Case Study
Guidelines for Case Study (graduate students)
Topic: You will apply what you have learned in this course to an in-depth analysis of a single organization. This organization can be one with which you have personal direct experience. You will focus on how gender functions within the organization. I will not restrict you in terms of exactly you choose to write about, but I will provide some suggestions.
Occupational segregation and paths to leadership
Formal and informal organizational culture
Interactional norms within the organization
How does the organization accommodate family responsibilities?
Explicit and implicit messages about sexism in organizational literature
You may elect to write on any of these topics, or about another of your choosing.
Sources: You will draw on the literature we are reading in class (at least 5 sources), and will supplement it with at least 3 sources that you find independently. These must be academic articles or books, governmental reports, or research publications, or other such source.
Data: You must collect some original data for this paper. The data you collect must make sense given your research question. For example, if you are looking at how gender is framed in organizational literature, collecting and analyzing this literature makes sense. If you wish to describe occupational segregation, then collecting counts of employees in various departments or positions by gender would be a valid option. This does not have to be tremendously time-consuming, but you do have rely on more than memory and anecdote.
Interim deadlines: To facilitate your progress, I have set deadlines for tasks you will have to complete during the semester. You will have to turn in materials at each stage. These will not be graded, but I will not accept a final paper from any student who has not turned in the earlier materials.
Research question
10/4
Data collection strategy
10/11
List of sources
10/18
Outline
10/25
Literature review
11/1
Draft
11/15
Final
12/6
# Other considerations
Format: Roughly 15 pages, double-spaced, 11 pt Times New Roman, 1 inch margins
Drafts/feedback.
Citations. Please use APA format. Purdue Owl has a good reference website for this (https://owl.english.purdue.
