The research paper should be a 10 – 12 page (2500 to 3000), double spaced, Times New Roman, and 12 pt. font Use APA 6th edition Style Guide for report format.
Prepare an individual paper that looks at a current HRM issue. You are assigned to review and prepare a report on a major issue facing an organization. You need to be able to identify all HR (aka – employee) implications that the issue may have on the people within an organization. Using the textbook, you must use a maximum of three chapters and their concepts to help identify the HR practices that you may need to elevate, clarify, or change completely.
possible topics could be correlated to trends and issues related to compensation, labour relations, performance appraisals, orientations, discipline, benefits, testing, recruitment, health and safety. This could be the impact of the COVID-19 on one or more of the HRM areas.
Because this is meant to be a research – based paper, you are to source findings (above and beyond the textbook) from academic journals, academic textbooks and other sources for a total of 5 references of which 3 must be academic references (academic journals or books). If you are unsure about the nature of a specific source, please let me know for calrifications.
Individual Research Paper – Marking Rubric
Poor
Okay
Very good
Excellent
Introduction
Includes who, what, where, when and why.
Importance of issue.
Provides the read with a clear understanding of what is to be expected in the paper.
0-5
6-10
11-13
14/15
Background/
Literature Review
Provides the reader with a clear understanding of the issue.
Defines, key terms, history/timeline
0-10
11-15
16-18
19/20
Analysis
Recommendations
Provides reader a clear understanding and importance of the issue
0-15
16-20
21-28
29/30
Conclusion
Provides insight
Wraps up paper
0-5
6-10
11-13
14/15
Referencing
APA formatting
Utilizes academic and non-academic references – triangulates
0-5
6/7
8/9
10
Style & Grammar
Flow – easy to read and understand
Free of grammatical errors
0-5
6/7
8/9
10
100
i uploaded the text book if you need it.
Now you have the choice of one of three databases:
Academic Search Premier / ABINFORM / SAGE
Select one
TO save time searching databases you can select more than one by selecting Choose
Databases and then checking off all that apply. Then click OK.
Type in search keyword the first box – keep them simple! Always make sure you have
spelled everything correctly because it will check for what you have input.
Narrowing search parameters by using the Select a Field option.
The Select a Field option gives you various categories for you to use as limits on your
search. For example, if you search just ‘job satisfaction you get 39,097 results but if you
limit the search by selecting AB Abstract or Author supplied abstract the result narrows
down to 8562.
To ensure that you are not wasting your time going through articles that are not
‘academic’ articles or are not available then in the Limit your results section check the
Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals and Full Text boxes. So using the same example of
job satisfaction it now reduces the results from 8562 to 4573.
If a search does not give you a lot of results then try similar words or expand the search
in the Select a Field option. If you are getting a lot then you can refine it by adding extra
search keywords in the second and third box. For example, your search for job
satisfaction has been narrowed to 4573 articles. Still too many!! So to narrow it you may
type Caribbean in box two (2), which results in 3 articles.
Selecting the right articles.
So you have finished your search and have 3 articles. Are they any good? You can
download all three articles and read through them all – too much time and effort. If you
click on the icon immediately after the title of the article (looks like a magnifying glass
over a yellow square) up pops the abstract of the article. Now you can read a brief
summary of the article to see if it is what you want.
Searching for Academic Articles Dr. S. Bruce Thomson
MacEwan University
2
How to read a long academic article.
First, as stated above, read the abstract. Do not waste your time reading articles that are
not related to your project. Second read the introduction. This is where the author/s will
tell you why the topic and research is important. This may provide you with validation of
why you think it is important. Next, well written academic articles will have a literature
review that analyses the existing literature on the subject area they are investigating. For
example, if they are looking at how job satisfaction is affect by job redesign factors then
they will provide a brief overview of the literature on job satisfaction and job redesign.
After reading the literature review then read the conclusion. In the conclusion they should
review their findings and the importance of those findings.
What else can you get from the article?
Perhaps the next most important thing you can also get from the article is other articles.
When reading the article you can see who they are referencing and then find those
articles. So it is also important to look over the reference list at the end of the article.
After you have read five (5) or six (6) articles you will find that certain names keep
appearing in the reference lists. These names will be the key academics in the field. So
now it gives you another thing to use in the search boxes in a new search – the key
academic’s name (make sure you choose AU author in the Select a Field option). You
may also find a great chart, table or figure that you could use. Just remember to reference
it!
Easy referencing.
Once you have found an article you are going to use click on the abstract and on the
abstract page you will see on the right hand side a list of options with the heading Tools.
The fifth icon down the list is a little yellow page that says Cite beside it or at the top of
the page. Click on it and a list of proper reference styles should appear. Second on that
list should be APA. Simply highlight the reference, right click, copy and then paste in
your own reference list.
