MBA 635 – Business and Society Topic Paper Assignment

Due Date: See syllabus for each topic’s deadline

At the end of each section of our course, you will write a topic paper that goes into additional detail. The three topics are:

1. Business, Society, and Stakeholders

2. Corporate Governance and Strategic Management

3. Business Ethics and Leadership

In your topic paper, you are expected to do additional research on the concept and/or the way in which companies are utilizing the ideas. For example, the concept of Greenwashing arises in the first section. In your topic paper, you could expand upon the material in the text by giving a history on when and why greenwashing began, examples of companies accused of greenwashing, outside groups who “police” greenwashing, and customer reactions to greenwashing campaigns.

There are any number of potential topics in each section – if you have questions or would like help talking through your ideas, please let me know.

The paper is 4-6 pages long, double spaced, standard margins and font. You will need at least 5 outside resources beyond the textbook, and 3 of these must be academic sources (journal articles). The paper should be written in the third person (i.e. no “I”, “me”, etc.)

Use APA formatting for in-text citations and a reference list. The organization of the paper should increase the clarity of the discussion – this can be achieved using a brief introduction and breaking down ideas into logical sections with a transition between each.

In order to better guide your analysis and writing, and to provide the best feedback, each topic paper will be assessed based upon the format below.

COMPONENT

Max.

Point Total

Points Earned

Draft/Final

CRITICAL THOUGHT & ANALYSIS

· Defined a clear topic relevant to section

· Identification of the key issues regarding the topic

· Depth of analysis (i.e., delving beyond the obvious )

· Thoroughness/depth of analysis

· Clarity of examples given to support claims

· Connection to other topics from class, where appropriate

45

SUPPORTING MATERIALS

· Effective use of sources and facts to support and illustrate your arguments

· Effective application of concepts from readings and in-class discussion to support and illustrate your arguments

20

WRITTEN PRESENTATION

· Analysis and arguments presented in a cohesive/organized manner

· Logical flow to the paper

· Clarity in your writing (no awkward or unclear sentences)

· Paper follows prescribed format including length

20

GRAMMAR/SPELLING/PUNCTUATION

· Capitalization, spelling, punctuation

· Personalization (do not use “I”, “me”, “my”, etc.)

· Lack of proof-reading

· Providing citations in the body, use of proper citation format after quoted materials and full references on reference page at end (i.e., Skaggs & McKelvey, 2011, p 5)