MBA540 Term Paper
Directions:
Due by the end of Module 7
Term Paper: A final paper that focuses on the course
content, applied in the setting of your current or past employer, will be due
in Module 7. In this paper you will focus on the following:
1. Provide a description of the company that you work for.
As part of your description include a discussion of the type of organizational
structure.
2. Describe an agency problem within the firm and discuss
what you think is causing the problem and how the problem might be better
controlled.
3. Describe the job dimensions of the firm and discuss
whether or not you believe the current design is appropriate for the firm.
Discuss any suggestions you might have for improving the job design.
Grouped by function or by product or geography or a matrix
organization? Provide a diagram if helpful to illustrate. Is this organization
effective?
4. Describe the compensation package for executives and
employees within the firm. Discuss whether or not you believe that the compensation
package is effective and any suggestions that you might have for improving the
compensation package.
While these questions focus on the latter half of the
course, you should remain mindful of the economic concepts that were developed
in the beginning of understanding of the relevant topics, completely discuss
each of the four points of the paper, use terminology appropriate to the topic,
and use word choice, spelling, and sentence structure appropriate for
graduate-level work. Specific Formatting Instructions
1. All assignments must be completed as Word documents. If
you do not have Word you can
use Microsoft WordPad and use the rich text format (.rtf
extension). 2. All assignments must be prepared in the APA format, including
references. 3. Cover page. Use a single cover page that contains:
a. the title of the assignment
b. your name
4. Margins. All page margins should be the default margins
for your word processing program. Use only the LEFT margin justification
setting.
5. Page numbering. Please use page numbering for all pages
except the cover page.
6. Spacing/Font. All papers should be single-spaced only
(this includes spacing between
paragraphs) and a 12 point font.
7. Direct quotes/ paraphrasing. Direct quotes and
paraphrasing MUST be referenced and cited using APA guidelines. Although there
is no limit on how many citations are in the paper, I will use limits of 15%
for quotations and 25% for unoriginal wording for this course. When more than
one quarter of a paper seems to be unoriginal, it usually indicates a problem.
Even if sources are properly cited and some of the words are changed, it raises
the question of how much original thinking went into the paper. There is a big
difference between starting with a blank page and writing your own thoughts,
and building the paper around quotes,paraphrased sources, and the altered
wording of another author. You are encouraged to use textbook concepts as you
attempt to explain in your own words the answers to the assignments rather than
relying heavily on quoted material. Try to think about how you would explain
your answer to someone who has not taken a managerial economics class. High scores
on the originality report in Turnitin are not just a result of plagiarism; they
can also result from an incorrect quotation/citation methodology or from using
words that have been rearranged from your sources. I appropriately. 8.
References. You must include a separate References page in APA format with each
paper. Any source that is used to develop your paper must be included in this
section.
9. File Name. The file that you submit to the Assignment box
is the one that your instructor will grade. To facilitate the grading process,
please save your file name as lastname_assignment name (e.g., caldwell_chapter
1 case study) so that when you upload the file it will be obvious to me who the
file is from once it is downloaded for grading.
Use of Turnitin: You will be submitting your term paper to
an Assignment box that is linked to Turnitin.
For those of you not familiar with Turnitin, it is a
plagiarism identification service that can also assist
students with term paper reference methodology. The Turnitin
tool compares your writing against all published sources and also checks
against prior class papers. You must cite all your source material including
direct quotations, paraphrasing, and statements of fact. Click the Turnitin
link under Resources in the course menu to download additional information on
how the integration with the Assignment box works.
