Chosen Field for this assignment: ( Human Resources )
In this summative assignment you will develop a substantial draft of an article that you may wish to continue working on after the course is completed with the goal of submission to a peer-reviewed journal for publication. You will be demonstrating in-depth knowledge of the current literature in your chosen field. A selection of current topics has been developed throughout the weekly assignments in this course. The specific area you choose should reflect your interests and your passion for making a difference. The focus of the paper can be one of the following: the area of your dissertation; an area in which you want to become an expert, complementing your dissertation research; or an area in which you want to develop specific expertise for offering consulting solutions to organizational and industrial problems. Focus on a topic that has significance for global organizations and the application of IO psychology theories.
While much of the article draft in Week 6 should read like a completed work, it will not be complete in all sections — a few sections may need to be sketched. In those instances, a plan for completion of those sections and appropriate rationale should be provided.
You must select from two types of articles, A or B, for this assignment:
Critical review of and contribution to the literature on a current and global issue. This normally will include a focus on critique or expansion or new application of theory.
Contribution to gathering and understanding of data on a current and global issue. A great deal of your review of the literature will be completed in this course. You will select a research design and methodology during this course, but you will not be able to complete any gathering of primary data during this course, nor will you be able to apply statistical analysis to any data. Our six-week time frame does not make this possible.
Both options focus on a current issue or trend in IO psychology that is important to you. You may be contributing a critique of theory, a proposal of theory, a critical analysis of data gathered by others, a proposal to better explain data that has been gathered, or a proposal with gaps in the data on an important or interesting issue. There are other possibilities as well.
Article Content
Research the journals that are suitable for the topic and approach you will take in developing your article draft. Each journal has its own style, format, and topical interests. Some journals have specific length restrictions. Some only consider articles with a certain type of methodology. Many journals have this information in their issues. Know your audience when attempting to publish. Keep this in mind when writing your article.
Focus your article as either (A) a critical analysis of one or more current articles in the literature, or as (B) proposed research for a specific issue in the current literature. You do not have to do the primary research during this course. You do need to discuss in detail the sort of research you will perform — either quantitative or qualitative — and the sort of research method you will structure. Regardless of which option you choose, you will need to develop an excellent analysis of current literature in your topic.
What particular theory or theories will pertain to your work, and how will your work impact the theory? Are you setting out to advance this theory into a new area of application or are you setting out to show that the theory does not apply to your selected area of investigation?
It is useful to look at recent dissertations on your selected topic as well as recent published research. ProQuest provides access to dissertations.
Your draft article should be 4500-5000 words, not including the cover page and references page.
You will need to have your work in approved APA format (even though your target journals may use other styles).
The reference list is very important. It should be (briefly) annotated in the paper. Your list demonstrates the depth, breadth, quality, and integrity of your research. As an expert in the field, you do not want to be open to criticisms of shoddy research. For this assignment you should collect at least 12, but preferably 15 or more justifiably relevant references.
While more difficult, developing a model or tool to assess a wide range of literature or a whole type of interventions, can be particularly satisfying, and can impress journal editors in your field. You do not have to develop a model here, but you might want to discuss an idea for one as part of your draft.
Writing style must be impeccable when the goal is publishing. While this is a draft, your writing skills will influence editors either positively or negatively.
If your research methodology will require any surveys or interviews, you should draft these for this assignment, but you do not have to complete them. The course timeframe does not allow this.
If you are selecting a quantitative method, indicate which sorts of tests you might perform on the collected data. If you are selecting a qualitative method (phenomenology, grounded theory, etc.), specify which one and why.
Discuss what you have done in order to address all or some of these items: reliability, validity, accuracy, analytic integrity, and logical consistency.
Overall, your draft should be “complete” in the sense that it covers all of the areas of the proposed article, without, however, sending or administering any testing or measurement that will be involved.
