Competency
In this project, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following competency:

Generate recommendations for addressing a complex challenge

Scenario
Training opportunities in the workplace (professional development) have become a sound investment for employers. In addition to reducing recruiting and retention costs, they have been demonstrated to boost productivity and job satisfaction. For employees, they also provide the benefit of enhancing skills and offer additional prospects for positioning employees for new opportunities within the organization outside of regular promotions. For the past seven years, your company has sponsored a professional enrichment program (PEP). Each year, a small group or cohort of six to eight employees is chosen to participate in special professional enrichment activities in both group and individual formats. They are paired with mentors from leaders across the company. Employees each submit a letter and career plan that serve as their “application” to the program.

Update: Congratulations! You were one of the seven employees selected for the program this year. You’ve been paired with a supportive mentor. As a result, you feel much more confident about testing out and developing new ideas that have broader implications outside the workplace. You have decided to take advantage of the opportunity to develop recommendations around a challenge you feel very excited and passionate about addressing. Your mentor has offered to help you advance your recommendations and was very clear during the meeting that developing good recommendations for both academic and professional contexts requires the same thorough and objective examination of the research surrounding the challenge.

Directions
Recommendations Brief with Research (2,000–2,500 words)
You and your mentor previously prepared and refined a list of opportunities that interested you in the Selecting Your Complex Challenge document. For this challenge, select the research question that most interests you, ensuring you address all elements in the rubric.

Challenge: Describe your complex challenge and factors that contribute to the complexity of this issue:

Demographics of the individuals/group affected by challenge
Magnitude of the issue in community affected by challenge
Commonly held assumptions or obstacles around this issue
Social conditions that exist specific to this challenge
Cultural or societal issues specific to this challenge
Discipline-specific subject or branch of knowledge

Research: You and your mentor have discussed the importance of making your case with evidence-based research, as appropriate to the discipline, that informs your recommendations.

Annotated Bibliography: Select seven resources to analyze that are relevant to your challenge. These primary or secondary sources (conferences, dissertations, patents, journal studies, journal articles, technical reports, articles in scholarly journals, government policies, laws, or legislation) should address the challenge you have selected and inform the recommendations you make:

Identify the source authors and discuss their place in society
Discuss the purpose of the piece and why it was written
Explain the value or ideas behind the content in the source
Address the credibility of the piece (why or why not)

Your Methods: Include research that is appropriate to the methods that would be used by the professionals using the particular lenses you choose to address your research question. This may include qualitative data, quantitative data, or both.

Qualitative research that provides context and information on aspects of your challenge and informs your recommendations

Case studies that address issues relevant to your challenge
Comparisons on issues relevant to your challenge
Information on focus groups or interviews that were conducted and tackle questions relevant to your challenge

Quantitative research that is grounded in numerical evidence and informs your recommendations. For example, if your challenge is on quality of water, you would want to have quantitative data from impacted communities, such as scientific data that supports your recommendations.

Survey data
Chi square
Correlation
Time Series
T-Test
ANOVA

Recommendations:

Solution: Propose a specific course of action or actions that represent a reasonable solution for your complex challenge, supported by at least five of the most appropriate sources in your annotated bibliography

Applicable methods
Applicable tools or technologies
Necessary resources

Interpretation: Discuss the research and how your interpretation supports your recommendations

What the research says in regard to the challenge you are addressing and recommendations you make
How you see this research as supporting the recommendations you are making

Significance: Discuss the significance and limitations of the research in supporting your recommendations

Geographical global/national/local impacts
Cultural, technological, scientific, etc., aspects

Conclusion: Defend the action or course of action you have recommended over the alternatives based on:

Utility of the type of methods or methodologies in addressing previous challenges of this type
Necessary resources, tools/technologies to implement proposed recommendations
Implications of your proposed recommendations

Ethical effects or consequences
Any additional concerns around implementing the specific course of action or actions, if applicable
not specified