1. Title page – properly formatted according to APA formatting guidelines.
2. Abstract – properly prepared and formatted according to APA formatting guidelines.
3. Introduction – What problem will you be investigating? Why is the problem worth investigating? What is the background to the problem, how did it develop, etc.? What organization will be the subject of your investigation? Provide appropriate information about the organization (history, mission/vision, industry, leadership structure, organizational structure, financial position, etc.) so the reader has a thorough understanding of the organization.
4. Problem statement – Provide a clear and concise statement to the problem to include key constructs associated with the problem. Make sure that you define the constructs within the problem and avoid generalizations. Use academic definitions to define your constructs. For example, if your problem involves leadership effectiveness, clearly define leadership and what ‘effectiveness’ means.
5. Literature review – Research each construct that is related to the problem under investigation. Introduce each construct and then inform the reader of the construct using academic journal articles to build the body of knowledge on the construct.
6. Methodology – This section should be relatively short and state how you have developed your resolutions to the problem. This may be accomplished through a meta-analysis and thought experiment. However you approached your resolution and recommendations to the experiment, they should be discussed in this section and supported by sound theory.
7. Results – This is an objective discussion of the results of your methodology and is not based upon your opinion. In this section, provide a brief summary of the literature review and methodology section (one paragraph each) and then transition into what these sections have told you. For example, “From the literature we see that emotional intelligence is a key personality trait for those who emerge as leaders. Survey results from this study support this finding…”
8. Discussion/Recommendations – In this section, you should apply your results to the specific problem under investigation in a more subjective way. List and discuss any recommendations developed in response to your research and results pertaining to the problem under investigation. “Organization X should identify individuals high in emotional intelligence as potential leaders within the organization. Training and development programs can aid in this effort and reduce the randomness that is currently present in leader emergence and development within the firm…”
9. Conclusion – a concise conclusion to the paper.
10. Reference page – properly formatted according to APA formatting guidelines.
11. Appendices – include an appendix of key artifacts related to the project as necessary. Such artifacts may include; survey results, financials, correspondence with the organization, brochures and other informative material, financials, organization charts, etc.