Title Page
Title of your applied research paper, course number and title, professor, and date.
Introduction
Provide an overview of the organization and your role in it. Give enough information about the firm to acquaint an unfamiliar person (no matter how famous the company). Identify name, location, size, market segment (business line), and a brief history. Identify the essential issues, events, or actions to help frame the problem and subsequent discussion points.
Problem Statement
Identify and clearly state the problem (the leadership or organizational behavior issue that you have selected to research). The problem statement should be phrased in terms of a researchable question. For example, if a work group is not performing effectively, an effective problem statement might be "How can group performance be improved?"
A well-formed problem statement has the following.
1. Focus: The problem should be well-defined and specific enough for the reader to gain a clear idea of the OB topic area and the direction of your study and research.
2. Structure: If the problem statement is sufficiently focused, it will provide a basis for decisions about which information to include and which to exclude from the paper.
Literature Review
You should address at least six scholarly resources in this section. Approach this section as a mini book report on each of the reference sources that significantly informed your analysis and proposed solutions. Give the reader an encapsulated review of what information you found most relevant to your research. You may have found conflicting opinions or theories related to your topic area. Identify and discuss any such contrasts or describe in detail significant agreement among your sources. Your literature review should be separate and distinct from your analysis section; it is a summation of your research. The goal should be a paragraph containing a minimum of three to five sentences per review.
Analysis
Explore the problem in depth and with scholarly rigor.
Provide an identification and description of the root causes of the problem or issue. Be sure not to address only symptoms of your problem. Diagnose the problem and its origins.
A critical element of this section is to apply leadership and organization concepts and models from our text, from class discussions, and from your literature review. Discuss the concepts, ideas, or insights that are most valuable in helping you make sense of the causes of the problem. Support your analysis with reference to appropriate research material.
Solutions
Identify at least three potential workable solutions to your problem and identify the pros and cons of each alternative solution and its high-level implementation steps.
Identify your preferred solution and describe exactly what should be done and how it should be done, including by whom, with whom, and in what sequence. Always explain your thinking behind your final solution set. It's important to be clear about why a particular alternative (solution) was chosen, as opposed to others.
Reflection
Think about this assignment and write a well-thought-out reflective statement about how this assignment influenced your personal, academic, and professional leadership and managerial development.
References
You must use no fewer than six library resources outside of your textbook.
All references should be cited in two places—within the body of your paper and on a separate reference list. Choose references judiciously and cite them accurately. You must Cite all sources using APA format.