TASK : RESEARCH PROJECT

Weighting: 25% of Total Course Mark

ASSESSMENT DESCRIPTION:

HL students are required to design and undertake research

that either addresses an issue facing a real organization or
range of organizations or analyses a decision to be made by a
real organization or range of organizations.

Due Dates of different sections:

1. Research Question
2. Proposal and Action Plan
3. Written Report

SUMMARY OF RESULTS
CRITERIA ASSESSED STANDARD

KNOWLEDGE & UNDERSTANDING

INQUIRY AND RESEARCH

ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION

COMMUNICATION

OVERALL RESULT
 HL IB Business Management Internal Assessment

Introduction:

The research project enables HL students to demonstrate the application of their skills
and knowledge to real organizational issues or decision-making.

Students must select a real organization, not a fictional one, and the issue or decision
under investigation must also be real. The expectation is that a student should gather
primary research from the organization.

The style and format of the report should be in the form of a useful working document
for management.

Project Requirements:

As a HL student you are required to:

Design and undertake research that either addresses an issue facing an

organization or range of organizations or analyses a decision to be made by an
organization or range of organizations
Produce a research proposal that should be used as the primary planning
document and be presented in terms of an action plan (500 words).
Provide a TITLE for the research project framed as a question to give focus
and direction.
Produce a written report that does not exceed 2,000 words.

Choice of research topic:

You should, with the teachers guidance, choose your own topic and
organization. Ideally, you should find your topics interesting and motivating.
Your teacher should approve each topic before work is started, and ensure that
it complies with the requirements for internal assessment.
You must make sure before starting your investigations that you will be able to
obtain the necessary data from your chosen organization.

Research proposal and action plan:

The internal assessment must start with the research proposal and action plan. These
will become the primary planning documents, giving direction to the research project.

The research proposal and action plan must outline: (Word limit 500 words)

the research question

the rationale for study
areas of the syllabus to be covered
possible sources of information
organizations and individuals to be approached
methods to be used to collect and analyse data, and the
reason for choosing them
anticipated difficulties
the order of activities and timescale of the project
Action Plan (sequence and date of the proposed activities in
table form), e.g. a Gantt chart is a type of action plan

Required format for research proposal and action plan:

1) Research question
2) Theoretical framework
3) Methodology
4) Anticipated difficulties
5) Action plan

You should use the research proposal and action plan as your primary planning
documents, reviewing them regularly with your teacher and modifying or
rewriting them as necessary should circumstances change.
The maximum achievement level for criterion A, research proposal, is three (see
HL internal assessment criteria).
If you fail to produce a research proposal you will be awarded zero for this
criterion.
You should consider the possible difficulties you may face when carrying out
your research, for example, limited or biased sources.
The Research question (Due 10/05/2015)

The research question should be forward-looking rather than descriptive and

requires you to make recommendations for further action.

Written report (Due 15/11/2015)

The written report, which follows the research proposal, is the second part of the
internally assessed research project. The report must follow acceptable practice in
report presentation, reflected in the required format for the written report shown
below.

Required format for written report

1. Title page 7. Procedure or method

2. Acknowledgment 8. Main results and findings
3. Contents page 9. Analysis and discussion
4. Executive summary (abstract) 10. Conclusion and recommendations
5. Introduction 11. Bibliography and references
6. Research question 12. Appendices

Word Limit: 2,000 words

The limit does not include supplementary information such as the title page,
acknowledgements, contents page, executive summary, diagrams, and figures, tables
of data, citations, references and appendices.

The executive summary should be a concise, clear and explicit summary

(maximum 200 words, not included in the word count) of the document,
including any recommendations or conclusions.
The research question and executive summary should guide the reader to the
substance of the report.
To be of practical value to management, the report should be forward-
looking and support the decision making process.
The appendices should contain only information/data that is required in support
of the text, and should be clearly referred to when relevant.
HL internal assessment criteria
The HL business and management research project is assessed against nine criteria
that are related to the objectives for the business management course. Criterion A
refers to the research proposal and action plan, while criteria BI are used to assess
the written report.

Criterion A: Research proposal (only)

Criterion B: Sources and data (written report)

Criterion C: Uses of tools, techniques and theories (written
report)

Criterion D: Analysis and evaluation (written report)

Criterion E: Conclusions (written report)

Criterions F: Recommendations (written report)

Criterion G: Structure (written report)

Criterion H: Presentation (written report)

Criterion I: Reflective thinking (written report)

A more detailed description of the report (from the BM Syllabus Guide) follows: