How to Write Management Research Paper with Ease: Guide for Exhausted Students

Do you think that research papers in management are daunting tasks that you can never cope with? Management is a social science and as a student, you are required to acquire knowledge and skills that are technical, numerical, and literary. But typically, students consider the techniques of paper and project writing the most challenging of all the coursework tasks they have to tackle.

In fact, you have only to get a good idea of some essential principles, get a lot of practice, and devote enough of your time to reading and doing research in order to understand your subject better. There is nothing too complicated in management research paper writing. Read this guide on how to write a management research paper and  learn the general principles of writing a strong management research paper that will get you a high grade.

What Is Management Research Paper?

Research paper in management, like in any other college subject, is not just a sum of scholarly sources or a collection of different pieces of relevant information or a literature review on a certain topic. Any research paper argues some point of view or analyzes a perspective. Besides, your management research paper has to present your own thoughts supported by the information from credible sources and other’s ideas. When writing your research paper in management, you have to read some case studies to support some theoretical concepts that you discuss in your text.

You need to give your own evaluation or interpretation of some principles or methods or present an argument. In other words, you have to make a survey to find the most relevant information about the subject of your research paper. That survey can be based on what you know about a certain topic, for example, risk management or strategic planning and be focused and orderly.

The goal of writing a research paper in management is to inform your readers what other people say about a particular topic or issue and offer a unique perspective on the subject. There are 2 types of research papers:

• analytical research papers where students have to present exploration and evaluation and offer a critical interpretation of a variety of primary and secondary sources;
• argumentative research papers where you need to persuade your readers to support your point of view on a controversial or debatable topic.

How to Choose a Winning Topic for Management Research Paper: Hot Tips from Our Writers

The first step in creating a research paper in management is to define your research question. Often your instructor assigns a specific topic and that makes things easier for you because you don’t have to brainstorm your ideas to pick a great topic that will be interesting for your readers and for you as well. If you were not given some prompt, you should review the guidelines of your assignment first. Maybe your professor has given some general subjects for you to consider. Then you can focus your management research paper on a specific angle of one of those subjects. For example, if your instructor said that your assignment should focus on project management, you can write about issues and risks in IT project management.

Of course, you should choose a topic you are interested in. In this case, you will have more motivation to do a profound research that is usually time-consuming and even enjoy writing your research paper. You should also do a preliminary research to make sure that you can find enough primary and secondary relevant sources on your topic to conduct a focused and thorough research.

Here are some interesting ideas of management research paper topics to help you get started. Feel free to use them for creating your own writing projects:

• Flexible Labor Markets and Employee Health;
• Impact of Online Shopping on Shopping Centers in The US;
• How Does Sustainability Affect Supply Chain Management;
• Language Barriers in Multinational Companies;
• Tesla Motors Strategic Management;
• Ways to Measure Employee Performance;
• Advantages of a Competency-based Approach;
• Corporate Security Management;
• Challenges of Financial Management;
• Optimization of a Workplace Management System.

Doing Research

After you have selected a topic, your next step is the research process which is very important because it can help you understand the subject, formulate ideas for your paper, develop a thesis statement, and more. At this step, you have to gather research materials and read them attentively.

You should find different relevant primary and secondary sources. You can use textbooks, scholarly books, online encyclopedia and databases, articles from scientific journals, newspapers, government reports and guides etc.

While reading, you have to take notes. You’d better take notes from different sources on separate pieces of paper. You should always write down information about the title of the text you are reading, its author, and other necessary details so that you can cite these texts and create your bibliography page.

You can also store your notes on a spreadsheet. Create columns for specific elements you would like to include in your paper and the information you will use while referencing or citing your sources.

Wondering what citation style you’ll have to use to cite your sources? In this case, you’d better consult your instructor or your university writing lab.

Organizing Your Management Research Paper

Organization of your academic paper is very important for the success of your writing project. You can organize your piece of writing in the following way:

• Describe the problem;
• Provide the necessary background information and discuss the available sources;
• Explain what research you did and how you did it;
• Present some findings and facts that support the solution you propose or your thesis statement;
• Provide a list of benefits;
• In the appendix, provide specific information about the models that you have used in your paper.

