Analyzing the Misbehavior of Employees in Major League Baseball: Houston Astro's Sign Stealing Scand

Objectives: ? To effectively use the library database; ? To thoroughly understand research report format and layout; ? To make a set of formal recommendations in a professional setting. TOPIC: Houston Astro‘s Sign Stealing Within Major League Baseball Find an organization in the news where the misbehaviour of other employees is threatening (or potentially threatening) the well-being of the organization. (There are lots.) Please restrict your search to the last 24 months. If you feel strongly about an older topic, please approach instructor. The ailing company has hired you as a consultant to come in and sort out the problem. You are going to carefully analyse the problem and craft a research report approximately 1400-1800 words in length (main content of the document not including Letter of Transmittal, Title Page, Exec Summary, References, and so on) which is going to tell the senior management what went wrong with the misbehaving employees, and how organization should remedy the situation. For an example of a consulting company that engages in these kinds of issues, see Strategy Wise HR. Consider what this consulting company does to earn money as you create your recommendations. Report should address the following central questions: 1. What is the problem with the misbehaving employees and why is this problem urgent? 2. What recommendations are you going to make to your superior to ensure that problem is properly handled? 3. What are the immediate next steps to solving the problem? Note: There is no requirement that you follow the case-study format that requires you to provide three alternatives and choose the best one. Instead try to come up with three recommendations that reader could implement. Your recommendations should be conceptually parallel. Report will include at least one effectively titled visual. Effective headings are essential. Report Assignment Deliverables: a. Report Report Components (These are not headings.) Report should be 1400-1800 words in length (main content in the “Report Body” of your document, not including tables and references) and should employ standalone headings. Assignment should follow problem-solution structure introduced in class. Assignment is uploaded to URCourses. Document should be: • Composed in Microsoft Word; • Uploaded to URCourses; • Checked for spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors. Requirements for report assignment can be found in this document and in a powerpoint file included in the “Chapter 11, 12—Business Reports” folder on URCourses. Further explanation on the report will also be provided in class. Do not use the textbook example in Chapter 11 and 12 as a template for your document. b. Visual Report should contain at least one “visual” as discussed in class. Visuals which contain data should be formatted by you and not simply copied from other sources. Remember that you have to draw the reader’s attention to the visual in the text. Remember that your visual also needs a caption. Source of your visual should be included in references. If you create your own visual from material you have synthesized yourself, you need not include a reference. c. References Please include at least 10 references. Remember, good references include diverse materials such as government documents, industry reports, academic articles, case studies, law cases, reputable web sites, and authoritative news content. The references are required to help you start your research for your business report (below).