GUIDELINES FOR TERM PAPERS/POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS

TERM PAPER PROTOCOLS AND FRAMEWORK

Every student must develop a term paper over the course of the semester. This term paper must analyze a specific organization and the management/policy crisis faced by that organization. The primary source for this paper MUST BE an "organizational crisis" book in the "A List" bibliography that is attached. Since the class will benefit most from hearing about the widest range of organizational crises and resolutions, no book may be chosen by more than one student and when several books address the same organizational crisis, only one student may report using that set of books.   The instructor will oversee the selection process, including the assignment of books desired by more than one student.  This list is continuously in process and individual instructors may supplement this list up to and including Class 2, by which time all students are to have selected their term paper book.    

Format of the Term Paper

This format provides a framework for organizing the information upon which each student's term paper will be based.  This framework includes a set of diagnostic categories into which each assigned case can be placed. This format is designed to facilitate term paper completion and create the basis for PowerPoint presentations that inform the class and enable meaningful comparisons between cases.

SECTION A-- Critical Situation Intro/General Organizational Description: Every term paper must begin by briefly describing the major problem/crisis (e.g., the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia) that befell the organization or, in some cases, the organizations that are featured in the various assigned book.  This should be followed by a description of the business in which the organization(s) is engaged.  The specific nature of that organization's approach to its business (e.g., the FBI as opposed to the NYPD in the business of law enforcement) should also be addressed.  These descriptions should allow the reader to understand enough about the organization so that, when you begin to discuss in detail what went wrong, the reader can connect the dots from the problem/crises to how things should have been operating.  Make no assumptions that the reader is knowledgeable about the organization involved, and educate the reader accordingly.  

SECTION B--THE FAILURE: Describe in detail the cataclysmic breakdown or chronic weaknesses that threw the organization into crisis.  This description of organizational failure is central to all the books available for assignment.  The reader of your paper should be fully informed about the scandalous behaviors, disastrous events, wrong-headed decisions and bankrupt performances that served as the cause of major damage the organization's reputation, credibility and, in many cases, a threat to the very survival of the organization.  Let your reader fully appreciate what happens when a space shuttle blows up, when FBI or CIA agents turned traitor operate undetected for a decade or more, when giant corporations implode in a matter of weeks, or when a police crime lab proves so unreliable that prosecutors won't use its analysis in court.  Your reader should be left with no doubt about just how bad things were, and what the repercussions were.  For instance, the few gangster cops of the Rampart Division in the LAPD in the 1990's managed not only to humiliate the LAPD, inspiring widespread critiques as well as movies like Training Day, but also caused hundreds of convictions to be tossed out, freed likely felons, resulted in massive damage awards, and generated consent decrees whereby the United States Department of Justice has ridden herd on the LAPD for years.  A disaster!  Describe the scope of the disaster that befell your organization in a similar but extended and comprehensive way.

SECTION C--Symptomatic Analysis: Organizations don't get sick overnight.  In all of the assigned cases, important symptoms are in evidence long before the actual breakdown occurred.  The task in this section of the paper is to identify and explain in detail any such symptoms and their relation to the crisis.  This requires, in many cases, a history of particular organizational elements that came to play a central role in the ultimate failure.  The factors below are simply the most common symptoms that can signal impending organizational crisis.  Given the range of cases that students may study, the symptoms that lead up to the organizational crisis may be different from or in addition to, those listed below. Do not confine yourself to the list below if your organization’s problems stem from other factors.

·        Sudden changes in the organization’s demand environment (customer preferences/citizen expectations)

·        Inappropriate organizational responses to changing customer/citizen demands

·        Unrecognized/Ignored/Dismissed changes in the organizations competitive environment

·        Failure of the organization to adjust to changes in its size and/or structure

·        Failure to respond to/keep up with changes in technology

·        Perverse incentives that encourage behaviors and actions that damage the organization

·        Damaging performance by the chief executive of the organization

·        Conflict or lack of dissent within the executive ranks

·        An inward-looking, self-serving organizational culture

 

SECTION D--Diagnosis: After identifying and explaining the symptoms underlying the failure, you must categorize the condition of your organization in terms of one or more of the following: Normal Accident, Resource Diversion, Oversight Failure, Structural Failure, Cultural Deviance, or Institutionalization. These categories are explained in Why Law Enforcement Organizations Fail, Chapter 2, and are elaborated in detail throughout the remainder of the book. 

