Overall Purpose for the Final Research Paper:
For this paper, you are to pick one issue. Some examples are: sexual harassment, high-turnover, outdated processes, fraud, unsafe work environment, ineffective communication, misuse of social media, etc., that is taking place in your own organization, or an organization of your choosing (i.e., Enron, Walmart, Volkswagen, Yahoo, etc.).
You will then choose 2 of the 3 concepts (organizational culture, leadership, ethics) to examine your central issue with. In other words, you are analyzing how the 2 components you chose, negatively impact and perpetuate your central issue.
Once the issue is examined, you will then discuss recommendations that could help decrease your central issue, as well as help the culture, leadership and/ or ethical climate (depending on which 2 concepts you chose).
Before completing this paper, please review the Expectations for the Final Research Paper Download Expectations for the Final Research Paperdocument. This document further elaborates on the instructions below.
Please follow the instructions below
Criteria for the Final Research Paper:
This paper must be 6 to 7 pages in length (not including the cover page or reference page) and completed in APA format (7th edition). You must utilize 6 scholarly resources for this paper. Additionally, please provide a heading for each section. For example: “Introduction”; “Purpose Statement;” and so forth. The paper must be in Word format.
Components That Must Be in the Paper:
Cover page (in APA format)
Introduction:
The introduction section of this paper is intended to provide the background information that is essential for the reader to understand the nature and scope of the problem you have selected. The introduction helps the reader better understand the focus of your research paper.
For this section, you want to make sure it is clear to the reader the central issue being examined, as well as the 2 components (i.e. organizational culture, leadership, ethics) that impact your chosen issue. Additionally, it should be clear to the reader where the issue is taking place (i.e. in what organization). Maximum: 3 paragraphs.
Purpose Statement:
The purpose statement should be clear, definitive, unambiguous, and readily understood by anyone who reads it. The purpose statement should include your central issue and the 2 components that are impacting the issue (i.e. culture, leadership, ethics). Additionally, you also want to note for the reader that you will be examining recommendations as well. Minimum: 2 to 3 sentences. Maximum: 1 paragraph.
Analysis
In the analysis section, you need to critically analyze your chosen issue as it is impacted by two, of the three components (i.e. organizational culture, leadership, ethics).
You must address the below questions (depending on which 2 components you chose) when writing your analysis:
Organizational Culture: How is your chosen issue negatively impacted by the workplace culture? What behaviors in the workplace culture exacerbate your issue?
Leadership: How do you think leadership negatively impacts your chosen issue? What leadership style or characteristics further contribute to perpetuating your issue?
Ethics: How does the ethical climate of the organization negatively contribute to this issue? What unethical behaviors further perpetuate the issue?
You must incorporate theories/concepts from other resources to help validate your statements and further support your examples. Examples should be specific and not vague. Remember, do not focus on what “should” occur in this section, you want to focus on establishing your issue, and why it is occurring.
Expectations for the Final Research Paper
Overall approach for this paper:
For this paper, you are choosing one issue that you think is further exacerbated by two of the three
major components we examined in this course; leadership, organizational culture, and ethics.
Below is an example of how to approach each section of the paper as it pertains to a chosen issue, and
two of the three components you are to choose from:
Issue: Sexual Harassment
Chosen components that impact the main issue: Leadership and ethical climate
Introduction:
For the introduction, it is important to not only set up the issue for the reader, but also the two
components you are choosing to discuss your issue with. Furthermore, it is important to the let reader
know where the issue is taking place (i.e. your own organization or one of your choosing).
In keeping with our chosen topics above, the introduction should include the following:
The scope of the issue: sexual harassment
-Introduce the issue
-Where the issue is taking place: Note the organization. Is sexual harassment a pervasive issue
within a specific department, or the organization as a whole? How long has this issue been going
on?
– Briefly touch on how leadership and the ethical climate negatively impact the issue of
sexual harassment.
Note: You can define what sexual harassment means in the introduction, or when you transition
into your analysis with a brief definition. You always want to define for the reader what the terms
you are using mean.
Example:
Before examining how leadership and ethics further impacts sexual harassment, it is important
to first understand the definition of sexual harassment.
Purpose Statement:
Remember, a purpose statement is essentially just like a thesis statement, except more specific and
direct. It provides the paper with a clear direction and purpose. The purpose statement should be
concise, and therefore, the reader should have no doubt as to what your central issue is, as well as the
two components that negatively impact your issue. It should also be noted that you will be examining
potential recommendations.
