Objective: The purpose of this essay is to research how successful companies leverage the principles of
personnel and organizational psychology in order to drive engagement and productivity in their work
force.

STEP 1: Pick a large organization and research how they approach the lecture topics discussed in this course. You can choose any company you’d like, but it would be helpful to pick an organization that
publishes a lot of news on their internal initiatives.

Here are a few companies that are easy to find information on (you are not limited to these):
● Starbucks – Work motivation/ organizational culture/ corporate social responsibility
● JetBlue – Organizational learning and training/ Leadership
● McDonald’s – Organizational learning and training/ Leadership
● US Army – Leadership
● Johnson & Johnson – Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

STEP 2: Write a research report on how the topics from this class come to life in the real world. Papers
should answer the following questions:
1. How does this company invest in this topic? Be specific with how this works in practice.
2. What value does this have for the organization? Why does the company invest in this (e.g. will it
improve employee engagement, reduce turnover, etc.)?
3. What concepts or ideas from the class does this illustrate?
You must provide at least 3 examples of programs or initiatives from your company (e.g. what are 3 ways that McDonald’s supports organizational learning.)

Topic: Organizational learning and training/ Leadership/ organizational culture/Performance and Motivation/Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion/corporate social responsibility

Rubric:
1. The paper provides three examples of programs or initiatives that illustrate the concepts from the class:

2. The paper includes citations and references to demonstrate that research was done:

3. The company examples provided are relevant to the topics of this course:

4. The paper makes a strong connection between company programs and the topics of this course:

5. The paper drew logical and well-considered conclusions:

6. The descriptions of the topics from class were accurate, applied correctly and relevant to the
paper’s message:

7. The references and citations resources were reliable and were either (& preferably) directly linked from within the paper or easily searchable (e.g. author names and key detail included, or references provided at end of paper):

8. The paper offered thoughtful considerations of the value that the topics from this course have for their company (i.e. paper explored scientific findings/ theories/ concepts and did not just name them)

9. Language was engaging, appropriate and accessible:

10. Proficiency of English language (including spelling, grammar, punctuation, sentence structure):