 

You should start this section by defining the diagnostic category or categories that you believe apply.  Then you must carefully show how the symptoms you have identified relate to the diagnostic categories you have chosen.  The reader should finish this section satisfied that he or she understands that larger organizational dynamics that led to the failure which your paper is addressing.

 

(A note on the "bad person" explanation: What jumps out in many of the cases are one or more key individuals whose actions are self-serving or dishonest or larcenous or stupid or negligent.  They are, indeed, "bad employees or leaders" in their negative impact on the organization.  They make for engaging reading, and satisfying targets of our anger.  However, this is not a diagnostic category. Why? Because employees--high and low--are sustained by the systems and cultures that surround them.  "Bad" employees are nurtured by cultures that accept them, organizational structures that enable them, territoriality that insulates them and overseers blinded to their offenses. You need not ignore "bad persons/leaders" if they play a role in your organization's crisis.  Do not, however, put them center-stage. Be sure that your paper focuses mostly on how such destructive behaviors were enabled by the structures and policies of the organization.)

 

 

SECTION E--Summary and Current State of Affairs:  This section should briefly reprise for the reader what has been presented in the paper and should, in no more than a page, describe where the organization stands today, both in general and with respect to the function that was at the center of the organization's failure.

 

 

YOUR TERM PAPER SOURCE: Each student must base his or her paper on one of the "A List" books from the bibliography at the back of these term paper guidelines—NOT the syllabus. Books in the bibliography attached to the syllabus may only be used as secondary references, unless they also appear on the list in this document.  Only one student may report on each book chosen, so the instructor will resolve any competing choices. Books will be assigned within the first two weeks of class. While not every student will get his/her first choice book, the organization(s) in all of these books faced similar crises and/or debacles so there are more than enough "good" cases to go around.

 

Immediately obtain and start reading your book. While your term papers are not due until Class 13, PowerPoint presentations may begin as early as Class 5 in some PAD 706 sections.  While the instructor will seek to fill up the “early” presentation slots with volunteers (who may be interested in getting a major chunk of course work done early), random assignments to early slots will be made if there aren’t enough volunteers.

 

 

POWER-POINT PRESENTATION GUIDELINES

 

Each student is required to make a presentation about their case to the class using PowerPoint.   This presentation is essentially an outline of your term paper as modified by the “evaluation” criteria below.  

This presentation will be assessed on the degree to which each student:

NOTE: Students should practice this presentation in advance, especially the flow of presentation frames in relation to the overall presentation. Figuring things out for the first time in front of the class is a sure way to get stuck and flustered while faced with an impatient and restless audience. 

Depending on overall class enrollment, presentations may run from 12-20 minutes, followed by a brief 5-10 minute question and answer session.  Your instructor will let you know.  Faculty will cut short presentations that exceed time limits in order to make sure that all students get a shot.  Faculty may also comment on presentations, especially initial ones, so that subsequent presenters better understand what works.

 

“A” List Bibliography

 

Basic information about most books can be obtained by clicking on the "http" locator, if you are viewing this on the internet. You can also type the URL in the locator on your Netscape or Explorer browser if you are viewing this hard copy, though going to the Amazon.com, or any other on-line bookseller site and typing in the book title will be easier. REMEMBER: Obtain and start reading your book as soon as possible after your choice is confirmed.  These books all have material relevant to our discussions in the first ten weeks of the course.  Everyone's learning can be enhanced by relevant examples from your term paper books, even if you are only a chapter or two in. 

