topic : Social Exchange Theory in the Workplace at American University
- subtopic:
- Imposter Syndrome: What HR Managers Need to Know
Individual Paper
- You are to assume the role of an HR/OB consultant. Your task is to advise HR managers looking for background information, best practices, and guidance on your chosen HRM/OB topic. Many HR managers are behind in terms of issues that will help them to recruit, motivate and retain employees. As a result, you have been asked to analyze an important topic as a priority for HR managers at American University to begin to move the university forward in terms of knowledge and understanding in this area. Your research should inform your advice and recommendations to HR managers at other universities struggling to impact employee’s attitudes and behaviors in measurable ways.
- I strongly recommend that you choose topics on the team sign-up sheet; however, if you choose a different topic, you must get approval from me before the second week of class. Good sources for ideas may be newspapers, magazines, current events, reality TV, etc. You are welcome to frame your analysis objectively or to develop a thesis and defend it.
Paper Content
- Describe and define the HR/OB phenomena. Give sufficient detail to provide a clear understanding of how organizational practices may be impacted by the chosen topic. Please draw an example from American University based on your own experience both as a student and an employee (if applicable), people you know who work for the university, or outside research. **Please do not cold-call or interview university staff or faculty**
- Make the strategic business case for how this issue can impact employees’ attitudes and behaviors. What types of tangible and intangible benefits can be realized by understanding your phenomenon? Explain your rationale.
- Briefly describe a study that you might conduct to further understanding in the area of your chosen topic. What measures will be important? How will you collect the data? What do you expect to find as a result of the study that you recommended? Also, report any findings of data that you collected through interviews or archival data.
- Outline a plan to measure the changes that AU HR managers should make in response to your presentation and provide recommendations that include action items that can be followed by HR managers.
Peer Learning Assignment
- An opportunity for you to learn from your classmates, and to improve how you offer constructive feedback.
- Submit the final version of your paper in the Peer Learning Venture Platform
- Provide feedback on randomly assigned papers submitted by other students
- Provide feedback on feedback submitted by other students on anonymous papers (i.e., not your paper)
Project Deliverables
- Rough Draft for ProComms review
- Final Draft for Peer Exchange
- Final Draft of your INDIVIDUAL paper
- Practice presentation for ProComms: Submit in Canvas
- Final team presentation (10 minutes in zoom)
ATTN Students: No final papers will be graded that have not been submitted to ProComms.
Keys to project success
- Submitting a MSWord document
- com score should not exceed 25% including references
- Writing should be concise and non-redundant – use the feedback from your peers and ProComms to improve the quality of your draft
- Incorporate at least 4 outside sources to develop knowledge about the topic, for example, presenting statistics on the prevalence of the problem or phenomenon. Useful sources are popular business publications (e.g., Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune) and HR-specific publications (e.g., HRMagazine). Online newsletters and blogs are not acceptable sources.
- Use ~2/3 specific course concepts/theories to analyze the topic
- Define the theory from readings/lecture
- Use the theory or concept to analyze
- Explain the “So what?” of the topic & discuss the broader implications for the real world & management practices, all in a creative/unique way.
- Embed at least one figure and one table within the body of the paper
- Appropriately cite all of the references used throughout the paper (not included in the word limit). Use APA 7 formatting.
- No more than 1200 works of double-spaced text (one-inch margins, Times New Roman 12-point font). The cover page, references, and any appendices do not count toward the word limit.
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Individual Paper Assessment Rubric |
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Description of OB/HR phenomenon (includes detail linking to organizational practices, and at least one clear example) |
20% |
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Strategic business case for attending to the phenomenon (includes BOTH clearly stated tangible and intangible benefits of attending to the phenomenon) |
10% |
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Study or program to implement to understand more about the phenomenon (includes measures, data collection plan, any previous findings, and related recommendations for HR managers) |
20% |
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Writing Clarity (writing is concise, well-organized, grammatically correct, professionally formatted, and the main ideas and purpose are well-established) |
25% |
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Connection to course concepts (uses 2-3 specific course concepts/theories) |
10% |
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Proper use and citation of at least four outside sources |
5% |
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Figure (s) (are clear, professionally formatted, and advance the understanding of the concepts) |
5% |
|
Table (s) (are clear, professionally formatted, and advance the understanding of the concepts) |
5% |
Project presentation pre-recorded in Zoom
Each student will select a sub-topic (e.g., Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace) for their individual paper. Based on the sub-topic chosen, each student becomes a part of a team that will present on a main topic (e.g., Attitudes and Emotions). Each team is expected to use the knowledge that they gained from their sub-topics to create a coherent presentation that synthesizes that information into a single combined group presentation that lasts no more than 10 minutes. The time for questions and discussion is not included in this time allocation.
Presentations should be framed such that they are targeting senior managers of an organization interested in the topic. During your presentation, you must use a visual aid, such as a PowerPoint presentation, and all members of your team must have a speaking part. It is up to your team to decide how to distribute the work for the presentation in a way that makes best use of the individuals on your team, but this is a collaborative effort, and each person must contribute in some way.
Members of the class will provide feedback on the presentation including both strengths and weaknesses. You are required to attend all presentations in both class sessions in which projects are presented. If you fail to do so, you will lose participation points.
Keys to team presentation success
-Using a shared slide template
-Using PowerPoint as a virtual background (see Share Screen; advanced settings in Zoom)
-Using a team discussant to summarize at beginning and end
-Ensuring cohesiveness between slides
-Sharing recommendations framed as “we statements”
-Providing real world popular press examples
-Using photography instead of clip art
-Using models within presentation
-Using tables or graphs containing data in presentation
-Having cameras on throughout
-Looking into camera instead of down
-Remaining within time limit and ensuring everyone presents for an equal amount of time
-Practicing with members who need to strengthen presentation skills