Mghb02: Holanda La Magicosa Verrugosa

MGHB02 L01 only Fall 2015 Prof Radhakrishnan –Individually Written Assignment

Due dates Posted on Schedule on Portal

As a BBA student from a top university in Canada, you are expected to know about research on people and groups in organizations. Every day several articles are published in the media about how people and groups behave in businesses. Which of these are true or valid or make sense in helping managers/employees improve the workplace? Which of these help increase the effectiveness of a company?

Your task in this assignment is to select one such media article and evaluate the claims made in that article using scientific research on people and groups in organizations. You will obtain the scientific research from articles in academic, peer-reviewed journals. To evaluate the article, you will answer a series of questions.  

Selecting the Article

1. The topics discussed in the article should be focused on managing people and groups in the workplace. Consult the list of topics/table of contents in the textbook used for this course.
2. The article can come from one of the following non-technical sources. The article has to be published after Sept 1, 2014.

CBC, CNN, Huffington Post, Global News, BBC, Globe & Mail, Toronto Star, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Economist, The Financial Times, Quartz, Rabble.ca, Business Week, MacLean’s, Fast Company

Note: We refer to the sources above as “non-technical” since the articles published in these sources are not typically reviewed by scientists who are doing in research in the topic. However, such scientists may be interviewed/quoted in these articles or their research may be directly linked to the article (note, this is a clue as to the quality of the article)

Evaluating the Article 

Answering the following questions will help you evaluate the claims made by the article. The marks help you determine the difficulty of the question and the depth of your answers.

1. What is the hypothesis (thesis, claim) of the article? (2 marks)
2. What are the concepts/variables in the hypothesis? How are the variables defined? How are they measured? How are they similar and different from another variable that is not being measured?  (7 marks)

1. Are some of the concepts/variables measured studied in the course being applied? Cite those concepts based on your research from peer reviewed articles.
2. How are the concepts/variables cited in the article different from those studied in the course? Cite those concepts based on your research from peer reviewed articles.

1. What evidence/data is presented to support/not support the hypothesis? (5 marks)

1. Are the authors taking their information directly from a research study found in a peer-reviewed article or not? If so, cite that article. This also gives you a clue as to the quality of the original magazine article.

1. What explanation (i.e., cause, reason, theory etc.) do the authors of the article provide for the evidence/data/results? (10 marks)

1. Are some of the theories studied in the course being applied? Cite the theory based on your research from peer reviewed articles.

1. Are there other explanations (i.e., theories, causes, reasons, confounding variables etc.) that account for the evidence? (7 marks).

1. Are alternative theories being considered or not? Again, cite these based on your research from peer reviewed articles. Note especially if these alternative theories are not being provided by the authors of the magazine article.

1. What are some of the limitations of the article’s sources/research. (7 marks)

1. Here you can refer to issues of scientific method discussed in the textbook as a starting point. For example, you can consider if the results are generalizable to other situations/people)
2. Here you do  not need to make comments about the writing style of the article

1. If you could do the research cited in the article yourself or re-write the article yourself, given what you know about the theory on the topic and scientific method, identify the ONE most important thing you would you re-do/add to the article/or do differently to the study to overcome some of the theoretical explanations or methodological flaws of the article. (3 marks)

1. To do this you may consider your answers to q2, 5 or 6 above.
2. Again, here you do  not need to make comments about the writing style of the article.

Finding Research to Analyze your Selected Article

1. To evaluate the claims made by the article you will need to use academic peer-reviewed articles (especially in the questions that ask you to cite research from peer-reviewed academic articles).  These are written by scientists who do research in the field.    

1. You may notice that in some news articles, the author may refer to academic peer-reviewed journal articles as a source from where s/he retrieved the information. If this is the case, you may use the same article in your paper.
2. You may notice that some of the theories are discussed in the textbook. Use the end notes provided in the textbook to go to the original peer-reviewed academic source. Describe the theory in your own words after reading the original article. Do not to copy your description from the textbook.

1. To search for peer reviewed academic articles to evaluate the article you have chosen to analyze you can use: Proquest, PsycInfo, JSTOR, Web of Knowledge, Google Scholar etc. These are all good search engines to use when looking for academic articles on the topics mentioned in the news article.

1. When you find an article you think is good, you can see whether it qualifies as academic and peer-reviewed (e.g., by using Ulrich’s web).

Format/Requirements of the Assignment

1. Your paper should be not more than 1000 words.  It can be less.
2. You MUST include a full copy of the news article with your paper (the web link is not sufficient, please, copy and paste the article at the end of your assignment as an appendix).  
3. The word count does not include the bibliography/reference list or a copy of the news article
4. Your paper must be typed or word processed, on 8 1/2 x 11" white paper, double-spaced, the text should be at 12 pt. font and all margins should be set at 1".
5. You should include a bibliography / reference list indicating the source of the news article and the source of the academic peer reviewed articles you used.  You can use MLA/APA style format. You should do research on how to cite things in these style formats.
6. Your name, ID #, course number, and lecture number should appear on the top right corner of the first page.
7. Before you submit your paper on the due date, ensure you have at least 24 hours to submit the TEXT VERSION OF THE ASSGIMENT ONLY on turnitin and make appropriate changes if it flags your paper as having too many similarities to papers previously published/submitted. (See blackboard for instructions on how to submit on turnitin).
8. For L01 (Wednesday section) only: Upload a copy on blackboard at the time your registered section starts on Oct 14 (i.e., 1pm). Your submission date/time stamp will be verified manually not by what blackboard may/may not classify as ‘late’.  Submit a hard copy of the assignment to the professor in class on Oct 21 at 1pm. BOTH blackboard and paper submissions are needed!

1. Because your due date is scheduled during reading week (oct 14) the hard copy will be due on Oct 21. So it is particularly important that you ensure you submit on blackboard by 1pm on Oct 14 (i.e, the time your registered section starts).  

1. USE stapes/clips to secure your assignment. No binders, cerlax, or duotangs due to weight considerations.  You can print on two sides of the page.  
2. If your assignment is late, then 4% of the total grade for the assignment will be deducted for every day it is late (including the weekend). No extensions! No exceptions!  
3. If your submission is unfortunately late in class, you must email it to your professor as soon as you have completed it and upload it at the same time on blackboard. You can then make alternative arrangements to provide her a paper copy.

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