Explanation of Article Collection Synthesis Assignments

Explanation of Article Collection Synthesis
Assignments
This
activity helps for building your skill at using multiple sources to reach a
deeper understanding about the subject you are investigating and about possible
managerial applications.
What you are doing and are not doing, when doing a
synthesis
– You are not looking at a set of articles about a given topic as competitors, from among which you
pick one to follow. Treating multiple articles you read about a given subject
as competitors, with all but one
effectively being discarded after reading, would be a poor way to pick out
ideas upon which you intend to further your career as a manager. Instead, you
synthesize what is true and helpful in all
of them together to reach a deeper state of understanding about the
questions being raised.
Also,
a written synthesis of ideas contained in multiple sources is organized around issues. It is never organized around
individual articles and it is
almost never organized around a single author.
Thus, each paragraph in the body of your written synthesis focuses on one or
more issues. Not one paragraph is ever focused solely on
analyzing or summarizing ideas presented in a single article. Devoting one or more whole paragraphs to
summarizing / analyzing individual written works is what you did for book
reports in high school or as a college freshman, and this assignment is aimed
at strengthening a higher-order set of critical thinking skills, skills that
are much more like the kind you will want to have developed well by the time
you graduate.
•
A simple “rule of thumb” you can use to
predict your grade, with a fair amount of accuracy, is to ask if you have one
or more paragraphs that are wholly focused on one article. If your answer to this question is “yes”,
then you are all but certain to receive a “D” or “F” if you
submit your assignment for grading, without further editing and revision.

An example of an “issue”-focused synthesis – If your first
paragraph about the assigned articles summarizes key issues addressed in all
articles, and raises one or a few points of difference for the purpose of
showing how the articles are different, then you are well on your way to doing
a good synthesis. If your second and following paragraphs focus, in turn, on
one or more of the issues raised in your introductory paragraph in greater
detail, then you’re likely to be on the right track. If your concluding
paragraph contains a summary of ideas discussed earlier, and presents a summary
of what the articles you are synthesizing, taken together, are telling us about
a subject (ie: how to make good decisions, how to handle inclusiveness /
diversity issues, how to lead effectively, handling teams, …), then you are
likely to be on the right track.
Remember your larger purpose – You always address
a larger managerial challenge when looking at multiple sources about a
topic–possible subjects could be decision making, motivation, performance
management, leadership, change management, and a variety of other topics.
Always remember your larger purpose because that becomes the most natural your
“compass” for organizing your synthesis — what’s the managerial
challenge you’d like to address better, after synthesizing ideas you find in
multiple sources? This overall objective is true for this assignment and
similar, later assignments, true for the “Synthesis of Current
Literature” assignment due later in the semester, and true for the
Literature Review portion of your team’s research project.

What do I do? – First, take the time to read everything above this set of
instructions. It is crucial for understanding what you need to do, for
identifying what skills you are practicing by doing this assignment, and for
identifying how the skills you are practicing here will help you later in this
course. Second, read the
articles assigned as readings for this week. Third, upload a MS Word file containing a four to five paragraph
written synthesis of no more than 600 words to the assignment upload point. You
should have an introductory paragraph that summarize the issues you will raise,
one or two paragraphs about issues raised in the articles, and a concluding
paragraph about what the articles taken together teach us about the issues they
raise, and about how managers can respond to the challenges those articles
address.
This
assignment is intended to be done individually,
without reference to the thoughts of others beforehand, as that is how you
would be likely to do this kind of reading after graduation.

