This course project is designed to broaden your exposure to critical leadership paradigms through independent research.

A literature review is an opportunity for you, as the researcher, to explore and draw upon research that exists related to your research topic. It allows you to summarize key findings, building an argument for why your research topic is important and relevant to our study of leadership. This is the goal of your literature review.

Specific benefits of writing a literature review include:

• Learning a lot about your research topic
• Identifying why your research topic is relevant to the study of leadership
• Seeing how other researchers have studied the topic and what research designs/methodologies may be useful
• Comparing and contrasting different points of view

To begin your literature review, you will need to spend some time at the Lewis University library. This can be accomplished in person (if you live locally) or via the internet (go to the Lewis University home page and then click the link to Academics). Either way, if you struggle to find the books, journals, or online databases you need, please contact a reference librarian. In fact, working with a reference librarian (at least once) is highly recommended.

In terms of expectations, the literature review for this assignment should:

• Be approximately 5-7 pages in length (excluding the title page and reference page)
• Cite approximately 4-6 sources from professional, peer-reviewed journals
• Cite your course textbooks, as appropriate for your topic

In terms of the structure of the paper:

• Begin by introducing/defining the topic
• Summarize and analyze current research related to the topic
• Why is this topic relevant to the study of leadership?
• How may this leadership approach be applied or used in organizations?
• What are the positive outcomes/benefits of using this leadership approach?
• Draw conclusions about the findings in the literature
• Is there agreement on how/why this leadership approach is valuable?
• Do researchers agree on its positive impact?
• Are there any downfalls or criticisms of this leadership approach?
• Synthesize and organize relevant research findings in a meaningful way
• Describe trends and themes in the research
• Show how research on the topic has changed over time
• Compare/contrast different points of view on the topic
• Provide examples of leaders and/or organizations that use this approach to leadership
• Use subheadings so the reader can easily follow your review
• Use APA format (title page, reference page, properly formatted citations, double spacing, etc.)
• See Week 4 for an exemplary Literature Review posted in class

To successfully complete this project, you will:

1. Creativity and Leadership
2. In Week 1 (as one of your Week 1 assignments), identify which topic is your:

• First Choice: Creativity and Leadership

1. By Week 4, prepare a literature review (due in Week 4) on the topic assigned to you, utilizing academic journals, online databases, books, etc. Be sure to cite relevant research in your literature review and include a reference page at the end of your paper.

Requirements for this written assignment:

• The length of this assignment should be 5-7 pages (excluding the title and reference page)
• This assignment is due in Week 4
• APA formatting is required for this assignment
• Course text(s), lecture notes, and other course material/readings should be cited in all written assignments
• Assignment file must have a .doc or .docx extension; presentations should use PowerPoint
• 4-6 outside sources (journal/research articles, books, etc.) should be used for this assignment
• Points for this assignment = 100