Examine the importance of diversity in the current business environment.
Guidelines for all final paper options:
The final paper must adhere to APA style and should be well-organized and clearly-written. A portion of your grade on this assignment will be based on your adherence to APA style, as well as the clarity, organization, and basic spelling/grammar of the paper. The paper must be at a minimum of 20 pages (See APA format) for the rough draft/final paper. Although it is critical to provide sufficient explanation in a paper, it is also important to be succinct and focused.
Research Proposal (Option One)
You will choose a topic within Industrial Organizational psychology (related to one of our topics this semester) and develop a novel research proposal. The research proposal must address an important research question from the perspective of I/O psychology. This paper must be a research proposal (not a literature review) and include two studies. Your paper should include all sections of a standard empirical article: introduction (review relevant literature and build the case for your hypotheses), proposed method (complete with description of variables and procedure), proposed results (the usage of figures is required), and discussion (highlight the implications and limitations).
State of the field (aka literature review; Option Two)
You should choose a topic within I/O psychology or one closely related to the field and review the existing literature. Your paper may also include suggestions for future research, areas that need to be addressed (shortcomings of existing literature), and implications for this literature to a particular area/topic. You may also consider the existing literature regarding a topic with particular attention to particular population. For instance, perhaps you are interested in counterproductive work behavior, but you are concerned that most of the research has been conducted in Western cultures. You might review the literature on this topic, discuss the relevance of Western vs. Eastern cultures, and explain the limitations of only examining this topic within Western cultures.
The important component of this project is choosing a topic that is of interest to you and will benefit from being reviewed – what new information or steps can be taken after the literature is reviewed? Articles published in American Psychologist often take the form of “literature reviews” and discuss implications and/or next steps – you may find examining some of these articles helpful for developing your paper.
Policy Application & Public Awareness (Option Three)
You should consider a particular public policy or societal issue (e.g., leadership styles in corporate cultures, affirmative action, etc.) and examine how research within I/O psychology can inform and provide important next steps for this particular issue. For instance, you may be interested in advocating for work-life balance within organizations or organizational wellness – how could you design a campaign or proposed policy using research and theories from I/O psychology? Perhaps you believe the public school system should adopt team building and leadership curriculums– how could you use research and theory within I/O psychology to advocate for this particular policy? Finally, perhaps you are interested in reviewing a current policy (e.g, diversity training at a particular corporation) and you are interested in assessing the policy and offering recommendations for improvement – how can you use I/O psychology research and theory to do this?
Because the approach and topic that students use for this option will vary, it is important that you discuss your intended topic with me. All final papers within this topic must be theoretically and empirically based, with a focus on theories and research from I/O psychology. It is important that your application of I/O psychology to a particular issue be relevant and informed. Further, you must clearly articulate why this particular issue benefits from being examined within the lens of I/O psychology. Importantly, your paper should convincingly advocate for a particular position/policy using I/O psychological theories and research.
