Guide to the Practicum Outline

  • Introduction of Organization and Key Employees
  • Description and brief history of the company
  • What industry is it in?
  • What is the main product/service
  • What market does it serve?
  • How long has it been around?
  • Who was the founder?
  • How big is it in terms of locations, employees, sales, etc.
  • Is it distinctive culturally?
  • Identification of the characters and their relationship to one another
  • What are their job roles?
  • Who reports to whom?
  • What are each of them like?
  • Do they get along?
  • If not, what are the points of friction?
  • Problem Statement(s)
  • Interpersonal conflicts
  • Performance Issues
  • Leadership or decision-making issues?
  • Cultural issues?
  • Ethical issues?
  • Organizational Outcomes: How are the problems manifesting themselves?
  • Drop in sales?
  • Declining market share?
  • Falling profits or rising losses?
  • Bankruptcy?
  • Layoffs?
  • Voluntary turnover?
  • Negative publicity? Scandals?
  • Legal or regulatory troubles?
  • Project quality or safety issues?
  • Environmental issues?
  • Transition to theory section—can be just a sentence or two, such as “A useful framework for analyzing the situation that XYZ Company faces is the Path-Goal Theory of Leadership.”
  • Presentation of the theory, model or analytical tool
  • Definition of the theory
  • Who developed it?
  • When was it introduced?
  • What are the key variables in the theory?
  • What is the theory’s ‘dynamic’? How does one variable impact another? (transformational leadership increased intrinsic job satisfaction more organizational commitment less turnover better organizational outcomes)
  • What is it good for? What has the research shown about its validity/usefulness?
  • Apply the theory to the workplace scenario
  • How does the theoretical model fit the situation?
  • Give examples of how each variable and relationship in the theory can be represented by characters or events in the scenario (e.g., Bob was a lackluster and unappreciative leader his boring meetings and unpredictable tirades made employees feel uninspired and threatened there was little reason to be emotionally or otherwise committed to the organization talented employees started to exit quality and service suffered sales began to decline)
  • How does the theory explain what is going on in the scenario?
  • What questions does the theory leave unexplained?
  • If the model is normative (suggests a right way to do things), would applying it have prevented the problem from happening? Could applying the model solve the problem?
  • Conclusion
  • Summarize the key findings and lessons learned
  • How useful overall was this theory or model for understanding this scenario?
  • Suggest avenues for future research