Example:
The purpose of this paper is to examine how an ineffective leadership and ethical climate further
contributed to the issue of sexual harassment at Yahoo Incorporated. Furthermore, recommendations
will be discussed regarding how to provide a solid leadership and an ethical climate that could decrease
sexual harassment. (Note that the purpose statement includes all of the main components that will
be examined in the analysis).
Analysis Section:
It is important to remember the approach for the analysis section, as this will help you stay focused.
Example:
X (leadership) and Y (ethical climate) are negatively contributing to Z (sexual harassment) occurring.
Think of ineffective leadership and an unethical climate—-? creating a dynamic that fuels the issue of
sexual harassment.
Now that you understand the approach, think about how to defend or validate that approach.
I refer to different sections of the analysis as legs. So, keeping with our example, in my first leg of the
analysis, I am going to address leadership and sexual harassment.
This is done by incorporating articles, books, etc., and specific examples, to help substantiate your
perspective.
For example, my perspective is that ineffective leadership is perpetuating the issue of sexual harassment.
In other words, why do people act the way they do? There are two things I need to do:
-Provide specific examples
-Find resources to tie back to my examples, and support my perspective.
Note: you can provide a theory first, and then an example. The order does not matter, as long as you are
providing solid information to help validate your issue (i.e. leadership and its impact on sexual
harassment). And the paragraphs are well-developed and organized.
Example of a source: Chris Argryis is a very useful source. One of his theories is model one
behaviors. While he does not specifically go into sexual harassment, he does examine why people act the
way they do (even when it is not beneficial to the organization). He examines how individuals further
exacerbate organizational issues, and why. I then use this theory to help validate my perspective. I tie
this theory back to a specific example that I provided in my analysis. By doing these things, it helps to
illustrate how leadership negatively impacts sexual harassment, thus, providing a solid critical analysis.
Here is an example of how to organize each leg of the analysis. I chose to discuss leadership
and sexual harassment first.
Leaderships Impact on Sexual Harassment?first leg of the analysis
Establish the central focus for the first leg of the analysis-in this example it would be leadership
and its negative impact on sexual harassment.
Define leadership.
Establish your issue: address how leadership negatively impacts sexual harassment. (Keep in
mind the questions noted in the instructions under each component).
Incorporate research to validate your perspective. (I should see resources incorporated in all
paragraphs, because this is not an opinion paper).
Incorporate examples to further support your statements and research.
Stay focused on examining what is it about leadership that is negatively impacting the issue.
Dont focus on how leadership should be behaving-that is for the recommendation section.
Wrap up first leg of the analysis by reinforcing the overall central focus. In this case, it would be
leadership and its impact on sexual harassment.
The same approach used above, would then apply to the second leg of the analysis; Ethical climates
impact on sexual harassment.
The Recommendation Section:
For this section, your recommendations should tie back to SPECIFIC examples that were previously
discussed in the analysis section. Stay focused, and provide an organized and succinct recommendation
section. The recommendation section should be written in paragraph format.
Here is an example:
Transition paragraph that introduces the central focus for this part of the paper:
As previously discussed, ineffective leadership as well as an unsound ethical climate can further
exacerbate the issue of sexual harassment. In order to overcome the negative consequence and avoid
such dilemmas altogether, recommendations for both leadership and ethics will be examined to decrease
sexual harassment, and help to achieve organizational success.
Note how both components (i.e. leadership and ethics) were noted along with the central issue (i.e.
sexual harassment).
Then funnel down to the specifics. Here is a great way to set up this section:
Recommendations for Leadership:
Introduce solutions that could help increase effective leadership & decrease sexual harassmentdont just tell the reader, show the reader. In other words, provide specific examples as to what
should be implemented, not vague information.
Focus on at least two recommendations for each component.
Recommendations for Ethical Climate:
Apply the same format above
Conclusion:
Unify the overall central themes in a succinct way. Avoid restating everything you just discussed in the
recommendations section.
For example, the overall central themes are: Leadership, ethical climate and sexual harassment,
and the importance of recommendations (in general).
Things to keep in mind:
Cite your work. I should see in-text citations throughout the body of the analysis.
Please review the APA resources regarding how to format in-text citations.
PARAPHRASE, PARAPHRSE, PARAPHRASE! All concepts and theories must be paraphrased.
Please understand that just changing a few words or the order of the wording, is not
paraphrasing. I want students to apply critical thinking to the analysis.
Use direct quotes SPARINGLY. Please do not use direct quotes in place of defining concepts.
Only use direct quotes to enhance your analysis.
Please do not list or bullet point information within your papers, write out everything you want to
discuss in paragraph format.
Most importantly, please do not plagiarize. If you are still a bit fuzzy about what plagiarism is, I
would recommend reviewing the plagiarism policy and/ or plagiarism video.
