Introduction

Scope and purpose of this guide

This course guide has been designed as a starting point for the research you will need to do to complete your course assignments.  It focuses on resources you can use to find articles, web sites, and books on organizational behaviour topics, and it includes techniques for planning your searches so that you can use these resources effectively. Don't hesitate to make use of the library's Ask a Librarian services if you need help.

BEFORE you start searching

Analyzing your topic

To begin your research, analyze your topic and break it down into concepts. Think of keywords that describe your concept. Synonyms are very useful.

When searching library catalogues or other electronic databases, use truncation symbols to find all variations of a term.

• The asterisk ( * ) is the most common truncation symbol. It's used by many of the databases available through the SFU Library. For example, Business Source Complete and the SFU Library Catalogue both use it.   A search for "employ* " in either of these databases will result in items containing any of:  employment, employee, and employers

Sample topic

Topic: How is the financial services industry handling organizational change?

Concepts: financial services AND change

Synonyms: (financial institutions OR banks OR credit unions ) AND (restructur* or chang*)

Your research will be much more successful if you think of several synonyms for the words in your assigned topics.  For "learning," try also "training;" for "team," try also "group;" for "commitment," try also "loyalty."  For company information, search for different variations of a company's name.   For example, try "Coca-Cola" as well as "Coke."

Adding the term "case stud*" to your concept terms will often find books and articles giving actual company or organization examples (case studies). This will work in keyword searches in many of our main article databases as well as in the SFU Library catalogue.

Read your textbook carefully to find more synonyms (and more company or organization examples).

Researching a term paper

Start your research here (a step-by-step guide to the library research process): reviews the process of researching a term paper from identifying a topic through gathering information to writing the paper, with a focus on how to use the SFU Library in particular.

Searching

Before you start researching your topics in the Library (or from your computer at home!), it's important to decide where you are going to look for information. For this assignment you will need to find books, reports, newspaper and journal articles, and possibly company information. You can look for all of these by searching the Library Catalogue, electronic databases, and other resources listed below.

Books and articles

Search the Library Catalogue using the terms analyzed from your topic. Start with a keyword search, then refine your searching using the most relevant subjects. 

For example, if we were looking for information on the reaction of employees to change, a word search in the catalogue for change AND employee* would return thousands of items, many of which are completely irrelevant, but a quick scan of some of the items closest to the topic would reveal such subjects as...

Organizational change, Communication in organizations, Job satisfaction, Organizational behavior, Employee motivation, Organizational change -- Management, Work environment, Quality of work life, and Job stress ... all of which may be useful for further, more targeted and efficient searching.

The SFU Library Catalogue search guide will give you a step-by-step guide to searching the Catalogue.  You could also try some of our online tutorials covering many research resources and strategies.

Business journal articles

Although our catalogue will help you find journal articles, we have other databases that are more focused on the key journals most relevant to BUS 272, as well as databases focused on finding business newspaper and magazine articles.

Business Source Complete
Article citations from major peer-reviewed HR/OB journals such as: Human Resource Management Journal, Organization Studies, Personnel Psychology, Group & Organization Management, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management Research, and Public Personnel Management. (See below for more details on this key business research tool.)

PsycINFO
Important index to psychology journals, many of which are relevant to OB. Covers many key organizational behaviour journals as well.

Business practitioner magazines

Business Source Complete
Articles from many practitioner publications (magazines read by professionals working in the field) such as HR Magazine, Supervision, Workforce Management, People Management, People & Strategy, and Incentive. Also includes general business news publications such as Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Forbes, Fortune, Harvard Business Review, and Canadian Business. (See below for more details on this key business research tool.)

CBCA Fulltext Business
Articles (1982 to the present) from Canadian business magazines, newspapers, and other magazines. Not much scholarly/academic content, but does include HR/OB practitioner publications such as Canadian HR Reporter as well as more general business news sources such as the Report on Business Magazine.

Newspaper articles

Canadian Newstream
Fulltext online from most major Canadian newspapers (Globe & Mail, Vancouver Sun, National Post, etc.) from the last 10-20 years. No pictures (text only). If you are looking for a story in the business section of a paper, try a search like the following:

PressReader
Page images of issues published in the last 1-2 months of thousands of international newspapers. Includes many major Canadian papers. "Paper-like" browsing in which you click to flip a page.

Print newspapers (link is to a library map)
The SFU Library carries the most recent few weeks of many major papers in print format.  Go up to the north side of the 6th floor of the Bennett Library and sit in comfortable chairs while you scan the paper for relevant stories. Browsing print editions of the paper may be the most efficient approach if you just need samples of recent news articles on a topic!

Factiva
Contains thousands of general interest and business news sources.

Wall Street Journal
Online access for SFU researchers. The link above goes to a pre-run search in Factiva with the most recent articles at the top. Click on Modify Search and add terms to focus your search.

Company examples

Finding details on the OB/HR practices in specific (named) companies can be difficult. As you might imagine, companies tend to keep such internal details secret. However, there are instances when such information is made public. Start with the following search tips: 

• Search for articles about awards companies have won, especially "Best companies to work for" types of awards.  Some examples of such publications are listed in our Job Searching guide.
   
• Look for case studies that mention specific companies.
   
• Search newspapers (as discussed above) for articles in which specific companies are named or OB topics are discussed. Watch for instances where HR consultants are reporting on their experiences. 
   
• Try our Company Information research guide (but note that it is more geared towards finding financial information)

Business Source Complete (BSC) basics

A brief introduction to your main business article database: Business Source Complete

AFTER your search

Writing your report

Research is only half the battle! You also need to communicate your findings in a clear, well-structured paper, Check the SFU Library guides to Business Writing and Writing for University for resources to help with paper structures, grammar, spelling, and more.

Citing your sources

You also need to correctly cite all of the books, journal articles, and sites that you used in your research. Start with the SFU Library guide and online tutorial to APA Style.   Also try the APA's own APAStyle and APAStyle Blog pages.

Note also that some of our article indexes (esp. Business Source Complete and PsycInfo) will provide a rough (auto-generated) APA-formatted citation for the articles they cover.  Look for a link to Cite  or Citation next to the articles you want to use. Always proofread such auto-generated citations before using them!

See below for a series of short SFU Library videos created to help you understand the purpose and mechanics of clear citations: 

• Part 1: Why cite?
• Part 2: Predictable patterns
• Part 3: Getting help 

Citation management tools

Citation or reference management tools collect your journal article, book, or other document citations together in one place, and help you create properly formatted bibliographies in almost any style — in seconds. Citation management tools help you keep track of your sources while you work and store your references for future use and reuse.

Plagiarism

Learning how to properly credit others when you use their ideas is a difficult, but important part of research. Start with the SFU Library's interactive tutorial "Understanding and Avoiding Plagiarism" to test yourself and to learn more about plagiarism. Also read the SFU Library Guide on Plagiarism for further discussion of this critical topic and for links to other plagiarism guides.