A. Individual Organizational Analysis (200 Points)

    Each student will write an individual organizational analysis of a firm of his/her choosing. No two students may have the same firm, so it would be best to make your decision as to which company you would like to report on as soon as possible. If you choose to focus your paper on a specific division or geographic region of the firm, please make a note of this when you communicate your decision. Be sure to check to see that your choice has not already been taken by someone else. If two or more students turn in papers examining the same company, 10% will be deducted from each paper prior to grading. Please let me know which organization you plan to write about. This is your responsibility. A separate handout with more details about the individual organizational analysis paper will be posted by the instructor. The sections of the individual organizational analysis paper should cover the following chapters: Section 1 (covers Chapters 1 and 2) Section 2 (covers Chapters 3 and 4) Section 3 (covers Chapters 5, 6, and 7) Section 4 (covers Chapters 8, 9, and 10) Section 5 (covers Chapter 11) These 5 sections must address the materials and concepts covered in the textbook and how they apply to your individual topic organization. Each section is intended to allow you to later complete, a holistic final paper which will be due at the end of the semester. The final paper (worth 200 points) should include a maximum 1-page introduction and a maximum 2-page history/company background. The rest of the paper should be comprised of the sections you will have written over the course of the semester. However, your final paper will add a new section (Section 6) that presents your suggested strategic recommendations, and your final conclusions. Your conclusions should be the result of your analysis, and your recommendations should be directions and actions that the firm should take. Ultimately, this should be the objective of your paper, meaning that you should show how all the analyses you performed prior to the conclusion led you to these recommendations. Do not bring up random possible courses of action, then leave them unexplained. Instead, you must make decisions as to which actions/combination of actions (recommendations) would make the most sense for the company. Other information or analysis may be included in your report if you think it would be helpful. Note that the emphasis of your final paper should be on the proposed actions, the thought processes behind them, and the expected impacts of these actions. You are highly encouraged to include charts, graphs, and tables that will help illustrate many of your points / arguments. The paper should be at least 20 pages long (Not including cover page, bibliography, tables, graphs, and charts), double spaced, 12 pt. Times New Roman font. Please remember to submit as a Word document, include your name, the date, course# and the name of the assignment on the first page. Do not include an abstract in your final paper. Citations must be included in text with full references at the back (bibliography). Information from websites with pre-written papers is not admissible! Do not plagiarize. Use APA format for citations. Reports turned in with inappropriate citation procedures, or lacking citations completely will be graded accordingly. You may want to search online for APA standards. One such site is: http://psychology.about.com/od/apastyle/a/apageneral.htm, but you are welcome to search for your own sources as well.