COURSE PROJECT ASSIGNMENT GUIDELINES
MGMT591 Course Project Paper Guidelines
The purpose of this Preparation Guide is to provide you with some general direction concerning the content, process, and structure of your course project. In the sections below is proffered some helpful information that will prove valuable with respect to facilitating your completion of a course project reflective of the high standards of quality work and personal learning that should be the aim of each participant in the course. Members of the class are required to prepare an applied research paper on the broad theme of "organizations and leadership." Within this broad theme, the project is intended to be an opportunity to explore in some depth a topic related to the course objectives (TCOs) that is of significance to you or your organization. The research shows that people learn effectively when working on real problems grounded in their own work experience. To this end, the project is designed to incorporate students work experience into the learning process in this course. More specifically, in developing the project, select a specific organization of interest to you. Think of yourself as an organizational consultant and assume that a key manager has requested a thorough analysis and recommended course of action to resolve an actual LOB (leadership and organizational behavior) problem that will make a difference to the future performance of the organization. Focus your study on one specific LOB topic area.
Research
Students must conduct research to obtain information from which the paper will be written. The student will be graded in part on the depth and thoroughness of the research. You are expected to use a minimum of eight (8) references. Do not cite from our course textbook or general encyclopedia sources such as Wikipedia. Those will not be counted in your reference total. It is important that you work on this paper throughout the session and not procrastinate. As should be evident, this course project is not designed as a make-work type of exercise. Rather, it is aimed at affording students the opportunity to bring major course concepts to life via their
COURSE PROJECT ASSIGNMENT GUIDELINES
application to real-world organizational issues and problems. This is your opportunity to demonstrate your mastery and application of the course Terminal Course Objectives. To maximize the prospects for success with this project, it behooves each student to carefully deliberate on the overall project objective and component tasks as defined in the section below.
Assignment
Write a no more than 15 page, double-space (not counting title page, abstract page, references or appendices) paper in which you develop the theme you put forward in your proposal. The paper should be composed of the following parts: Part 1: Introduction (10 points) Usually a few brief paragraphs suffice to give the immediate background required to set the context. Provide a brief overview of the organization and your role in it. Remote historical data is unnecessary. Determine the essential issues, events, or actions to help frame the problem and subsequent discussion points. Include a one paragraph overview of your OCI profile if it focused on the same organization. Include a copy of your OCI circumplex as an appendix. Part 2: Problem Statement (10 points) Identify and clearly state the problemthe leadership / management issue in which an element of the identified organization is not meeting expectations. Remember, that what appears to be the business problem may actually be just a symptom of a bigger problem--dig deep to be sure you've identified the real problem/s. As with symptoms of physical illness, if the doctor merely treats the symptoms and doesnt treat the cause of the problem, the symptoms will persist or return. In sum, be sure to properly frame the problem. Part 3: Literature Review (50 points) Conduct research within the literature related to your topic area to expand your knowledge within the specific area of scholarly work relevant to your problem. More specifically, you must know in detail prior theory and research that have addressed your chosen topic. If you are unaware of relevant prior theory and research, you risk recreating the wheel. Further, a paper that reveals a lack of knowledge of
COURSE PROJECT ASSIGNMENT GUIDELINES
prior work lacks credibility. You should address no less than 4 scholarly resources in this section. Do not use the course textbook as a source. Part 4: Analysis (40 points) In this section, explore the problem in depth. Provide an identification and description of the causes of the problem/issue. Be sure the causes you identify relate directly to the problem/issue. Be cautious of falling into the trap of accepting the surface diagnosis of your problem. Often times the first diagnosis is merely the manifestation of the symptom. Look for the deeper underlying cause. A critical element of the strength of this section is to apply LOB concepts and models from your literature review. Discuss the concepts, ideas or insights that are most valuable in helping you make sense of the causes of the leadership problem. Support your analysis with reference to appropriate research and to illustrations of how the causes manifest in the focal organization. Avoid the tendency to rush in and focus on the surface behaviors or issues without considering the underlying forces, values or assumptions driving those behaviors or issues. Its important we consider not just how to cure the