I. Details of Assignment

1. Background.

Your boss just came back from a symposium organized by the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP). He is keen to learn more about the latest application of people management theories and concepts in organizations. Over lunch, he asked you to prepare a report on “Opportunities and Challenges to Managing Diversity at the Workplace.”

2. Your Task.

For this assignment, you are to conduct a literature review on the opportunities and challenges of workplace diversity to write the Report. The number of articles to examine is FOUR (4). Each selected article must not be (a) less than 2,000 words and (b) published before 2010. A web link to each of the four articles should be included in the Report. If the web link is not available, append copies of the articles as appendices at the back of the Report. There is no restriction on the particular management or business journals that you can choose. However, they should be of good academic quality. For example,

• Academy of Management Review
• Academy of Management Perspective
• Academy of Management Journal
• Journal of Applied Psychology
• Personnel Psychology
• Industrial and Organizational Psychology
• Harvard Business Review
• Leadership Quarterly
• Journal of Management
• Journal of Organizational Behaviour
• Group & Organization Management
• Human Resource Development Review
• Human Resource Management Review
• Human Resource Management Journal (UK)
• Human Resource Management Journal (US)

3. Literature Review.

a) What is a Literature Review?

A literature review is about digging into the body of knowledge that previous researchers have generated. Hence, it is a written account of what has been published on a topic in periodicals, research monographs, serials and magazines. In writing the review, your purpose is to convey what knowledge and ideas have already been established on the topic, and what are their strengths and weaknesses. Your literature review will be defined by your research objective, the problem or issue you are investigating. It should not be a few citations of the materials available, or a set of summaries. An important skill for any researcher is the ability to review the work of others and evaluate their methods, results, and conclusions.

b) How to go about it?

You should organise your search of the literature around the key concepts you are going to examine. The first step is to assemble a list of probable key words related to what you are researching in. You can start your search using more general terms (e.g. organisational culture, managerial leadership, people management) before limiting it to more specific terms. You can also look out for articles that list the relevant keywords for your topic, which you then use to conduct more searches. Another way is to conduct a simple web search using a search engine, e.g. Google Scholar or Researchgate. However, online searches tend to generate huge number of entries. You will need to “separate the wheat from the chaff.”

II. Report Format

4. Organisation of Report.

While there is no fixed format that you must follow to organise or structure your literature review, you are required to cover the following elements:

a) Introduction — Provide an overview of the subject or issue under consideration, and explain why it is of importance to managers.

b) Main content — Illustrate each piece of work by identifying and examining key points or ideas brought up by the writers. Relate the findings from the articles to opportunities and challenges presented by diversity in the workplace.

c) Your conclusion – Conclusion is opinion based on your findings. You should not take other people’s findings at face value. Do you agree with the authors’ interpretations? Evaluate and determine for yourself whether their conclusions are justified based on the data and arguments they presented.

In addition to restating the main idea of your essay, you will be required to propose feasible solutions or develop human resource policies and practices based on organisational behaviour, management, and work psychology concepts.

5. Word Count.

The Report should not exceed 2,000 words.

6. The report should include a cover page containing the following details:

a) Course title

b) Name of Student with his/her PI number

c) Academic integrity declaration as indicated below:

III. Assessment Rubrics

9. The assignment will be assessed on the following aspects:

a) Understanding of concepts;

b) Depth of discussion/illustration;

c) Concluding section (integrating of findings to generate insights; concluding position on the topic; and a set of recommendations);

d) Language and organisation, i.e., Is the paper easy to read and understand?

10. Below is a checklist for you to review and improve on your assignment before submission. The items are not listed in sequence:

• Have you examined four good quality articles of adequate length?
• Are the relevant concept(s) clearly explained?
• Have you explained why the topic is important to managers?
• Are the relevant concept(s) discussed in enough depth?
• Are the concept examples/illustration relevant and insightful?
• Are the arguments logical? Is your review logically organised?
• Are different points of view considered? Have you integrated previous studies?
• Have you give credit where credit is due?
• Have you provided a strong and convincing conclusion?
• Have you applied the APA referencing style?