Management Research Report (MRR)
What is Management Research Report (MRR)?
A fundamental feature of the CIPD Professional Standards is that qualified
professionals should have strategic awareness, a business orientation and be
concerned with adding value through people management and development
practices. The CIPD expect qualified professionals to be able to write a competent
report on a people management and development issue that seeks to persuade
businesses or HR managers to change or adopt a particular policy or practice. The
MRR is your opportunity to demonstrate these qualities.
The MRR subject matter is typically determined by the organisation in accordance
with guidelines we provide and often in discussion with us, although it is not required
to be as academic as the dissertation (provided your dissertation is not library basedsee below). In this respect, it is designed to be a more “practitioner” based piece of
work and as such, does not require such a detailed literature review, research
methods analysis, and critique of approach (all of which are required in our
dissertations). The MRR is geared towards producing work that is practical, relevant
and of real value to the organisation and its management team. Our experience of
this approach means:

We find that organisations often provide relevant and highly topical project
work that is on the current internal HR function’s agenda.

Organisations become far more engaged in the students and act as more
effective mentors to get the work completed as it is often tied to their own job
tasks and effectiveness.

The student often becomes more deeply involved with the HR function and
understands the nature of the work and its impact on the organisation to a far
greater degree.

Many students are asked to participate in related activities that are beyond
the project requirements e.g. internal presentations, management meetings
etc., which can provide invaluable experience.
This report should be 5-7,000 words in length and is normally completely separate to
the dissertation, both in terms of organisation and subject matter. Some MRR’s are
connected to a dissertation but this is only in a minority of cases and where it fits with
appropriate subject matter as well as individual and organisational needs.
The report should be a piece of work that integrates theory, systematic enquiry and
organisational practice. The MRR provides an opportunity for you to demonstrate the
ability to investigate and diagnose a ‘live’ people management and development
issue or problem, to locate your work within the body of contemporary knowledge, to
collect and analyse data, to derive supportable conclusions and to make practical
and actionable recommendations for change, improvement or enhancement to
current practice. The key point is that the research for the MRR must involve
investigation and analysis of data and cannot be undertaken on a purely theoretical
desk-based basis.
Important note:
It is advised that you should be doing an empirical based dissertation. However if your
dissertation is library based your MRR must involve empirical research and primary
analysis of data.
Your project will also be confirming or developing both your business report-writing
and academic researching skills. You will also be using tools and techniques that
form the basis of good professional practice. As an element of assessment, the MRR
requires you to demonstrate a critical evaluative approach and your ability as a CIPD
‘thinking performer’ by meeting the following performance indicators:
CIPD ‘Operational indicators’
Practitioners must be able to:

identify a suitable project for their management report, in terms of its
feasibility and relevance to an organisation, as well as to key issues in
personnel and development.

plan and design a project that demonstrates an awareness of strategic issues
and has the potential to make a contribution to improvements in
organisational performance.

demonstrate a satisfactory knowledge of existing literature, of contemporary
personnel and development practices, and of policy issues in the subject area
chosen for the management report.

access and interpret data from primary and secondary sources in compiling
material for their management report.

make appropriate and correct use of techniques, such as interviews,
questionnaires, participant observation and documentary analysis, in
gathering data for their management report.

analyse the data that have been collected for their management report, by the
use of qualitative and quantitative methods as appropriate.

draw realistic and appropriate conclusions from their management report.

present their management report in a clear, logical and systematic manner in
order to persuade key decision-makers of its merits.

prepare a plan for implementing the recommendations made in their
management report within a reasonable time-frame.

undertake a critical review of their management report and identify ways in
which their project could have been undertaken more effectively.
CIPD ‘Knowledge indicators’
Practitioners must understand and be able to explain:

the rationale for their choice of project aims and management report.

the contribution that personnel and development can make to performance at
an organisational, professional and societal level.

the nature and importance of a number of major issues in the existing
personnel and development literature and contemporary personnel and
development practice.

the range of primary and secondary sources from which information can be
gathered for a management report.

the advantages and disadvantages of different research methods and their
relevance to different situations.

the use and value of different analytical tools for interpreting data.

the structure and content of a management report.

the principal techniques of communication and persuasion that are used
when writing and presenting a management report.
Getting Access to Organizations
As part of the CIPD qualification students are expected to prepare a management
report which is typically a focused review of one of the organisation’s key areas of
HR strategy, policy or practice. The specific topic is decided by the organisation in
conjunction with the student(s) and the Professional Stream coordinator.
Some students choose to do their management reports with the organizations they
are working for. On other occasions students find work placements/internships on
their own, which is a way to get into an organization and complete a management
report. However we do realize that not everyone will be in employment and some will
need help in getting access to organizations. In those cases King’s will facilitate
access to organizations and help students to complete their management report.
King’s will endeavor to provide access to organizations through work placements
which can take the form of either an internship that runs over the summer months
(June-August) or as a consultancy type arrangement with visits to an organization
made on an as needs basis. With internships, students will normally be expected to
commit around 3-4 days per week as they also have a commitment to complete a
dissertation during the period. These project or internship opportunities will be
advertised to students, who will then be asked to submit an up to date CV for the
organizations. Appropriate CV’s will then be put forward to the organization, who will
select students themselves.
Timeline
The deadline for submitting the Management Research Report and CPD log is
Monday 30st September’ 2013. Students are required to submit two hardback copies
of the report and one copy of the CPD log.
Word count
This report should be 5-7,000 words in length.