Citations: Give in-text citations and provide a
bibliography at the end, with everything done in APA format.
‘Synthesis of Current Literature Assignment
Assignment objectives: This
assignment helps to develop better skills at drawing out key ideas from
multiple intellectual works, so that after you are finished you have a more
thorough understanding of the subject you are investigating than if you had
read only one article.
Remember the larger
purpose; Sample topics
– You always have a larger question or issue you are addressing by looking at
multiple articles about a topic–possible subjects could be decision making,
motivation, performance management, leadership styles, change management, and a
variety of other topics covered in the field of management.Always remember your
larger purpose because that becomes your compass for organizing your synthesis
assignment.
Organizing what you write
-A
written synthesis of ideas contained in multiple intellectual works is
organized around issues; it is
not organized around individual articles and it is almost never organized
around a single author. An introductory paragraph will lay out the key issues
to be examined, and those issues will be areas of agreement and disagreement
between the articles you are writing about. That means each paragraph in the body of your written synthesis focuses on one or
more issues, as the subject(s) of the paragraph. Finally, a concluding
paragraph will summarize the key issues addressed, and explore the (preferably
non-obvious) takeaways for managers that you were able to draw out by synthesizing
good ideas contained in the articles you read to carry out this assignment.
What not to do for this
assignment–
Do not look at a set of articles about a given topic as competitors, from among
which you pick one article to serve as your one and only guide. Treating
multiple articles you read about a given subject as competitors would be an
extraordinarily poor way to pick out ideas upon which you intend to further
your career as a manager. Instead, look for what is helpful in each, and all,
of a set of articles, to synthesize what is true and helpful in all of them
together so that you reach a deeper state of understanding about the issues
being addressed. Accordingly, no
paragraph should focus on analyzing or summarizing ideas presented in a single article; grades will be very low for
“synthesis” assignments that are written in the manner of a series of
disconnected article summaries.
An example of an
“issue”-focused synthesis, for this assignment – If your first
paragraph summarizes key issues addressed in your chosen articles, and raises
some (substantive and meaningful) points of similarity and difference between
your chosen articles, then you’re heading in a good direction.If your second
through second-to-last paragraphs focus, in turn, on one or more of the issues
given in your introduction, then you’re likely to be on the right track.If your
concluding paragraph contains a summary of ideas discussed earlier, and
presents a summary of what the articles you are synthesizing, taken together,
are telling us about a subject (ie: how to make good decisions, how to handle
inclusiveness / diversity issues, how to lead effectively, forming or managing
teams, …), then you are likely to be on the right track.
Article Selection –pick
out 5 to 7 scholarly articles and/or high-quality practitioner articles related
to a specific, single, and fairly
narrow subject area in management theory and practice that is not related to your term project.These articles must have some meaningful
disagreement about some issue of importance to the practice of management.Possible
examples include articles presenting different
views about team-building, about the merits of using path-goal
leadership theory and Fiedler’s contingency theory to decide how to lead, about
how managers might make practical use of expectancy theory or intrinsic
motivation, and so on …
•
Check
with me if you’re uncertain about whether or not disagreement exists between
the articles you collect.Provide me with either a copy of your articles or
links to them, when asking questions.
•
You
may pick a maximum of one of the articles assigned as
readings for this course to be one of the 5 to 7 articles you use to carry out
this assignment.
Sources for articles to analyze:All sources
must have been published in the last ten
years.And, the use of high quality sources is required for this assignment.Use only articles from the following
sources:
•
Harvard
Business Review, Business Horizons, California Management Review, Sloan Management
Review, McKinsey Quarterly, Academy of Management Perspectives, Academy of
Management Review, Academy of Management Journal
…
if you have an article in mind from a different source, that you would like to
use, then you need to pre-approve it with me before going ahead.Articles from other sources, and not
pre-approved, will not be
accepted for this assignment.

Assignment Format and
Submission Procedures
•
Hand
in a 2-3 page analysis, typed and single spaced, in Times New Roman 12-point
font, with 1 inch margins for each page.
•
Provide
full citations for all articles you used.Follow the APA citation style for the citations you give.
•
As
always, an upload point will be available on Moodle for this assignment.
Grading Rubric
Click
on the “Rubric” link on the left hand side of this webpage to view
the grading rubric for this assignment.

4 Synthesis of Current Literature Assignment
4.1 Grading Rubric for Synthesis of Current
Literature assignment

Quality
of Work

Description

Grading
Range

Superior

Clearly
describes the management problem or opportunity to be addressed and carries
out an insightful, thorough, and
creative synthesis of chosen articles to do a superior evaluation of
options for addressing the management problem or opportunity that has been
described. Must be well written to be “Superior.”

A-toA+

Able

Strengths
are as given under “Developing” (given below), with no significant weaknesses.Must be at least fairly well written
to be “Able.”

B-toB+

Developing

Uneven, with multiple strengths and one or
more significant weaknesses; one or more strengths could include good choice
of sources, a well developed comparison of strengths and limitations of the
chosen sources, an insightful examination of similarities and differences
between chosen sources, and well developed efforts to draw implications from
chosen sources for the practice of management. Possible weaknesses are as
given for “Beginning”, but are less severe in how they undermine the quality
of the synthesis.

C-toC+

Beginning

At
least one serious weakness;
possibilities include poor quality sources, poorly developed comparison of
strengths and limitations of chosen sources, weak analysis of similarities
and differences between chosen sources, a poorly developed description of the
management problem or opportunity of interest, or a poorly developed
explanation of how chosen sources can help in addressing the management
problem or opportunity that has been described.

D-toD+

(Way
Off)

At
least one fatal error;
possibilities include using inappropriate sources, a set of independent,
disconnected, and shallow article summaries that offers little or no
synthesis of ideas in the chosen sources, or no attempt to draw out ideas
from the chosen sources that would be helpful for management practitioners.

