This project provides the opportunity for you to begin developing skills needed

This project provides the opportunity for you to begin developing skills needed by scientist- practitioners, which correspond to the learning objectives for this course (see syllabus):
“adopt a scientist-practitioner perspective to demonstrate basic skills: 1) synthesize information from professional and research sources, 2) connect theoretical ideas to the central goals of an organization, and 3) articulate ideas in a concise and persuasive manner”
This project requires researching general information about a contemporary topic that affects real organizations, reviewing scientific literature on related topics in a report, and disseminating findings publicly, in some manner.
The 5-10 page literature review paper should be written in APA style / format (https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/ge neral_format.html is my favorite resource about APA).
Advocacy – Community-Based Learning (CBL)
For this assignment, you will identify an organizational issue you care about (i.e., leadership discrimination against Cuban-Americans, women, working parents, LGBTQIA+, etc.). You will conduct a literature review outlining what the issue is, how it impacts organizational outcomes (i.e., job satisfaction, turnover, organizational commitment, applicant attraction, etc.), and recommend how I-O principles could be applied to reduce this issue (i.e., more diverse recruitment efforts, designing a fairer selection process, etc.). After this, you will write a letter to the editor outlining this issue in “plain language” for the public. There are two documents to submit: 1. The lit review with the scientific reasoning, 2. The one-page letter to the editor for public awareness.
For example, if you choose to discuss women of color M.D.’s being barred from hospital leadership positions, you would need to tell me about the issue, demonstrate why it’s a problem, how it impacts organizations, and make recommendations on how to reduce this issue (all of this is with citations).
Literature Review:
Conduct a literature search and locate at least 2 works about your topic from professional/business sources and at least 3 works from the scientific literature (journal articles, not just websites that claim they are scientists). Remember, as an FIU student, you can log into the library and have access to many psychology databases.
Try to find works that are most relevant to your topic; it will be obvious if you only select the works that are easiest to access (e.g., to download as PDFs). You should also reference any relevant material from this course, in addition to the sources from your literature search. However, your grade will depend more on how well you review and incorporate works, rather than the number you use. Do not use more than two lines of a quote. I want to read your words and assess your understanding, not just a copy and paste of the original authors.
In your literature review, synthesize the professional and scientific literature to provide an “actionable” conclusion. Some of you may find that the literature helps us to understand the problem better, without offering a solution. In this case, papers may highlight aspects of the issue that organizations need to consider. Others may be able to recommend a specific solution/practice/policy for organizations to implement, based on their review. Either is fine, but all papers should provide a conclusion that allows organizations to manage the issue better, after reading the paper.
Dissemination of information:
Write a fully-formatted draft of a “letter to the editor” for a (respectable) public forum of your choosing. City, regional, or national newspapers and some magazines will likely be acceptable sources. Some blogs may also be acceptable. If you are unsure about the source being acceptable, check with the instructor. In all cases, the source should be something that might actually publish your work, meaning that your topic seems suitable for the forum.
Once you have selected a suitable forum, find past letters to use as examples for modeling your own letter. Use your literature review and reasoning to craft a persuasive, but scientifically-sound letter. Submit your letter to the instructor. You do not have to submit the letter to an actual public forum if you do not want to, but I do need to see it to give you full credit for the assignment. That being said, I always encourage you to advocate for justice and speak truth to power. If submitting this letter to the editor helps you do that, I encourage it.
Very generic information about writing a “letter to the editor” can be found online. Yet, each source varies and may require a particular style of writing and tone. If you have questions, please e-mail me in advance of the deadline.
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Tips on Writing a Literature Review
• As with most essays, begin your paper with a “hook” that interest the reader – much like you would see in a journal article. Start broad and explain the general topic of the paper and why it is important to organizations/employees.
• Literature reviews may focus on certain papers/studies, but should really be structured around topics or concepts. A specific study or author is not as important as the theories and empirical findings that come out of research. Thus, avoid introducing each article and summarizing it mechanically, such as:
“Jager (1986) collected data from 221 college students. He found that…”
• Because you may be using a limited number of works, you may need to break your
review into sub-sections around different topics. That is fine.
• When describing an empirical article within a review, you can cite it generally or in depth. To make a general reference, you might simply state a principle or finding and cite the work in parentheses. When a study had direct relevance to your main topic, you should provide more detail.
• There is no official way to review literature, but most people follow a general pattern when describing an empirical work in depth (refer to APA journal articles for examples). Describe the main purpose of the study or theory underlying its predictions, in 1 or 2 sentences. Briefly describe the sample and procedure – in just 1 or 2 sentences, unless something bizarre must also be noted. Then, summarize the results and provide an interpretation about how they are relevant to your points. If the study has a notable limitation (that the authors acknowledge OR that you identify by yourself), address that in 1 or 2 sentences. If the study has major flaws, you might address those in a 2nd paragraph. (For instance, you might review a famous study used to support an opposing point and summarize it accurately, but then follow that paragraph with another one pointing out why the study is invalid.)
• Practice writing succinctly. Adding in irrelevant details and making your paper longer often reduces clarity and makes points seem less connected.
• Always offer some kind of conclusion(s), based your review. You are not writing a “book report.” Instead, summarize the literature as objectively as you can, but use it to support your own points/thesis as they relate to organizational practices / concerns.