GUIDLINES

  Below are your guidelines for your Mid-term assignment. This assignment will require devoted inquiry, reflection, and refinement in order to achieve the highest possible score. This is only one of your two major grades and the quality of your work needs to reflect the importance of the assignment. Essentially, this work will take a tremendous amount of time and effort. I recommend you get started as soon as possible! You will have the opportunity to choose from the following topics. HOWEVER, you ONLY PICK and WRITE about ONE. This work will be your own unique, scholarly contribution. With each option, I am just giving you a broad topic. It is up to you to address the major topic through the exploration of theory (that you select yourself). You can write about one of the theories that we have covered in this class or you can find another theory that fits your topic that we have not explored. If you have questions, feel free to run it by your Academic Coach and myself. Additionally, beyond identifying and writing about a particular theory, you will need to incorporate appropriate and supplemental information about your topic. This means you may have to find information regarding the current state of affairs; include relevant stats; other data; additional supplemental facts, etc. to make your work persuasive and detailed enough for a Master’s level program. Remember that this work is a THEORETICAL WORK. This class is all about theory. If you FAIL TO GROUND YOUR WORK IN A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK – you have not met the goals of this work. This work is supposed to answer one of the questions below – THROUGH THE USE OF THEORY. I cannot say this enough; it is not enough to address one of the options below. It has to be substantiated through theory and peer-reviewed resources. Your opinions do not constitute a research work. Now, you may ask yourself – what does this mean? Think of this assignment as if you are writing a professional, persuasive, concise, white work about a particular issue for your organization. In this example, you are trying to address a problem/issue. Now, you are not a subject matter expert. As such, you have to support your position by finding a theory and established literature to support your argument. Think of the existing literature and theory as your back-up to support you and your position. For example, say I wanted to make the argument why we should increase diversity in our topmanagement team at my organization. If I went up to my CEO and said that we should increase diversity because it is the right thing to do…. that may not be a persuasive argument. What evidence do you have to support this? However, if I stated that according to the Cognitive Diversity Hypothesis, multiple perspectives stemming from different cultural backgrounds may result in creative problem solving and innovation (Miller, Burke, & Glick, 1998). This may provide help support my position. I am using existing theory which suggests that increased diversity in top-management teams may lead to more creative problem solving. This in turn may help the organization tackle the large, complex challenges. You are using existing theory and established researchers/experts to support your position. That is what you are doing in this work. Now, with this assignment you have to select and fully explore a particular theory; the pros and cons; the evolution of the theory, and what the theory actually says. You need to put the theory and other literature in your own words; however, you must properly cite other’s work (otherwise it is plagiarism). Citing material simply gives credit to those individuals whose ideas you are using your position and gives you credibility in what you write. Remember, this paper needs to be professional. Please make sure you check it for grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Your paper must tell a story. You are writing about a particular issue…. utilizing a theory to explore it deeper….and drawing conclusions from the literature and your selected theory. Remember that you are writing it for others (Academic Coaches and myself), so you need to write in third person, so NO “I think…” or “my experience….” Use the issue that you are writing about as a springboard to dive into a particular theory. So, if you are writing about diversity, you may provide some current stats about the issue to show why this is an issue or important to address. Then use that to introduce your theory – as this will be the crux of your paper. Address the issue in full, being absolutely certain to do so not as a layperson, but as a healthcare organizational behavior expert. Make sure to reference a particular theory and findings in scholarly peerreviewed articles, etc. to justify your positions. Merely providing personal opinions which are unsupported is insufficient for this assignment. Option #1 The field of Organizational Behavior (OB) is the study of individual and group dynamics within an organization setting. A significant development in th