 

** Double-starred books are best sought through CUNY or city library system since you may have difficulty purchasing the book through commercial sources (i.e., a bookstore or internet bookseller) in a sufficiently timely manner to meet the requirements for this course. Most books in the bibliography should be available in the CUNY library and John Jay's library should house most of the books that concern criminal justice agencies.

 

A NOTE ON BOOK SELECTION: The instructor will employ a method to determine each student's selection order. A book that has been selected is off the list.  In addition, the instructor will work with students to achieve a good match between book topic and the student's interests or career path.

 "A" LIST BOOKS:  (Use ONLY this list for your principal term paper book. Books on the "B" and “C” lists on the syllabus may intrigue you, and may even be about organizations covered by "A" list books.  You may read "B" list and "C" list books as supplementary reading.  Past experience has shown, however, that "A" list books are best suited to (1) term paper development and (2) presentations that engage the audience.)

Peter C. Fusaro, Ross M. Miller.  What Went Wrong at Enron: Everyone's Guide to the Largest Bankruptcy in U.S. History.  Wiley, 2002.  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471265748/qid=1030573697/sr=2-2/ref=sr_2_2/002-6523240-1396041

Brian Cruver. Anatomy of Greed: The Unshredded Truth from an Enron Insider.  Carroll and Graf, 2002. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0786710934/qid=1030574233/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/002-6523240-1396041

Bethany McLean, Peter Elkind.  Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron.  Portfolio, 2003 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1591840082/qid=1074638905/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/102-5358092-1458524#product-details

Sherron Watkins, Mimi Swartz, Power Failure: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Enron.   Doubleday, 2003.  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0385507879/qid=1074638905/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/102-5358092-1458524?v=glance&s=books#product-details

Note: The four books immediately above are a single entry.  Only one student may choose this entry. The student may read any one book—though more than one might give a better perspective.  "Smartest Guys" is probably the most thorough.  And Watkins is the whistleblower who told Enron CEO Ken Lay about accounting chicanery.

Barbara Ley Toffler, Jennifer Reingold, Final Accounting: Ambition, Greed and the Fall of Arthur Andersen.  Broadway, 2003.  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0767913825/ref=pd_sim_books_1/102-5358092-1458524?v=glance&s=books#product-details

 

Susan Squires, et. al.   Inside Arthur Anderson: Shifting Values, Unexpected Consequences.  Prentice Hall, 2003
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0131408968/ref=pd_sim_books_1/102-5358092-1458524?v=glance&s=books

Note: The two books immediately above are a single entry.  Only one student may choose this entry. The student may read either book—though both might give a better perspective, especially neither is very lengthy. 

James Adams. Sellout: Aldrich Ames and the Corruption of the CIA. Viking, 1995. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0670862363/qid=917501231/sr=1-1/002-5090961-6362828 **

Tim Weiner, et.al. Betrayal: Aldrich Ames, The Story of an American Spy. 1997. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/067944050X/qid=998431959/sr=1-5/ref=sc_b_5/103-7909515-6754237

Note: The two books immediately above are a single entry.  Only one student may choose this entry. The student may read either book—though both might give a better perspective. 

Daniel Quinn Mills, G. Bruce Friesen. Broken Promises: An Unconventional View of What Went Wrong at IBM. Harvard Business School, 1996. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0875846548/ref=sim_books/002-5090961-6362828

Paul Carroll. Big Blues: The Unmaking of IBM. Crown, 1994. (Check CUNY library) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0517882213/o/qid=916892887/sr=2-2/002-5090961-6362828

Louis V. Gerstner Jr. Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? Inside IBM's Historic Turnaround.  Harper Business, 2002.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060523794/qid=1074641952/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-5358092-1458524?v=glance&s=books#product-details

Note: The three books immediately above are a single entry.  Only one student may choose this entry. The student may read any book—though Gerstner's is more current, up-front and personal.  Hint, skim Carroll and/or Mills, read and report on Gerstner.

