Need Help Choosing an HR Project Topic for My MBA: Any Suggestions or Tips?

Hi friends,

I'm Gopalakrishnan, currently pursuing an MBA in Coimbatore. During this summer vacation, I am supposed to work on my project in a specific specialization. My undergraduate degree is in B.Sc. Agriculture, so I initially planned to focus on a marketing project. However, the company I selected for my project does not support marketing projects, so I have decided to switch to HR for my project.

I have identified some topics in HR for my project, which include:

1. Performance appraisal management
2. HR compensation management
3. HR competency mapping
4. Systems approach to HR recruitment
5. Training and development management

I would appreciate any suggestions and tips regarding topic selection and guidelines.

Please search CiteHR where some projects are attached. Then, do a literature survey and form your aim and objectives for the research (in consultation with the host organization). You also need a conceptual framework for that. Form your hypotheses to test.

If you have not done any of the above essential preparations for conducting a project, I would advise you to please do so and then pose a precise question.

Please search CiteHR and find my post on Research Methodology (PPT slides attached).

Have a nice day.

Simhan

A retired academic in the UK.

Hello Gopalakrishnan,

Take Simhan's advice and do accordingly. Doing YOUR groundwork and THEN asking for help would get you the right inputs.

Regards,
TS

Dear Simhan,

I think there is a need for some sort of mechanism to enforce that all queries are preceded by the necessary groundwork before they get posted. I'm not sure if it's doable, but that could save everyone a lot of time. Quite often, I have been finding people wishing others to do what they were supposed to do in the first place before coming out with focused queries that really need responses. Just give this a thought.

Rgds,
TS

Dear TS,

Thank you for your support. You are right. I do not think there is any mechanism at CiteHr or even other sites where people can post messages directly. The only way it can be enforced is for someone to vet the postings before they are made public. That would become a full-time job for one person, if not more.

It's really frustrating to see most students undergoing an MBA or even wanting to pursue a PhD are not clear about their objectives. Instead of searching the web for information, they post queries on sites such as CiteHr. As long as members keep spoon-feeding such students, the students will not be inclined to do anything different. I am trying to change the mindset by more or less posting similar messages, asking them to do the groundwork and raise focused and clear questions.

It's possible that some members will take an opposite view and criticize me for that.

Simhan

The problem is everyone requires spoon-feeding, which is happening on CiteHR.

Members have to search in the search column before posting a query.

If you consider postings like this, it would account for almost 30-40% of the postings on CiteHR, only requesting materials that are already posted in the forum.

Once we start ignoring these postings, definitely the quantity will decrease, and useful discussions will start taking place.

Dear Agkbsr,

Please go through the above suggestions of experienced people. As Mridhu suggested, I also recommend that you first select an organization to do your project and then discuss it with your guides (internal and external). Most probably, there will be an external guide for you in the company, and they may have the previous project documents completed by previous students, like you. You can also review those materials to get a basic idea. Additionally, discuss your project with your teachers and seniors. After deciding on your topic, proceed with it; you will receive substantial help from this site itself. Therefore, as the seniors said, conduct a field study and choose a topic that you are comfortable with.

Best wishes,

Dany

I don't agree with you, Simhan, that it needs to have someone physically screen every posting. Direct posting has its own advantages... in fact, I think one of the main reasons why CiteHR is now at the top of the Indian charts could be this.

One way to handle this aspect could be for some sort of an automated system that compares typical keywords of a posting with the archives/database and then prompts the one who is doing the posting to check it out before hitting the "post" button. Sounds logical? Just think about it... I think it's both logical and practical. This could lead to a few seconds' delay in the posting, but could be worth it. But there may be one catch here. This method shouldn't be made generic for all postings... or there could be a riot among all of us :-).

Also, I think there are some sites (may not be HR-related) that prompt: "Did you mean this?" sort of thing.

Rgds,
TS

Dear TS,

I am an old academic who only knows how to use the computer and does not know the technicalities. I am sure software engineers should be able to do what you say, as there are software tools to check if an item has been plagiarized. If such a feature can be incorporated, it can help identify people posting content already available on the web, sometimes leading to copyright violations.

Simhan