After you have done the research, you probably have tons of ideas so in order to stay focused, you have to invest time in organizing your management research paper. You have to create a strong thesis statement that will guide your writing and make an outline that can help you organize your thoughts. Don’t skip this step because otherwise, you’ll end up with a necessity to spend more time on an additional revision. A good organization before you start writing will help you work more productively.

Start with your thesis statement that summarizes the main point of your research paper. This sentence is actually what you are going to argue in your management research paper. You should create your thesis statement or research question before you make an outline because it can help you organize your research paper better so that it develops your topic and supports your thesis statement.

When making an outline, think about your headings and subheadings. Decide what information you would like to include and make sure it is relevant to the topic of your research. When your outline is ready, you can start writing your academic paper.

Writing an Introduction

Start writing an introduction. Here you have to introduce your topic and provide background information to help your readers understand the context. You should start with a strong opening sentence that will engage your audience. You have to explain the purpose of your management research paper and the ways you will use to approach your topic. You can also define some key concepts which you will use later in the body of your paper.

You should also explain why the main idea is important and end your introduction with a strong thesis statement or research question that you will answer in your piece of writing. If your research paper is long, you can briefly outline the structure of it, your sources, and more. You can do it like this:

‘First, I will provide definitions of the key terms for my argument on the challenges of security management, and after that, I will explain the background of the situation. Then, I will outline the most important positions in the argument that I believe are true, explaining why I support one of these positions. Finally, I will discuss some opposing positions and provide an explanation of why they are outdated. In the conclusion, I will suggest some ideas for further research and taking action.’

Body Paragraphs

You have to organize your management research paper in a manner that moves from general information to specific one. Just imagine an inverted pyramid with the broadest range of information at the top and as your project progresses, you should become more focused on the argument and end with specific details that support a claim. In the end, you have to explain why the information that you have presented supports your thesis.

Every paragraph should consist of at least 4 elements:

• a transition sentence that connects the previous idea and the next one;
• a topic sentence that presents your discussion;
• specific evidence and analysis of one of your claims;
• a brief concluding sentence that explains how and why the information provided in a paragraph supports the thesis statement.

Conclusion

A conclusion has to wrap up everything that you have presented and discussed in your research paper. Now you have to provide more general information again and restate your arguments. You can also give some recommendations or suggest areas for future possible research. Here is what you have to do in your conclusion to a management research paper:

• emphasize again the importance of your topic;
• restate your research question or thesis;
• speak about opposing points of view and explain your audience should support your position;
• provide an overview of the research possibilities for the future.

Your conclusion shouldn’t include any new points and should be simple to deliver a clear, convincing message.

Abstract

Very often students have to write an abstract which should be very brief – about 150 words in length. You should write this part of your research papers after you have actually written the entire paper. A lot of people make a decision to read the paper based on the information they have found in the abstract, so your task here is to help them understand what your paper is about and why it has some significance. You have to write in a clear way and use an active voice to make your abstract appealing and easy to understand. Make it as concise as you can and eliminate unnecessary words.

Revising and Proofreading the Draft

Writing a draft of a management research paper is only half of the job. What you have written is not a finished research paper but a first draft. When you improve the quality of content, it will be just a second, a third draft etc. that you will need to improve again. You should do as many revisions as it is necessary to do the work right. Only when you are satisfied with the content, it will be the final draft – your research paper that you will be able to submit.

Revision is not a simple process – it is global when you have to take another look at the ideas you have discussed and how they are arranged. You need to check the overall organization: logical flow, depth, and coherence of discussion, the effectiveness of your argument etc.

You have to make improvements at the level of the level of the paragraph and at the sentence level. You should pay attention to:

• the topic sentence in a paragraph and the sequence of ideas;
• use of the transition words;
• summary sentences where you need them;
• use of specific details to support generalizations;
• word choice;
• sentence structure;
• spelling and punctuation etc.

You need also to take care of the documentation and make sure you consistently use one citation system and appropriately make a list of works cited, following your specific citation style requirements.

Proofreading is checking the final draft to ensure that everything in your research paper is perfect, including punctuation, grammar, and spelling but it’s just polishing of the improved final draft. Don’t do proofreading until you revise your research paper in management. There is no need to polish a text if it can be changed anyway. Proofreading may be a tricky and a tedious job. But if you suffer from the writer’s blindness, you can always ask your friend, our research paper writing service or a member of your family to proofread your piece of writing.