Organizational Leadership

An outline lists the parts of your paper—the issues or topics you’ll be covering and/or the points you’d like to make--and the order in which you plan to cover them.  Perhaps most importantly, it provides a structure that is likely to be helpful when you’re actually writing the paper.

If you’re knowledgeable about the paper topic or if the assignment is very clearly defined, you may want to develop an outline before you search for scholarly literature.  In many cases, however, the outline topics and subtopics will emerge during the process of reviewing the scholarly works you’ve found.

The Taking Notes on Published Works section of this Research Guide describes three aspects of note-taking:

• Creating notes (extracting the most relevant information) from each published work
• Identifying or developing topics (headings) appropriate for your paper
• Placing each note into/under the most appropriate topic (heading).

The order of the three steps will vary based on your note-taking method, but you may want to start developing an outline when you’ve begun to identify the topics (headings) that will be included in your notes.

Your outline is likely to change during the course of your work.  Don’t think of it as something set in stone, but simply as a guide that emerges or develops over the course of the project.  For example, you may end up adding or deleting sections based on the amount of information you find for each subtopic, or when you decide that a particular subtopic is more or less important than you originally thought it would be.

The only real requirement for making good use of an outline is that you have one ready before you start writing.  If you have an outline and good notes, the writing process is much easier; instead of facing a blank page and writing “from scratch,” you can simply convert or “translate” your notes into regular text, and your outline will tell you exactly what to write first, what to write second, etc.

The level of detail and the number of topics/subtopics in your outline will vary based on your topic and on your personal preferences.  This example, for a relatively long and complex paper, simply illustrates one possibility.

THE IMPACT OF GEOGRAPHICAL MOBILITY ON PROFESSIONAL WORKERS AND THEIR EMPLOYERS

Introduction.

• Extent of geographical mobility (change in location of residence) among professional workers.
  • How common in the U.S.?  (Limit to recent years' data.  Compare to the situation in other high-income countries?)
• Introduce my topic and the scope of what I'll be covering.
  • Clarify the distinction between “changing jobs and moving” and “changing jobs without changing location.”  The effects of geographical mobility should be considered seprately from the effects of job-switching itself.

Individual characteristics that are associated with higher or lower geographical mobility among professional workers.  (This is additional contextual information—not the main part of the paper.  Include it in the Introduction, or as a separate section?)

• Demographic and socioeconomic characteristics.  Briefly summarize research on the importance of age, gender, marital status, presence (and age) of children in the household, and current socioeconomic status.  (Have researchers considered childhood socioeconomic status and early-life mobility?  It seems like those would be important, too.)
• Psychological characteristics.
  • Self-confidence.
  • Predilection for risk-taking or avoidance of risk.
  • Other factors?
• Occupation or occupational type.  Talk about broad categories rather than specific occupations, if possible.
• Job market (good or bad?).  Consider either employment growth or number of jobs relative to number of job seekers.

Consequences of geographical mobility (or non-mobility) for professional workers.  (This is the first major section of the paper.)

• How closely is geographical mobility related to job switching?
• How closely is geographical mobility related to career switching?
• Impact of mobility on earnings.
  • General findings.
  • Does this impact vary by career stage—early career versus later?
  • Does it vary by gender, marital status, children in household, or other personal characteristics?
  • By profession or field?  Focus on broad differences—those that hold for all I.T. workers, all healthcare workers, etc., rather than those that are specific to to systems analysts or pharmacists.
  • By job market (e.g., high-growth fields vs. low-growth fields)?
• Impact of mobility on professional advancement (chance of getting a higher-level position within the same field).
  • General findings.
  • Does this impact vary by career stage—early career versus later?
  • By it vary by gender, marital status, children in household, or other personal characteristics?
  • By profession or field?  Focus on broad differences—those that hold for all I.T. workers, all healthcare workers, etc., rather than those that are specific to to systems analysts or pharmacists.
  • By job market (e.g., high-growth fields vs. low-growth fields)?
• Are these trends likely to continue into the future?
  • [Add subtopics here based on what further information I find.]
• In the future, will geographical mobility be more or less important for occupational advancement?
  • Will the relationship vary based on any of the characteristics mentioned above?
  • [Add subtopics here based on what further information I find.]

Implications of geographical mobility for professional workers and their employers.  (This is the second major section of the paper.  It will incorporate previous research, but there's probably more scope for my own opinions and interpretations here than in the previous section.)

• Is this situation good or bad for companies?
  • Does a higher rate of geographical mobility correspond to a higher rate of turnover for individual companies, or to the same rate of turnover but with job applicants from a wider range of places?
    • If higher rate of turnover, what are the implications?
      • [Add subtopics here.]
  • Greater competition for the most qualified people, wherever they might be.
    • Greater benefit for the employers that are already best able to attract workers.
    • Greater benefit for the employers in areas with the most attractive amenities (climate, K-12 education, economic growth, cultural opportunities, etc.).
    • Impact on employers who are not in a favorable position, especially if those employers are concentrated in particular industries or particular geographic areas.
  • Possibility that each workplace will end up with two kinds of workers—top employees who came from elsewhere plus other employees who have remained in place?
    • Is it likely that this will actually occur?
  • Related: Possible impact on the relationship between workplace seniority and salary—a reduction in the increases that come with greater longevity at a particular company?
    • Would this increase the importance of factors related to merit?
• Is this situation good or bad for professional workers?
  • Impact on earnings and career mobility.
  • Impact on family structure.
    • Special implications for two-earner households who face constraints on their ability to move.
  • Greater divide between mobile workers and less mobile workers?  Consider the points raised in the previous section, but from the standpoint of individual workers.
  • Impact on children in families with higher geographical mobility.  (Is there enough information about this topic to include it?  There may be research on psychological/development implications, educational implications, and the impact of exposure to diverse regional cultures, for instance.)

Conclusion.  (Should the Conclusion include some of my Discussion points?  Check with the professor about what is expected.)