Research Abstract Assignment Instructions
Students will prepare a one-page (250-300 word) abstract that proposes their chosen organization for the Research Paper Assignment due in Module 7. The abstract should identify the organization and a brief background of two to three problems that were recognized. If a student is choosing a personal workplace, names may be disguised if desired. During the course, students will research theories within the readings for application, and may find more organizational issues emerge as the study of these theories continue in the course.
(Tutor, this part is important) :
The first assignment in this class called an abstract. However, while the name implies it should have the feel of a typical abstract, the point behind the assignment is literally to get approval for the organization you want to select that will be used in your Week 7 Research Paper. In addition to selecting an organization, and writing a little about it for context, you need to identify two to three issues within the organization that you will propose solutions for in your research paper. Organizational issues can be any number of things like lack of professional development, issues with diversity, low employee satisfaction, high turnover in leadership, etc. Anything that is negatively impacting the business. These will be further explored in your research paper, where you will also propose solutions based on the types of systems you learn about in this class.
Can you choose your own organization? Yes! However, some students decide to choose a different organization (sometimes large or small) like Amazon, Wal-Mart, Starbucks, etc. If you choose your own organization, the biggest issue I have seen is relying too much on your personal knowledge and not finding the appropriate amount of research to use in the paper. Remember, this is for a research paper, so you will need to have ample citations and sources to validate the information you write about. ***It is okay if you do not have citations in your abstract this week… but they definitely need to be heavily used in the research paper!!! It is not enough to say “well I am the CEO of the organization, so I should know the issues first-hand”. Unless you are a published author who has studied the issues your organization is having, you need to rely on the literature available as much as possible. If your organization has published information to use, then that is wonderful. Otherwise, it is best to lean towards an organization you can study. Remember, the goal in all this is to convey that you can identify organizational issues and propose solutions based on organizational systems learned in this course. You wouldn’t want to choose an issue like low employee satisfaction without having a study to cite that gives the specific details or numbers to back it up. Please let me know if you have questions.
