management

MGT 552 • Assignment 4: Research project guidance Fall 2018 • rev 2 Sep 2018 Page 1 of 7

MGT 552 • A4 Research Project Guidance

rev 2 Sep 2018

Introduction

As stated on the course syllabus, this assignment can be completed individually or as a team project; in the latter case, all team members will receive the same grade. The template and guidance here are fully applicable whether you complete this project individually or in a team.

The approach outlined in this document is the product of having guided student research projects in this and other classes. If you see any way to improve this information or its presentation, please provide feedback (via email or even a marked-up hard copy!) to help remove redundancies and improve its clarity. Thanks in advance.

Please post any clarifying questions to Discussions | Clarifications

Purpose

Other assignments in this course require you to write at the level of the self/individual (change/ethics), situation (case), or self/future (personal ethics project). This project requires you to think, work, and write at the level of the firm to:

1. research a controversial issue (which may contain a number of sub-issues) in depth,

2. describe and analyze the ethical and practical implications of the issue(s) for a single firm, and

3. outline a plan to guide the firm’s formal leaders (board, executive team):

a. to an understanding of the nature and extent to which the issue exists vis-à-vis the firm; and

b. to take action on the topic at hand that results in positive and sustainable progress or change.

Topic selection

We’ll use a dedicated discussion thread for you to run your topic by me – for issues of both content and scope. Many students initially pick a scope for their project that is too broad. A couple of minutes of [online] conversation early on can help you out tremendously later. Perhaps most importantly, thinking through the assignment at the beginning decreases the likelihood that you will have to re-scope or rethink a paper through after you've invested a lot of time and effort that you can't really harvest. Avoid finding yourself in the situation of a difficult or unworkable paper that you recognize only too late in the process. The worst case is a paper of which the author doesn’t become aware of its shortcomings until after it is turned in,

MGT 552 • Assignment 4: Research project guidance Fall 2018 • rev 2 Sep 2018 Page 2 of 7

graded, and returned with feedback. Please only research on a topic you are genuinely interested in learning more about. It’s much more enjoyable work for you to do (and me to read) if that’s the case.

Our syllabus calls for you to make an initial posting, and then to finalize your topic statement within a week of the initial posting. You should draft your topic idea using the template topic statement (blue text, below), and post that proposed topic statement to Discussions | Research TOPICS

Be sure to indicate whether or not your schedule/situation allows for a team of co-authors and any related parameters or constraints on your end). You never know who in the class can either help you either personally or by referral.

The topic statement template

The template for your topic statement (TS) is as follows:

What are the ethical issues that the [senior management]* of our [type of company] should address regarding [your issue of interest], and what process(es) should senior management use to address those issues?

*Most TSs specify the senior management of the firm (as the example above), but sometimes specifying the board of directors might be more appropriate, depending upon the subject (e.g., “executive compensation” would be a board matter, not a senior management issue).

Let’s say you are interested in researching the ethical issues related to animal testing, and you’ve always been curious about the cosmetics industry and want to learn more about it. A viable topic statement might be (underline is only added for emphasis here):

What are the ethical issues that the senior management of our global cosmetics company should address regarding animal testing of our products, and what process(es) should senior management use to address those issues?

[btw: In your research, you’d learn that that some countries require animal testing, some ban animal testing, and others neither ban nor require animal testing of cosmetic products.]

Topics that require action by branches or agencies of government, or are under the purview of one organization are off-limits. For example, the report cannot be about banning cigarettes or legalizing marijuana (because both are public policy issues) or paying college athletes (because that’s solely governed by the NCAA).

Similarly, the report is written for a single organization, not for an entire industry. For example, you can write a report for a hospital or a health system, but not for the entire hospital industry.

MGT 552 • Assignment 4: Research project guidance Fall 2018 • rev 2 Sep 2018 Page 3 of 7

Recommendations

You're not making any decisions or substantive recommendations in your report. The reading audience of your report will be doing that later on. Instead, you should tell your reading audience what questions you recommend they consider in making one or more decisions regarding this firm-level issue. Instead of content-based recommendations, this section should only contain process recommendations. In this section you should provide a process “road map” for the firm’s senior management team to

• learn about the issue(s) as they relate specifically to your firm (i.e., questions that would have been outside of your charge to ask, including the collection of firm-specific data);

• engage in a decision process to address the issue(s) from the standpoint of the firm; and

• assess and mitigate risks to the firm during the decision process as well as during the decision’s implementation.

Both the parameters described in this document and the template topic statement keep you out of a LOT of blind alleys:

1. you from prevented from engaging in a creative writing exercise about an imaginary or hypothetical company.

2. you from prevented from gathering data about or from an organization (including, for example, your employer).

3. you are required to anticipate different possibilities about the organizational context in which the issue is present and the decision-making will occur.

4. you are required to template ground the content and the theory in a practical application.

A cautionary note: Many class members are drawn to topics because they are deeply moved by one side of a topic or an issue (e.g., advocating for domestic partner benefits). That can end up putting the author in an "activist" role - and their paper (if not redirected early on) could easily end up reading like a manifesto (by the authors) for actions to be taken others (i.e., the company doing “wrong” or “bad” things).

