Phase 3 Assignment Brief

Phase 3 Assignment Brief

Essay

This assignment is an extended individual essay which allows you to build your critical thinking skills and enhance your understanding of how organisations work. Critical thinking is fundamental to your success while at university and is a skill much valued by employers.

You have written short pieces of academic work so far – some case study analyses and short essays. This more extended piece of work requires you to explore several aspects of a question and to develop your own ideas on the foundation of some extensive reading.

This essay makes up 55% of your grades in Phase 3 and is the largest individual assignment on the Core Programme.

Learning Objectives

This task will help you:

• To recognise the concept of the business organisation operating within the parameters of a changing external environment.
• To demonstrate an awareness of current issues, facts and events in the national and international business world
• To identify some key behavioural factors and explain their relevance to understanding organisations and people working in them
• To write an academic essay with appropriate referencing
• To manage your time to meet deadlines and obligations including those to other members of your group

The Task

You submit a 3,000 word essay on the topic:

"Approaches to management, as embodied in The Human Relations and Scientific Management schools of thought, were only relevant to management in the early 20th century, when they first hit the headlines, and have no relevance to management in the early 21st century."

Discuss using appropriate, referenced theory and real-world examples to support your argument.

The Process

In the first two weeks of Phase 3 you have in-class activities to help you understand the different approaches named in the essay question. These will include a case study, a short video and support from the LRC team.

You also have lectures on the topics.

You then have a different style of class in Week 3 or 4. Each group is allocated a 50 minute tutorial session in one of the pod sessions with your pod staff.

For this session you mustprepare an outline of what you intend to say in your essay. Your staff will choose two or three individuals to go through this outline with the group This should take a maximum of five minutes for each one. The rest of the tutorial will be spent discussing the topic. Everyone is expected to contribute to the discussion.

25% of your grade for the essay task will be made up of a grade for your contribution in the tutorial.

Using the input from the tutorial discussion and the feedback from your tutor in that session, you can adjust what you want to say and write the essay.

The final pod of the phase in Week 5 moves on to other things and you all submit by 4.00pm onFriday March 2nd.

Reading List

University of Bedfordshire Level 1 Core Programme Textbook Volume 1, Week 2 Scientific Management and Human Resources chapter. This is Chapter 2 from Laurie J Mullins Management and Organisational Behaviour Edn 8

Locke, E A “The Ideas of Frederick W. Taylor: An Evaluation”, Academy of Management Review vol 7 no 1, January 1982 pp12-24

Pugh, D S, Hickson,,D J, and Hinings, C R, from Writers on Organizations Penguin Edn 2 1974Extracts on Elton Mayo and F W Taylor provided for you.

Morgan, Gareth Images of Organization Sage Publications 2nd Ed,1996 Introduction and Chapter 1 provided for you.

In addition, the LRC has a wide selection of HR textbooks. These cover similar territory so we suggest you use one of the following in addition to our Core Programme textbook. There will be various editions. Choose the most up to date you can find but any edition in the LRC will be fine for this purpose. Use the relevant chapter.

Aamodt, Michael G, Human Relations in Business Wadsworth

Jones, Gareth R, George, Jennifer M, and Hill, Charles W L, Contemporary Management McGraw-Hill

Rollinson, Derek, Broadfield, Aysen and Edwards, David J Organisational Behaviour and Analysis Addison-Wesley

McKenna, Eugene Business Psychology & Organisational Behaviour A Student’s Handbook LEA

Buelens, Marc, Kreitner, Robert and Kinicki, Angelo Organizational Behaviour McGraw-Hill

Bloisi, Wendy, Cook, Curtis W and Hunsaker, Phillip L Management and Organisational Behaviour McGraw-Hill

Buchanan, David and Huczunski, AndrzejOrganizational Behaviour An Introductory Text

George, Jennifer and Jones, Gareth Understanding and Managing Organizational Behavior Pearson Prentice Hall

Gold and Silver Grades

You can choose how much you want to do and how much you want to achieve on this task.

You can get a gold grade (up to A+) if you use good quality additional sourcematerial that provides more theoretical input for your work. This may be books or additional academic journals which are likely to come from Business Source Premier on the LRC website. The input from LRC staff in Week 2 will provide help in finding additional material.

You can gain a silver grade (up to B-) if your work relies wholly or almost entirely on the reading list provided. This also applies if the additional material you use comes primarily from internet sources such as company websites, Wikipedia and other education sites.

Note that the use of additional material does not guarantee a higher grade. If you use a wider range of sources and still produce a weak or poorly referenced essay, you can still get below a B- grade.

Gold and silver grades apply to the essay submission only and not to the tutorials. A full range of grades is available to everyone for their tutorial contributions.

What are we Looking for?

In the tutorials we are looking for students to be able to present a coherent and well-supported argument for the point of view they are taking in their essay. We expect all students to be able to contribute arguments and justifications for a point of view in the course of the tutorial.

Do not worry if you are not asked to present your outline as staff will allow for this and make sure you have other opportunities to contribute during the session.

For the essay itself there are four foundations for success:

• A good understanding of scientific management and human relations management
• The ability to relate the theory to appropriate examples
• The ability to analyse the theories and present a well-supported point of view about the different approaches to understanding organisations
• Accurate referencing

Understanding the Theory

You need to absorb the various readings on the theories and be able to express them clearly in your own words, logically and accurately.

Relating the Theory to Examples

The question asks you about the application of the theories to the modern world so examples of how the two approaches relate to modern companies are important. This also helps to show that you really understand the theory and can see the relevance to modern business.

Analysis and a Well-Supported Point of View

This is the most important step to take to move from an OK grade to a good grade. The first element of this is to have a point of view. What is your view of the two different approaches? How do you think they apply in the modern world?

The second element is to support your view with evidence. The evidence comes from your consideration of the theory you read about and the application of it to real examples. Note that we are looking for evidence from your reading not from your personal experience.

The third element comes from how you build this material in a logical way. Move step by step building a coherent, logical path through the topic to build to a conclusion.

Accurate Referencing

As well as a required element in producing good academic work, referencing is a way of showing the quality of your reading. Make sure you have a reference in your text for the source of all your theory and your examples as well as a list of your references at the end.

Resources

As well as the initial reading list and the support in the Phase 3 process outlined above the following are available to help you:

• BREO Learning Units on each of the four elements highlighted as the foundations for success. A range of material previously on BREO (eg on Referencing) brought together for this phase as well as new material. Lecture notes will be posted here.
• A copy of Alistair Bonnett’sHow to Argue is included in your textbook pack specifically for this assignment. Careful use of this book will definitely increase your grade.
• Feedback on case studies, reflections and other essay-type assignments. Note particularly any comments on being descriptive rather than analytical and look at the Analysis learning unit if you want to improve this area.

Submission

25% of the marks for the essay are awarded for your contribution to the tutorial session of your group. Note that if you miss the tutorial without SID exemption, you lose the 25% altogether.

Submit your essay through the Assignments folder of your cohort BREO site by 4.30pm on Friday 2nd March. You should also submit a printed copy of your assignment at the Student Centre, also by Friday 2nd March.

Note that if you fail to submit by that date, the Student Centre staff will mark your assignment “Late” and the maximum grade you can achieve (unless you have SID permission) is D-.

Assignment 3.3