Select a problem or challenge you are encountering at work or school this semester that organizational behavior topic may provide insight for solving (e.g., stress, motivation, goal-setting, creativity - the syllabus schedule or textbook are good references for ideas). You may also address a personal problem, but select something you'd be comfortable sharing with the class. Relatedly, do not include specific names of any individuals or companies.

The entire project will be much easier and more effective if you are thoughtful with problem selection; I suggest you keep it simple, select a challenge that you can work to improve over the course of the semester, and make it relevant or interesting to you.

Apply:

Apply a summary clearly stating (1) the challenge or issue, (2) which one OB concept will help you make progress toward overcoming the challenge, and (3) a brief description of why you selected that topic, and how it might relate.

Example challenges include:

Work or organization-related examples:

• working with an unreasonable supervisor (conflict management, communication)
• absenteeism or turnover issues (motivation, job satisfaction, reward)
• conflict with coworkers (communication, conflict, diversity and inclusion)
• obtaining visibility and favorable work assignments (communication, mentoring)

School-related examples:

• finding an internship (goal setting)
• working with a free-rider on a group project (teamwork)
• deciding on or changing one's major (decision making)
  • raising one's grade point average (goal setting)
  • time management (self-management)

Personal examples:

• increasing physical fitness (goal setting, motivation)
• stopping smoking (goal setting)
• reducing stress (stress)

Below are some examples of problems/challenges that you can focus on.

SAMPLE PROBLEM #1 (WORK PROBLEM)

My mother and I own a business together. We manage a concession stand that contracts for a number of festival, convention, and special occasion events downtown and elsewhere. Our concession stand has from 3 to 20 people working at each event. Our employees are usually all still enrolled in high school, and we have a lot of problems getting them to show up for work, be on time, and stay employed through the end of an event. There is a tremendous amount of turnover. We continually have to hire new people. It is frustrating to never know if enough people will show up for work so that customers can be served effectively. When we do bad job of customer service the word of mouth can hurt our business. It is also discouraging to continually have to hire new people, spend time training them, and then watch them leave so that we have to start over again. My mother and I often work the soda machine when we could be developing strategies for obtaining new business or finding new product lines. The problems here include motivation, work values, and turnover among others. I have chosen to focus on motivation in solving this problem. I think finding ways to increase the motivation to work in the employees will reduce turnover and increase commitment.

SAMPLE PROBLEM #2 (SCHOOL PROBLEM)

I am taking a class in which I must work in a group to complete the major project in the course. There are five people in my group, and four of us appear to be committed to the project and determined to get a good grade. Each of us four seems to be working equally as hard on the project. The problem is that one member of our group is not contributing as much as the rest of us. This person does not come to class regularly, contributes few ideas when present, never has assignments for the project finished at the agreed-on time, and generates problems and conflict during the few group meetings where she actually shows up. This problem is important because it can have a significant impact on the quality of the group project. Consequently, it can have a major impact on my course grade, and ultimately my overall grade point average. This is a problem of social loafing, teamwork, and interpersonal conflict. Therefore, I'll look at the team processes and communication topic area to identify research-supported approaches to communicating within a team about conflicts and to reduce individual team member's desire to slack off in team work.