+1 862 207 3288 From the Syllabus
Individual Practical Situation Application (Each student will do two; rubrics will be provided)
This assignment will consist of an analysis of a particular motivation or performance management situation in an actual organization, identifying where and how the elements of motivation theory and performance management theory can make a tangible difference.
The subject of your assignment(s) should ideally be a real-world situation with which you have experience. Using a real situation that you are familiar with will greatly increase your learning. If it is impossible, particularly for students with little work experience, I will accept an analysis of a situation drawn from the business press or via an in depth interview of a business leader.
You are graded less on whether your analysis is “right” or “wrong,” more on the quality of your reasoning.
Clear writing is as important to your career as clear oral expression. Make sure your writing is technically correct and that the logic flows clearly and compellingly.
This is an individual assignment and subject to USC’s Academic Integrity standards.
Prepare both hard and soft copies with 8-1/2 x 11 format, 1.5-2.0 line spacing, with one-inch margins.
If you would like me to mail your paper to you, include your mailing address.
The word limit is 3,000 words, plus a maximum of five pages of exhibits. Please note that these are maximum limits. You should try to make your paper as concise and coherent as possible.
Exhibits should be used to support your argument with information that can be presented in a table or chart (such as financial analysis, action timelines, etc.) or that would be too detailed for the body of the paper.
Your paper should be the quality that you would provide to the management of a business class.
Additional Ideas
* Think of this as you might a consultant, who analyzes a situation where an organization is in need of raising the performance of its staff. This might include an investigation of reward systems currently in place, incentives, leader/supervisor’s style, and how they go about attracting and developing talent. The big difference between you and a consultant is that you’ll need to make connections between what you see and specific theories you’ve read about. Apply expectancy, learning/reinforcement, attitude and social identity/culture theories.
Although you can reference anything read/discussed the first half of the course of the first paper, and anything in the entire course in the second, an impetus should be placed on the noted theories. The better you can make these connections and rightly site sources and label practices with theories, the better your paper will be. End the paper with some suggested improvement ideas, once again, based on theories and things we’ve discussed in class, as opposed to simple gut reactions.
Writing is an important communication tool, so while this is not a writing class, the goal is to submit grad quality content. Please refer to the Nelson’s Writing Tips slide deck on Blackboard. Citations should be in APA format. If you’re unsure of what that is, Google it for specifics.
Strive to make your paper savvy but also attractive. Organize text with section sub-headers and include a header or footer and appropriate first page info to denote the author, course name, topic, and date. Graphics and photos are welcome, but they should say something and support the text, not just be window dressing or fluff. Make sure you use captions with photos and graphs, as well.
* Another angle you could take, other than a consultant, is as a leader, since that’s the context we’re taking in class. If you were hired as the new manager of this division or CEO of the company, analyze how things have been done in the past and how you’d do it differently. Again, emphasize the specific theories as much as possible, demonstrating that you can identify these concepts in real world situations, when you see them.
