ASSIGNMENT 2:

RESEARCH PAPER

Topic due Sept. 3, 1996.
Draft paper due: Sept. 24, 1996.
Final paper due: Oct. 29, 1996.

Anticipated Length: approximately 10-12 typescript pages

Topic Selection

Choosing a paper topic is a two-state process: the first is selecting a broad area and finding information to learn more about it; the second is to find a particular focus (e.g., your question, angle of approach or particular slant) within that broad area that makes the paper a contribution to knowledge. For Sept. 3, you only have to send me your broad topic. Please send it to me by email with a few citations to information sources that you will help you to learn more about your topicand find your particular focus. Some helpful hints to finding a topic follow. If you already have a topic in mind, you can skip the next section.

Ideas for Topic Selection

The best approach is to think about a topic you don't know a lot about but would like to learn. The topics on the syllabus and discussed in the readings may give you some ideas. Other suggestions follow.

Management is a field that has a great fondness for buzz words (e.g., outsourcing, collaboratories, intranets, reengineering), acronyms (e.g., TQM (total quality management), JIT (just-in-time inventory management), MBO and MRS (management by objectives and reporting system), and new ideas in a phrase (e.g., 360-degree feedback (performance appraisal method), theory X,Y and Z, multi-faceted organizations, process mapping). If you come across a new term in the news or on the business page and are curious about it, it might make a good paper topic.

Management is also a field that has a long history and many "heroes." If references to names like Tom Peters (excellence), Henry Gantt ("Gantt charts), Rosabeth Moss Kantor (dancing with elephants), Douglas McGregor (Theory Y), Peter Drucker, Deborah Tannen, and many moreinterest you and you like a human approach to the study of a field, choose one of these as your topic for a biographical exploration.

And, of course, there are topics aplenty from issues relative to women in management, restructuring through downsizing, team management, mergers and partnerships, networks and consortia, diversity, multinational corporations, small business, etc. Everyday factors like dress and speech have connections to management as do aspects concerning all the traditional functions of the management field -- planning, organizing, staffing, coordinating, reporting, budgeting.

One final thought -- sometimes it's possible to select a topic such that you can explore it from a theoretical or technological point of view for one class and from a managerial perspective for this one.

Draft Paper

Once you've chosen your topic and sent it with a preliminary bibliography to me, your next task is to consider how you will approach your topic -- what your focus will be and how you will organize your paper.

You have three weeks to complete the draft paper which will not be graded but will be evaluated by a fellow student without being given the identity of the author. He/she will be asked to provide editorial suggestions on the paper itself and to write a 1-2 page critique of the content and his/her overall impression of it (see assignment 3). I will read the critique and the draft and add my own comments and suggestions. The draft is due Sept. 24 , a firm date. It will be returned to you by or before Oct. 15 You will then have two weeks to incorporate whatever editorial suggestions you choose to accept and to turn in the final paper on Oct. 29.

It will be to your advantage to have your paper in as close to final form as you can make it by Sept. 24, but whatever you have, even if it's only an outline with a few paragraphs and a bibliography, should be turned in. Late drafts will not be accepted.

Final Paper

"Good writing is rewriting," so says an old axiom. The intent of this assignment is to underline that fact and to encourage you to take a revisionist approach to your writing tasks.

When your paper is returned, please read the critique from your colleague and from me very carefully. Use your best judgment as to whether to accept suggestions or to respond to concerns that the reviewers have had. It is entirely up to you to decide whether or not to make any changes in your paper.

Turn in two copies of the final paper -- one with your name on it that will be returned and one without that will be made available to future students as a possible model.

Grading criteria for the research paper include:

Final paper is due Oct. 29

Email me if you have questions @: Evelyn Daniel

Revised 8/6/96