Q: What could be a possible concept note for a thesis entitled effect of work life balance on employee performance?

Thanks for the question. 

A concept note/paper is like a cut-down research proposal. It should not only demonstrate why your proposed research is worth undertaking, but also help you draft your plan. Let’s look at the structure and link it to your research idea. 

Writing a concept paper 

Concept note/paper structure varies greatly, so this guidance isn’t universal. Often, academic supervisors provide a template; in this case, use it. Here, I give some ideas of how to address your topic in common parts of the concept note. 

Title 

Come up with an engaging title. This can be a question, and does not necessarily need to be your final paper title. For you, this should include the terms “work-life balance” and “employee performance.” e.g., “Do perceptions of work-life balance predict employee performance?” 

Research question 

Introduce what you would like to discover in around 1–3 sentences. You need to identify what you plan to reveal about work-life balance in employee performance. 

Background 

Introduce why you chose this topic and include background information that will help the reader understand its importance. Include references to literature on work-life balance in employee performance and explain the gap in current research. 

Methodology 

This should be more in-depth than the previous sections. Usually, you don’t need to provide all methodological details (e.g., you can say you plan to do a survey, but you don’t need to provide all the survey questions). Is the study quantitative or qualitative? How will the data be collected? How will these be analyzed? If you are approaching the topic using some kind of theoretical framework, you can include this too. 

Research plan 

This can be part of the methodology or separate, but you should include a timeline to complete the data collection and analysis steps, as well as the overall thesis completion. You should also address any potential challenges. 

Expected outcomes 

Here, you can briefly explain the outcome and what it means for your topic. Link it back to the gap in the research and explain how it will inform further research on employee performance. 

Bibliography 

Here, you should provide specific references to literature you have cited, and optionally any general references that you have used when researching the topic. Keep them relevant to the concepts of employee performance and work-life balance. 

I hope this gets you started! Please check our in-depth post on how to prepare your concept paper.