Posted by Anthony C. Hood, PhD
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| Courtesy of Anthony C. Hood |
Are you having difficulty settling on a dissertation topic? I was. It's the gift and the curse of being extremely inquisitive and genuinely interested in a multitude of topics. My dissertation chair, K. Michele Kacmar, and I would meet weekly to discuss my progress. Each week I found myself apologizing profusely for yet again changing my dissertation topic and model. After apologizing for possibly the 5th or 6th time, she calmly said to me, "Anthony, you don't have to apologize. You know why? My PhD is hanging right there on the wall. You can keep changing your topic for the next 3 years and I'll be here to support you." She then advised me that there are two types of dissertations—one that changes the world and one that allows me to graduate and move on with my career. She would help me write either one as long as I knew that the former would likely take much longer to complete than the latter.
I choose the latter, and she had me create my "kitchen sink" dissertation model. This was a visual depiction of the relationships connecting every variable I was interested in studying from that point until I attained tenure. From that larger comprehensive model, I selected the top 4 or 5 variables I wanted to study. This abbreviated model became the focus of my dissertation.
As a faculty member in the Collat School of Business at UAB and a mentor with The Phd Project network, I share this advice with many doctoral students struggling with committing to a dissertation topic. They usually find it helpful. I hope you do too.
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