research involve MoD staff? NO
4. Do you intend to collect primary data from human subjects
or data that are identifiable with individuals? (This includes, for
30. example, questionnaires and interviews.) YES
5 How will the primary data contribute to the objectives of
the dissertation / research project?
Due to financial constraints, interviews from identified
managers from the local area will help in offering insights
regarding sports organization. They will offer first-hand
information regarding how their management skills impact the
success rate of a sporting event in the community.
6. What is/are the survey population(s)?
I shall draw the participants from project sports managers
working for sporting organizations. The survey population has
already been identified through quota sampling and will be
interviewed during the process.
7. a) How big is the sample for each of the survey
populations, and b) how was this sample arrived at? (Please
answer both parts of this question.)
With the availability of sports management personnel, the
sample is big enough. The sample is reached by contacting the
sporting directors and interviewing those willing to participate
in the study by applying quota sampling.
8. How will respondents be a) recruited and b) selected?
(Please answer both parts of this question.)
The respondents will be recruited through quota sampling by
identification of qualified managers in the sports organization.
Those selected will be interviewed through telephone calls or
emailing the questionnaire to the participants.
9. What steps are proposed to ensure that the requirements of
informed consent will be met for those taking part in the
research? If an Information Sheet for participants is to be use d,
please attach it to this form. If not, please explain how you will
be able to demonstrate that informed consent has been gained
from participants.
To ensure that we meet the requirement of informed consent,
the qualified respondents will be educated about the
significance and the process of the study. It will discuss about
31. the privacy and confidentiality of the respondents’ information.
Upon agreeing on the same, they will sign down to show their
commitment towards the project.
10. How will data be collected from each of the sample
groups?
The respondents will be asked some questions regarding their
management methods through an interview. The interview
questions will be open ended to get as much information as we
can get from the respondents. This will then be recorded.
11. a) How will data be stored and b) what will happen to the
data at the end of the research? (Please answer both parts of this
question.)
The data will be stored both electronically and written
documents. The written documents will be kept safely in
lockers that are only accessible to the team in the study. For
electronic data, it will be password protected to ensure that they
are not accessible to third parties. We shall store the data for
one year after the research. The data will thereafter be
destroyed in a way that it cannot be recreated.
12. What measures will be taken to prevent unauthorised
persons gaining access to the data, and especially to data that
may be attributed to identifiable individuals?
Privacy is the right to protection of personal information.
Confidentiality ensures that the third party does not access the
patient’s information and security; on the other hand, is keeping
the information of participants to prevent illegal access. For the
paper records we will have physical safeguards. This means
locking our filling cabinet and room every time to avoid
accidental disclosure of PHI. Reducing access to files is one
important aspect. This will be done by creating strong
passwords that are not shared with anybody. Every time one is
done with the computer, it is important to sign off from the
system and never leave any record open. Similarly, encryption
is very important in helping protect the data of the participants
32. for both the data in motion and data at rest. Apart from
encrypting the hard drives, it is also essential that these devices
used in storing data should be placed in separate places and
different formats. This reduces the chances of unauthorized
persons accessing all the information.
It is only encryption that may ensure that the data that is sent
remains protected while transmitted across data networks and
links.
13. What steps are proposed to safeguard the anonymity of the
respondents?
We shall use De-identification method which is the removal of
identifiers from our records such their names, identification
numbers, and any other PHI to mitigate risks to individuals and
support the secondary data use for our research. Since the
information does not identify the patient or does not provide
any basis of identifying an individual we can use it for our
research efficiently.
14. Are there any risks (physical or other, including
reputational) to respondents that may result from taking part in
this research? NO
If YES, please specify and state what measures are proposed to
deal with these risks.
15. Are there any risks (physical or other, including
reputational) to the researcher or to the University that may
result from conducting this research? NO
16. Will any data be obtained from a company or other
organisation? NO
17. What steps are proposed to ensure that the requirements of
informed consent will be met for that organisation? How will
confidentiality be assured for the organisation?
N/A
18. Does the organisation have its own ethics procedure
relating to the research you intend to carry out? YES / NO
33. (please delete as applicable).
If YES, the University will require written evidence from the
organisation that they have approved the research.
N/A
19. Will the proposed research involve any of the following
(please put a √ next to ‘yes’ or ‘no’; consult your supervisor if
you are unsure):
•
Vulnerable groups (e.g. childrenand adults unable to consent)?
YES
NO
·
•
Particularly sensitive topics?
YES
NO
·
34. •
Access to respondents via ‘gatekeepers’?
YES
NO
·
•
Use of deception?
YES
NO
·
•
Access to confidential personal data(names, addresses, etc)?
35. YES
·
NO
•
Psychological stress, anxiety, etc.?
YES
NO
·
•
Intrusive interventions?
YES
NO
·
If answers to any of the above are “YES”, please explain below
how you intend to minimise the associated risks.
36. We shall use de-identification method any time using the data to
prevent risks
20. Are there any other ethical issues that may arise from the
proposed research?
This research does not have any other ethical issues.
Print name
Signature
Date signed
Student
I / we grant a favourable ethical opinion:
Supervisor
Peer reviewer (where applicable)
AMENDMENTS
If you need to make changes please ensure you have permission
before recruiting any participants and any primary data
collection.If there are major changes, fill in a new form if that
will make it easier for everyone.If there are minor changes then
fill in the amendments (next page) and get them signed before
the primary data collection begins.
CHANGES TO ETHICS PERMISSION
37. VERSION: ____
Please describe the nature of the change and impact on ethics:
Print name
Signature
Date signed
Student
I / we grant a favourable ethical opinion:
Supervisor
Peer reviewer (where applicable)
(please cut and paste the next section, together with the heading
at the top of this page, as many times as required)
VERSION: ____
Please describe the nature of the change and impact on ethics: