After weeks of ‘research’ I was struggling to understand the link of management systems to theory. I was to write a Theoretical Framework section in my proposal. Why? What’s the point? What’s that got to do with the real world? Questions I usually fired at Consultants over the past many years.
Yesterday, at 9:19 in the morning while having a late breakfast (it was a weekend before you judge) my wife explained it all to me. It wasn’t the first time she explained it, but it was the first time I listened. I have been wearing the practitioner’s hat, or for the engineer in me the bloody hard hat, and have forgotten the role academics play in looking at the theoretical side of our world. Reflecting and describing patterns and causes and solutions after painstakingly studying their surroundings. I admire it, but I highly doubt I actually understand it. It’s going to be a fun journey.
The dreaded proposal document is almost complete. Applications begin this week.
PhD Diary 