Week 2: Paper

This assignment will be submitted to Turnitin™.

Instructions

You will start to construct your final research paper due in week 8. The final paper needs to at least 5 pages. This does not include the title page, abstract or the reference page. This week you will write on your chosen topic and select one scholarly article. If you do not know what a scholarly article is, please ask your instructor.

Instructions

Your first assignment in this course is simple but very important. You need to select a specific area of interest in the field of organizational behavior (from among the options below) that you will use each week (except week 6) as you engage the different methods and processes of research. You will use the topic you select each week (except week 6) throughout the duration of the course, so select a topic (from the list) that you are interested in studying. At the end of the course, you will have a useful collection of documents (and increased knowledge) pertaining to one area of organizational behavior research.

The following topics are typical of the theoretical areas associated with organizational behavior research. Select one topic and use it EVERY WEEK (except week 6) as the subject of your inquiry in the location of pertinent scholarly articles in the APUS Online Library:

Organizational culture and communication

Styles of leadership and your organization

How to change the status quo to a new model

Ethics and organizational culture

Technology, organizational behavior and your organization

Job Satisfaction in your organization

The physical environment in your organization and how it affects organizational behavior

Trends in organizational behavior and how to adapt it in your organization

Other ideas? Contact your instructor

There may be a particular theoretical area of organizational behavior that interests you but is not included on the list above. Send a message to the professor to gain approval to use it prior to completing this assignment.

Remember that you will be using the same selected topic with all the assignments (except week 6) during the eight weeks of the course.

DETAILS for assignment 1:

1. Make sure to utilize your topic of interest in the course.

2. Find a scholarly journal article (NOTE: SELECT AN ARTICLE THAT WAS PUBLISHED WITHIN THE LAST TEN YEARS) that presents scholarly research associated with the topic. At this early point in the course, you are asked to "jump right in" and utilize the online library to locate an appropriate scholarly journal article that presents research concerning your topic. Note that you may access the APUS Online Library and get help with scholarly research from the school. The APUS Online Library has a great orientation video to help you get started. The APUS Online Library also provides a specific guide for how to research in the library.

Keep in mind that scholarly research involves solving problems. If your article does not present qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods research then you do not have an appropriate research article. Again, for the purposes of this assignment, you want to intentionally find a research article that contains one of the three methods of research: qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods.

Save the article to your computer to have as a reference and also to attach to the assignment when your paper is completed.

3. Write a short paper (450-600 words) that demonstrates a brief analysis of the scholarly research article you selected. You are to write your APA paper in such a way as to answer the questions/issues below. However, do not include the list on your paper. Instead, let the items guide the content expressed in your paper, which should be in typical paragraph form. Because of the shortness of the assignment, several of the items may be contained in a given paragraph. Be precise and you will be concise. Remember in the first paragraph you need to have a thesis statement. Please remember this is an academic paper and 3rd person is required.

• After a brief introductory sentence. Tell whether the title is appropriate to the focus of the study. (Note: select an actual research study; avoid selecting a lecture on a topic. Research studies involve the collection and analysis of data, whereas lectures on a topic typically discuss a variety of research studies and do not provide the details of data collection and analysis.)

• State the problem. Is the problem clearly stated? Does the problem have a theoretical rational? How significant is the problem studied in the research?

• Is there a review of the literature? If so, is the literature relevant? Summarize (in a couple of sentences) the review of the literature.

• Fully and completely describe the research method that was used to attack and answer the problem. Was the research method used to solve the problem qualitative or quantitative, or both? What instruments were used to answer the problem? Was there a sample used? If so, how was the sample selected?

• State the hypothesis/questions or objectives. Were they stated clearly?

• Are there any probable sources of error that might influence the results of the study? If so, have they been controlled?

• What were the statistical or evaluative (quantitative/qualitative) techniques used to analyze the data? If so, were they appropriate? Note: There are many scholarly articles in appropriate journals that inform your topic. However, not all of them will describe research that evaluates data. Make sure that your selected article includes the evaluation/analysis of data. If you are unsure, this is the time to contact your professor and discuss it.

• Summarize the results. How clearly were the results presented?

• What are the limitations of the study? Are they stated?

• Summarize the conclusion(s). Are the conclusions presented clearly? Does the data support the conclusions? Does the researcher over generalize the findings?

• How can the results and conclusions presented in this study be applied in your particular field of study or work environment?

4. Utilize the APA Helps, as necessary, in the Resources area to help you present your brief paper in APA format, which means that you need to write a Title Page and References Page separate from the body of the text of the paper (no abstract or author note are needed). On this assignment, you should write the publication information about your article on the References Page (only one reference needed . . . the article you are analyzing) and then also cite the source in the body of the paper whenever you are stating facts from the article. Avoid unsupported statements whenever possible. In many cases, you will write a paragraph of text and insert a citation only once. When you have a direct quote, include the page number of the source, too. Some may ask why APA is so important. APA is the mode of communication of the written word in the business research field. It is the due diligence of graduate management students to excel at APA.

5. Make sure to check your Turnitin report to fix any issues with quotes and citations. Your paper will be automatically scanned by Turnitin upon submission. There is no need for a separate login or password.