This individual assignment provides you with an opportunity to develop your critical thinking skills and skills in reading and understanding academic journal articles.
Your task is to compare and contrast three academic journal articles. You need to:
(a) Summarise each article
(b) Analyse the articles
(c) Provide recommendations
As a general guide these three main parts should be roughly equal in word count. The introduction and conclusion should each be approximately 10% of the length of the paper.
Instructions
1. Select ONE of the articles listed in the table below
| Option 1: | Adams, J. S. (1963). Toward an understanding of inequity.Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67, 422-436. |
| Option 2: | Digman, J. M. (1990). Personality structure: Emergence of the five-factor model.Annual Review of Psychology, 41, 417-440. |
| Option 3: | French, J. R. P., & Raven, B. (1959). The bases of social power. In D. Cartwright (Eds.), Studies in social power(pp. 150-167). Institute for Social Research: Ann Arbor, Michigan. |
| Option 4: | Schein. E. (1984). Coming to a new awareness of organizational culture.Sloan Management Review, 25(2), 3-16. |
2. Use the library databases and search engines to find two additional journal articles published on the same topic of your chosen article.
The two additional journal articles must have been published between 2012 and present and must be selected from the following list of journals:
| *Journal of Organizational Behavior *Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes *Journal of Applied Psychology Academy of Management Journal British Journal of Management Human Relations Journal of Management Leadership Quarterly |
*It is recommended that you start your search within one of the journals marked with an *. These journals principally publish topics in organisational behaviour. **Note: These are the exact names of the acceptable journals. Click on the journal name to go to the online library access page (La Trobe sign in may be required). |
3. Read each article thoroughly.
Pay particular attention to the introduction, literature review, and discussion sections. You can skim the methods and results sections. You will use this information to analyse and compare and contrast the articles.
4. Write your essay
The individual assignment should be written in a neat, professional and engaging manner using an essay format.
Your essay should have the following sections:
· Introduction
o Try to write something engaging to capture the reader’s interest.
o Clearly identify the topic that ties the three articles together (e.g., motivation, organisational citizenship, etc.).
o Include a brief overview of the assignment and how it is organised.
· Article summary
o Briefly summarise the articles. Focus on describing the key concepts and main points from each article (e.g., the theoretical concepts).
· Article analysis
o Identify and discuss on which points they agree and on which points they differ. Can the differing opinions be synthesised? If you deem an author’s position more credible explain your arguments. If you disagree with an author’s position, explain your reasoning. Do the research findings matter, and can the research be applied in real work settings?
· Recommendations
o Based on the above analysis, what specific recommendations can you make for managers or organisations? Aim for 2 to 4 clear and concise recommendations.
§ Don’t simply re-state the authors’ recommendations from each article; develop your own recommendations based on all three articles.
§ If it isn’t possible to make any recommendations (e.g., all the articles were severely flawed), explain your reasoning.
· Conclusion
o Summarise and integrate your findings.
· References
o Provide references as a separate page at the end of the document.
You need to use the APA or Harvard Referencing System.
Length: The total length of the assignment is a maximum of 2,000 words (+/- 10%) (Reference list and title page are excluded from the word count)