IndividualAssignment
AssignmentOverview
The individual assignment is an ArticleAnalysispaperwritten in the form ofareport. Theprimarypurpose of the assignment is to develop yourcritical thinking skills. A secondary purpose is to develop your skills in reading and understanding academic journal articles.
Instructions
In approximately Week 3, your workshop facilitator or subject coordinatorwill provide a list ofrecent academicjournal articles. Selectoneof the articles provided by the workshop facilitator, and then use the library databases and search enginesto findtwoadditional journal articlespublishedon the same topic. The articles you findmust abide by these guidelines:
1.The articles must have been published between 2010 and present;2.The articles mustbe selected from the following list of journals**:
*Journal of Organizational Behavior
*Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
*Journal of Applied Psychology
Academy of Management Journal
British Journal of Management
Human Relations
Journal of Management
Leadership Quarterly
Personnel Psychology.
*It is recommended that you start your search within one of the journals marked with an*. These journals principally publish topicsin organisational behaviour.
**Note: These are the exact names of the acceptable journals. Click on the journal name to go to the online library access page (La Trobe sign in may be required).
Read eacharticle thoroughly, payingparticular attention to the introduction, literature review, and discussion sections. You can skim themethods andresultssections. You will use this information to analyse and compare and contrast the articles.The individualassignment should be written in a neat, professional and engaging manner usingreportformat,meaning that you need to developcoherent, well-supported and logical argumentsfollowing a basic report structure.A concise guide for writing reports in business school is provided here:https://www.business.unsw.edu.au/Students-Site/Documents/Writingareport.pdf.
Thefinalassignmentshouldinclude the following elements:
•Title page(not included in word count)oStudent NameoStudentID numberoAssignment Title: Assessment 2, Individual AssignmentoSubject code/nameoWorkshop timeoWorkshop facilitator nameoDue date•Feedbackresponseform (not included in word count)oComplete theform on the LMS•Table of contents (optionaland not included in word count)•List of figures/tables (optionaland not included in word count)•IntroductionoTry to write something engaging to capture the reader’s interest.oClearly identify the topic that ties the three articles together (e.g., motivation, organisational citizenship, etc.).oInclude a brief overview of the assignment and how it is organised.•Article summaryoBriefly summarise the articles.Focus on describing the key conceptsand main pointsfrom each article (e.g., the theoretical concepts).oUse in-text citations throughout your report to identify the articles. Refer toResearchand References.•Article analysis – Analyse each articleoIdentify and discuss the key strengths and weaknesses of thearticles.oFor example,based on what the authors have written in the article, doesthe theoryappear to besound and is there prior research supporting it? Do thehypotheses or research questions make sensebased on the theory?Do the authors overgeneralise their findings or base their conclusions on faulty assumptions?Was the research worthwhile (e.g., worth the time, money, effort)? Do the research findings matter, and can the research be applied in real work settings? What further research questions does the research trigger? Etc.oNote, you need to actually explain your reasoning for why you think something is a strength or weakness.•Articlecomparison– Analyse the similaritiesand differencesacross the articlesoIdentify and discuss the key similaritiesamong thearticles.oIdentify and discuss the keydifferencesamong thearticles.•DiscussionoBased on the above analysis, what can you concludeabout the topic?Don’t just re-state the authors’ conclusions from each article; draw your own conclusions based on all three articles.oBased on the above analysis, whatspecificrecommendations can you make for managers or organisations?Aim for 2 to 4clear and concise recommendations.▪Don’t just re-state the authors’ recommendations from each article; develop your own recommendations based on all three articles.▪If it isn’t possible to make any recommendations (e.g., all the articles were severely flawed), explain your reasoning.•References(not included in word count)oInclude the full reference information forthe three articlescited in your report.•Appendix– Article copy (not included in word count)oInclude a copy of yourof the first page of each articleas an appendix at theendof your report.oThe title of the journal, year of publication, author names, article title, and abstract should all be clear and legible.•Note that the title page, table of contents, list of illustrations/tables, references, and appendices are not included in the2000word count.
Submission Guidelines
Please refer to the LMS for specific due dates and the assessment submission linkfor the draft and final assignment.
Researchand References
Citeall sourcesin the main text of the documentand include a separate reference page at theend of the document. The in-text citations and references should be formatted usingeither the current versionofthe Harvard style orAPA 6thedition. Refer to the tips on applying these styles in the Assessments module of this LMS site.
In the main body of the report, use in-text citations to identify the articles and the source of your ideas. In APA and Harvard style, this means you should provide the author surnames and the year of publication when discussing something from that article. For example, ‘Smith and Jackson (1997) argued that Concept X …’ or ‘Concept X can be defined as … (Smith and Jackson, 1997)’.
Note that you should only be using the three articles as references. Refer to the guidelines above for selecting your articles.
Tips
•Focus your discussionand analysison the key concepts and theories in the articles.•Focus your discussion and analysis on the information contained in the three articles, and only the three articles.•You can skim the methods and results sectionsfor each article, especially for highly complex statistical analysis.Teaching staff understand that these sections are often complex and difficult to understand, and they will not expect detailed analysis of these sections.Theparagraphs just before the Methods section will usually give a brief overview of how the study or studies were conducted, and the firstfew paragraphs of the Discussion section will usually give you a brief summary ofthe results.•Use in-text citations throughout your report. Refer toResearchand References.Do not refer to Article 1, Article 2, etc., as this can easily become confusing.•Ask for help if you are unsure about what to do.•Additional tips will be posted on the LMS and in the Assessment Q&A forum.