Assignment Overview 

This course project is designed to give you real life practical experience while examining some of the key elements of organizational behavior as they apply to a specific organization.  Additionally, the project offers you the opportunity to develop and create your own recommendations for the organization.

Each week, you will complete a weekly project (parts A – E) and, in week 7, you will synthesize all of this into a final project that will be your recommendations.    For the weekly projects, you will be conducting research and presenting findings related to the organization that you selected.  For the final project, you will develop a formal recommendations paper based on your research.  Consider the weekly projects as a way to examine the current state of the organization.  Consider the final project as a way for you to provide recommendations to better the organization.

 

Timeline and Point Allocation

See the course calendar for specific due date:

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Topic Selection:  Week 1 (30 points)

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Part A:  Week 2 (50 Points)

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Part B:  Week 3 (50 points)

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Part C:  Week 4 (50 points)

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Part D:  Week 5 (50 points)

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Part E:  Week 6 (50 points)

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Project Recommendations:  Week 7 (100 points)

Topic Selection:
 

One of the most critical steps in this class is selecting an organization.  You will use this topic for each weekly project and the Project Recommendations.  An organization must be submitted for approval before you can proceed to the next elements of the assignment.  Failure to submit your topic selection by the due date will preclude you from completing the upcoming project assignments.  When selecting an organization for purposes of these assignments, it’s best to select a mid-size organization where you will be able to access the information needed to complete these assignments.  Selecting an organization that is too large, like Wal-Mart or GE, will be too significant a scope for these assignments.  Selecting a small organization of under 20 employees won’t provide the needed dynamic to complete these assignments.  When considering what organization to select, you may select an organization where you work or have worked.  You might also select an organization that is of interest to you but it should be an organization where you have access to resources to complete the required assignments.  There are many scholarly sources available within the Davenport University Library.  Additionally, other great resources could be leaders within the organization who you can interview.  One word of caution, it’s important to maintain objectivity.  This will be demonstrated by your scholarly research.  

 

For the Project Topic, you will submit a 2 page (body) APA formatted paper that will include the following:

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Name of organization

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Reason why you selected this organization

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Description of organization that will include type of industry, number of employees, basic history, any other pertinent information as to why this is a great selection for your topic. 

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A minimum of 3 specific APA formatted scholarly resources that you plan to use in your upcoming research.

The topic must be approved by faculty before you can proceed.

General Guidelines for Parts A-E and Project Recommendations

• Projects must be completed using APA standards with the inclusion of:
• Title page
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Body (with correct use of headings and sub-headings)
• Conclusion
• Reference Page
• Appendices (as needed)

• Projects must be completed in third person.
  
• Parts A – E as well as the Project Recommendations do get submitted to Turnitin as a routine.
  
• These assignments require that you conduct and assess scholarly research.  A good place to start your research is the online databases accessible through the Davenport University Online Library.  [Hint: If you are unsure how to use the databases ask for help by clicking on the Ask A Librarian link]. You can also use professional websites and magazines, quality newspapers and journals. Yet another source would be interviewing leaders within the organization.  Note: References like Wikipedia may be a good starting point but it is NOT considered academically credible because the information can be edited by lay people who may not input accurate and validated information.   Parts A – E need to have a minimum of 4 scholarly sources outside of our class resources.  With each week, you should be expanding your reference list rather than using the same references repeatedly.  The Project Recommendations needs to have a minimum of 10 scholarly sources outside of our class resources.
  
• It is imperative that you tie your research and recommendations to the course material.  Be sure to link your projects to the core concepts from the class.
  
• The body for each of the weekly projects will be  4 – 6 pages.  The body for the final project will be a minimum of 10 pages.
  
• The university’s policy on plagiarism and academic honesty apply.
  

Part A:  Reward and Performance Practices 

Conduct and present research that evaluates the current reward structure in your selected organization.  Be sure to examine both monetary and non-monetary rewards.  Evaluate the effectiveness of these rewards on performance.   Additionally, assess how this reward system motivates (or fails to motivate) employees (Note:  this is not where you will make recommendations – that will come in the final project).

Part B:  Decision-Making

Conduct and present research that evaluates the decision making process within the organization.  Be sure to provide specific examples of complex decisions that have been made.  Discuss and describe who is involved in the decision-making and who is impacted by the decision-making.  Evaluate the effectiveness of this process, without making recommendations.

Part C:  Conflict

Conduct and present research that evaluates how conflict manifests itself within the organization.  Discuss both positive and negative conflict.  Be sure to provide specific examples.  Examine what stressors cause conflict and what approaches are used to manage conflict

Part D:  Leadership and Organizational Structure

Conduct and present research that evaluates the leadership style fostered in this organization.  Provide examples of both its effectiveness and ineffectiveness.  Describe how leaders are (or are not) nurtured and developed.  Analyze how the organizational structure also manifests itself within the organization.

Part E:  Organizational Culture and Change

Conduct and present research that evaluates the current culture of the organization.  Provide examples of how environmental forces have impacted the organization.  As a part of this, identify how the organization accepts or embraces change as a force.

Project Recommendations

For this final element, you will synthesize all of your research and create recommendations to the organization’s leaders on ways that the organization can adjust and improve in the following areas:

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Reward and Performance Practices

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Decision-making

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Conflict

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Leadership and Organizational Structure

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Organizational Culture and Change

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You may include other recommendation sections as appropriate for your organization. 

Justify your research by including scholarly research that has been conducted on comparable organizations.  Be sure to include both the pros and cons of your recommendations.  As a friendly reminder, this is a professional document and should be completed in third person.

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