problem (single-loop learning), but that we explore what has allowed the problem to develop unchallenged in the first place (double-loop learning 1). Part 5: Solutions (35 points) To make an informed decision, you need choices. Alternatives are these choices. After weighing the merits of a variety of alternatives, you will be in a better position to make the best decision for a given situation. In the absence of alternatives, people are faced with a yes-or-no choice: Should we do this or not? Thats not much of a choice, and it rarely produces an effective decision. Remember, if there are no alternatives, there is no decision (solutions). Suggest consequences to the organization in 3-5 years if nothing is done differently or no actions are taken to address the causes of this problem. Recommend a more desirable state of affairs (behaviors); compare this state to what happens if no changes are made; and propose at least two action steps that will leverage the organization toward the more desirable state. Describe exactly what should be done and how 1 See http://www.infed.org/thinkers/argyris.htm
COURSE PROJECT ASSIGNMENT GUIDELINES
it should be done, including by whom, with whom, and in what sequence. Always explain your thinking behind your final solution set. Its important to be clear about why a particular alternative (solution) was chosen, as opposed to others. Part 6: Reflection (10 points) Think about this assignment and write a well-thought out reflective statement about how this assignment influenced your personal, academic, and professional leadership and managerial development. References (10 points) You must use no less than eight (8) resources outside your textbook. It goes without saying, but all references must be cited in two places: within the body of your paper and on a separate reference list. Choose references judiciously and cite them accurately. Citing an author's work within your text documents your research, identifies the source for readers, and enables readers to locate the source of information in the alphabetical reference list at the end of the paper. To use the ideas or words of another person without crediting the source is plagiarism. Plagiarism in its purest form involves copying passages either verbatim or nearly verbatim, with no direct acknowledgment of the source. The most common (and unconscious) form of plagiarism is to paraphrase a direct quotation. Paraphrasing does not relieve you of the obligation to provide proper identification of source data. The best way to avoid plagiarism is to make sure all quotes, ideas, or conclusions not your own are given proper acknowledgment in your text. Format, Grammar and APA Style (15 points) Clear writing is an important element of good business communications, and you are expected to demonstrate such skills in this paper. You are expected to submit your best work for this assignment, which means knowing and using good grammar and APA style. Note that title page, abstract page, references and appendices do not count in the page count. The content of your course project paper should be divided into the sections shown above, separated by proper headings.
COURSE PROJECT ASSIGNMENT GUIDELINES
Literature Review Guidelines
A literature review is a written discussion of published or unpublished research, commentary, and information on a topic. The literature refers to books, journal articles, magazine and newspaper articles, company records and documents, and even personal interviews with knowledgeable industry observers. Your task is to search the management and OB literature to: (a) discover the most common underlying causes of the type of problem symptoms you have observed; and (b) discover the various solutions to the problem that have been recommended and tried in other organizations. For example, if your problem is high turnover, you will find a large number of articles and studies that have identified a list of common causes and another list of recommended solutions. Your job is to compile those two lists and to cite your sources. You should supply some commentary on what you find. Dont just describe whats written in articles. You should talk about the concepts, ideas, or insights that have the most value for helping you make sense of your project. What theories can you use? What writers say something of value? And why? Which models are the most helpful, and why? You should cite at least 4 sources (none of which is to be the course text) within the literature review section. A good place to start your review is in the course text and in the chapter notes at the end. Then, you can access Kellers online library and its search engines. You can enter key words such as employee turnover and you will access recent articles on the subject. Scan the titles of the articles that come up and look for interesting ones to read in full. Also, be sure to check the references of interesting articles or books. They will lead you to others. If your initial searches dont produce what youre looking for, try using different key words. If you find yourself totally spinning your wheels, send me an e-mail and ask for help. Your objective in this section is to demonstrate that you can access the management and OB literature to help you diagnose and identify possible solutions for specific management problems. The long-
COURSE PROJECT ASSIGNMENT GUIDELINES
term benefit is that after this class is over, you will be able to use the literature for the rest of your career to confront unfamiliar problems.
