Focus Paper

Write a three to five (4 – 5) page paper (1000 – 1200 words), not including the title and reference pages, explaining the leadership necessary to accomplish business goals and maximize organizational performance that includes the following:

• Introduction to specific business and organizational performance goals you desire to achieve through leadership.
• Research on charismatic, transformational, and situational leadership as the foundational content.
• Analysis of the ability of those leadership styles and approaches to accomplish your stated goals. Be sure to connect research to your analysis.
• Recommendation for the leadership style most appropriate for you to achieve the business and organizational performance goals you identified. Connecting research to your recommendations will make them stronger.
• Conclusion should summarize the primary points of the paper and bring forward a call to action.

The Assignment will be evaluated using the Focus Paper Rubric located in the course Grading Rubrics. Therefore, please ensure it is written with proper grammar, in APA format (including clear section headings), and includes at least three cited and referenced resources – at least one of which must be a peer reviewed (scholarly) journal article.

The overall point distribution for the Assignment will be as follows:

• 50% (50 points): Content, focus, use of research, and organization
• 30% (30 points): Analysis and critical thinking
• 20% (20 points): Writing style, grammar, APA format

Book for course is: 

Title:       Leadership : Research Findings, Practice. and Skills

Edition:       8th (2015)

Author:       Andrew J. DuBrin

Publisher:       Cengage Learning

Book ISBN:       9781285866369

1. Ensure appropriate citations and references – remember that references only “count” if there are corresponding citations in the paper.
   1. Typically, you are required to have a minimum of three cited and referenced resources and at least one of those must be a peer reviewed (scholarly) article. Such articles are research based and have gone through a peer review process before publication. They are often lengthy and are in true JOURNALSnot magazines or internet. The BEST way to locate is through the library; be sure to use the “Advanced Search” option and constrain your search by checking the box for “Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals.”
   2. Although you may only be required to use one scholarly article, all of your references must be reliable. References such as dictionaries, about.com, Wikipedia, smallbusinesschronicle.com, businessballs.com or those without an author and a datewill not count toward the minimum requirements.
   3. The references should also be “current” so constrain your search parameters to the last five years. Remember, it takes time to do research and get the article published; thus, data in journal articles is often several years old when published!
   4. I will also look for solid integration of citations throughoutthe paper. Do not just toss in a quote for the introduction or conclusion and believe you have satisfied this requirement. There must be a solid use of citations in your presentation of content to create a foundation; in the analysis to provide compare & contrast information; and in recommendations to strengthen and support ideas for improvement. I will be looking for the quality of citation integration not just that you have cited a couple articles.
2. Think about structure and flow – introduce the topic, provide the peer reviewed research, analyze against the assignment objectives and the research, identify gaps, provide recommendations to close the gaps, and write a compelling conclusion. This is a pretty “safe” approach for the papers in this course – assuming the content is aligned with the assignment criteria.
3. Ensure originality – ALL papers will be submitted to Turnitin.com. The most common issues include reuse of prior work, excessive quoting, and not properly paraphrasing and summarizing (with or without the appropriate citation).
   1. It is not uncommon that you may have some reuse of work because you may be discussing you or your organization – just keep it to maybe no more than 10% to stay safe. Please see the announcement regarding integrity and the policy against “double dipping” with your papers. When in doubt, ask me!
   2. Also, some carefully placed and dynamic quotations are fine, but think in terms of no more than one direct quote per five pages.  The absolute limit is 15% and I will take deductions for any amount over 15%. Usually, the best practice is toparaphrase and summarize then cite. Work to write in YOUR VOICE.