Analyzing a Situation from Your Experience | Homework Help Websites

Instructions for the final (individual) project in MSM 6633

Overview

The purpose of this final project is to demonstrate your skills and abilities in analyzing a situation from your experience using the Warrick model, which includes how to do a gap analysis, identifying evidence and the issues from that analysis, and making recommendations supported by literature to improve team performance. This is a work project where you bring in your own experiences from a current situation (or something from a previous situation), that can be used to make recommendations to management in some cases. Students have successfully handed these projects for implementation, or the implemented them successfully.

The intent of this project is to use your experience (from one team, event or focus relative to teamwork) and add the Warrick model to examine each of the aspects in the model, analyze the reality versus best practice as represented by the Warrick model (this is the gap analysis used to identify evidence and issues) and determine what could have been more effective. When these items are identified, provide recommendations for leadership/management on how to make improvements. The focus will be how to make improvements to create a high-performance team. As you work on this project keep in mind how this proposal will support the organization in meeting its mission and goals – this means aligning your project with the mission and goals of the organization.

As you proceed through the course, I strongly recommend that you develop your project as we finish each one of the modules. In this way, you will not have to develop the entire project at the end of the course; your information on the topics just covered will also be fresh and it’s much easier to write your project when you can remember what influenced you the most, what you believe to be highly effective, and how you think the knowledge can be applied appropriately.

The team project is practice project for your final individual project because the team will analyze the issues using the blocks in the Warrick model for each one of the team projects. This will allow you “practice” and receive feedback to assist you in developing your own plans. However, under no conditions can this team project information/content be copied and pasted into individual projects – this is intended to teach everyone how to do it, it is not created to be copied. Any final individual projects that even appear to be copied will be returned to the owners with a failing grade.

First Step – Topic Approval (worth up to 10 points)

Consider what you want your team performance improvement topic to be about starting in week two; this is to be submitted by Sunday of week three. This assignment requires a paragraph that must be at least six sentences (this is the bare minimum) and one reference (APA style). Use a topic from personal experience such as a workplace event that could be improved with better teamwork, perhaps an event in your personal life such as with an organization for which you volunteer, even “special” events that could benefit from improved teamwork. Put yourself in the leadership position and write this paragraph about what you want to improve. Please contact the instructor should you have any questions. Any submission not meeting requirements will be returned to the author and not be graded until it meets expectations

Final Project Requirements (Final Paper is worth up to 150 points)

The executive summary summarizes the project, this means it summarizes the contents of the entire paper. This includes an introduction, background information, a purpose statement, analysis tools, analysis results, resulting recommendations, and conclusions. This should be based on key points and no more than 2 pages.

You will create several items as part of this project and address each one of the Warrick modules, presenting the key concepts and explaining how you as a leader will use the models and examples from the reading, information from the text and your own experience if applicable, to demonstrate and document that you have a plan on how you will improve the situation from your experience to create high performers that support project/organizational goals. You will not be asked to implement any of the changes; instead, your goal is to provide a plan based on analysis and resulting recommendations based on expert (literature) advice on what needs improving to include the rationale behind that advice. This is final paper only a proposal! For this reason, real data is not collected for this project. Should you wish to conduct this at work, please discuss this with the instructor first. This is only a proposal, not an implementation. All parts of the Warrick model must be addressed in the project, even if not used, with an explanation of why this item is not addressed as part of the analysis. Your project will also include two separate measures to determine if team performance was meeting expectations (the TEQ), and if the goal for which the team was created was achieved. For the second measure, you may use something that has been used in your organization previously or you may choose to develop your own based on similar examples you may find on the Internet. Both measures must reflect and support the mission and the goals of the organization. Show the linkage between performance and goal attainment and organizational mission and goals. For both measures, strengths and areas of development will need to be discussed.

The general categories of your project will include an executive summary (instructions on how to write an executive summary are provided in the course site), a title page with all pertinent information including your name, the name of the class, the title, etc., a table of contents, a gap analysis between the reality of your experience and the key items you provide (from your situation) based on the Warrick modules (6, according to the graphic representation), and a discussion on recommendations you would make which will be supported by literature. A list of references and any appendices necessary to support your document. The estimated size for this project is 8-10 pages of content plus the references, table of contents, executive summary, etc. and appendices. I will not read anything that is longer than 20 pages. More is not necessarily better; learn to be succinct.

