So you are a work psychologist, or management PhD then (me too) :) I think this is fine in terms of four variables. I can't comment on the theory you are looking at - I look at OCB in my studies, and also performance/well-being outcomes (i.e., employee effectiveness), but do not know about culture/commitment. None-the-less, you need to think more about the design if you are interested in causality. This will have to be a longitudinal study (i.e., lots of data from the same people on many occasions), and you will need a very large sample. Plus you will have to get into some serious statistics (e.g., SEM; LGM). Don't let it put you off, but just a consideration. You may find anyhow that it isn't an a>b>c>d relationship, but that a, b and c work together in different ways (i.e., moderate, simultaneously). This will be theoretically guided. At PhD level though, it is fine to look at four variables.

People may come up with ideas for business during their PhD, but this is unlikely to be because they are *doing* a PhD. What do you think the purpose of a PhD is for? It is not usually for coming up with ideas for business (or at least not in my field). You need to do some internet research to find out the career prospects of people who have done a PhD in Engineering. Alternatively, it may take you in the new and exciting direction that you are looking for. One thing is for certain though, you will need to know exactly *why* you want to do a PhD to be able to get on one of the degree programs - even if you're self-funded, there will be (1) lots of people also wanting the same place as you; (2) the University will only take you on if they think you are a strong candidate (they don't want the risk of prospective students failing/leaving). Financially, the choices are either to get funding or fund yourself. I have a scholarship that paid my fees and a maintenance grant during my PhD. This may be substantially less income than you are used to; works out at about £1000 per month tax-free. I could live of this fine though :) Scholarships are much rarer to get these days; many people apply for them and are disappointed. If you are to self-fund, fees are about £3500 per year, and you will need at least £12,000 to live off. Plus you will need to pay for research training and conferences (some are abroad). I'd reckon on making sure you have in total then, £16,000 per year for the 3/4 years. You may be able to earn a little from teaching whilst doing your PhD as well. A PhD will pay off if you want an academic career and that is your vocation. It may help enhance your technical skills as well, in your field. If you mean financially, I would say if you stay in academia then it is unlikely you will earn what you could in business. Though I'm still struggling to see the link between becoming a Dr and starting a business, personally. Good luck!

*oops* yes you did say what your masters is in, sorry! But I still think an MBA may be something to consider :)

I'm not an expert but it sounds like an MBA may be better than a PhD if you want to head in a business direction. You didn't say what your masters is in, but I assumed it wasn't an MBA? In my field (social sciences), PhDs are what you need for an academic career in research or lecturing, and some go into consulting too. An MBA would be less committing than a PhD in terms of years spent studying, and perhaps your company might even fund you. I think you should find out more about what PhD opportunities there are out there, and whether they fit with your future career plans. They are a massive commitment and I would say you should be sure it's what you want before embarking on one.

Yes it is :)

I would say that if it is your first/second year then you are probably fine to commit to up to three hours a week. This is of course assuming you will be teaching the same module but to different groups; of course you only need to prepare once then! Marking time depends on the nature of the assignment. Expect the first ones to take ages, and you to speed up once you know what you're looking for. Teaching is an excellent experience and will set you up for an academic career, so go for it.

Thanks DanB!!

Hi all, OK so I'm on my very last Chapter, the discussion, now. Yet I seem to be going at half-speed!! Could you please send me your motivation vibes to get me through it... I'm really struggling to get anything down. Ta :-)

Alpacalover, you know they make SPSS for Mac, right? That's what I use ;-)

Does anyone else get this kind of weird motivated feeling when experiencing PMT? I often think to myself "Wow I'm so much pain, but look at me, I can do this, I can do anything! See how I won't let it affect me!" I guess it must be a combination of hormones/emotions, but I definitely notice more drive at this time

Pineapple29 I'm going to give you a "virtual" slap in the face!! There is totally no need to feel like this given your supervisors previous comments about the advanced state of your work. That you have got this far and written all that is a sign of your commitment to the PhD, do not even consider downgrading to MPhil at this point!!! As you will know, even if everything went wrong at the Viva (which it won't), they may give you an MPhil anyway, so there's no point in pre-empting this. You would be shooting yourself in the foot if you don't give yourself at least a chance. I am also at the last stage of the PhD... 80k words of rubbish so far, I'm halfway through the last Chapter, and I still have to make all the corrections. I know how you feel - that it'll never be good enough, why put yourself through it, that it's a pile of pants. But confidence is the most important thing of all - you just need to be honest about its good points, and aware of its bad ones, and then you will do just fine at the Viva, trust me. So stop panicking and just hand it in. The point of a PhD is to prove you can conduct research, and the thesis just needs to indicate this, who cares if you didn't find everything you were looking for/it's not perfect. Good luck and be brave (up)

I would allow at least one month per Chapter. It really depends on how long you expect they'll need to be, and the content of each Chapter. So for me, the theory part/literature review Chapters have been the most difficult whilst the methodology and empirical Chapters have been most straightforward; likewise, more or less time has been spent on them. I know for others it is the other way round! I would also look at other theses in your field to get a rough idea of length of each Chapter. I did this and from that could work out how long it would take me approximately, to get a rough draft. At full steam I can write a maximum of 1,000 words a day, but this is not good quality! So a 500 words per day target might be more realistic. BTW I'm writing my last Chapter now, the discussion, and I can say that I have written up the majority of my Thesis (79k so far) over the past 8 months. Good luck!

That's weird Sneaks, I am in almost the same situation as you. I'm coming to the end of my PhD now and I have a post that's moving to Manchester. My husbs and I are already living in a backwater town in Nottinghamshire so we can both commute, me to Sheffield, him to Lincoln. He's a civil servant too. Now I'm going to Manchester for a 2-year postdoc we have some serious things to consider... he can't leave his job because there are no jobs in the civil service atm; I also feel I need to take the post-doc as it's an amazing opportunity and only for 2 years (and jobs are also a rareity in academia right now too!). When I did my Masters I lived apart from my husbs for a year and we met up at weekends - it was awful but we did it. What I've done for the new job is compromised with the project lead; he said I can work in the office three days a week and then from home the rest of the time. I think we can handle this. I guess it depends on the nature of your job if you can arrange to do this or not. What I would say though is that for me, my personal life is more important than work life... so I'd never take on a situation if it meant that I wouldn't be able to see my husbs for days at a time.

My department (in social sciences) has a 75k-100k guideline. That said, I know at least three people who submitted near the 50k mark (one more like 45k!) and they all passed fine. It's the quality and coverage that count.

To "recapitulate"