The Use of Whistleblowing as Means to Detect and Prevent Fraud.

The Use of Whistleblowing as Means to Detect and Prevent Fraud.

Instructions/Descriptions

The Use of Whistleblowing as Means to Detect and Prevent Fraud.

The Dissertation in Summary

To produce an individual academic piece of work, of target length 10,000 words.

Introduction                                          1000

Literature Review                   3000

Methodology                                          2000

Analysis                                  3000

Conclusion                                             1000

The dissertation is about The Use of Whistleblowing as Means to Detect and Prevent Fraud.

The dissertation needs to have an academic focus/objective which allows you to review (comparing and contrasting difference views) of academic literature (journal articles) as well as trade and professional body publications i.e. not just standard text books.

You will need to conduct research.  This will take different forms depending on the objectives you have set, the findings from your literature review and the resources available to you.  For example, you may conduct a quantitative survey, qualitative research you may take someone else’s data (with due acknowledgement) and re-analyse the data and derive findings from this analysis.  You will be rewarded for how well you interpret your data.

You will need to compare your findings with your literature review.

Draw conclusions from your literature review, any other secondary data used and your research findings.  These conclusions should relate back to the objectives set at the start of the dissertation.

Structure of the dissertation

Front sheet/Title Page:

Please use the template in Appendix D as an advised layout for the title page

Declarations and Word Count

A declaration page signed by the student MUST be included. See Appendix E of this document for the Declaration. Please do not forget to sign the Declaration.

Abstract

In no less than 200 and no more than 300 words. The purpose of the abstract is to summarise the entire dissertation, including a description of the problem, the student’s contributions, and conclusions. Four keywords are required.

Acknowledgements

The student may wish to thank those people who have been particularly helpful in the preparation of the dissertation.

Table of Contents:

Formatted as per example Appendix G

Glossary:

If your dissertation contains unfamiliar abbreviations or technical terms it is helpful to include a glossary at this point.

Introduction

The purpose of the introduction is to explain what the project is about and justify its academic significance. Specifically, you explain what you want to inquire into and why you want to do it and justify your research questions. Personal interest may inspire selection of the dissertation topic, but ultimately, its academic relevance and contribution to knowledge should be specified. This can often be done by positioning the dissertation in relation to other work that has been published as either an advancement, continuation, compilation or verification. This section should also tell the reader how the topic will be unfolded and the order of forthcoming material.

Literature review

Your work does not occur in isolation but in the context of what is already known. In the literature review, you will need to find out and identify:

What is already known about the topic? That is what have previous researchers have discerned through researching this topic

what existing academic concepts and theories you can draw upon that are helpful to you either in establishing your approach and/or in interpreting your data

You must produce a critical review of existing knowledge and theorisation using citations and quotations to set out the current thinking in the research area under consideration. Importantly the literature is not just about reporting relevant academic work. It is about evaluating what has been written in a variety of sources, and making a judgement about how helpful these ideas, concepts, theoretical models, frameworks, or views will be in resolving the particular issue or problem you are addressing. This review is NOT about demonstrating knowledge, it is about how you use, or make sense of, that knowledge. This review of literature should lead you down some paths that will help you to define more exactly, what you wish to do.

Make sure that your review has a clear structure. Use sub-headings to separate the discussion about the different aspects of your topic and summarise those key points that you have learned from the literature review and those that will inform your dissertation. Try to identify common issues, or links, between the different sections of your review that might provide more evidence about the validity and credibility of the concepts and ideas that you might use as benchmarks against the practices that you will be enquiring into.

Your review of literature will be iterative. Much of your initial reading may later not be useful to you. This iteration is a key element of undertaking a successful dissertation

The chapter will conclude with a summary of the main points that helps to link into the methods chapter. This summary may be a conceptual map/framework diagram.

If undertaking deductive enquiry your literature review should lead you to, and you should thereby state, the hypotheses that you will test through your research.

Research Methods

In this chapter, you explain the approach that you have used to respond to the research questions/aims guiding your dissertation. This chapter should not simply present the method that you are using, but should comprise a justification for, and critical review of, the method/s you are using to collect/generate data – specifically, why you are using this method/approach? In this, you should note the limitations that you are aware of, at the outset, of using this method/approach.

You should describe all aspects of the data collection, sampling and analysis process, regardless of whether you are using primary or secondary data. Ethical considerations and data protection issues should also be discussed.

Research methods literature should be used to support your justification for your choice of methods used. Do not expend effort writing a generic discussion about methods per se and about alternative methods that have no relevance to your study.

Please note: Discussion of the philosophical aspects of research methodology (for example Positivism/Functionalism and Interpretivism) is not necessary and should not be included.

Findings

This chapter presents your analysis and your key findings from this analysis. Your analysis should be aligned with the approach you have taken in your Dissertation.

For quantitative studies, you should use specialist software to manipulate the data (for example SPSS). Basic graphs and descriptive statistics (e.g. mean, s.d. etc.) are not sufficient. To secure a pass grade for this key chapter of your Enquiry, you should include inferential analysis (e.g., chi-squared, ANOVA, t-test, correlation etc.).

For qualitative studies, a recognisable form of qualitative analysis (e.g., thematic analysis; discourse analysis) should be used.

Even when your Enquiry is focused upon secondary data, you should expect to apply some form of analysis technique to generate new findings.

Interpretation and Discussion of findings

This chapter provides you with the opportunity to interpret and communicate your findings. As you consider what you have found out, you should relate this back to the literature review and try to put your own findings back in the context of the work of others. You are expected to use the theories and concepts that you discerned within this literature to help you to interpret why you have found what you have. In this chapter you are coming full circle, returning to your initial questions and the context provided by your literature review to summarise the relations between your new findings and existing knowledge:

Conclusion

This final chapter summarises the relations between the body of knowledge and your new findings. It should present the case for the dissertation’s success in meeting its goals, as well as any shortcomings and limitations that apply. It may suggest further work or study needed on the topic, as well as ways the new work can be used or applied in other cases. If the student has developed any strong personal opinions about the subject this is the place where such content is appropriate.

