You will apply principles and theories from this course to critically compare OB practices of two organizations within the same industry

For this assignment, you will apply principles and theories from this course to critically compare OB practices of two organizations within the same industry (e.g., Apple and Samsung, Air Canada and WestJet, Tim Hortons and Starbucks,

You will apply principles and theories from this course to critically compare OB practices of two organizations within the same industry

Organizational Analysis Assignment
An important goal of this course is to develop your ability to critically evaluate organizational practices from the framework of organizational behaviour. For this assignment, you will apply principles and theories from this course to critically compare OB practices of two organizations within the same industry (e.g., Apple and Samsung, Air Canada and WestJet, Tim Hortons and Starbucks, Shoppers Drug Mart and Rexall, Walmart and Costco, Rogers and Bell, Disney and Warner Bros, Ford and Toyota, TD and RBC, Vancouver Canucks and Toronto Raptors).

More specifically, you will analyze the effectiveness of organizational practices within the framework of organizational behavior (i.e., what does the research or what would organizational theory have to say about the chosen practices). As an example, Microsoft has practices of promoting and supporting career growth for employees, including a tuition reimbursement program and one-on-one time with managers to discuss career path and development. These practices may foster organizational commitment and job satisfaction. However, Microsoft also engages in other practices, such as utilizing “permatemp” employees, which may be self-defeating in terms of employee job satisfaction. Another example of an organizational practice is the decision by Loblaws and Metro to implement then scrap the $2 hourly pay premium to workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Which practices, industry, or organizations you choose are not important.

You should, however, ensure that your choices are directly related to organizational behavior (e.g., employee benefits, compensation, mentoring, customer service, salary, leadership, group dynamics, conflict, communication, values, motivation, etc.). You can get information about organizational practices in a number of ways, including (but by no means limited to): company websites, the news, books written about the organization, magazines, interviews with people within the organization, your own observations.

The deliverable. Your grade for this assignment will be based on a written report. Your report should provide a detailed analysis of the two organizations and the practices that you are examining. As a general guideline, you should focus on two organizational practices, and compare/contrast your two organizations on these practices (e.g., TD does X in terms of leadership development and RBC does Y). The description of the organizational practices should be detailed enough that a naïve reader can understand what each organization does.

You may, where such information is available, comment on why the organization has adopted a given practice. Second, the report should include a detailed analysis of whether these organizational practices are effective/optimal within the framework of organizational behavior (i.e., what does research or theory say about the practice). Finally, based on your understanding of the research and theory, comment on the ideal/optimal practices that these organizations should strive to adopt. To summarize, you should: explain what each organization does, critically analyze what they currently do from an OB research/theory perspective, and discuss what they should ideally do based on OB research/theory.