Assignment 1 Questions: The goal of the assignment is to craft a theory and to explain why this theory is important.

In doing this assignment, please ignore any existing data or theories that are relevant to your problem (if they exist) so that you can craft theory from scratch. 1. Describe in a paragraph or so an organizational problem that interests you. By problem, I mean an interrogative statement about a relation between two or more variables. This problem may be one that you are already studying in your research or a new problem that interests you. 2. Identify the factors (the whats) that you believe should be considered when explaining the answer to the problem. Remember to balance comprehensiveness the list of factors should include all of the factors that are necessary to adequately explain the answer and parsimony the list of factors should exclude factors that are not truly necessary. Put the factors in a diagram (without any links between them for now). 3. Indicate how these factors are related (the hows) identify the causal arrows that are necessary to explain the answer to the problem. 4. Articulate the mechanisms (the whys) by which each of the causal effects that you identified in question 3 operates. Consistent with the papers by Whetten and Sutton and Staw, use logical arguments as opposed to references or data to describe the mechanisms. 5. Present two propositions from the theory that you have developed. 6. Using Daviss index of the interesting, explain why these two propositions are interesting (i.e., what assumptions do they deny?). 7. Identify some of the boundaries (if any) of your theory. In particular: a. Set any necessary boundaries around time: Do your propositions apply all the time or only at certain moments? b. Set any necessary boundaries around the actors: Do your propositions apply to all organizational members or only to certain organizational members? c. Set any necessary boundaries around the organization: Do your propositions apply to all organizations or only to certain organizations?