Nina Munk. Fools Rush In : Steve Case, Jerry Levin, and the Unmaking of AOL Time Warner.  Harper Business, 2004. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060540346/ref=pd_sim_books_1/102-7426009-8405729?v=glance&s=books

 

Kara Swisher, Lisa Dickey. There Must Be a Pony in Here Somewhere: The AOL Time Warner Debacle and the Quest for a Digital Future.  Crown Business, 2003.  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1400049636/ref=pd_bxgy_text_1/102-7426009-8405729?v=glance&s=books&st=* - product-details

 

Alec Klein. Stealing Time : Steve Case, Jerry Levin, and the Collapse of AOL Time Warner.  Simon and Schuster, 2003. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0743247868/ref=pd_sim_books_1/102-7426009-8405729?v=glance&s=books

Note: The three books immediately above are a single entry.  Only one student may choose this entry. The student may read any book—check out the reviews on the on-line sites. 

John Kelly and Phillip Wearne. Tainting Evidence : Behind the Scandals at the FBI Crime Lab. Free Press, 1998. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684846462/inktomi-bkasin-20/102-1536419-3959344

Adrian Havill. The Spy Who Stayed out in the Cold: The Secret Life of FBI Double Agent Robert Hanssen. St. Martins, 2001. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0312287828/qid=1030512784/sr=1-5/ref=sr_1_5/102-1536419-3959344?v=glance&s=books

Lou Cannon. Official Negligence: How Rodney King and the Riots Changed Los Angeles and the LAPD. Westview, 1999. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0813337259/o/qid=967212728/sr=8-1/ref=aps_sr_b_1_3/102-5551230-7180125

Dick J. Reavis. The Ashes of Waco: An Investigation. Syracuse University Press, 1998. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0815605021/qid=916892032/sr=1-1/002-5090961-6362828

John Anderson, Hilary Hevenor, Burning Down the House: Move and the Tragedy of Philadelphia.  New York: Norton, 1990.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0393024601/qid=1074641375/sr=1-8/ref=sr_1_8/102-5358092-1458524?v=glance&s=books#product-details

Piers Paul Read. Ablaze: The Story of the Heroes and Victims of Chernobyl.  Random House, 1993.  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-0679408193/qid=1043871362/sr=1-18/ref=sr_1_18/103-3888685-3290255?v=glance&s=books

Lawrence Schiller. Perfect Murder, Perfect Town: The Uncensored Story of the JonBenet Murder and the Grand Jury's Search for the Final Truth. Harper Paperbacks, 1999 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0061096962/qid=967215629/sr=1-3/102-5551230-7180125

Owen W. Linzmayer, Apple Confidential : The Real Story of Apple Computer, Inc. No Starch Press, 1999. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/188641128X/qid=998430030/sr=1-36/ref=sc_b_36/103-7909515-6754237

Lynne W. Jeter, Disconnected: Deceit and Betrayal at WorldCom.  Wiley: 2003  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/047142997X/qid=1074642845/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-5358092-1458524?v=glance&s=books#product-details

Diane Vaughan. The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA. University of Chicago Press, 1997. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0226851761/o/qid=916894193/sr=2-1/002-5090961-6362828

Note: The following two books are an entry.  The Columbia Accident Investigation Report is also available online.

Michael Cabbage and William Harwood.  Comm Check: The Final Flight of the Shuttle Columbia.  New York: Free Press, 2004. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0743260910/002-0486383-6686400

Robert Godwin.  Columbia Accident Investigation Report.  Apogee Books.

James B. Stewart.  Disney War.  New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005.  http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0684809931/002-0486383-6686400

Kessler, Ronald.  The Bureau: The Secret History of the FBI.  New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2003.  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0312989776/ref=sib_rdr_dp/002-0486383-6686400?%5Fencoding=UTF8&no=283155&me=ATVPDKIKX0DER&st=books

Ken Auletta. Greed and Glory on Wall Street: The Fall of the House of Lehman. Warner Books, 1987 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0446384062/qid=916893128/sr=1-10/002-5090961-6362828 **

William Bratton with Peter Knobler, Turnaround: How America’s Top Cop Reversed the Crime Epidemic. New York: Random House, 1998 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679452516/o/qid=966617971/sr=2-3/103-5646095-2698247  NOTE: If you take this book, you may NOT use NYPD as the principal case study. Focus on Transit and the Massachusetts police agencies Bratton ran.

