BUS 374: Organization Theory

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Research goal

You need to locate a recent (within the past year) article about an organization. Articles can be from the business sections of newspapers, or from business-oriented magazines. Your article should be relevant to organization theories (OT), with three OT issues that you can analyze using the theories learned in your class.

Searching

 

TIP: Although I've listed some databases below, in my experience keyword searching for an article you can analyze isn't the most efficient approach for this sort of assignment.

In most cases, these popular magazines and newspapers won't use the specialised academic/theoretical terms, and using more general search terms like culture or strategy will probably get you far too many irrelevant articles. Consider browsing instead!

Key databases

 

  • Canadian Newsstream: Fulltext online of major Canadian newspapers such as the Vancouver Sun and the Globe & Mail.
  • PressReader: Major global newspapers, including many Canadian ones. Only provides the issues from the last 1-3 months, but has full-page images of each page, making it much easier to browse, rather than search.
  • CBCA Business: Key business magazines relevant to Canada.
  • Business Source Complete: Thousands of major business magazines and journals.

Browsing

TIP: Don't look for perfect articles that give you every detail you might need. Instead, try to find articles that at least touch on OT matters (even if they don't say so explicitly), then check to see which of your theories seem to apply.

Online magazine/journal issues

Business Source Complete covers a broad range of publications that might fit your needs. If you click on Publications at the top of the BSC screen, you can browse (the lower search box) for ones you know. Once you click on a magazine name (choose one that says it has full-text online up to the present), look on the right side of the screen for the years covered and pick the most recent year, then the most recent issue. You should now be able to browse through the articles in that issue.

 

The other databases listed above have similar options for browsing through issues. Look for links to publications or titles covered.

It's often easier to think of a specific publication and search by Journal Title in the SFU Library Catalogue, then follow the links to the most recent issues. See below for direct links to a few sample publications.

Print issues

TIP: Many of these publications are also available in print here in the library -- at least for the last few months. They'll be in the Current Journals and Newspapers area on the north side of the 6th floor of the Bennett (Burnaby) Library, shelved by the name of the magazine.

I know it can sound really old-fashioned, but flipping through a print copy may be your most efficient option as it would allow you to judge the length, depth, and relevance of articles very quickly.

A few examples of publications we provide in print format: 

  • Canadian Business [print]
  • Forbes [print]  
  • Fortune [print]
  • Bloomberg BusinessWeek [print]
  • Globe & Mail [print]
  • Harvard Business Review [print]

Getting help

You can get help from a reference librarian in person at our reference desks as well as via email, chat, and telephone. Try our Ask a Librarian services.

You may also email me: Mark Bodnar [mbodnar@sfu.ca]. Note that I sometimes need a few days to respond as I receive many email requests for help.