Your paper should include the following:

· Executive summary (links to how to do this are in the course and you may contact me)

· Title page

· Table of Contents (I recommend you use the Microsoft Word feature, this makes it easy). I also recommend titles for each of your sections. For example, each block of the Warwick model would be a good title for that section. The idea is to make your document easy to read and easy to follow for the executive or leader who reads it. Your document should progress logically from the executive summary, through background information, to the concern, the gap analysis, the issues, and the recommendations related to the specific issues. Conclusions should be your final section. References always start on a new page, each appendix starts on a new page.

· An introduction, approximately one but no more than two pages.

· Background information (set the stage so the situation is clear). Include the mission and goals of the organization. The mission and goals should align with your recommendations otherwise you need to revisit what has been developed in the paper. If you don’t see it, I will, and I will grade accordingly. It makes no sense to make recommendations that have nothing to do with the mission or goals.

· Gap analysis using Warrick article and include all components component of the model. If you do not use all the components because some do not apply, explain why the one or two are eliminated and are not necessary. The gap analysis identifies the evidence from which issues are identified, and the issues will show you what recommendations are necessary. Please refer to the links in the course if you are not familiar with how to develop a gap analysis. If you are still in doubt, please contact me. If you choose to go with a minimum of four, make sure everything else is well written, inclusive, and to the point.

· A recommendations section based on the gap analysis (which identified the issues) you performed using the Warrick model, including literature to support the recommendations you make. Your opinion cannot be the only rationale; it must be supported by expert opinion (literature). Use the literature as needed to support your recommendations. Remember that it is also important to identify what is notably effective or done well so this can be maintained and repeated in the future. Recommendations must also be in alignment with the mission and goals of the organization.

· Once recommendations have been developed, these should be goals or targets moving forward. Surveys or other measures will help identify future actions. A minimum of two measures are required for this project, these are both simply recommended for future use; one must be the TEQ (NOT from the Warrick article, that is the Team Building Questionnaire). DO NOT CREATE or COLLECT DATA, this is a proposal only. The TEQ is the measure of team performance. The other measure must be related to goal attainment of the task or the project (this is the business goal). Explain how you will use these two measures to improve team performance and goal attainment. Whether you choose a survey interview questions, or whatever you choose from the literature or your personal experience, this must measure task or goal accomplishment. None of these will be implemented, remember this is a proposal.

· Conclusions (this is a section where you discuss why this is important, what may happen if performance and goals are not met, etc.)

· You should expect to see both strengths and developmental areas as part of your overall assessment if you can implement this proposal. It is important to acknowledge strengths as well as areas for development

· Conclusions and plans for future team development (1 page or less)

· References – the same reference cannot be used for more than three times unless you have approval from the instructor; a minimum of 6 academic articles is required. The remaining references may be URLs of your choice. If used use a textbook, you are limited to three citations per textbook. Please note 6 academic articles means articles from academic journals, this does not mean URLs from the Internet or random Internet sites – if these are used in these are above and beyond the 10-article requirement. In addition, anything from Wikipedia, the Huffington Post, or any other opinion-based publication is not allowable. If any of these (or anything like these) are included on your reference list, this will be returned to you ungraded. Also, keep in mind that anything used as a reference must be cited at least once in your project – instructions are in APA, learn them and use them.

· Appendices are for any figures, charts, graphs, tables that you use (Warrick, the TEQ and anything else you include to support your recommendations/plan). Normally these are placed following the References; they are placed here instead of in the body of the paper because they disrupt the writing and the flow of information. Feel free to use any from class that may be appropriate; search the Internet; search articles. Any time surveys, inventories, questionnaires, and especially models are used it is important that you explain why these fit your case and why they are appropriate. It is also necessary to provide the source to avoid plagiarism. If you use a survey, provide a copy of it and explain why it fits your proposal/recommendations. In other words, make your business case. Providing your rationale is as important as what you select. APA has instructions on how to format appendices, as well as how to cite and reference. Use this information.