Management PhD Abstract Samples
Written by Dr. William P
Topic: Cross-Industry Study of Transformational Leadership Effectiveness in UK SMEs: The Impact on Work Performance
This study aimed to provide a systematic review of transformational leadership’s effectiveness in US SMEs from multiple industries. While this instrument is broadly considered a superior alternative to all its counterparts, multiple publications from recent years raised substantiated concerns regarding its actual capability to provide positive outcomes in all contexts and company backgrounds. There also exists a gap in comparative studies directly appraising the effects of such practices in SMEs from diverse spheres. This study sought to test whether transformational leadership could actually improve a wide range of organisational effectiveness indicators including workforce performance, teamwork quality, workplace accountability, and staff retention. The conducted analysis relied on the explanatory sequential mixed-methods research design. Quantitative data collected from 302 employees from UK SMEs was processed first to gain insights into the perceived effectiveness of transformational leadership in their organisations. The following qualitative interviews with the participants willing to proceed with the second phase provided additional insights into the subjective experiences and objective outcomes of this instrument’s application. As found by this thesis, transformational leadership provides positive results across most studied contexts. However, its effectiveness may be moderated by the presence of crisis conditions where its alternatives may be preferable in the short-term perspective. Since these insights were obtained from a sufficient sample of respondents from multiple industries, the results and recommendations to practitioners may be generalisable to SMEs in general.
Topic: The Use of Diversity and Inclusion in Small and Medium Companies in Eastern Europe: Key Considerations for Job Satisfaction and Employee Retention
The main aim of this study was to investigate the impact of diversity and inclusion initiatives on various dimensions of job satisfaction and employee retention in small and medium companies (SMEs). While large enterprises frequently have well-designed programmes in this sphere, the current literature demonstrates that many SMEs have limited awareness of the practical benefits offered by such practices. This problem was found to be especially relevant for Eastern European organisations where historical and cultural factors frequently lead to negative perceptions of diversity and inclusion. The conducted analysis was based on qualitative statements collected from 17 specialists including 5 human resource management officers, 7 employees, and 5 team leaders from two selected medium-sized organisations. The insights suggest that the utilisation of diversity and inclusion practices contributed to increased employee retention but had a limited impact on innovation and creativity, which contradicts the results reported by multiple earlier studies. With that being said, the sample size of this thesis and the focus on two Eastern European organisations may limit the generalisability of this pioneering project in this sphere. However, the identified correlations may be important for practitioners willing to achieve higher levels of staff satisfaction and retention in SMEs operating in these regions.
Topic: COVID-19 Impact on Supply Chain Resilience Tactics in Europe: Conceptualising a New Holistic Resilience Model for SMEs
This study aimed to explore the way COVID-19 has changed established supply chain resilience models utilised by European SMEs. The global pandemic exposed multiple vulnerabilities in existing approaches in this sphere as shown by secondary literature. The disruption of supply chains poses a serious threat to SME survival during similar large-scale crises, which implies the need to develop more holistic and comprehensive frameworks in this sphere while taking into account the lessons from the COVID-19 period. The thesis sought to identify specific resilience tactics adopted by the studied companies and the lessons learnt from the pandemic to revise established models in this sphere. A mixed-methods research design was utilised for this purpose combining qualitative interviews with company managers from several industries informing the aforementioned revisions. The new proposed model was offered to 5 organisations reporting its practical usefulness after a 3-month testing period. These results may suggest that this framework may be beneficial to SMEs from various industries willing to improve their resilience levels and ensure their readiness for systemic crises and threats that may disrupt their supply chains. However, further research may be required to test the proposed model and fully confirm its usefulness for all sectors of the economy.
Topic: Traditional vs Agile Project Management: Tech Startups’ Performance Outcomes
As the competitive environment for tech startups has become substantially less welcoming in the post-COVID period due to the global economic decline and the shrinking information technology sector, achieving superior performance is a matter of survival rather than market excellence. The need for adaptability and resilience strongly implies that these firms need to select the most optimal frameworks to ensure the success of their strategic plans. This study utilised qualitative methodology involving interviews with 13 startup leaders utilising both traditional project management instruments and agile tools. The findings suggested that the use of the latter was reported to have a positive effect on reducing the budgets and time required to complete specific projects. With that being said, scope, quality, and risk dimensions of performance were not affected by these choices to the same degree. These findings imply that the use of agile methodologies provided quantitative rather than qualitative improvements in the analysed firms. However, the positive impact on time was reported as a crucial enhancement by multiple interviewees due to the time constraints experienced by many tech startups with external financing that depend on the capability to reduce their time-to-market periods before producing marketable products or services. With that being said, the limited scope of this thesis may suggest the need for future projects in this sphere to explore more firms and industries.
Topic: The Impact of Remote Work Dynamics on Employee Productivity and Well-Being in the Post-Pandemic Era: A Survey of UK Financial Firms
The period following the COVID-19 pandemic is characterised by the increasing popularity of remote work in many spheres including the financial industry. This project explored the impact of remote work dynamics on employee productivity and well-being to identify whether this work arrangement produces some positive and negative factors on these dependent variables. Mixed-methods approach and exploratory sequential design were utilised to identify potential trends in this sphere via 10 interviews with human resource management experts from several financial firms who shared their insights about team dynamics in remote work. This phase allowed the researcher to formulate quantitative survey queries that were distributed among 203 employees from the same sector. As implied by the findings, the impact of remote work on staff productivity and well-being was inconsistent with some moderating influences including employee background, introversion/extraversion, capability to work autonomously without distractions, and the presence of social isolation feelings. While performance improvements were noted by a large share of the respondents exceeding 50% of the sample, perceived well-being improvements were less notable and could impact long-term job satisfaction and staff retention. Overall, the positive influence was mainly identified among younger workers, which informed practical recommendations to financial firms such as the need to introduce internal surveys and managerial observations determining individual employee readiness for remote or flexible arrangements.