Proper citation of sources is an imprescriptible part of writing an academic paper of high quality. Scholarly articles used in an essay should be reliable, peer-reviewed, and up to date. Besides, using sources and correctly citing them is about ethics and respect for the efforts of the writers. The current paper comprises instructions that explain how to use citations on the example of changes in business administration caused by the application of artificial intelligence (AI).
Before discussing the role of citations in creating an academic paper, it is necessary to introduce the chosen topic, which will be used as a ground for further consideration. Technologies force companies to change the organizational structure and managerial techniques so that the enterprises would be able to “keep up with their competitors” and enhance business performance (Miller & Proctor, 2016, p. 7). Such technology as AI is used to analyze data and make predictions on this information (Davenport & Ronanki, 2018). Besides, AI could be used to communicate with the customers, process, and store their data.
Therefore, with the application of AI management and the functioning of a company becomes more efficient. Managers from 250 companies believe that in three years, recent technologies will profoundly change the ways of doing business (Davenport & Ronanki, 2018). However, the issue of AI is somewhat contradictory because it is new and still requires further development. Consequently, on the one hand, AI is an immensely appealing and perspective method that could be used in business administration. On the other hand, some business projects require a higher elaboration of AI technologies to succeed.
Another contradictory issue deals with the question of unemployment. According to Harvard Professional Development (2019), some new jobs will undoubtedly appear, whereas AI automation will soon replace a lot of jobs. People will lose their jobs from ordinary factory workers who perform manual tasks, call-center operators, and consultants in a store to accountants and receptionists. Thus, this case presents the following dilemma: it is more profitable for a company not to hire people but, simultaneously, people should work to earn money to feed themselves. Also, Visser (2018) argues that in every company, there are people who possess hidden talents and who have the potential to become an innovator or leader. Undoubtedly, a company could benefit from indicating such employees and helping them because, in the future, they could move a business forward. AI minimizes chances for the success of such people as most of them will be dismissed and substituted by machines and computer programs.
After outlining the most critical points of applying AI technologies in business administration, I would like to move to the issue of citing the sources. First of all, it should be noted that it is impossible to figure out controversial aspects and existing problems without analyzing academic articles and researches. Apparently, one could write a paper based on his or her own experience. Nevertheless, scholars’ documents provide the writer with more information that was checked by reviewers and could be trusted. The paragraphs above could not be written without citing the articles because they justify that the outlined problems do exist. Additionally, the usage of the mentioned articles gives reliability to the paper since they make a reader understand that the author did not coin the information in an essay or an article.
The authors’ names should be indicated even if a writer does not use direct quotations and rephrases the article. This is done to adhere to professional honesty and respect for the authors of the cited works. The correctly arranged citations imply that an author gives credits to the diligence of another scholar and admits his input in the researched question. The writer is highly advised to paraphrase the fundamental ideas of other creators that he or she wants to use in the paper. The example of how to do it could be found in the second, third, and fourth paragraphs of the current essay. More precisely, the article by Davenport and Ronanki (2018), published in a monthly popular science magazine “Harvard Business Review”, contains a lot of information on AI. However, the current paper includes only the main points on the application of this technology in business administration.
An example of a direct in-text citation could be found in the second paragraph. Miller and Proctor (2016) mentioned numerous reasons why a company needs to change over time. As the author of the writing, I particularly appreciated the phrasing of one of the causes, and the phrase was quoted. Needless to say, the sentence could be rephrased and be written without the excerpt. Nevertheless, it seems that this quotation suits the essay perfectly, and that is why it was used. What is more, when an author introduces quotes, it is essential to put a page number, so that a reader could check and find more information on the issue.
In conclusion, it should be noted that all the cited sources are either articles in reputable scientific journals and magazines or books. Citing information helps to escape plagiarism in the paper and indicates that the author is honest and admits his colleagues work results. What is more, it is essential to use relevant sources that were written in recent years. It would be inappropriate to cite works of 2000-2010 dedicated to AI because that is a fast-developing technology, and ten or twenty years ago, people had another attitude to it.
References
Davenport, T. H. & Ronanki, R. (2018). Artificial intelligence for the real world.
Harvard Professional Development (2019). Business applications for artificial intelligence: An update for 2020.
Miller, D., & Proctor, A. (2016). Enterprise change management: How to prepare your organization for continuous change. Kogan Page Publishers.
Visser, A. (2018). How to unlock hidden talent-part 2: On the money-management. Finweek, 2018(4), 44-45.