Organizational Study Analysis Paper and Presentation

Overview

The final paper asks you to do a four-frame analysis of your organization and present your findings to the class. The purpose of the paper is to:

(1)   Provide opportunities to work with and integrate the four frames as a useful tool for diagnosis and action in your work environment.

(2)   Apply your learnings from the course materials and apply them to a real-life situation and organization.

(3)   Reflect on your own professional area of practice within the organization.

(4)   Present it to the class (no longer than 20 minute presentation)

Assignment

The Organization Study project is the final for this course.  Each student will write and present a paper on their organization.  This is a professional presentation, and should include PowerPoint or some other form of media (handouts, photos, posters are all acceptable). Presentation should be 15 to 20 minutes and contain the following:

1. An Introduction: Describe your organization.Describe your role within the organization. Provide the organizations “Mission Statement”.
2. Organizational challenge: Describe how you saw the purpose of your organization at the beginning of class.  Has that view changed and why or why not?   Describe the challenge you wanted to confront.Make sure that the issue(s)are bounded and manageable so that they can be described within your paper.
3. Paper Length: Suggested length for the final paper is 8 to 10 pages.  Provide enough information to enable someone unfamiliar with your organization, or the situation, the ability to understand the issues.  You may disguise the case if you wish (“the names have been changed to protect the innocent”) .
4. Integration of class materials: Define the resources or insights you have gained from the class.  How have you [or can] you integrate them into your organizational study?
5. Four-Frame: After applying the Structure, Human Resources, Political and Symbolic model, how did [or could] the case have changed?  Devote about a page for each of the four frames.
6. Summary: In the last paragraph describe how useful the four frames were in helping you to clarify alternative courses of action for your situation.

 Criteria for Grading

Papers will be graded on the following:

1. Quality and thoroughness of analysis
2. Clear focus, organization, writing, and presentation
3. Internal consistency of the arguments
4. Effective use of four-frame theory to reflect on and provide new insights into personal case experiences

Common Errors

Student final papers often included the following errors:

1. Rambling – Remember to write about something you know. Be selective and write thoroughly about a few well-defined issue(s) than superficially about many.
2. Providing extravagant descriptions of the organization and not what the issue actually is/was.Briefly describe how and why things happened at your organization, and the situation that got you there.
3. Papers lack examples and theory to support the analysis. Avoid simply offering opinions, good papers take a set of theoretical ideas and show how those ideas can be applied to specific aspects of the case.
4. Restating material from the readings without linking it to one’s own analysis. Good papers use theory to support insights and to cast a new light on personal experiences and observations.