1750 - 2500 words 8.2

BUS 311 Professional Practice Project Description

Overview

Your final research project (due in Module 8) will provide you with the opportunity to examine a

case study of a real organization. You will research, analyze, synthesize, and develop a course of

action by applying concepts and applications from this course. Information about the

organization may be accessed through direct communications with people from the organization,

data from the media (such as newspapers, webcasts, etc.), organizational literature, the

organization’s website, professional journals/articles, and other secondary sources. Note that you

must provide retrievable and publicly available evidence (you cannot rely only on your personal

observations).

You must identify current challenges or exemplary solutions to problems related to the topics

studied in Organizational Behavior. The primary focus of this project is your identification and

analysis of the problem or situation—it is not merely a historical account of a problem and the

company's solution. Your analysis of the problem or issue may or may not align with the

organization’s previous or proposed course of action. In general, your final research project

should provide this organization and other organizations with similar cases and the most

effective course of action to address comparable situations based on the application of key

principles, concepts, and theories of organizational behavior.

The final report should include the following sections:

I. Introduction

II. Company Overview

III. Organizational Culture and Leadership Analysis

IV. Discussion and Analysis of the Problem

V. Recommendations

VI. Conclusion

This is a scaffolded project—one you work on throughout the course. The project is comprised

of 4 milestones:

Assignment Title Module Due Percentage of Grade

Company Overview (Milestone 1) Module 2—Sunday 11:59 pm ET 10%

Organizational Culture and Leadership

Analysis (Milestone 2)

Module 4—Sunday 11:59 pm ET 15%

Discussion and Analysis of the Problem

(Milestone 3)

Module 6—Sunday 11:59 pm ET 15%

Final Report (Milestone 4) Module 8—Sunday 11:59 pm ET 20%

Company Overview (Milestone 1)

In this section, you will develop the company overview. Your first step is to select a company

from the list of companies approved for this activity.

The matrix below includes companies from the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For 2021.

Please locate the row with the initial of your last name and select one company for your

research in this class. Based on this company, you will submit the assignments in Module 2, 4, 6

and 8.

Initial of Your Last Name Company Options

A, B, C Cisco, Salesforce, Hilton, Wegmans Food Markets, Rocket Companies, UKG,

Texas Health Resources, Camden Property Trust, Capital One, American

Express

D, E, F Intuit Inc, NVIDIA Corporation, David Weekley Homes, Target Corporation,

Marriot International, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, Adobe Systems Incorporated,

Northwell Health, Edward Jones, Comcast NBC Universal

G, H, I Bank of America, Perkins Coie LLP, Nugget Market, Inc., Nationwide,

Pinnacle Financial Partners, Red Hat, Inc., Southern Ohio Medical Center, SAP

America, Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc. Experian

J, K, L Baird, Veterans United Home Loans, Deloitte, The Cheesecake Factory

Incorporated, CarMax, Synchrony Financial, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP,

KPMG LLP, Progressive Insurance, EY

M, N, O Publix Super Markets, Horizon Therapeutics, Accenture, Baptist Health South

Florida, Atlassian, Inc., Zillow Group, Fast Enterprises, OhioHealth, Regeneron

Pharmaceuticals, Inc., T-Mobile USA

P, Q, R Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America, American Fidelity

Assurance Company, Splunk Inc, Bain & Company, Inc., Genentech, DHL

Express U.S., AbbVie, Navy Federal Credit Union, Citrix Systems, Inc.,

Workiva

S, T, U RSM US LLP, Orrick, Bright Horizons Family Solutions, Cadence, Ryan, LLC.

Atlantic Health System, BayCare Health System, Burlington stores, Inc., Power

Home Remodeling Group, Anthem, Inc.

