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Essay Instructions: Team Project
As a significant part of this course (120 points), you are to present a scholarly research paper. The topic of the paper is ?An Analysis of Actual Personnel Policies for OFFICE DEPOT."

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to apply the textbook theories of Human Resources to an actual company. Each individual in each team should identify his/her contribution to the paper. The team must base their conclusions on solid foundation of cited research, including the textbook and appropriate scholarly, professional journal articles.
Content
The content of the paper should show documented evidence of your reading and comprehensive application of our text and any journal articles referenced. See Appendix 1.
Questions the Paper Should Answer

Among the questions the team project should answer are:
1. Discuss the external and internal environment of the company and the impact upon human resource management policies. Include mission, strategy, and organization structure (including the specifics of the HR Department).
2. Explain personnel needs for a crucial department and procedures used to determine these needs relative to demand for product, service, etc.
3. Explain how specific job (position) descriptions are established for crucial positions. Do these agree with methods suggested in the text? Provide samples.
4. Compare actual to text methods of recruiting and selecting employees for these positions.
5. Compare types of training to those in text to insure that employees in these crucial positions are at full performance level within a reasonable period. Do the same analysis for the supervisor of these crucial positions.
6. What types of tuition reimbursement are available and how are employees encouraged to seek additional education to upgrade their skills? Evaluate whether additional education improves employee performance before compensating employees.
7. Do a comparative analysis of the total compensation system of this company to that suggested in the text.
8. Analyze methods of performance appraisal policies compared to our text. Provide samples.
9. Do you think this company could become unionized? Why or why not, based on text explanations? If the company is unionized, how does management and labor comply with specific labor laws, such as the Wagner Act, Taft-Hartley Act, and the Landrum-Griffin Act?
10. What quality of work life or other productivity enhancing techniques would be helpful? Does the company use such techniques? Why or why not?
11. Evaluate overall personnel/human resources management policies of this company. Which are the least and most effective? Why? What recommendations for improvement do you suggest? Please document using as many empirical studies (from professional, scholarly journal articles) as possible.
12. A reference page must be included in the paper. See Appendix 1 for format. Outline for the complete paper, including a tentative bibliography, should be submitted no later than Oct 16 Additionally, the draft paper completed by that time should be submitted for faculty comments and feedback suggestions.

APPENDIX 1
Format for Final Paper
Students are urged to keep their papers between 10 and 15 pages (double-spaced). Papers must be formatted in proper APA style format, using the current 6th edition of the APA Publication Manual. The following instructions are provided to assist students in preparing the final version of the paper. These instructions concern only the physical presentation of the paper. Students will be mistaken if they take this to imply that form is more important than content. Your major attention should be given to the intellectual content. The finished product, however, will be more satisfying to you and a good deal less frustrating to the reader if it conforms to certain minimum standards of presentation. These standards are as follows:
Paper should have title page and table of contents. Title page should contain the title of the assignment, the names of team members who contributed to the paper, University name, the course and number, faculty name, and the date.
Paper should be typed double-space, on one side of the page, using standard typewriter paper (8.5 x 11 inches).
Margins should be uniform, one inch all around.
In accordance with APA format, the pages must include properly formatted page headers and page numbers. This includes the title page itself.
Reference citations will be in accordance with APA format. As such, footnotes should NOT be used. All references listed must be cited at least once in the paper, and all cited sources must be listed in the References page only once (i.e., if you cite several chapters from the textbook, you need to list the textbook only once in the References).
It is more appropriate to paraphrase in your own words, rather than quoting unnecessarily. Excessive quotations and/or exceedingly lengthy quotations may be considered plagiarism. Failure to cite facts, concepts, and theories may constitute plagiarism. Students must keep in mind that this is an academic paper, and rules of scholarly writing will be expected and enforced.
Include a References page at the end of the paper. This list of sources includes all reference materials cited in the paper. Technically, a Bibliography would include all sources found, but not necessarily used in the paper. It is only necessary to list the sources actually cited in the paper, so do not refer to this as a Bibliography. Format the references in proper APA style.
Final version papers must be proofread and spell checked. Spelling, grammar, typos, and other quality deficiencies (such as proper APA format) will detract from the final grade. Teams must plan for sufficient time to review and edit the final paper before submitting the paper.

Essay Instructions: Use the DiSC assessment results from your (5) Team members that are attached.

Interview someone at your job and gather information about your organization, the department they work in, and his or her job description.

Write a plan that may be applied to your department and that would increase your Team members' motivation, satisfaction, and performance based on their personal profiles, as if they were employees of that department.

Required Elements:

Analyze specific differences in attitudes, emotions, personalities, and values among your Team members, and address how each difference might be used to positively influence behavior.

Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines.

Essay Instructions: Case Analysis- Teamwork

Outline:
i) Team Analysis
(a) Strengths
1. All team members are very technical
2. Knowledgeable
(b) Weaknesses
1. Submissive
2. Like to work alone
3. Does not actively seek input of others
4. Think they work better individually

ii) How their communicative role in the company
(a) They are Peripheral Specialists, who play a vital role in the network by serving as experts, but they operate on the periphery.

iii) Describe Their Overall Team Morale and Outlook
(a) Analysis of the Charts (page11-14, Exhibit 2, 3, 4)
(b) Lacking consensus, not on the same page

Essay Instructions: Assume you are a leader of a team working on an important project. There is conflict brewing between team members escalating which is likely due to their high degree of task interdependence. Several team members feel overworked and that they have taken on the majority of the work on a project. The team is composed of two women based in the United States and one man based in Brazil. Not only have members of the team communicated their negative feelings about other team members to you, but the work on the project has been delayed. In two pages, identify the steps you would take to address and resolve the conflict in order to ensure continued productivity. Does it make a difference that you are dealing with different cultures and genders? If it does, identify the considerations you need to make.