Graduate School of Business and Project Management

SBM2106 Organizational Behaviour and Business Communications Project

Choose a topic from the list below and perform the following activities:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Theories on employee behaviour

Individual Attributes and their effects on job performance
Organization Structure and design
Motivation and empowerment theories
Employee Retention theories
Organization Culture Theories

Project Plan
1. Select an organization on which you can conduct your research. Make sure you select an
organization that can provide you with data.
2. Develop a research plan in which you specify:
The project objectives
The project justification
The project outcomes and benefits
The data collection methodology
The data analysis methodology.
Activity 1 Literature Review
Develop a literature review in which you introduce the organization under study, research and
document best concepts/practices related to your topic from the perspective of an enterprise or a
business unit or a major functional department in an organisation.
Distil key concepts/best practices and identify develop a model based upon the concepts you have
researched that are most applicable to the organisation you have chosen. You have to clearly identify
the issues and problems that your model will solve.
Activity 2 Methodology
In this activity you have to explain the following:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Your sampling technique and justify it

Your data collection methodology
Your data analysis methodology
Your interview or survey questions and how did you derive them

You will study more about data collection and analysis methodologies during the lectures.
Activity 3 Implementation and Analysis
In this activity you will collect the data and analyse it using the techniques you described in activity
2. You have to compare your results with literature best practices and identify the gaps.
You have to present your results in a proper format (format will differ depending on the data analysis
methodology you have selected). You have to support your results with strong arguments and
justifications and map them to literature best practices.

Semester 1 2015

Graduate School of Business and Project Management

Finally, you have to conclude with recommendations to the organization with corrective actions they
should consider in order to improve the area that you have investigated.
Notes:
1. Consider yourself as a group of consultants hired by an organization in order to identify the
main problems in this organization and propose a plan of action in order to overcome these
problems.
2. As consultants, you have to identify management/business problems in the organization and
propose solutions and recommendations. Your use of literature should not be only for
theoretical purposed, but should rather be to identify best practices of implementing the
theory that you have studied.
3. To be successful in the conduct of this assignment you need to identify a suitable case
organisation (from any industry sector) which is prepared to supply you with the
information on the topic you have selected. The case organisation does not have to be a
large organisation or an entire corporation; it can be a business unit or an arm of a large
organisation or a major functional department within a large organisation.
4. Your project report should be divided into clear sections detailing all the above.
5. Your literature review is a live section that can and should be re-visited to reflect your
findings.
6. Each of your sections have to have an introduction and a conclusion.
7. You must use a variety of contemporary references (not older than 5 years, except for old
theories)
8. You must use in-line references

Semester 1 2015