V, W, X IBM, World Wide Technology, Slalom Consulting, PulteGroup, Inc. Scripps

Health, ServiceNow, Robert Half International Inc. Protiviti, L3Harris

Technologies, CrowdStrike

X, Y, Z HP Inc, Sheetz, Inc, Farmers Insurance, MasterCard International, SAS Institute

Inc, USAA, Stryker, Twilio Inc., Wellstar Health System, Plante & Moran,

PLLC

You will research and learn the company’s history, its founding principles, and its trajectory to

gain market share. As a researcher, you must curate your sources for credibility. You may start

your research at the company’s website and expand your investigation to include at least two

additional sources. You may find it useful to read the following article: How to Research a

Company for Free—Top Tips on Gathering Information about Companies by Using Free Online

Sources (Walker, 2018).

Your submission must be formatted in the current edition of APA style. It should include a

proper title page, content, and reference page. Although you are working toward a final report,

each assignment should include a proper introduction and conclusion. The company overview

should include:

I. History

A. Describe a brief historical background

B. Reflect on the market position of the company

C. Investigate the latest news about the company

II. Foundations of the organizational culture

A. Identify the vision, mission, and values

B. Discuss the company’s philosophy and/or corporate social responsibility (if

available)

III. Brief description of the problem and purpose of your research

A. Discuss the situation at this company that you want to analyze. Remember that

you may find a current issue (for example, a labor law sue, misalignment in

cultural elements), or an exemplary event (for example, excellent promotion of

diversity and inclusion practices; best place to work).

B. State the purpose statement of your project. In one sentence, describe the intention

of your research and goal in writing this report.

Your report should be approximately 250 to 500 words in length, have a title page, and include a

minimum of 3 references formatted in the current edition of APA style.

This assignment is due Sunday by 11:59 pm ET in Module 2. Be sure to review the assignment

rubric for full evaluation details.

Organizational Culture and Leadership Analysis (Milestone 2)

For this assignment, you will research organizational culture and leadership. In this section, you

will have the opportunity to conduct a cultural and leadership analysis. As you write your

analysis, you should avoid opinionated statements (e.g., expressions like I feel, I think and, in my

opinion). You must use theoretical frameworks and concepts learned in class to ground your

ideas. You may read the following resource to understand organizational culture.

Your submission must be formatted in the current edition of APA style. It should include a

proper title page, content, and reference page. Although you are working toward a final report,

each assignment should include a proper introduction and conclusion. The organizational culture

and leadership analysis should include:

I. Application of Competitive Values Framework (CVF)

A. Use the CVF to identify the type of organizational culture.

B. Discuss how the elements of the culture can be found in the organization.

II. Identify Leadership Style

A. Identify the name of the CEO of the company.

B. Briefly describe his/her leadership style. If direct evidence is not available, you

may use the elements of the culture to deduct the leadership style.

III. Cultural Alignment

A. Reflect on the alignment found among the vision, mission and values,

organizational culture profile, and leadership style.

B. Are these elements supporting each other? Or have you found some conflicts and

gaps? For example, a company that states they value diversity but all the pictures

on the website are white males.

Your submission should be approximately 500 to 750 words in length, have a title page, and

include a minimum of 3 references formatted in the current edition of APA style.

This assignment is due Sunday by 11:59 pm ET in Module 4. Be sure to review the assignment

rubric for full evaluation details.

Discussion and Analysis of the Problem (Milestone 3)

In this assignment, you will discuss and analyze the problem or situation identified in the

Company Overview (Milestone 1) submitted in Module 2. This is your opportunity to reflect and

think critically about the issue. Use this section to interpret the data and observations found in

your research. You should explore potential causes and the impact of the problem on the

organizational environment.

Your submission must be formatted in the current edition of APA style. It should include a

proper title page, content, and reference page. Although you are working toward a final report,

each assignment should include a proper introduction and conclusion. The discussion and

analysis of the problem should include:

I. What is the problem and how is it related to Organizational Behavior?

A. Describe the problem or situation in detail.

B. Explain how this problem or situation relates to Organizational Behavior and why

it is important to investigate it.

