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.
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.
I. Challenge: Describe your complex challenge and factors that contribute to the complexity of this issue:
o Demographics of the individuals/group affected by challenge
o Magnitude of the issue in community affected by challenge
o Commonly held assumptions or obstacles around this issue
o Social conditions that exist specific to this challenge
o Cultural or societal issues specific to this challenge
o Discipline-specific subject or branch of knowledge
II. 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.
A. 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
