Writing Homework Help

Details on Consulting Project

The goal of the consulting project is to analyze and apply organizational behavior concepts in a real organization. The consulting project will help you develop and practice the analytical skills you will need to apply the knowledge of the basics of human and organizational behavior that we provide in this class.

Your task will be to use concepts from the course to identify, analyze, and develop a plan for resolving key problems that an organization is facing. You will be responsible for finding an organization to study using interviews, observations, and/or surveys. In choosing your organization, you are welcome to use your friend and family networks as well as prior (or current) work experiences. Please note that student- run groups on campus are not permitted as an organization for this project. In the past, students have especially enjoyed this project when they find the organization fascinating, benefit from its services, or

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feel strongly committed to its purpose. I do not anticipate that you will have difficulty securing an organization to do your consulting project, but let me know if you run into any problems. What is needed is some knowledge of the inner workings of the company—its struggles, its strengths, its climate, and so forth.

You will interview at least 2 (preferably 3) individuals (at least one must occupy a management position within the company) from a company. These interviews should be aimed at understanding any organizational behavior issues that the company is currently facing. Let them tell you what issues are important! Do not provide a set of concepts for them! Your aim is to get at the underlying factors that are problematic within the company. Because the project requires specific recommendations, you should also find out if management has tried to address the current issues in any way.

The presentation should include the following four sections:

1. Organization – Provide just enough details on the organization for me to be able to understand the

problems that will be described. Resist the urge to provide irrelevant details and feel free to omit or

disguise any details that might be sensitive in nature.

2. Problem – Describe, specifically, two problems that the organization is struggling with that will

serve as the focus of the presentation.

3. Topic – Describe very specifically how the concepts, principles, and findings represented in the

topic matter to the problem, and how they can be leveraged to articulate a solution.

4. Recommendations – Provide a list (at least three) of very specific recommendations/action steps that flow out of the discussion of the topic and that can help solve the problem. In thinking about how

to craft the topic into those recommendations, strike a balance between being practical and being bold. Every organization has key constraints that need to be taken into account when designing interventions. Although those should be considered, resist the urge to “play it safe”, as that tendency often leads to modest interventions that are ultimately ineffective.

Beyond the parameters above, please bring your own self-expression, initiative, and creativity to the presentation.

Keep in mind that this is a challenging assignment. It is not easy to earn a “A” on the presentation. Students that struggle with this presentation (and earn grades lower than what they had hoped) typically commit at least one of two common and significant mistakes: 1) they focus too heavily on the entertainment value of the presentation and not enough on the content (aka “all style and no substance”); or 2) they wait until the last minute to complete the presentation, and, as a result, they end up with a presentation that is disorganized, poorly communicated, lacking in meaningful content, dull, and/or unprofessional. If you choose to procrastinate on it, that is fine as long as you understand that the quality of your presentation is likely to suffer (as is your grade).

The company has to be real.

The presentation should be submitted via Blackboard in the form of a PowerPoint file (.ppt or .pptx only)