II. What are the potential causes of the problem?

A. Identify at least 3 potential causes of the problem.

B. Discuss each of the potential causes in detail.

III. What theories or concepts relate to the situation?

A. Identify theoretical framework(s) that can be used to analyze and/or solve the

issue.

B. Apply to the problem the framework or theory that you have identified.

Your submission should be approximately 500 to 750 words in length, have a title page, and

include a minimum of 3 references formatted in the current edition of APA style.

This assignment is due Sunday by 11:59 pm ET in Module 6. Be sure to review the assignment

rubric for full evaluation details.

Final Report (Milestone 4)

In this module, you will complete your research by adding recommendations and conclusions.

Now that you have researched, discussed, and analyzed the problem it is time to come up with

recommendations that can help business professionals. The recommendation section is the most

important part of your report. Each recommendation should be fully developed, and you should

not be formatted in bullet points.

Based on your analysis (Milestone 3), you must write a minimum of two recommendations. In

this section, you will identify potential for improvements, best practices that can be used in

similar situations, and potential risks and mitigations. Your recommendations should be focused

on preventing similar problems from occurring, on mitigating potential consequences of a

problem, or on fixing an existing problem. You should briefly explain how they can be

implemented. This could be an opportunity to use your learning on change management.

Finally, you need to wrap up your report with a conclusion. Write a complete paragraph to reflect

on the limitations of your research. (For example, what data do you wish you have access to? Is

your recommendation limited to only certain industries?) Close your conclusion with a summary

of the most important findings of your study.

You will submit the complete report. You should merge all the sections in the order reflected in

the outline:

I. Introduction

II. Company Overview

III. Organizational Culture and Leadership Analysis

IV. Discussion and Analysis of the Problem

V. Recommendations

VI. Conclusion

Your report must be formatted in the current edition of APA style. It should include 1750 to

2500 words of content, a proper title page, and reference page(s) with at least 5 references.

This assignment is due Sunday by 11:59 pm ET in Module 8. Be sure to review the assignment

rubric for full evaluation details.

BUS 311 Professional Practice Project Description

Overview

Your final research project (due in Module 8) will provide you with the opportunity to examine a

case study of a real organization. You will research, analyze, synthesize, and develop a course of

action by applying concepts and applications from this course. Information about the

organization may be accessed through direct communications with people from the organization,

data from the media (such as newspapers, webcasts, etc.), organizational literature, the

organization’s website, professional journals/articles, and other secondary sources. Note that you

must provide retrievable and publicly available evidence (you cannot rely only on your personal

observations).

You must identify current challenges or exemplary solutions to problems related to the topics

studied in Organizational Behavior. The primary focus of this project is your identification and

analysis of the problem or situation—it is not merely a historical account of a problem and the

company's solution. Your analysis of the problem or issue may or may not align with the

organization’s previous or proposed course of action. In general, your final research project

should provide this organization and other organizations with similar cases and the most

effective course of action to address comparable situations based on the application of key

principles, concepts, and theories of organizational behavior.

The final report should include the following sections:

I. Introduction

II. Company Overview

III. Organizational Culture and Leadership Analysis

IV. Discussion and Analysis of the Problem

V. Recommendations

VI. Conclusion

This is a scaffolded project—one you work on throughout the course. The project is comprised

of 4 milestones:

Assignment Title Module Due Percentage of Grade

Company Overview (Milestone 1) Module 2—Sunday 11:59 pm ET 10%

Organizational Culture and Leadership

Analysis (Milestone 2)

Module 4—Sunday 11:59 pm ET 15%

Discussion and Analysis of the Problem

(Milestone 3)

Module 6—Sunday 11:59 pm ET 15%

Final Report (Milestone 4) Module 8—Sunday 11:59 pm ET 20%

Company Overview (Milestone 1)

In this section, you will develop the company overview. Your first step is to select a company

from the list of companies approved for this activity.

The matrix below includes companies from the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For 2021.

