Bachelor's thesis supervision at the Institute for Ethics in Management

1. First Contact

If you are interested in writing your bachelor's thesis at the Institute of Ethics in Management, please directly contact one of the available supervisors. Further information about the supervisors at the Institute of Ethics in Management and their main areas of research of can be found here.

• To contact one of the the supervisors at the Institute of Ethics, send them an e-mail.

• Important: Please familiarize yourself with the institute's requirements in advance. This includes both the formal details of the supervision process as well as the thematic proximity to the institute. Make sure that your topic is clearly related to ethical considerations in management.

• Please contact the supervisors with concrete suggestions of a topic for your thesis. These should include initial elaborations as well as considerations on (empirical) feasibility.

2. Exposé

If you are interested in writing your bachelor´s thesis at the institute for Ethics in Management, you must submit an initial exposé of approximately 3 pages describing your research endeavour. This exposé is pivotal in enabling us to gauge the alignment of your project idea with the theoretical and thematic domains of research within our institute.

• According to the WU guidelines, the exposé should comprise about three A4 pages.

• The aim is to narrow down the thematic and theoretical direction of the bachelor's thesis and to define the exact subject matter.

• Your exposé should state:

  • Your idea´s relevancy: Why is the topic and research problem you chose particularly interesting?

  • Your motivation for collaborating with our institute. In addressing this, it is beneficial to explore the theoretical approaches employed and empirical domains investigated by our team's researchers. 

  • An initial research question.

  • How you plan to approach the research question. This entails specifying both the theories you intend to employ and the methodology you plan to apply. You can explore the various options available at our institute in more detail below.

  • A timeline that systematically outlines when you plan to complete the individual steps of your bachelor's thesis.

  • An initial list of relevant literature.

• In your exposé, 5-10 scientific sources should already be referenced in the text.

3. Proposal:

After your exposé has been approved by your supervisor, you must write a proposal that provides a detailed overview of your research project. 

• According to the WU guidelines, the proposal should comprise about five A4 pages. You will receive more details on how to write the proposal with the feedback on your proposal.

• Within the proposal, first in-depth insights from the literature review should be used to determine the research question and relevant literature.

4. Writing the thesis

As soon as you have presented your proposal and received feedback from your supervisor, you can start writing your thesis.

• Contact during the writing of the thesis

  • In general, there is the initial meeting, written feedback on the exposé, the presentation of the proposal and another Q&A appointment for questions during the writing of the bachelor's thesis.

  • You can submit an entire chapter of your final thesis and receive feedback from the supervisor.

• Timeline

  • A timetable is agreed within the exposé. This must be adhered to. Any deviations must be discussed with the supervisor.

  • Timeframe: The entire process (from submission of the exposé to completion and submission of the bachelor's thesis) takes between a minimum of three and a maximum of six months.

Formalities

• It is particularly important that you fulfill the following formal requirements:

  • Template: Please use the format template for your final version of the Bachelor thesis. Citation: A very important component of this paper is the scientific approach. Please cite according to APA7. The bibliography must also be prepared accordingly. Please use scientific sources from academic journals. Further information can be found here.

  • Language and style: Please ensure correct spelling and grammar. The thesis can be written in German or English. It must be gendered in accordance with WU requirements.

  • Citation: A very important component of this paper is the scientific approach. Please cite according to APA7. The bibliography must also be prepared accordingly. Please use scientific sources from academic journals. Further information can be found here.

The bachelor thesis should be 10,000 words long (±10%, excluding table of contents, bibliography, appendix etc.).

Relevant journals

Relevant journals include:

• Academy of Management Journal

• Academy of Management Review

• Academy of Management Annals

• Accounting, Organization and Society

• Business Ethics Quarterly

• Business & Society

• Human Relations

• Journal of Business Ethics

• Organization

• Organization Studies

Here you can find further relevant journals.

Methodology

Empirical Research:

Our empirical research endeavours primarily embrace a qualitative research paradigm. Hence, it’s advisable to delve into relevant literature to understand the implications of this approach. Keep in mind that a qualitative research methodology influences the formulation of your research questions and guides the crafting of your study design. Given the constrained scope of a bachelor's thesis, a comprehensive empirical study is not required. Instead, you should consider your data as a tool to illustrate the phenomenon under investigation.

Qualitative data sources you may consider utilising include:

• Qualitative interviews

• Websites

• Organisational documents, such as sustainability reports

The following methods book, which is available online, serves as a guide for your empirical research project. It offers you a detailed insight into the development of a research design, the selection of a suitable sample, data collection and data analysis:  

Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2019). Research methods for business students. Pearson Education, Limited.

Literature Review:

In addition to supervising qualitative empirical endeavours involving the collection of qualitative data, we also provide guidance for comprehensive literature reviews. These reviews should aim at critically discussing the relevant body of literature while meeting rigorous academicstandards. Such research endeavours necessitate thorough reading and analysis of relevant academic literature.