FINAL PAPER The major paper for this course will be due on May 11. It (plus rela

FINAL PAPER
The major paper for this course will be due on May 11. It (plus related assignments) will be worth 25% of your final grade. As you write this paper you will put yourself in the role of an “Organization Development Consultant.” See the following link for a description of an organizational development consultant: What Does an Organizational Development Consultant Do? (learn.org) (Links to an external site.) The organization that you pick for this assignment can be anywhere in the world. It can be an organization that you know personally or it can be an organization that you find online. It can be a for-profit or a non-profit organization….a manufacturing company, a think tank, a school, a church, a library, literally any type of organization. It can be big or small. You will submit an assignment on March 2 in Module 6 where you will investigate three possible organizations for your final paper. You will then choose your organization from these three organizations after you receive my comments on your assignment. You should have your choice finalized by March 30. You will submit your final choice with your Module 9 work. In your Organizational Development Paper/Project you are to pretend that you are writing a proposal to your chosen organization for an “intervention” to help the organization with a problem it is having (high turnover, low employee morale, poor employee performance, etc.-the problem must be related to psychology in some way) or to help the organization get through some change process (downsizing, rapid expansion, new organizational structure, etc.). You should try to narrow the general problem area or change that you will address so that you can write a good proposal in this relatively short report. Your proposal to the organization MUST be related to psychology; it must be related to the kinds of things we have been studying in this course! Your proposal should not include business solutions (e.g., you might suggest a new training program, but probably not a new computer software purchase).
References
You will use five possible sources of references for your proposal:
General online searches about your organization: about its history, makeup, purpose, culture, etc. If you are using online searches, you may choose to complete a questionnaire (General Online Search Questionnaire in this Module) documenting your online searching. If you choose to complete this questionnaire, you will submit it as an assignment in this module for a possible 10 points to be averaged into your final paper module score.
A specific online search where you will ask the question in your chosen search bar (Google, etc.): “What is it like to work at __________________. You may then choose to write up this search on the Specific Online Search Questionnaire provided in this module. If you choose to complete this questionnaire, you will submit it as an assignment in this module for a possible 10 points to be averaged into your final paper module score.
First-hand or in-person knowledge that you have about the organization. If you are using first-hand knowledge, you must summarize, in a separate document, how you obtained this first-hand or in-person knowledge. See First-Hand Knowledge Questionnaire provided in this module. You will submit this completed Questionnaire as an assignment in this module for a possible 5 points to be averaged into your final paper module score.
Interview of someone who works at the organization. If you do an interview of someone who works at the organization, you must do a semi-structured interview. You must submit the record of your interview as an assignment in this module for a possible 20 points to be averaged into your final paper module score.
Scholarly journals, books, or other printed documents including the required book for this course: Barnes, B. (2012) Everything I know about business I learned from the Grateful Dead. New York: Grand Central Publishing. There will be a separate assignment in Module 7 related to the Grateful Dead book
NOTE: If you submit any of the above Questionnaires or the record of your interview in this module, you may use these submitted Questionnaires or the Interview record as a reference for your final paper/project. However, you must also have the required references outlined in the Technical Requirements for the Final Paper outlined below.
Suggested Outline for Your Paper: You may substitute your own outline.
I. History and purpose of organization (cite references for source of this information) (This section should be no more than 2 pages total.)
Size of organization? How many employees?
What does the organization do (without necessarily identifying the organization by name)?
What is the physical environment of the organization?
What is the culture of the organization?
II. Problem identification (limit to 3 problems)
Refer to your online searches, journal assignment, or any personal information or information you have from employees/volunteers at the organization.
Identify any problems you uncovered in this organization (limit to 1-3 problems)
III. History of problem
How did the problem(s) come about?
What lead up to this problem?
Did anything seem to make the situation worse?
IV. Current Situation
V. Plan an appropriate intervention (a way for the organization to solve its problem(s))-this is a proposal. You are writing about what you think the organization should do to solve its problem(s). And remember this is a psychology class. You must be proposing solutions that are related to psychological concepts and theories, to ideas and concepts we have studied in this class– not business solutions (e.g., you might suggest a new organizational structure, but probably not a new accounting system).
Use the psychology references (journal articles, etc.) and all of the other references you have found to help make this plan.
Tell how you would apply the information obtained from your research in journals, online, etc., to improve the condition of the organization.
IV. Tell how you would evaluate the effectiveness of your plan
Describe specific (quantified if possible) outcomes that you expect.
Describe specifically how you will know if these outcomes have been achieved. What kind of research might you do at the end of your work to evaluate the success of your intervention?
Technical Requirements for the Final Paper
You must have at least 10 references total. Two references must be scholarly journal articles. One can be a scholarly book. One will be the Barnes (2012) book. One reference can be a newspaper article, from a general daily or weekly paper, not a tabloid type. Your remaining references will be from the sources outlined above under References.
The reference citations and the reference page for your proposal (including any Tables or Figures) should be in American Psychological Association (APA) format. You can find information about APA format at the following site: Purdue OWL: APA Formatting and Style Guide (owen.k12.ky.us) (Links to an external site.)
The paper should be written in a formal style. However, the body of your paper won’t be in APA format. You will not have an introduction, methods, results or discussion section as you might in a research paper. You will use an outline like the one suggested above in this module. You should avoid the use of personal pronouns (I, you, we, etc.) whenever possible. Please Limit your use of direct quotations. I prefer no direct quotations unless you are quoting an interviewee.
The main body of the report will be between 10 and 12 full pages long. It should have a separate title page and reference list (not part of the 10-12 pages). It should be double-spaced. Margins should be one inch on all sides. The print type should be no larger than 12 point.