To make the assignment clear in terms of what you’re writing and who it is for, I’ve expressed the remaining assignment parameters in the form of a memo from the senor leader(s) requesting you complete this project. It is intended to describe clearly who you “are” in the report, who the report is for, and how the report should be written.

Good luck, and enjoy the process!

CONFIDENTIAL MEMO – PAGE 1

MEMORANDUM - CONFIDENTIAL

FROM: CEO/Board chair

TO: You

RE: Research assignment

On behalf of our [senior leadership team/board/applicable board committee], I am tasking you with writing a research-based report responding to the following topic statement (TS):

What are the ethical issues the [senior leadership team/board/applicable board committee] of our [type of organization] should address regarding [issue], and what process(es) should the [senior leadership team/board/applicable board committee] use to address those issues?

You have been chosen for this assignment for several reasons, including (but not limited to):

A. I have been informed that you have the necessary ethical analysis skills and the ability to conduct research and convey your findings effectively.

B. You have no knowledge of our organization’s policies or practices – good or bad – relative to the subject of your report.

The following parameters apply to your assignment:

1. You are not to discuss the project with anyone in or outside the company. No one is to know you are working on this because we do not want to cause any kind of panic or rumors within the organization related to such a sensitive issue as this. For the same reason, you are not to collect any data from within our organization.

2. Your reading audience consists of general managers/directors who do not understand the subject matter you are charged with researching. Therefore, be sure to define and explain any technical or industry-specific terms as you write. To that end, not use endnotes or footnotes.

3. The above topic statement has two sections, as should your report. The first section of the report should be informative, educating the reading audience about the ethical issues related to our subject. The second section should provide a process that the readers can use to navigate the ethical issues you describe and analyze in the first section. Details are provided at the end of this memo.

4. You are researching the ethical – not operational – issues related to the topic, but you should not make any substantive recommendations (see (B) above); indeed, you do not have any data to do so.

CONFIDENTIAL MEMO – PAGE 2

5. Given your lack of knowledge about the company, and the need to maintain complete secrecy about your project, you do not know whether our organization is currently the best- in-class at addressing the issues of study, or the worst in the world, or somewhere in between. Your report should be helpful and informative no matter the condition of our current operations or practices.

6. Do not make or include in your report any assumptions about the company other than those expressed in the TS.

7. Your report is about the issues; it is not about our firm.

8. You should minimize the use of personal pronouns and write as clinically as possible. The reading audience doesn’t want your opinion; instead, we want your best thinking, informed by peer-reviewed research and information about the subject of the TS.

9. This report will be distributed to the reading audience without any editorial changes or revisions by me or my staff. Thus, it is imperative that the content of your report be thorough and the presentation of your report reflect your highest level of professionalism. Both your and my reputation are riding on the quality of your report.

10. You and I work for the same company; we are on the same team:

a. You are addressing me and my peers (and perhaps our board) in your report. Your voice should be professional, but you are not in the position to direct the reading audience to follow your directions or instructions.

b. You are not an external activist; you are a member of our organization. Remember that at all times, especially if you are or become passionate about some aspect (or all) of your assigned TS.

c. Your next work assignment is directly related to the quality of your report.

d. I and the other recipients of your report have no preconceived ideas about the subject.

11. It is vitally important that you provide evidence from credible sources throughout your report.

12. Do not recommend more external research into the issues involved – that is part if your charge.

CONFIDENTIAL MEMO – PAGE 3

13. The following instructions pertain to the organization and formatting of your report:

a. The title of your paper should be the TS, verbatim.

b. Begin with an Executive Summary (ES). The ES should begin with: “This report addresses the question….” followed by the TS (verbatim). The remainder of the ES (which should not be longer than 1 page/1 paragraph) should explain how the report is organized. Note that the ES exists to tell a prospective reader whether or not they want or need to read the whole report (identical to an abstract of an academic paper), no more and no less.

c. The report itself should begin on a separate page from the ES, and should begin: “This report addresses the question….” followed by the TS (verbatim). Note that the ES is not part of the report; do not assume that someone has read the ES immediately before they start reading the report.

d. Use APA style (4/e or higher, 6/e preferred) to document all of your sources and for formatting your report. You may create as many or as few subheadings as you need within the framework described in (e.) below.

e. Organize the report as follows (words in italics should not appear in your report):

Executive Summary See above description

Section I.

Background Begins with the TS (verbatim, then explains briefly why the issue is important and what the reader will be reading about.

Description This section should describe the ethical issues, stakeholders, and how they are related.

Analysis This section should analyze the ethical issues why they are important and how they are related.

Section II.

Recommendations This section should describe the decision process(es) you recommend the reading audience use to navigate and make decisions regarding the subject of the report on behalf of the firm. You should indicate what conversations we should have and what data we will need to have those conversations we will need. You should provide an agenda, outline, flowchart, or some other device to clearly convey how your recommended process(es) should be followed.

CONFIDENTIAL MEMO – PAGE 4

You should assume you will be assigned to another high profile project in short order and that you will not be personally available to facilitate our discussion, i.e., your process recommendations must be entirely self-contained in the report.

Key learnings In this section (which only I will see), please reflect on your key learnings from the research process and the writing of our report. I am most interested in what you learn from the process and what you think about at the conclusion of the project (don’t rehash the content, that will already be in the report).

On behalf of the company’s leadership, we are all looking forward to reading your report.