Surviving and Thriving in Postgraduate Research

Abstract

Gael and I have contributed to doctoral workshops for the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management (ANZAM) since their inception in 2002. These experiences, along with our own experiences in supervising postgraduate research students, led us to assemble a list of the common sorts of questions postgraduate students tended to ask of us. These questions subsequently formed the basis for the chapters and sub-headings in this book. The idea for doing the book emerged at the 2005 December conference for ANZAM in Canberra. We were discussing the sorts of questions that students asked at the doctoral workshops and Gael asked "why don't we write a book around them?" Gael, being the efficient task organiser that she is, organised for the two of us to plan the book over the course of the three-day conference; by the end of the conference, we had the concept for the book pretty much nailed down and a preliminary chapter structure organised. We discussed the concept with Rick Ryan from Tilde University Press and he loved it. What you have in your hands is the end result of our journey from that first flurry of excitement and activity to completed book - and it only took us 4 years! In many ways, it was a perfect authoring partnership. We both thought the book was sorely needed and would provide value to postgraduate students. Gael wanted to tell the stories about the project management aspects of the postgraduate student journey and Ray wanted to tell the stories about methodology, analysis and writing up. ... It is important to understand our standpoint as you begin working through this book. We both teach, research and supervise in the business/ management/ marketing disciplines. This has given the book its prominent business research perspective which most of the examples reflect. However, we are also alive to the relevance of what we discuss and illustrate to the wider social and behavioural research contexts, such as education, nursing, psychology and sociology. For Ray, as a trained experimental psychologist who has also taught researched and supervised in the education and psychology disciplines, this was easy. Similarly for Gael who undertook a PhD from The London School of Economics and Political Science which was heavily reliant on normative philosophy and was supervised by a sociologist she too has an appreciation for a wider disciplinary perspective.