Term papers on management are your chance to show off your executive potential. You have an opportunity to apply the ideas that you have learned to a real world situation in your term paper on management. While this is a challenging task, it can also be exciting and even give you some exposure to companies that might interest you for employment at some point. If you play your cards right, you might even get to speak with someone with hiring power.
The specialty of your management course will shape your assignment, of course. You won’t write about human resources for an operations management class! However, you can emphasize issues that interest you, no matter the course.
Take the two large sub-disciplines of Human Resources and Operations Management, as examples. You can focus on companies, problems and techniques to keep things exciting. As with any paper, your passion about your subject, either because you like it or because it offends your executive sensibilities, will show in the quality of your research and writing.
Pick a problem that interests you for your term paper in management
Executive retention and motivation: what works best?
- Pay
- Company stock
- Time off
- Recognition
- Autonomy
Pick a management technique that interests you, either a new one or a revisiting of one:
- In operations management, for example:
- Just-in-time inventory management
- Paperless office
- In human resources
- Matrix management – discredited or confirmed as a valid technique?
- Management by walking around – fad or solid technique?
Pick a company that interests you for some notable management idiosyncrasy, e.g. Apple and Microsoft – does making the workplace more appealing than most employees’ homes increase productivity? American Airlines – could disaster be averted through engagement with their union?
Scour business periodicals for good ideas for term papers on management: Wall Street Journal, Economist, Financial Times.
Pick one of the management functions to focus on:
- Planning
- Leading/directing
- Organizing
- Controlling
Pick a company that seems to reflect either success or failure in one of these, and discuss their approach to each of these tasks.
Exploit Harvard Business Review case studies, by, for example:
- Updating one by researching subsequent developments at a subject company, if identified
- Examine a real company facing the same problem as a disguised subject company
Keep your topic small and manageable – focus in on an issue that allows you to say something definite with limited information.