End Material

References:

A list of specific works referred to directly in the text. You must use the correct referencing system and that is the APA system.

Appendices

Appendix A: Reflective Learning Statement

Appendices may also be used for helpful, supporting or essential material that would otherwise clutter, break up or be distracting to the text. Appendices may include some of the following: specialist data, supporting evidence, lengthy derivations of equations and ethics forms.

Keep the number of appendices to the minimum. Please remember that lengthy appendices will not give you a better mark. Your final mark will be determined through the grading staff’s consideration of the materials that lie within the main chapters of your dissertation. Each separate appendix should be lettered (Appendix A, Appendix B, Appendix C, etc).

Reflective learning statement

The first appendix, Appendix A, should be your ‘Reflective Learning Statement’. The statement provides an opportunity for you to demonstrate your awareness of the need for continuous learning and development throughout your future management career.

In this instance, the statement should be structured around your programme goals and should explain how the work you have undertaken through the process of completing Dissertation has enabled you to develop significant personal learning that has helped you to achieve some of the specific objectives that make up the Programme goals. You should specifically include your reflections upon:

How did you deal with any problems you faced?

How, either during practice, or on reflection, you might have avoided or alleviated such problems?

What might you do differently if you were to undertake the Enquiry (or a similar type of study) again?

What personal future learning needs have arisen through you undertaking this reflection and how might these learning needs be met?

You should aim to write around 250 words for the Reflective Statement. These words do NOT count towards the main dissertation word count limit of 10, but there are marks awarded for it – (see Assessment Criteria in Appendix A).

Referencing and using others’ work

The intellectual work of others that is being summarised in the dissertation must be attributed to its source. It is assumed that all ideas, opinions, conclusions, specific wordings, quotations, conceptual structures, and data, whether reproduced exactly or in paraphrase, which are not referenced to another source are the work of the student. If this is not the case, an act of plagiarism may have occurred, which is cause for disciplinary action under the ‘Academic Misconduct’ process.

Format of references

You should use the APA method of referencing throughout. The APA method of referencing uses the author’s name and the date of the publication. In-text citations give brief details of the work you are referring to in your text. References are listed at the end of the text in alphabetical order by the author’s name.

Using secondary data for your dissertation

Analysis of secondary data is your (re-)analysis of data that has been previously collected or generated by another researcher, company, government body etc.  Sources of this data might include: company websites, Bloomberg, government-funded datasets, sales and accounting records, magazine articles, organisational data and information and research reports etc.

Using this method allows you to examine an area of interest without having to generate or collect your own data.  It may be particularly useful where primary data generation or collection would be very difficult and/or where you wish to research changes over time.

A large range of documents and web sites contain considerable data that you might analyse.  For example, you may choose to use company reports to analyse the financial data contained within.  Alternatively, you might choose to analyse a particular media’s portrayal, over time, of gender stereotyping. In both of these cases you would not be collecting or generating your own data but would be analysing existing documents.

The research must be done by (only) using secondary data, you must ensure that you do the following:

Clearly explain how you sourced the data that you are using.  For example, how did you actually locate the data? what search terms did you use (if sourced online)?; how did you decide what data to include and what to exclude? (i.e., sampling methods); etc.

Clearly explain how you prepared the data.  For example, in the case of numeric data, how you addressed missing data; how you coded/re-coded the data where necessary (e.g., where the variables had been defined or categorised differently to your requirements);  how you created new variables (e.g., composite variables)

Clearly explain what analysis you have undertaken – that goes beyond the ways in which the data has been analysed previously – ie. What are you adding to the understanding of this data? You should then subsequently relate this back to the methods you have discussed and evaluated as part of your Literature Review

Failure to cover these important facets might leave you open to claims of academic misconduct, for example, Plagiarism.

Presentation and Format Layout

The dissertation should be submitted electronically

Font: size 12 using an accessible typeface (e.g. Arial, Calibri or Times)

Spacing: one and a half line spacing (except within tables, diagrams and figures

Page numbering: Pages should be numbered sequentially

Margins and headings: Standard A4 pagination should be used with 2.54cm margins on all four sides. Headers and footers should be used with discretion, only where absolutely necessary.

Black printing is the norm. Colour printing should be used with discretion (e.g. images) and only where necessary.

Quotations

Direct quotations may be presented starting on a new line and in single spacing, indented both left and right. All quotations (whether from other authors or qualitative participant data) are included within the total word count.

Charts and tables

Tables and charts should be numbered in sequence by chapter, e.g. Table 3.1 is the first table in Chapter 3. Similarly for figures. Each figure should be properly referenced and accompanied by a descriptive title that completely explains the contents of the figure.

It is not acceptable to insert scanned tables and diagrams into the body of the dissertation. Tables should be word processed into the dissertation. There will, of course, be occasions when a scanned table or diagram is specifically required in order to illustrate points peculiar to the original. Use of scanned copies must be cleared with the supervisor. It is recognised that there will be circumstances (eg a dissertation on advertising) where scanned copies are necessary.

[Order Now]

The Use of Whistleblowing as Means to Detect and Prevent Fraud

The Use of Whistleblowing as Means to Detect and Prevent Fraud.

Place the Order Here: https://standardwriter.com/orders/ordernow / https://standardwriter.com/

The Use of Whistleblowing as Means to Detect and Prevent Fraud

PLACE THE ORDER WITH US TODAY AND GET A PERFECT SCORE!!!