15 Jan You must use no fewer

MGMT591 Leadership and Organizational Behavior

Course Project

Leadership and Organizational Behavior in Action

Objective

Research shows that people learn effectively when working on real problems grounded in their work experience. To this end, the Collaborative Course Project is designed to incorporate students’ work experience into the learning process in this course.

The project is an opportunity to explore, in-depth, a topic related to the course objectives (COs) that is of significance to one ore more of your team member’s organization (current or former).

Summary

Each team is required to prepare an applied research paper, with a minimum of 15 pages but not to exceed 20 pages in length (excluding cover page, table of contents and appendices), on a specific issue related to leadership or organizational behavior.

Guidelines

Topic Selection

Select a specific organization of interest to the team members and identify a problem at the firm related to organizational behavior (OB).

Think of your team as a group of organizational consultants. Assume that a key manager has requested a thorough analysis and recommended course of action to resolve an actual organizational problem. The team’s goal is develop recommendations that will make a positive difference to the performance of the organization.

Your team’s paper should address the following three course objectives, at minimum:

Course Objective A – Evaluate how organizational theories and practices can improve organizational operations.

Course Objective B – Analyze how values, attitudes, beliefs, feelings, and personality influence decision making in the workplace.

Course Objective F – Analyze the impact of different structures and lines of authority on organizational strategy and culture.

Research Sources

All papers must have a minimum of eight scholarly sources cited within the text of the paper and identified in the references section.

Additional research sources can be attached in a bibliography.

For more information on how to access and use EBSCOhost contact the Library at 800.293.3044Call: 800.293.3044 or library.devry.edu (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. and click Ask A Librarian.

Paper Format

All papers should be double-spaced, using an 11- or 12-point font.

The length of the paper is to be between 10 and 15 pages, not counting the cover page, table of contents, nor appendices.

The first page should include the title of the work, student name, course number and title, date, and professor name.

The second page should be a table of contents. It should, at a minimum, reflect the seven items listed in the Grading Rubric.

Follow APA style for general format and citations (see the APA Guidelines Tutorial in the Syllabus).

The paper sections must adhere to the guidelines below, and each section must be labeled in the text.

The language should be clear, concise, and precise.

The tone should be professional, consistent, and not filled with jargon.

Grammar and syntax (sentence structure) must be correct.

The report must be free of misspellings and typos.

Tables and Figures

All figures and tables must be referred to in your text before they appear on the page.

Figures and tables should appear on the same page as, or the page after, the text that refers to them.

All figures and tables need captions. Captions go below figures and above tables.

Quotations and Citations

Quotations and citations are crucial components of a research paper and must be present.

Failure to properly cite research sources and borrowed ideas is plagiarism.

Refer to the APA style guide for assistance with properly citing quoted or borrowed materials and ideas.

Turnitin is used on all reports and projects. A report can be obtained for your review prior to submitting your final work. Make sure that you are in compliance with the University’s 20/80 rule.

Milestones

Week Action Required

Familiarize yourself with course content and select an organization and problem area to research.

Submit the Team Contract.

Submit a written Brief Proposal of Research containing the following:

A brief overview of the chosen organization and your team’s role in it.

A preliminary problem statement in the form of a researchable question.

A brief narrative description of the organizational problem that you would like the team to research and resolve.

Conduct library research on your topic.

Identify a minimum of eight scholarly resources for the project.

All resources for the paper must come from DeVry Library and must be of scholarly quality.

Use the librarians for assistance in accessing materials.

Review the Using EBSCO tutorial.

Please Note: Articles found online (many on consulting company websites, Internet magazines, or other blogs) will not be considered an acceptable scholarly resource. Conduct your research through a library where you can be assured that the sources are of scholarly quality.

Submit a written Expanded Research Proposal containing the following:

Title page and Table of Contents.

Documentation of at least four initial scholarly sources from the library.

Expanded introduction to the organization.

Expanded description of the chosen problem.

Preliminary solution options (can be bullet points).

Preliminary analysis of leadership and organizational behavior concepts addressed in the paper.

Continue to work on the class project; seek professor help as required.

Submit the completed project.

Team Files

Here are the files that you will need for your team project.

Team Name and Contract (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Peer Review (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Project Outline

Your paper must include the following sections.

Section Points Description

Title Page

Title of the team’s applied research paper, course number and title, professor, and date.

Introduction

Provide an overview of the organization and your team’s role in it. Give enough information about the firm to acquaint an unfamiliar person (no matter how famous the company). Identify name, location, size, market segment (business line), and a brief history. Identify the essential issues, events, or actions to help frame the problem and subsequent discussion points.

Problem Statement

Identify and clearly state the problem (the leadership or organizational behavior issue that you have selected to research). The problem statement should be phrased in terms of a researchable question. For example, if a work group is not performing effectively, an effective problem statement might be “How can group performance be improved?”

A well-formed problem statement has the following.

Focus: The problem should be well-defined and specific enough for the reader to gain a clear idea of the OB topic area and the direction of your study and research.

Structure: If the problem statement is sufficiently focused, it will provide a basis for decisions about which information to include and which to exclude from the paper.

Literature Review

5

Your team must address at least eight scholarly resources in this section. Approach this section as a mini book report on each of the reference sources that significantly informed your analysis and proposed solutions. Give the reader an encapsulated review of what information you found most relevant to your research. You may have found conflicting opinions or theories related to your topic area. Identify and discuss any such contrasts or describe in detail significant agreement among your sources. Your literature review should be separate and distinct from your analysis section; it is a summation of your research. The goal should be a paragraph containing a minimum of three to five sentences per review.

Analysis

50

Explore the problem in depth and with scholarly rigor.

Provide an identification and description of the root causes of the problem or issue. Be sure not to address only symptoms of your problem. Diagnose the problem and its origins.

A critical element of this section is to apply leadership and organization concepts and models from our text, from class discussions, and from the team’s literature review. Discuss the concepts, ideas, or insights that are most valuable in helping you make sense of the causes of the problem. Support your analysis with reference to appropriate research material.

Solutions

40

Identify at least three potential workable solutions to your problem and identify the pros and cons of each alternative solution and its high-level implementation steps.

Identify your preferred solution and describe exactly what should be done and how it should be done, including by whom, with whom, and in what sequence. Always explain your thinking behind your final solution set. It’s important to be clear about why a particular alternative (solution) was chosen, as opposed to others.

Reflection

10

Think about this assignment and write a well-thought-out reflective statement about how this assignment influenced the team members’ personal, academic, and professional leadership and managerial development.

References

10

You must use no fewer than eight library resources outside of your textbook.

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. Cite all sources using APA format.

Please note that 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 form of plagiarism is to paraphrase information from your source material. 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 that not your own are given proper acknowledgment in your text.