Academic Journal Article Evaluation

One of the primary goals of this course is that you become a critical consumer of management-based research. Not only should you be able to design evaluation research for your own organization, but you should be able to find and assess reports of new developments in the field. One of the most important sources of cutting-edge research and analysis on pressing administrative issues are academic journal articles. In this assignment your task is to review a refereed journal article that reports a piece of evaluation research. In the process, you will move a step closer to developing a sufficient understanding of evaluation research in order to apply the findings to the management of your own organization.

Assignment

For all of the memoranda in this course the assumption is that you are employed as a management analyst in any real or fictional public organization of your choosing. For each exercise, address your memorandum to a specific (real or fictional) person working in that organization. Also be sure to give yourself a title (e.g., Management Analyst) in that organization. Length 1.5 - 2 (max.) double-spaced pages.

In this first exercise, in your capacity as management analyst you have been asked to conduct a rapid review of an example of the latest "performance management" research in academic journals. Attached below is the article in PDF format:

• Effects of Per. Mgt. System on Attitudes.pdf (Note that the PDF version of the article is very large.)

For those of you without high-speed Internet access, here is the article in Word format:

• Effects of Introducing a Performance Mgt. System.doc

In your memo, write up a review of the article that includes the following three parts:

(a) A 100-word (one paragraph) summary in plain English of the research study

(b) Answer the following questions (you may organize your answers here in brief bulleted points):

• What research question(s) does the author ask? (If not explicitly stated, write one that is plausible)
• Does the research involve testing hypotheses? If so, what is/are the hypotheses?
• What is (are) the dependent variable(s)?
• What is (are) the key independent variable(s)?
• Are there any ethical implications of this research?
• Would you classify the design as "pure" or "applied" research, or both? If "both," which one is it primarily?
• Is the research qualitative, quantitative, or both? If "both," provide rationale and state which one is predominant.
• Is the research exploratory, explanatory (causal), and/or descriptive? Include one sentence describing the causal relationship, description or explanation involved. Provide further explanation if you think it is a combination.
• What is the unit of analysis?
• What are the researcher's findings? What conclusions does he or she draw?

(c) What are the management implications (e.g., consequences of the findings for making changes in your own organization) implied in the paper? Are there any other management implications or lessons you can draw? Write 100 words on these implications of the study.

This assignment should be submitted in an acceptable memorandum format and should be approximately 300 words and between 1-1/2 and 2 pages, maximum.

This assignment is due September 21^st at the start of class.

Research Tools and Guidelines:

· Be sure to confine yourself to the elements asked for in the above instructions. Each memorandum generally has one specific purpose, and any information that is not directly relevant should not be included. Any extraneous material detracts from the quality of your report.

• For some useful guidelines on writing effective memoranda, see the following site: http://www.itss.brockport.edu/~gsaxton/memos.htm

• For advice on summarizing material (useful for the first part of the assignment), the following site is quite instructive: http://www.sba.muohio.edu/sba_home/Centers/hwinew/studentresources/exesummary.asp

· Advice for writing the summary: "Skim the article first to gain an understanding of the purpose,content and organisation of the article. Remember: not all articles are written equally. Some will be clearer than others and be better organised. Reread the article carefully and take notes using your own words. When taking notes try to condense the ideas. Do not take them down word for word nor simply paraphrase them. You will achieve a much better understanding of the material if you interpret the ideas using your own words. Resist the temptation to quote.This approach will help make your review clear and concise. This will enable you to write a review which is not just a string of quotations or paraphrases." (quoted from the following document: http://www.carleton.ca/law/outlines/f01/205b-f01.art-rev.pdf)