Evidence Based Management

Topics for the CAT assessment

Please choose one of the following topics on which to write your Critically Appraised Topic report.

Topic 1

The CEO of a relatively small Australian company that has achieved success in the retail sector faces a tough decision. The company is relatively young, having been established merely 5 years ago, and runs a chain of health food stores. The top management team of the company feels that the success of the company should be used to grow the company more. The path to growth identified by the top management involves a great deal of diversification into other industries and sectors. For the CEO, the decision is intimidating. She is not entirely certain if diversification would be a good path to growth for her company. In particular, she is not sure what successful diversification would involve and whether her firm can create the conditions necessary for diversification to work.

You are a consultant who has been asked by the CEO to prepare a Critically Appraised Topic (CAT) report that would present the best available scientific evidence on the subject in order to help her make the best possible decision in this context.

Topic 2

The Vice-Chancellor of a large University in Australia has hired you as a consultant to investigate a problem and has provided you below with organisational data dated June 30 2015 for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) faculties. The data suggest that women are under-represented at higher levels of faculty positions in the STEM departments. This is a broader problem afflicting a number of universities. The Vice-Chancellor and the top management of the university are interested in finding out the origins of the problem so that a solution can be found.

You have been asked to prepare a Critically Appraised Topic (CAT) report that would present the best available scientific evidence on the subject in order to help the university understand the problem better.