Please locate the row with the initial of your last name and select one company for your

research in this class. Based on this company, you will submit the assignments in Module 2, 4, 6

and 8.

Initial of Your Last Name Company Options

A, B, C Cisco, Salesforce, Hilton, Wegmans Food Markets, Rocket Companies, UKG,

Texas Health Resources, Camden Property Trust, Capital One, American

Express

D, E, F Intuit Inc, NVIDIA Corporation, David Weekley Homes, Target Corporation,

Marriot International, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, Adobe Systems Incorporated,

Northwell Health, Edward Jones, Comcast NBC Universal

G, H, I Bank of America, Perkins Coie LLP, Nugget Market, Inc., Nationwide,

Pinnacle Financial Partners, Red Hat, Inc., Southern Ohio Medical Center, SAP

America, Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc. Experian

J, K, L Baird, Veterans United Home Loans, Deloitte, The Cheesecake Factory

Incorporated, CarMax, Synchrony Financial, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP,

KPMG LLP, Progressive Insurance, EY

M, N, O Publix Super Markets, Horizon Therapeutics, Accenture, Baptist Health South

Florida, Atlassian, Inc., Zillow Group, Fast Enterprises, OhioHealth, Regeneron

Pharmaceuticals, Inc., T-Mobile USA

P, Q, R Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America, American Fidelity

Assurance Company, Splunk Inc, Bain & Company, Inc., Genentech, DHL

Express U.S., AbbVie, Navy Federal Credit Union, Citrix Systems, Inc.,

Workiva

S, T, U RSM US LLP, Orrick, Bright Horizons Family Solutions, Cadence, Ryan, LLC.

Atlantic Health System, BayCare Health System, Burlington stores, Inc., Power

Home Remodeling Group, Anthem, Inc.

V, W, X IBM, World Wide Technology, Slalom Consulting, PulteGroup, Inc. Scripps

Health, ServiceNow, Robert Half International Inc. Protiviti, L3Harris

Technologies, CrowdStrike

X, Y, Z HP Inc, Sheetz, Inc, Farmers Insurance, MasterCard International, SAS Institute

Inc, USAA, Stryker, Twilio Inc., Wellstar Health System, Plante & Moran,

PLLC

You will research and learn the company’s history, its founding principles, and its trajectory to

gain market share. As a researcher, you must curate your sources for credibility. You may start

your research at the company’s website and expand your investigation to include at least two

additional sources. You may find it useful to read the following article: How to Research a

Company for Free—Top Tips on Gathering Information about Companies by Using Free Online

Sources (Walker, 2018).

Your submission must be formatted in the current edition of APA style. It should include a

proper title page, content, and reference page. Although you are working toward a final report,

each assignment should include a proper introduction and conclusion. The company overview

should include:

I. History

A. Describe a brief historical background

B. Reflect on the market position of the company

C. Investigate the latest news about the company

II. Foundations of the organizational culture

A. Identify the vision, mission, and values

B. Discuss the company’s philosophy and/or corporate social responsibility (if

available)

III. Brief description of the problem and purpose of your research

A. Discuss the situation at this company that you want to analyze. Remember that

you may find a current issue (for example, a labor law sue, misalignment in

cultural elements), or an exemplary event (for example, excellent promotion of

diversity and inclusion practices; best place to work).

B. State the purpose statement of your project. In one sentence, describe the intention

of your research and goal in writing this report.

Your report should be approximately 250 to 500 words in length, have a title page, and include a

minimum of 3 references formatted in the current edition of APA style.

This assignment is due Sunday by 11:59 pm ET in Module 2. Be sure to review the assignment

rubric for full evaluation details.

Organizational Culture and Leadership Analysis (Milestone 2)

For this assignment, you will research organizational culture and leadership. In this section, you

will have the opportunity to conduct a cultural and leadership analysis. As you write your

analysis, you should avoid opinionated statements (e.g., expressions like I feel, I think and, in my

opinion). You must use theoretical frameworks and concepts learned in class to ground your

ideas. You may read the following resource to understand organizational culture.

