thinkPhD

I am still waiting for Office of Academic Research (OAR) response in regard to my Dissertation Manuscript (DM) submission over a week ago. Technically, they are supposed to respond within a week. I have been on pins and needles all week, and the stress is showing in the bags under my eyes. Sometimes I feel ambivilent and tell myself it will be what it will be. Other times, I think about things I might have added or enhanced or were missing. I listened to four DM presentations this week trying to get a feel for how they run so that I will be prepared. Then I think – whoa – you are getting the cart before the horse – you are not even approved yet!

Today, I am very nervous and wondering if I will have major re-writes or nothing to do this weekend. Does a delay mean they LOVE my DM and are reading it over and over just for fun (!!), or does it mean they are nitpicking it and are writing extensive correction notes, or does the delay simply mean they are busy this week? AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!

I am holding my breath.

My dissertation manuscript went to the OAR yesterday.

So I am….

waiting for the other shoe to drop

waiting for the next aftershock

watching the sky for rain

walking on eggshells

watching paint dry

waiting for the dust to settle

waiting for my ship to come in

waiting for the pot to boil

…clichés or not…it’s pretty nerve wracking. The OAR has 7 days to review my work and either thumbs-up it or thumbs-down it. I am holding my breath…and trying to think positive thoughts! Perhaps if we all hold hands and wish really, really hard…..!

I continue to wait on Dissertation Committee member Dr. W’s return of my DM. Technically Committee members have 7 days to review my paper but today is Day 9. So I have done these things yesterday and today:

– placed the change matrix in front of the DM – I had it as a separate document but Dr. M says to put it at the front
– updated the change matrix to show accurate page numbers where the changes were made
– addressed Dr. B’s recommendations to the DM
– augmented the Chapter 5’s Conclusion to help “tie” it together with some points made earlier
– since I never received permission to use a specific figure from its author, I deleted the figure and updated the table of contents (TOC) and wording that referred to it as a figure
– I responded to thinkPhD reader emails
– I corrected all my et al. errors. I have a tendency to write (Author, et al, 20xx). There should be no comma after the author’s name, and a period after the “al” – thanks Word for the find and replace function!
– I wasted time on the NCU Discussion Board and made a few comments
– I looked online at the photo of Mariah Carey’s cute new twins (certainly not a time waster – they are so CUTE)
– I turned in my “Weekly Dissertation Update” as required by the school
– I read the entire 217 page DM one more time…it’s a real sleeper!

So waiting and fixing is what I will be doing today. I hope to receive my DM back from Dr. W, make the corrections, and send it back asap to Dr. M so that he can submit it to the OAR before the end of my class on Oct 30!

Well, one of the Committee members speaks…so far….

Dr. M sent my Dissertation Manuscript (DM) to my Dissertation Committee last Friday. Dr. B returned it yesterday and I am making his recommended changes today. He was complimentary and suggested adding to a few paragraphs in certain places. I have not heard from Dr. W, yet. Technically, the Committee gets one week to review and comment. I hope to see something from Dr. W tonight, so that I can make her changes and turn it back into Dr. M no later than tomorrow. This would mean that my DM could possibly be sent to the Office of Academic Research (OAR) in a few days!!!

I am pretty nervous at this point and not trying to focus on horror stories of DMs being rejected by the OAR. I am trying to stay confident that my work is good enough to move forward. But we will see very soon….

My DM will go to my Committee for the first time today. I am pretty nervous about this next big step! The Committee has not seen my work since reviewing the DP ages ago. I hope that my Committee will review it and turn it back into me quick. This class ends on Oct 31 and it would be FANTASTIC if I did not have to take another DIS course to complete my coursework. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Today, I turned in my completed DM to Dr. M. Last week, he saw everything except the Abstract, Chapter 5, and a couple of the Appendixes. Today – he got the whole bologna!! He will look, make suggestions, I will make changes, then on to the committee!

Chapter 4 was a real kicker because my data did not yield beautiful stats. I had to get some help understanding what the data meant and figuring out what procedures to use. Some of the assumptions for MANOVA were violated and so I ended up with nonparametric Mann-Whitney to supplement the results. Ultimately, there was not a statistical difference in the two groups.

Initially, I was crushed because I felt like my results may not be showing anything. But the more I thought about it, it was apparent that there was a change…. a change from old managerial principles to new ones. Companies with sustainable strategies used be considered cutting-edge leaders. Now, they are just like the other guys. Over time, the other guys crept up on them by mimicing certain strategies, then normalizing them. And so, the last sentence of my DM Chapter 5 reads:

In support, this study revealed that firms without public reporting of sustainable activities have imitated the actions and strategies of those that do, and sustainable initiatives have been adopted as normal strategic imperatives for business success.

Yesterday, we inducted 13 new members in our Delta Mu Delta chapter. Congratulations to the new members! We are working to build our chapter and offer “local” or NCU-specific scholarships. If you interested in learning more about the Lambda Eta Chapter, send me a note or post a comment here.

