Examine the importance of diversity in the current business environment.
Research Proposal (Option One)
Choose a topic within Industrial Organizational psychology (related to one of our topics this semester) and develop a novel research proposal. Address an important research question from the perspective of I/O psychology. Include two studies.
Your paper should include all sections of a standard empirical article: introduction (review relevant literature and build the case for your hypotheses), proposed method (complete with description of variables and procedure), proposed results (the usage of figures is required), and discussion (highlight the implications and limitations).
State of the field (literature review; Option Two)
Choose a topic within I/O psychology or one closely related to the field and review the existing literature. Your paper may also include suggestions for future research, areas that need to be addressed (shortcomings of existing literature), and implications for this literature to a particular area/topic. Also consider the existing literature regarding a topic with particular attention to particular population.
For instance, perhaps you are interested in counterproductive work behavior, but you are concerned that most of the research has been conducted in Western cultures. You might review the literature on this topic, discuss the relevance of Western vs. Eastern cultures, and explain the limitations of only examining this topic within Western cultures.
Policy Application & Public Awareness (Option Three)
Consider a particular public policy or societal issue (e.g., leadership styles in corporate cultures, affirmative action, etc.) and examine how research within I/O psychology can inform and provide important next steps for this particular issue. For instance, you may be interested in advocating for work-life balance within organizations or organizational wellness – how could you design a campaign or proposed policy using research and theories from I/O psychology? Perhaps you believe the public school system should adopt team building and leadership curriculums– how could you use research and theory within I/O psychology to advocate for this particular policy?
Finally, perhaps you are interested in reviewing a current policy (e.g, diversity training at a particular corporation) and you are interested in assessing the policy and offering recommendations for improvement – how can you use I/O psychology research and theory to do this?