Your submission must be formatted in the current edition of APA style. It should include a

proper title page, content, and reference page. Although you are working toward a final report,

each assignment should include a proper introduction and conclusion. The organizational culture

and leadership analysis should include:

I. Application of Competitive Values Framework (CVF)

A. Use the CVF to identify the type of organizational culture.

B. Discuss how the elements of the culture can be found in the organization.

II. Identify Leadership Style

A. Identify the name of the CEO of the company.

B. Briefly describe his/her leadership style. If direct evidence is not available, you

may use the elements of the culture to deduct the leadership style.

III. Cultural Alignment

A. Reflect on the alignment found among the vision, mission and values,

organizational culture profile, and leadership style.

B. Are these elements supporting each other? Or have you found some conflicts and

gaps? For example, a company that states they value diversity but all the pictures

on the website are white males.

Your submission should be approximately 500 to 750 words in length, have a title page, and

include a minimum of 3 references formatted in the current edition of APA style.

This assignment is due Sunday by 11:59 pm ET in Module 4. Be sure to review the assignment

rubric for full evaluation details.

Discussion and Analysis of the Problem (Milestone 3)

In this assignment, you will discuss and analyze the problem or situation identified in the

Company Overview (Milestone 1) submitted in Module 2. This is your opportunity to reflect and

think critically about the issue. Use this section to interpret the data and observations found in

your research. You should explore potential causes and the impact of the problem on the

organizational environment.

Your submission must be formatted in the current edition of APA style. It should include a

proper title page, content, and reference page. Although you are working toward a final report,

each assignment should include a proper introduction and conclusion. The discussion and

analysis of the problem should include:

I. What is the problem and how is it related to Organizational Behavior?

A. Describe the problem or situation in detail.

B. Explain how this problem or situation relates to Organizational Behavior and why

it is important to investigate it.

II. What are the potential causes of the problem?

A. Identify at least 3 potential causes of the problem.

B. Discuss each of the potential causes in detail.

III. What theories or concepts relate to the situation?

A. Identify theoretical framework(s) that can be used to analyze and/or solve the

issue.

B. Apply to the problem the framework or theory that you have identified.

Your submission should be approximately 500 to 750 words in length, have a title page, and

include a minimum of 3 references formatted in the current edition of APA style.

This assignment is due Sunday by 11:59 pm ET in Module 6. Be sure to review the assignment

rubric for full evaluation details.

Final Report (Milestone 4)

In this module, you will complete your research by adding recommendations and conclusions.

Now that you have researched, discussed, and analyzed the problem it is time to come up with

recommendations that can help business professionals. The recommendation section is the most

important part of your report. Each recommendation should be fully developed, and you should

not be formatted in bullet points.

Based on your analysis (Milestone 3), you must write a minimum of two recommendations. In

this section, you will identify potential for improvements, best practices that can be used in

similar situations, and potential risks and mitigations. Your recommendations should be focused

on preventing similar problems from occurring, on mitigating potential consequences of a

problem, or on fixing an existing problem. You should briefly explain how they can be

implemented. This could be an opportunity to use your learning on change management.

Finally, you need to wrap up your report with a conclusion. Write a complete paragraph to reflect

on the limitations of your research. (For example, what data do you wish you have access to? Is

your recommendation limited to only certain industries?) Close your conclusion with a summary

of the most important findings of your study.

You will submit the complete report. You should merge all the sections in the order reflected in

the outline:

I. Introduction

II. Company Overview

III. Organizational Culture and Leadership Analysis

IV. Discussion and Analysis of the Problem

V. Recommendations

VI. Conclusion

Your report must be formatted in the current edition of APA style. It should include 1750 to

2500 words of content, a proper title page, and reference page(s) with at least 5 references.

This assignment is due Sunday by 11:59 pm ET in Module 8. Be sure to review the assignment

rubric for full evaluation details.