I believe that honors and awards can be very effective motivators, and serving in a leadership capacity is a growth opportunity. I am the Secretary for the Chapter and I have met quite a few interesting people through this role. Let me encourage you to join and take part in an honor society like DMD!

I used SurveyMonkey for data collection. I chose the Select plan at $17 per month. The Free plan only allows 10 questions per survey and 100 responses. This plan does not have Excel download. The Select plan allows unlimited questions, unlimited responses, and skip logic. Skip logic is necessary for every dissertation survey because if the participant refuses to accept the Informed Consent Acknowledgement, the participant should not be allowed to take the survey. This plan also has Excel export and the survey can be downloaded by PDF. SurveyMonkey invoices every three months.

Now that I am finished with data collection, I am reverting my account to the Free plan. Survey hosting is one of those expenses that no one told you about. It would be great if the school had a hosting account. I think responses might be better if the web address had .edu instead of some of the crazy hosting service names, like SurveyMonkey. This name does not sound professional or academic!

All in all, this hosting package was sufficient. Keep in mind that it takes time to set up the survey because it could not be uploaded from Word. I recommend that you create the survey and have a friend take the survey to check it for misspellings, poor logic, etc., before initiating a pilot study. I had a misspelled word that I never caught until the pilot study, and what an embarrassment!

Oh my, I’ve been working on Chapter 4 statistics and it looks like my data is nonnormal…so will I have to enter the world of NONPARAMETRIC? What dangers lurk in that galaxy? Will I be taken captive and forced to morph into a NONPARAMETRICON?

AARRGGHHHHHH!

I spent so much time working on understanding MANOVA that in all honesty, I have not investigated nonparametric possibilities. However, I have read a number of articles indicating that often data collected “in the wild” turns up as nonparametric rather than parametric. In some of the analyses, it appears dissertations have been completed using parametric when they would have been better suited as nonparametric. Unfortunately, the scenarios and problems completed in stat classes are mostly parametric sprinkled with a few nonparametric models.

It appears as though the Mann-Whitney U will soon become my best friend. SPSS analysis is revealing the same conclusions as my work with MANOVA…it appears there is little (or no) difference in my two groups. This is surprising as I had supposed there were some similarities, but not to this extent.

So next time you see me, I may look a little different; morphing into a NONPARAMETRICON of house Mann-Whitney U is quite painful!

I have worked almost all weekend on my DM chapter 4, “Findings.” There is so much to consider when doing an analysis. I have some little reminders here on my desk, like “when the p-value is low, the Ho gotta go.” Silly, huh? Just trying to get my mind around the procedures to follow and what the numbers truly mean is quite a task. Right now, my mind is kind of blurry and it is definitely time to set chapter 4 aside.

Statistics make my head hurt!

I have collected many websites over my journey that have helped me through some tough stats problems, data collection, etc. Here are a few that may help as well:

Alan Reifman’s Collection of Practical Statistics Resources

David Ritchie’s Data Analysis page

David Ritchie’s Data Display page

Application of Statistics in Educational Research (ASER)

Is that an Assumption or a Condition?

Daniel Arkkelin’s textbook “Using SPSS to Understand Research and Data Analysis”

Companion Website to Andy Field’s textbook “Discovering Statistics Using SPSS, 3rd Edition”

StatPages
StatPages Free Statistical Software

SPSS On-Line Training Workshop

Philip B. Stark’s SticiGui

Glossary of Statistical Terms

Statnotes: Topics in Multivariate Analysis by G. David Garson

Laura Kazan’s SurveyMonkey to SPSS and Excel

The end of data collection is near as I sent out my last invitations today. I plan to close the survey on July 31. I have been playing around with the data collected so far and thinking about the conclusions that are forming.

I am very excited about my research and hope that it will give some guidance in strategic initiatives. It would be fantastic if all businesses included social and environmental initiatives in their annual planning. Awareness is certainly needed as well as incorporating these criteria into contracts, budgets, and other activities. Ultimately, sustainability includes achieving responsible growth for the business and for society, in such a way that activities do not reduce the ability of future generations to survive.

~~ Wisdom today pays off in a more sustainable tomorrow! ~~

Now to step down from my soapbox, I am looking at how others have presented MANOVA data and observations. This morning, I have been reading about missing values and how to handle this during analysis. Dr. M had a “first look” at my dissertation manuscript (DM) this week without the analysis chapters, and he found no significant issues. It is funny how I miss a misspelled word even after reading my DM a hundred times! Dr. M is a very good proofreader. Some of the dissertations that I have been reading have spelling or missed punctuation, and I certainly do not want any of that in my paper!!

I have to take a fourth dissertation course (DIS9324B) and that starts on August 8. I hope to work on analysis in August, and start the committee reviews in September. This course ends October 31 – keep your fingers crossed for me that I can complete all the work and defend before then!!

It’s very hot here in Virginia and the pool looks blue and cool. Husband and I will enjoy that later today after the sun begins to move out of the middle of the sky.