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Interdisciplinary Research Project Research Paper Initial Draft     Guidelines (9-10 pages): Analyze a complex workplace issue of your own choosing

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Interdisciplinary Research Project

Research Paper

Initial Draft

 

 

Guidelines (9-10 pages): Analyze a complex workplace issue of your own choosing. Pick an issue you really care about. Take an interdisciplinary approach (using 3 different disciplines) to finding solutions to the issue you have identified. Describe and evaluate the solutions you discover through your research. Develop your own solutions and suggest areas for future interdisciplinary research. The research paper should be 9-10 pages, double-spaced (see APA and M&M guidelines). Cite five to seven academic sources (books and journal articles).

 

Possible topics (or feel free to select your own if it is not on this list)

 

The challenges for working mothers in the practice of law

Labor unions in today’s workplace

Workplace violence among white-collar workers

Bilingualism in the workplace

Reservist to active duty: effects on employer and employees

Telecommuting

Women in management, and the glass ceiling: models and best practices

Temporary workers and the lack of benefits

Education for the workforce in the 21st century

Extension of benefits to same-sex partners

Expression of religion in the workplace

Rights of employees away from the job

Work and self-esteem

Ethical standards in journalism and news reports

Benefits in the workplace for employees and dependents

Privacy rights of employees in the workplace

Balancing work and family roles: the employer’s role

Office politics, management practices and the work environment

Organizational changes and how they are implemented

Loyalty: perspectives of employees and employers

Workplace incentives and employee motivation

 

For your initial draft: Provide as much data/scholarly work from your 3 disciplines as possible. Ensure that the instructor knows how you are treating this in an INTERDISCIPLINARY manner, rather than as a traditional paper. Write as if you are submitting this to a peer-reviewed journal! This assignment is not considered a “rough” draft, so be careful to write from academic perspectives and in 3rd person.

 

Research Guidelines

 

When organizing your research and your written paper, you should consider the following:

 

· Your research project should be a workplace problem, question, or issue that is complex enough to be studied or understood from multiple perspectives.

· Define the main idea of your thesis. Then focus your research on a manageable portion of that issue or problem. You need to have enough complexity on one hand, but enough focus so that you come up with meaningful results.

· Conduct research. Explore different perspectives from three disciplines, for example, psychology, economics, and history. Examine the differences and similarities in points of view.

· If possible, select a topic and approach where you can use your “home discipline,” the discipline that you believe you’re most competent in. Use this as a starting point for analyzing your topic, then bring in your other disciplines to see how they bear on the topic.

· Organize the ideas. Identify and describe the points of view of each discipline. Consider how the practitioners in each discipline approach the topic that you’ve chosen. What are the basic assumptions that each discipline makes about your topic area?

· Identify opposing arguments among disciplines. Evaluate strengths and weaknesses of each perspective. If there are areas of agreement, identify these. Examine and highlight how the disciplines intersect and shed light on the topic. If you have chosen one view over another, identify which one and why.

· Propose your own ideas for solutions. Make suggestions about areas for future study.

· In evaluating your final draft, assess how you have integrated your chosen disciplines in your interdisciplinary research paper.

· IMPORTANT NOTE: This is not a traditional research paper, so you will need to provide clear evidence that you have conducted research on a work-related problem using 3 different disciplines, along with associated references.