Group Project Assignment
Overview
The real value of this class will be determined by the degree to which you can put its lessons to
use. This assignment is designed to bring the knowledge you gain in class to bear on real issues in
real organizations. Working in your assigned teams, you must identify a human resource problem
within an organization, and then take the role of consultants hired to fix it. As such, you will
design a solution for the problem, describe how the solution would be implemented, and identify
potential problems the proposed solution may cause. Being consultants, your solutions need to be
feasible, cost effective, and focused. Do not assume that the company has unlimited resources to
devote to this issue.
This is an opportunity for you to explore an organizational issue in which you are interested,
drawing from the course topics that you find most relevant and applicable. Some topics you might
want to cover include issues of hiring and personnel selection, motivation and managing
performance, norms and culture, and technology. The lessons on persuasion may be useful in
thinking of how you would implement your solution. You should pick one issue that you believe
is important and for which you think you can usefully come up with a targeted solution.
There is considerable flexibility about how you carry out this assignment. The best advice I can
give is for your team to focus on an organization you are familiar with – either one that you have
read news articles about or perhaps where you have worked. Note that you may select any
organization you would like except for Amazon. Feel free to ask about unique topics or
approaches you are considering taking if you are not sure about them.
Overall, the goal of this project is to put the lessons we learned in class to use in a real-world
setting. It is therefore important that you select a problem that is related to course topics,
along with a solution that is informed by class learnings. Do not select a problem that is purely
financial in nature, or where the solution is purely financial.
To summarize, for this project your group will:
• Identify an organization
• Describe an HR organizational problem they have
• Detail a solution to this problem
• Describe how you would implement such a solution along any potential problems or risks
you foresee to your implementation strategy
The best projects will identify a single problem (rather than many problems) and a single
solution (rather than many solutions). Depth is better than breadth. In other words, it is better to
go into detail about one solution to your problem than to provide many solutions with little
consideration of each.
Further, try to think of solutions that are relatively inexpensive to the organization.
Companies are constrained in how much money they can spend, so try to think of solutions that
are not too expensive. Raising everyone’s salary is not a good solution, as this is not something
most organizations would be willing to do!
Make sure the problem and solution are both related to course topics, and that they are related
to each other. The solution you propose should solve the specific problem you identify.
Project Components
Project Plan Description (Week 6):
The Project Plan Description should include a brief outline of the final project. Full credit is given
to groups who turn in the assignment on time and put effort into their proposal. The primary
purpose of the proposal is for us to provide feedback and make sure that everyone is on track for
the final presentation.
In-Class Presentation (Week 10):
Teams will have about 6 minutes to present their project. I encourage all team members to take
part in the presentation, but it is not a requirement. I understand that this may not be possible in a
six-minute presentation! The presentation slides must also be uploaded to Canvas.
Remember also that you are taking the role of consultants for this presentation! The presentation
should be polished, professional, and persuasive. You are trying make a convincing case for
your own solution, in order to help the company and show that you earned your consulting fee.
Use this as an opportunity to practice being concise and persuasive at the same time.
Grading will be based on the inclusion of the following components:
• Overview of the organization and problem, with problem clearly related to course
materials/topics
• Solution that would help to resolve the problem, is relevant to course learnings, and is
feasible, cost-effective and focused
• Clear implementation strategy, along with consideration of potential risks that may arise
Important Dates
As this is a large and complex team project, there are several interim dates and assignments I have
scheduled:
1) Week 6 - Friday by 5pm: You must submit a brief (1 page, 1” margins, double spaced, 12-
point Times New Roman font) description of your project plan on Canvas. Please only submit
one brief per team. The primary purpose of this exercise is for us to provide feedback and make
sure all groups are on track for the final presentation.
2) Week 9, Monday. There is no classroom meeting on this day. Instead, please remember to
schedule time to meet in your teams throughout the quarter to work as a group on the project.
3) Week 10, last two class meetings: All teams will present their project to the whole class, along
with uploading their slides.