INDIVIDUAL APPLICATION PAPER GUIDELINES
The formula: B = f (P, E) (Behavior is a function of Person-Environment Interaction), introduced in Lesson 1, serves as an enduring basis for understanding human behavior and performance in organizations. For this assignment you will apply course concepts or theories to a current or previous experience, in a way that explicitly illustrates the formula. In other words, select a life experience that you feel illustrates the formula. Then describe and analyze the experience in terms of the formula, drawing on theories or concepts to bolster your analysis.
Person (P): Person level variables include personality dimensions, preferred styles (e.g., decision making style), values, attitudes, perceptions, or any other variable within the individual. That is, person variables reside within you. For example, your most of your self-assessment write-ups identify a person-level variable.
Environment (E): Environmental variables are external to you. In the workplace these might include reward systems, organizational structures, systems or culture, supervisory structures or styles, job characteristics, group/team characteristics, technology, and so on. An environmental variable might also be a personality or other individual-level characteristic of someone else, insofar as other people are a part of your environment.
Additional Points: Try to pick one central experience - how a specific P, and an E, interacted to affect Behavior. While you can use multiple theories and concepts to approach and analyze this, when in doubt it is usually best to limit the number of theories/concepts you use in order to facilitate depth of discussion and demonstration of clear understanding. That is, a goal of the paper is provide an in-depth analysis of one experience relative to the formula. You may pick more than one P or E if you feel such is important to describing your experience, but again, depth of analysis is important, and sometimes ‘less is more'. Finally, your paper should have one central theme, or story, and good flow.
Format: Five pages (not including references). A page means Times New Roman 12 point font, double-spaced, w/ 1" margins. Paginate using the convention ‘page x of y'. Include your name on the header. You are expected to generate concise, high quality writing.
Deliverable: Submit to the Application Paper dropbox by the deadline in the course schedule. Please submit your Self-Assessment Portfolio as an appendix to your Application Paper.
That is: include both documents in one file.
Robbins, Stephen P. & Judge, T.A. Essentials of Organizational Behavior, 13th edition (2016) Prentice Hall, ISBN 978--1-32-327360-9.. Course Material