Bryan Burrough. Dragonfly: NASA and the Crisis Aboard the Mir. Harper-Collins, 1998. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0887307833/o/qid=916895093/sr=2-1/002-5090961-6362828**

Bryan Burrough. Vendetta : American Express and the Smearing of Edmond Safra. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060167599/qid=935778486/sr=1-1/002-5047019-2484207 **

James B. Stewart. Blind Eye: How the Medical Establishment Let a Doctor Get Away With Murder. Simon and Schuster, 1999. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684865637/o/qid=967215388/sr=2-1/102-5551230-7180125

Mary Schiavo, Sabra Chartrand. Flying Blind, Flying Safe: The Former Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation Tells You Everything You Need to Know to Travel Safe. Avon, 1998. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/038079330X/o/qid=916894524/sr=2-1/002-5090961-6362828**

Connie Bruck. The Predators’ Ball: The Inside Story of Drexel Burnham and the Rise of the Junk Bond Raiders. Penguin, 1989. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140120904/ref=sim_books/002-5090961-6362828

Kevin Goldman. Conflicting Accounts: How Corporate Greed and Mismanagement Led to the Crash of Saatchi and Saatchi, the Worlds Largest Ad Agency. Simon and Schuster, 1997. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684815710/qid=916899307/sr=1-1/002-5090961-6362828

 Dan Kurzman: A Killing Wind: Inside Union Carbide and the Bhopal Catastrophe. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0070356874/qid=917500671/sr=1-14/002-5090961-6362828 **

Joseph Vranich. Derailed: What Went Wrong and What to Do About America’s Passenger Trains. St. Martins, 1997. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/031217182X/qid%3D917501007/002-5090961-6362828

Judith Reitman. Bad Blood: Crisis in the American Red Cross. Kensington, 1996. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1575661152/qid=916899728/sr=1-4/002-5090961-6362828

Mark Baldassare.  When Government Fails: The Orange County Bankruptcy.  University of California Press, 1998.  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0520214862/qid=1030573310/sr=1-15/ref=sr_1_15/002-6523240-1396041?v=glance&s=books

William H. McMichael, The Mother of All Hooks: The Story of the U.S. Navy's Tailhook Scandal.  Transaction Books, 1997. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/156000293X/qid=1043871655/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-3888685-3290255?v=glance&s=books

David Kuo. dot.bomb: My Days and Nights at an Internet Goliath.  Back Bay Books: 2003.  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0316600059/qid=1074642539/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-5358092-1458524?v=glance&s=books

 

Dennis, Norman, et. al. The Failure of Britain's Police: London and New York Compared. New York: Coronet Books, 2003. Focus on London/England, not New York http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1903386268/qid=1093312390/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/104-7326988-9067907?v=glance&s=books#product-details

 

Lehr, Dick and Gerard O'Neill.  Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob.  New York: Perennial, 2001. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1891620401/qid=1093314225/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/104-7326988-9067907?v=glance&s=books

Note: The two books below are an entry.  Only one student may choose this set. 

 

Jess Walter. Ruby Ridge : The Truth and Tragedy of the Randy Weaver Family.  New York: Regan Books, 2002. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/006000794X/qid%3D1093381003/103-1424236-1042234

 

Alan Bock.  Ambush at Ruby Ridge: How Government Agents Set Randy Weaver Up and Took His Family Down.  Dickens Press,

 

Ernest Volkman. Gangbusters: The Destruction of America's Last Great Mafia Dynasty.  New York: Avon, 1999. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0380732351/qid=1093381645/

 

Chris Ryder. The Fateful Split: The Failure of Policing in Northern Ireland.  London: Methuen, 2004. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0413772225/qid=1093382805/

 

Renford Reese.  Leadership in the LAPD: Walking the Tightrope.  Durham: NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2005.  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1594600201/002-0486383-6686400