TEAM (or individual) PROJECT 2: Article OB Concept Paper

TEAM (or individual) PROJECT 2: Article OB Concept Paper

Revised Project 2 (individual or team your choice) Paper due to BBlearn by Wednesday May 6th.

1) (5) Article in a clean pdf copy approved before February 20th? No = 0 points, yes and a clean pdf of article = 5 points, yes and a messy pdf and/or paragraph not sufficient = 3 points
2) (10) Article related OB Concepts identified/described and presented in a model by February 26th? No = 0 points, yes = 6 – 10 points
3) Email team members if you wish to do this assignment as a team. Make sure team members know you want to do this as a team, otherwise you will do this assignment as individuals. Also, please make sure each of your previously team members has access to the article and the model that was submitted earlier in the semester. Any combination of teams or individuals from within the original teams for the semester is fine. For example, one person could be an individual, and then two people be one team and two people be another team. Or all five could remain a team for this assignment. Or any other combination. You may not change teams – you need to do it as an individual or as a team with some of your previous team members. When turning these in, be sure to have clearly spelled the names of any team members on this revised assignment. Only turn in one paper for a new team, do not have each person submit the same paper. I’ll get you credit no matter which one specifically submits it.
4) Your assignment is to continue with your topic/article for Team Project 2. If you decide to do a team paper (team of any size, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6) then you have a total of four pages maximum for this assignment. If you choose to do Assignment 2 as an individual, then you have a maximum of two pages for your individual write up of this assignment. Single space typing is expected. You must write an answer/explanation of the following:
First half of paper write-up: (one page if individual, two pages if team-based write-up.)
Provide a clear identification of the article and news source, and a brief explanation of why it is important.
Provide a 1-2 sentence problem statement describing the problem the company is facing.
Consider and write about OB concepts (as proposed in your model previously in the semester and you can also add more OB concepts as you wish). You want to convey how they could be applied to the situation. NOTE: you may use other articles related to the company in your article to find evidence to support the OB concepts in your model.
Describe the solutions that the organization is implementing or considering.
Discuss other potential solutions to the problem/challenge based on theory.
Explain your beliefs about the likely success and potential challenges of the proposed solutions, given what we have been studying in MHR310. Specifically utilize theories from class to support your analysis.

Second half of the paper write-up: (one page if individual, two pages if team-based write-up.)
Consider your article and your OB concepts from this assignment and think about what is going on right now with the pandemic. Now, how does the current “stay at home” and “social distancing” and other happenings surrounding the coronavirus affect the model you and your team formulated earlier in the semester? Given the coronavirus situation going on, consider the OB theories and think about what advice you could give to executives in the company about what might be important for attempting to maintain performance and organizational commitment.

Team Project 2 Background/Context and Purpose:

As described in Chapters 1, 2 & 3 of your textbook, the attitudes and behaviors of employees play an important role in helping organizations succeed. In fact, there is significant evidence that employee attitudes are strongly correlated with organizational performance measures such as profit and ROE (Coffman & Buckingham, 2000). Therefore, it is essential that leaders understand, explain and ultimately improve “the attitudes and behaviors of individuals and groups” (Colquitt, LePine & Wesson, 2014, p. 6) in their organizations.
When problems or challenges occur (e.g., high levels of turnover) leaders must diagnose the problem to determine the source (e.g., stress) and then implement solutions that will address the source(s) of the problem (e.g., change the organizational culture, add an onsite daycare, change employee benefits). Fortunately for us, many of the larger or common problems that companies are facing and solutions that leaders are implementing are described in business-oriented publications, such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Fortune (e.g., Google-Style Office Perks Go Mainstream). Harvard Business Review articles will not be accepted because we are looking for news publication.
This project provides you an opportunity to apply your leadership and organizational behavior (OB) knowledge to better understand a current real-world problem, sources of the problem, and solutions being implemented. Specifically, this project intends to help you: (a) recognize OB challenges that leaders in a specific organization are facing today, (b) enhance your understanding of OB theories and principles by applying them to the specific organization’s challenges, and (c) think about the likely success and potential challenges of the proposed solution(s).
This revised project allows you the opportunity to consider how the theories, and science, of organizational behavior might be useful for addressing issues in companies related to the coronavirus outbreak.