Paper in management

About the Issue Analysis

Purpose:

In this assignment, you’ll use the Wolcott model to help you create something of a navigational GPS to help you map the complicated, open-ended terrain of globalization. Your issue analysis will be your answer to the broad question(s) of: what’s the problem with globalization? Based on your reading, research and experience, how will the forces of globalization affect your future career?

This assignment differs from the prior reading analyses in two ways: one, it will articulate your thinking on the page (drawing on the work of other thinkers), as opposed to staying solely an analysis of others’ thinking; and two, this assignment is more open-ended than the earlier reading analyses, requiring you to frame the broad question in terms/context of your choice and in ways that best make the assignment work for you (see “tips” for the first section below).

Format:

Close to same as the Reading Analysis format: a document in three sections (see below), 4 pages double-spaced maximum, plus a Works Cited / References section (either MLA or APA is fine; use easybib.com or whatever citation style source / tool works for you).

Tips on content:

Framing the Problem:

Use this section to frame the broad assignment question:

1. in terms of your specific future career field/goal. (As Friedman might put it, your ‘future career / worker’ identity, out of the ‘multiple identities’ possible.)

2. consider using certain key terms to help you frame the problem (e.g., is it, for you, all about ‘outsourcing,’ finding the ‘non-fungible’ parts of your work, or some other key term?)

3. consider using ‘story’ to help you frame the problem. Friedman does this quite a bit in The World Is Flat, for example. You could use an especially apt story from his work; you could use a story from your own or another professional’s experience; you could use your own ‘thinking story’ about how you identified the problem of globalization at the beginning of this course compared to how you might now be doing so.

4. and/or you might consider using SWOT to frame the problem. In this case, I think, you’d likely start with the Opportunities and Threats (the external environment for your career future) to frame the problem in the beginning, while perhaps considering the Strengths and Weaknesses in the last section (where you might look at the ‘internal environment,’ meaning ‘you’).

Identifying Relevant Information (NOT a separate section this time, but you’ll be using relevant information to help you solve this problem all through your analysis, perhaps especially in the middle section): use the watchwords “responsible & relevant.” As in, “do your homework.”

I suggest a minimum of three sources used for this work: The World Is Flat, at least one of the Group Reading Analysis readings, and at least one external source. You’re responsible for finding the parts most relevant to your analysis of your career future out of any of our class-provided readings. (For example, if you’re going into accounting, how could you not use the “don’t let your babies grow up to be accountants section?” in TWIF?)

Other sources for information and/or relevant alternative perspectives to consider: other courses / textbooks / professors from your career field (can even cite lecture notes or an interview); interviews with people you know who are professionals in your career field; online / electronic library research might include Business Week online, Ebsco Host, even Google scholar, and if you haven’t already, check out the online Occupational Outlook Handbook’s searchable site.

Exploring / or Evaluating Alternative Perspectives:

One way “do your homework” applies here (in addition to above) is to be a sound critical thinker and seek out perspectives to provide real balance, to ‘control for’ any possible ‘confirmation bias’ you might know you have about the problem. Remember, the best critical thinkers / decision makers / problem solvers actively seek a wide range of perspectives / solutions rather than simply ‘stack the deck’ to confirm what they already think they know.

Drawing Conclusions / or Recommendations:

For this Issue Analysis, you might not be coming to actual solutions, but rather might think in terms of prioritizing the most salient issues/problems globalization (as you've mapped it above) presents to your specific future career field/profession/goal.

Or, you might work this assignment in such a way that you actually do come to be able to make some recommended solutions. These might be only for yourself, what you can do, more along the lines of the Strengths and Weaknesses from a SWOT analysis.