Instructions

This weeks instructions are at the very end but all relate to the final project.

PROBLEM: You have been directed by your corporate or organizational president to research the following situations/problems and prepare a formalized research paper. This paper should be addressed to the president, board of directors, and your professor. For this research, you should conduct a review of literature based on the current practices being used in today’s organizations (in terms of your selected research problem/situation).

For your research project, please select one of the following problem or situational areas to research. As you conduct your secondary and/or primary research, you should also develop a well-developed strategy as to how to implement your strategy into this organization. One way to view the selected problem is to think of a current or previous organization, in which you might focus your research efforts towards. For example, you may be facing the same problem in your current organization – so you could write this paper, based on addressing this particular problem with your current organization. If you do not see the relevance of any of these problems with your current or past employers – just write your paper as if you were employed with a Fortune 500 company or an organization currently in the news.

Here is the topic of the potential problems or situations for your research topic: Creation and implementation of a new performance appraisal system or method of conducting performance appraisals.

GUIDELINES:
a. Title Page (or letter of transmittal if a memorandum format is used)

b. Table of Contents (unless a memorandum format is used).

c. Introduction

d. Problem Statement (5-8 sentence paragraph that clearly defines the problem and why it needs to be researched).

e. Review of current practices (background of literature) in the area

f. Strategic plan for change or creation of the anticipated change (use examples of where this approach has been successful in other organizations if pertinent).

g. Strategic approach for implementation of the change(s)

h. Final recommendations and possible outcomes (best and worst case scenarios)

i. Summary/Conclusions

j. References section

k. Appendix (if tables or charts or necessary)

SUBMISSION:

You will be required to prepare an annotated bibliography with some of the articles/books you plan to cite in your final project. You will be required to have 6-8 entries.