Management Analysis Paper

The management analysis paper is in many ways the culmination of the course, and is intended to bring together coherent analyses of no more than three (3) organizational issues or problems that you think are particularly relevant or interesting for the U.S. based government or nonprofit organization of your choice. Your analysis should demonstrate contemplation of relevant course materials and your outside research and provide evidence of such. Therefore, it is important that you actively use and incorporate insights from the course material and readings in your analysis (e.g., how to use economic incentives to motivate others, challenges of managing professionals etc.).

The paper should include an analysis of no more than three (3) well-defined organizational issues or problems faced by the U.S. government or nonprofit organization you have selected. The organizational problems must be related to concepts covered in this course (motivation, performance, leadership, governance and citizen engagement, professionalism, etc.). Examples could be:

• How to incentivize highly professional staff to work harder?
• How to best capitalize on workers’ prosocial motivation?
• Designing an effective onboarding and management system for volunteers in my organization etc.).
• How to effectively measure organizational performance?

 Using the course materials and your independent outside research you will:

• Choose a U.S. based government or nonprofit organization to analyze (including public K-12 schools and colleges/ universities).
  • Provide an overview of the organization’s mission, structure, governance, programs/services/products, budget, and internal and external environment. 
• Identify no more than three (3) specific organizational problems or issues that the organization faces. The organizational problems must be related to theories and concepts covered in this course (such as motivation, performance, leadership, governance and citizen engagement, professionalism, etc.). 
  • Describe each problem or issue. Describe the nature and extent of the problem, and its causes and impacts (can be internal and external impacts). 
  • Explain how the problems or issues reflect the theories and concepts covered in this course.
• Provide a recommendation to address each problem or issue you identify. Your recommendations must logically flow from your discussion on the organizational problems and draw from the appropriate course materials and outside research. 

Use the following headings to organize your paper:

1. Organization Overview
2. Organizational Problems
   1. Problem 1
   2. Problem 2
   3. Problem 3
3. Recommendations
   1. Recommendation for Problem 1
   2. Recommendation for Problem 2
   3. Recommendation for Problem 3
4. Conclusion

5. The paper must be 2,500-4,000 words.
6. Paper must use formal, academic language and style. 
7. Paper must be organized using the format (headings) detailed above. 
8. Include citations and a reference list formatted in APA Style for ideas, quotations, and paraphrases from course materials and external sources used. 
9. A minimum of five (5) outside reference sources must be used in addition to sources from the course and properly cited in APA style. 
10. Draw connections to and cite the relevant course materials using APA style. 
11. The paper should be single-spaced with 1 inch margins and use 12 pt font.
12. Assignments should be submitted as a Word document (.doc or .docx) or an Adobe PDF file (.pdf).