Locating and critically analyzing primary research articles

What steps do you take to locate primary and peer-reviewed research articles when performing a literature search?

What resources are available to you to engage in a meaningful and successful literature search?

As you have explored throughout this course, Walden University provides vast resources for student support to ensure success in its academic program of study. When it comes to research and using Library resources, several support mechanisms are available to you as well.

Taking the first step to thinking about a research topic or area of interest and filtering that topic using a series of keywords and operations will be a fundamental component for performing a literature search in Walden Library’s databases. While the ultimate goal is to produce a set of results that match your search criteria, you must keep in mind that that the quality of the research articles obtained will likely vary. Thus, you must critically examine and analyze the aims of the research produced and how it aligns, confirms, or negates your topic or area of research. As you develop proficiency in this area, you will discover that you can extract content themes and frameworks to enhance future research and the need to identify additional research support.

For this Assignment, consult the Walden Library webinars and resources provided. These resources serve as a generally good first step for performing literature searches and engaging with the databases of research available to you. Think about a research topic or area of interest to focus on for this Assignment. Then, search the Walden Library to locate and retrieve peer-reviewed research articles that pertain to your topic or area of interest.

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Step 1: Increase Urgency
We will move toward and become like that which we think about. This means we must prompt the individuals in the situation we are trying to change to begin thinking about and moving toward change. To do this successfully, we have to give them a reason! Most individuals are slow to take action when they have no motivation to do so. But how do we do that? And how do we accomplish not just motivation, but urgent motivation?

Specific questions or items to address:

Read Step 1 “Increase Urgency” from Kotter and Cohen's The Heart of Change. Review the questions page in the exercise to construct part of your project which addresses the need to create urgency. Use the list of questions the exercise along with the feedback you received from your instructor to revise and improve Part 1 of your project.

Here are the questions from the text:

1.For the organizational unit over which you have some influence (corporate, division, department), is there a need for large-scale change? Are competitors leaping ahead but your organization is not? Are there technological discontinuities that others are exploiting but your organization is not? Are you bogged down in the past? Are there wonderful new opportunities that will require significant change on your part? If yes,

a.How high is the urgency regarding these problems or opportunities?

b.What behavior, not just words, lead you to this conclusion?

c.What creates or supports this behavior and the underlying feelings? Consider the following possibilities: historical success; systems that poorly measure today’s achievements against external referents; lack of customer contact; symbols that are out of touch with today’s market reality; visible examples of excess, of throwing money around when others are winning and costs are tight; the internally focused attitudes of bosses; lack of widely shared data on performance versus competitors; too much “happy talk” from the management that is out of touch with the real world; low overall performance standards relative to competitors; a kill-the-messenger or low-candor culture; subunit goals that allow a subunit to look good as the ship is sinking.

2.What can you do that is dramatic, attention grabbing, and memorable to attack the problem of insufficient urgency?

a.Can you show people something that is already there, like an unhappy customer?

b.Can you create something new that will highlight the problem, as in “Gloves” or “Portrait Gallery”?

c.Can you do something indirectly—like showing a boss how much his or her subordinates are creating complacency in their subordinates?

d.If you have never done much of anything like this before, can you find a collaborator who has?

e.Note: In thinking about these questions, look for cheap and easy opportunities. Remember, you have an organization to run and products or services to be delivered or built today. Be realistic and opportunistic.

Be sure to include at least three scholarly references to support your assertions written in your own words. Do not copy word for word from the course text or any other sources. Your submission this week is Part 2 of the final project.

The requirements below must be met for your paper to be accepted and graded:

Write between 1,000 – 1,500 words (approximately 4 – 6 pages) using Microsoft Word in APA style.

Use font size 12 and 1” margins.

Include cover page and reference page.

At least 80% of your paper must be original content/writing.

No more than 20% of your content/information may come from references.

Use an appropriate number of references to support your position, and defend your arguments. The following are examples of primary and secondary sources that may be used, and non-credible and opinion based sources that may not be used.

Primary sources such as, government websites (United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, United States Census Bureau, The World Bank, etc.), peer reviewed and scholarly journals in EBSCOhost (Grantham University Online Library) and Google Scholar.

Secondary and credible sources such as, CNN Money, The Wall Street Journal, trade journals, and publications in EBSCOhost (Grantham University Online Library).

Non-credible and opinion based sources such as, Wikis, Yahoo Answers, eHow, blogs, etc. should not be used.

Cite all reference material (data, dates, graphs, quotes, paraphrased words, values, etc.) in the paper and list on a reference page in APA style.

Locating and critically analyzing primary research articles

APA

756 words

Locating and critically analyzing primary research articles

Answer preview to Locating and critically analyzing primary research articles

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