FtoD-

Grades
can be higher or lower than the given grade ranges, depending on two issues:
•
Quality
of the writing
•
Following
the APA citation format
Writing quality – Writing is expected to be coherent,
concise, and professional in tone. English errors should be few in number, or
nonexistent.A particularly well written “Synthesis” assignment will generally
receive a higher grade than would be indicated only by looking at the portion
of this grading rubric given directly above–and vice versa.
Citations– No grade will be assigned until the
APA format for citations has been correctly followed.

Synthesis
of Current Literature Assignment
Assignment
objectives:
This assignment helps to develop better skills at drawing out key ideas from multiple
intellectual works, so that after you are finished you have a more thorough
understanding of the subject you are investigating than if you had read only
one article.
Remember
the larger purpose; Sample topics – You always have a larger question or issue
you are addressing by looking at multiple articles about a topic–possible
subjects could be decision making, motivation, performance management,
leadership styles, change management, and a variety of other topics covered in
the field of management.Always remember your larger purpose because that
becomes your compass for organizing your synthesis assignment.
Organizing
what you write -A
written synthesis of ideas contained in multiple intellectual works is
organized around issues; it is not organized around individual
articles and it is almost never organized around a single author. An
introductory paragraph will lay out the key issues to be examined, and those
issues will be areas of agreement and disagreement between the articles you are
writing about. That means each paragraph in the body of your written
synthesis focuses on one or more issues, as the subject(s) of the
paragraph. Finally, a concluding paragraph will summarize the key issues
addressed, and explore the (preferably non-obvious) takeaways for managers that
you were able to draw out by synthesizing good ideas contained in the articles
you read to carry out this assignment.
What
not to do for this assignment– Do not look at a set of
articles about a given topic as competitors, from among which you pick one
article to serve as your one and only guide. Treating multiple articles you
read about a given subject as competitors would be an extraordinarily poor way
to pick out ideas upon which you intend to further your career as a manager. Instead,
look for what is helpful in each, and all, of a set of articles, to synthesize
what is true and helpful in all of them together so that you reach a deeper
state of understanding about the issues being addressed. Accordingly, no
paragraph should focus on analyzing or summarizing ideas presented in a single article;
grades will be very low for “synthesis” assignments that are written
in the manner of a series of disconnected article summaries.
An
example of an “issue”-focused synthesis, for this assignment – If your first
paragraph summarizes key issues addressed in your chosen articles, and raises
some (substantive and meaningful) points of similarity and difference between
your chosen articles, then you’re heading in a good direction.If your second
through second-to-last paragraphs focus, in turn, on one or more of the issues
given in your introduction, then you’re likely to be on the right track.If your
concluding paragraph contains a summary of ideas discussed earlier, and
presents a summary of what the articles you are synthesizing, taken together,
are telling us about a subject (ie: how to make good decisions, how to handle
inclusiveness / diversity issues, how to lead effectively, forming or managing
teams, …), then you are likely to be on the right track.
Article
Selection
–pick
out 5 to 7 scholarly articles and/or high-quality practitioner articles
related to a specific, single, and fairly narrow subject area in
management theory and practice that is not related to your term
project.These articles must have some meaningful disagreement about
some issue of importance to the practice of management.Possible examples
include articles presenting differentviews about team-building, about
the merits of using path-goal leadership theory and Fiedler’s contingency
theory to decide how to lead, about how managers might make practical use of
expectancy theory or intrinsic motivation, and so on …
•
Check
with me if you’re uncertain about whether or not disagreement exists between
the articles you collect.Provide me with either a copy of your articles or
links to them, when asking questions.
•
You
may pick a maximum of one of the articles assigned as
readings for this course to be one of the 5 to 7 articles you use to carry out
this assignment.
Sources
for articles to analyze:All sources must have been published in the last ten
years.And, the use of high quality sources is required for this assignment.Use only
articles from the following sources:
•
Harvard
Business Review, Business Horizons, California Management Review, Sloan
Management Review, McKinsey Quarterly, Academy of Management Perspectives,
Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal
…
if you have an article in mind from a different source, that you would like to
use, then you need to pre-approve it with me before going ahead.Articles
from other sources, and not pre-approved, willnot be accepted for this
assignment.

Assignment
Format and Submission Procedures
•
Hand
in a 2-3 page analysis, typed and single spaced, in Times New Roman 12-point
font, with 1 inch margins for each page.
•
Provide
full citations for all articles you used.Follow theAPA citation style for
the citations you give.
•
As
always, an upload point will be available on Moodle for this assignment.
Grading
Rubric
Click
on the “Rubric” link on the left hand side of this webpage to view
the grading rubric for this assignment.