The group project is aimed at the process of management and its functions in real organizations and the legal, moral, and ethical dilemmas we face as individuals and in our roles as part of the managerial process. Students will be divided into teams of three and provided a topic to work on but they will be working against each other. Each student will take either a “pro” or “con” side to a topic taken from business, government, or education. Further, each situation will be fraught with ethical considerations and ramifications. As individuals, each team member will search, discuss, analyze, and report information back to their classmates and course instructor with slide presentations they will post in the Discussion Board.
Again, each student will be provided with a topic to be handled by teams of three. Each team member will be presenting opposing arguments, one for and one against that topic, the third will play both roles. The point is that as managers, clarity of thought influences not only the quality of their life but all those who work for them. As decision-makers, managers often need to be willing to take a position and try to influence others to make a decision that they try to promote. To be effective, they should be willing and able to describe their rationale for the choice they made.
After a topic is assigned, students will develop PowerPoint slides to support their position (20 slides max, not including references slides listing your sources). The rest of the teams will ask at least one question per team, but no more than three questions, so each person may clarify/defend their position. The exception is that you may not ask questions of your counterpart who is arguing the opposite side of your position. Instructors will judge the quality of your presentation based on the criteria found in the rubric. Furthermore, the instructor may also question if they feel a position lacks merit. Additionally, instructors will look at the quality of your questions and answers to other students and at the end, a student’s rationale for choosing one side of an argument over the other.
The slides will be posted on the Discussion Board for everyone to view by the date listed on the course schedule. All questions must be submitted to the Discussion Board and the answers posted by the scheduled dates as well. Finally, after all the questions are in and the questions answered, each student will select the position for each topic that they feel is the better of the two and explain their rationale for that decision in the Discussion Board, again as per the course schedule.
The point of this exercise is to help each of you develop clarity of thought. Be advised that instructors may ask pointed questions from each student to determine whether the basis of a position is an opinion or rationally based ideas on these topics. Just as with other assignments, facts, figures, and expertise, carry a lot more weight when arguing a position that does opinion alone.
Give the instructor and other students facts when arguing positions. Facts, data, and analysis in addition to insight are all potent tools in any manager’s arsenal. Finally, please note that some positions will be easier to argue than others when grading, instructors will take that into consideration as well. So even if it seems the other side has an easier position to defend, instructors will compensate for that issue.
