BUSD1013 – Introduction to Management

Research Project

Project grade is 25%

Project Overview

One of the main factors that can lead organizations to succeed or fail, is management. This group
project provides you with an opportunity to research one of the management areas that interest you
and explore how a successful company is utilizing it. Groups will start with five persons per group and
it will be up to class members to sign up for a group, share contact information, and work together.
Group selection will be handled. That said, it may well start with one person’s proposal to start a
group as follows:
a. picking one of the below management concepts to research. Then, you must
b. select a company and find out how efficiently and effectively it utilizes this management
concept to develop a sustainable competitive advantage.

Please choose your project topic from the following management concepts:

1) Leadership
2) Motivation
3) Innovation
4) Communications
5) Remote employment (working from home) / human resources management
6) Women in Management
7) Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion

The team selection SharePoint Excel spreadsheet provides an opportunity to record members for your
teams as follows:

Deliverables:

1. Paper – due November 24 11:59 p.m.

Start by researching the history and current trends of your chosen topic. After that, choose a
company that utilized this topic, introduce the company, and discuss how it has applied or is
applying the selected management concept to become more efficient and effective to develop a

BUSD1013-H08 – Introduction to Management – Project Fall 2024 Instructor: Larry Webster

 competitive advantage.
Finally, present the key elements that you have learned from researching the management
concept and from the company’s experience.

Outline

1. Cover page (Title, Course name, Instructor name, Student names, & date)
2. History (Seminal Sources) of the chosen topic
3. Current trends of the chosen topic
4. About the Company (Introduce the company in a way that fits your project)
5. Company application of the concept (How the company applied and utilized the selected
topic to efficiently and effectively gain competitive advantage).
6. Recommendations (Do you think the company could have utilized the management
topic differently, please use an educational and professional criticism)
7. Learning Take away Each student should write their own. (Ex: What have you learned from
working within a group, from researching the management topic, and from realizing what and
how the company applied the management concept). No need for referencing within this
section. You should be using your own words to describe your learning experience.
8. “Who did What” page (Mandatory - please indicate what section or sections of the
assignment each team member was responsible to cover and how the team collaborated to
arrive at the finish product).
9. Referencing per APA 7th edition guidelines

Grading – 20% of course mark

Grading Criteria Points

Topic History 20
Topic current trends 20
About the Company 10
Company application of the topic 20
Recommendations 10
Learning take aways 10
Quality of written presentation 10
Total 100

Hand-in Instructions:

• Format: Length: There is no specific paper length set but approximately ten pages double-spaced
(2,000 to 2,500 words) would be reasonable (not including any appendices or reference page)
• Due date: You need to submit your paper in Moodle latest by 11:59pm on November 24,
2024. The penalty for late papers will be 25% off the earned mark each day late as in grade
earned – (# of days late) x 10%. A partial day late is a full 25% deduction. Example: A paper
turned in at noon on Tuesday November 26 receives an initial grade of 86/100 or 86%. The
paper is determined to be 2 days late, so the deduction is 50%. The final grade for the paper is
therefore 36%.
• Sources: At least 5 references (Formatting: APA 7th edition)
• Note on plagiarism and use of artificial intelligence tools: The intention of the project is to

BUSD1013-H08 – Introduction to Management – Project Fall 2024 Instructor: Larry Webster

 provide students with an education of examples of management concepts being applied and
with developing research and presentation skills. As analyzing and synthesizing information
are critical to these processes, the use of shortcut methods like AI is not permitted. As well,
credit for material (unless original thought) is required. If a paper is lacking in correct sources
or appears to be the creation of an AI tool, substantial grade deductions will occur up to the
possibility of a zero grade being assigned. Questions about this may be asked and addressed
in the discussion group for the project so all have the benefit of the information.

2. Presentation – will take place in class or by posting for class to see December 3, December 5 and
December 10

The key points for the paper will be presented to the class using a PowerPoint presentation either
in person or by a video upload of the presentation to Moodle for others to see. The decision as to
which way the presentation will be done will be made by the group by November 1 so there is
sufficient opportunity to schedule the presentations appropriately.

• Format: The presentation will essentially serve to briefly summarize the key history, trends,
company information, company application and recommendations portions of the paper, so
these will form the major sections. The slideshow should begin with a cover slide similar to the
cover page for the paper (company, management issue, team information) and should end
with a slide providing reference information for any source information that needs to be
declared.

• Duration: A guideline for presentation length would be 10-15 minutes, allowing between 4-5
presentations per class. Given an average of 1-2 minutes per slide and 1-2 slides per topic, it’s
probably reasonable to expect slideshows of 8-12 slides of content plus cover and references
slides.

• Grading – 5% of the course grade

Grading Criteria – in person presentations Points
Fair representation of paper content 15
Quality of slide construction (layout, information quality/quantity, use of images) 10
Engagement with audience – presenting versus reading 10
Balance of team involvement in presentation, sticking to 10-15 minutes 10
Handling questions 5
Total 50

Grading Criteria – uploaded presentations Points

Fair representation of paper content 15
Quality of slide construction (layout, information quality/quantity, use of images) 10
Narration support slides but does not read off slides. Voices support the variation of tone 10
and volume in natural human engagements.
Balance of team involvement in presentation, sticking to 10-15 minutes. 10
Handling questions in discussions that will go with posted presentations. This includes 5
questions posed by the “presenting team” to the rest of the class.
Total 50

BUSD1013-H08 – Introduction to Management – Project Fall 2024 Instructor: Larry Webster