project plan, outline and deliverable (3)

Step 1: Organizing Your Work

[ REad first.

Once you’ve read the scenario below, get started by going to Step 1.

The day after you hand in your organizational analysis, you notice the following headline in the business section in the news: “Employees Accused of Stealing from Company.” Apparently, a group of employees who worked for a company similar to yours was routinely lying on their expense reports, claiming—and getting reimbursed for—personal expenditures, including Caribbean trips and four-star restaurants.

You nearly spit out your coffee when you read this. You work in the same sector! After doing your organizational analysis, you feel like you have a good grasp on the mission and values of your company, and you’d be very surprised such behavior was tolerated. This article, however, still makes you wonder about your industry as whole.

Once you get to your office, you discover that you aren’t the only one interested in this story; everyone is buzzing about it. As soon as you drop your stuff in your cube, you see a message from the COO’s assistant: the COO, Kate Lindsay, wants to see you this afternoon. Why does Kate want to see you? Kate is very high in the organizational “food chain.”

You head to Kate’s office. As you sit down, Kate lives up to her reputation for being focused and direct and immediately launches into what she has to say, “You must have heard about the expense report scandal at our competitor’s organization. We need to ensure that the same thing is not happening here.” She continues, “I came to this organization because I considered it to be among the best – are we?” She begins ticking off questions on her fingers: “How can we be sure what we believe and say matches what we actually do? How can we be sure we don’t have a culture and climate that are viewed as unethical and unhealthy? Do we put enough emphasis on ethical and caring behavior in our decisions and our actions?”

She pauses before going on. “I’m new to this position and to this sector in general. I’m clearly responsible and accountable for the climate, culture, and ethical behavior in this organization. We need to be concerned about these issues, and I need your help figuring out where we stand and what, if anything, we should be doing differently.” Your help? You look at her expectantly.

She answers your implied question, “I read your organizational analysis last night, and I was enough impressed with it that I think you could handle this particular task. I’m an engineer by training, and I’m methodical, thorough, and detailed,” Kate says, before adding, “This report needs to reflect +my—and, more importantly, this organization’s—careful and thoughtful approach to these issues. So even though organizational culture, climate, and ethics may seem like ‘soft’ issues, I expect strong critical thinking and an evidence-based report. I don’t just want opinions. It might help to imagine yourself as an independent consultant we are counting on for both expertise and objectivity.”

She glances at her phone. “I have a meeting in two minutes.” She stands up. “I really need your best thinking and good advice on this in three weeks. Talk to my assistant about making an appointment to see me then, and have 15-minute PowerPoint presentation ready along with a brief memo summarizing your points,” she says, “Also, I trust you understand this is a matter that needs to be kept between us.” She looks at you squarely: “I don’t want to learn my questions and concerns have become the subject of general discussions in the office.” “Absolutely!” You say, with confidence, as Kate heads out of her office. Then she turns around, “Oh, and I want to see some of your work-in-progress as you do this project. Talk to my assistant about that as well.”

You return to your desk thrilled that the COO has shared her concerns and asked you for your input. You have so many ideas and lots of questions—but you also realize you are going to need to proceed without all the information you would ideally love to have. You know you will need to rely only on publicly available information and not go poking around in confidential work files or asking others in your office for input or advice.

How will you tackle this project? What evidence will you use to inform your understanding and strengthen your analysis? What will you tell your COO next Wednesday?

When you submit your project, your work will be evaluated using the competencies listed below. You can use the list below to self-check your work before submission.

• 2.1: Identify and clearly explain the issue, question, or problem under critical consideration.
• 2.2: Locate and access sufficient information to investigate the issue or problem.
• 2.3: Evaluate the information in a logical and organized manner to determine its value and relevance to the problem.
• 2.4: Consider and analyze information in context to the issue or problem.
• 2.5: Develop well-reasoned ideas, conclusions or decisions, checking them against relevant criteria and benchmarks.
• 5.1: Develop constructive resolutions for ethical dilemmas based on application of ethical theories, principles and models.
• 9.3: Apply the principles of employment law for ethical practices and risk mitigation.]

The first thing you should do is review the following:

• the description of the final deliverable attachment.
• the rest of the Steps to Completion for this project

After you have a good idea of the scope of work for this project, consider how you will approach an analysis of your own organization.  http://www.medstarwashington.org/our-hospital/#q={}

• First, review these brief guidelines about conducting research on your organization. ( http://www.medstarwashington.org/our-hospital/#q={} )

Your next steps will be to complete a

{1}  project plan (creating a project plan) (note: use the excel document for this) and

{2} outline (creating an outline).(create a word document for this outline) This requires that you read through the steps to completion.  As you do this, think about:

• the information you need
• how to get that information
• allocating appropriate time to each step
• and any other project management factors that may seem relevant

{3} finaldeliverable attachment.Note:

Paper must address these---

• 2.1: Identify and clearly explain the issue, question, or problem under critical consideration.
• 2.2: Locate and access sufficient information to investigate the issue or problem.
• 2.3: Evaluate the information in a logical and organized manner to determine its value and relevance to the problem.
• 2.4: Consider and analyze information in context to the issue or problem.
• 2.5: Develop well-reasoned ideas, conclusions or decisions, checking them against relevant criteria and benchmarks.
• 5.1: Develop constructive resolutions for ethical dilemmas based on application of ethical theories, principles and models.
• 9.3: Apply the principles of employment law for ethical practices and risk mitigation.