The purpose of the position paper is to practice formulating and articulating an informed opinion that could be used to influence one's constituents about a conflict in business. Because conflict has the potential to breed growth, it is important for managers (and learners) to be able to consider many different perspectives to an issue and to ground their arguments in theory so that the resulting decisions will be viewed as informed, reliable, and convincing rather than somewhat ignorant, unsubstantiated and biased. The position paper will provide you the opportunity to select a controversy of interest to you, examine your views in light of existing theory and research, design a presentation format that will convince your constituents to act in your favor, and work with a team in presenting that posture to the rest of the class.
2. The team selects a conflict -- any conflict -- that has implications for managers. The conflict must be approved by the professor in advance in order to: a) prevent overlap, and b) make sure you have selected a topic that is doable.
This paper is supposed to be FOR (or PRO) lethal injection.
For example, Mike Harper, former CEO of ConAgra, was instrumental in the development of Healthy Choice foods (his wife conceived the idea while he was recovering from a heart attack). In fact, Harper's name became almost synonymous with healthy living. Then he left ConAgra to become CEO of a cigarette manufacturing company! Whoa! Many claimed he had no right -- that this was a foolish decision -- that he was betraying the public trust by turning to a company that actually destroyed lives. Harper responded that he was a manager, nothing more -- nothing less, that manufacturing cigarettes was legal, and that the company presented managerial challenges (and $$) that were appealing -- that it was really nobody's business. Well, there's a conflict here ... should he have? or shouldn't he have?
Your job is to convince us to buy into your side of the issue. The presentation needs to be around 1250 words, APA format.
The design of your format and presentation is entirely up to you-- whatever works best given the nature of your conflict. The sky is the limit. This is your chance to be creative. It is up to you to determine the way to best articulate your position.
I was thinking that the following format would be useful, but if you have another format that would be better, please use it! ......
I. Introduction
• ___A. Introduce the topic
• ___B. Provide background on the topic
• ___C. Assert the thesis (your view of the issue)
II. Counter Argument
• ___A. Summarize the counterclaims
• ___B. Provide supporting information for counterclaims
• ___C. Refute the counterclaims
• ___D. Give evidence for argument
III. Your Argument
___A. Assert point #1 of your claims
• _____1. Give your opinion
• _____2. Provide support
___B. Assert point #2 of your claims
• _____1. Give your opinion
• _____2. Provide support
___C. Assert point #3 of your claims
• _____1. Give your opinion
• _____2. Provide support
IV. Conclusion
• ___A. Restate your argument
• ___B. Provide a plan of action