Managing Organizations Individual Components Assignment 3

Please note that Teamwork is a key learning outcome of the unit and assignment 3 has been specifically designed for this purpose. It is therefore not possible to replace this group assignment with an individual task. 

It is important that students are available and willing to work on the assignment throughout weeks 8-12 of the session.

There is both a Group and Individual component to this assignment. Full details of both components are provided below.

Group Component

Groups will consist of 3-4 members and students can choose whomever they wish to work with on the assignment. If no preference is advised by the end of week 6, the UA will assign students to a particular group. Group compositions will be announced at the end of week 7. On-campus students will generally be grouped with other students from the same tutorial class, while External students will be grouped with other External students.

Group Task

Each group will firstly select one of the following key issues that managers of organisations often strive to develop or contend with: 

1. Organisational Commitment
2. Employee Satisfaction
3. Deviant workplace behaviour

Groups are to then prepare a report (max 1500 words) which describes and explains:

1. The selected management issue and its role in organisational performance.
2. How the Human Relations or Open Systems model of the CVF might be used to effectively address the selected issue.
3. The limitations and/or risks that should be considered when undertaking the particular management approach (i.e. the HR or OS model) to address the selected issue.  

This report will be prepared as a word document (.docx) and submitted by one group member prior to the due date. The report will be assessed according to the 'Group Component' marking criteria (available in the Assignment 3 file on BB) with each student in the group receiving the same common mark. 

Due: by 11:59pm on Wednesday 25th January, 2017 (Week 12 of the session).  

Submit: The group report is to be

 submitted via 'Turn-it-in'. This link, which can be accessed from the Assignment 3 file in BB, is active from week 10. Groups can submit their report and check the similarity result any time leading up to the due date. The file you submit should be labelled: Group 'name'.docx. For example – Group A.docx

Marks: 35 marks in total (which is 35% of the unit) 

Report Format

The single 'group report' document submitted for this component of the assignment is to contain the following elements and formatting features:

1. Assignment 'Coversheet' with group member names and their respective student ID number (document is available in the Assignment 3 file on Blackboard).
2. Coverpage identifying the assignment title, names & ID numbers of each student in the group and the report word count (identify both the Executive Summary and Report word count).
3. A brief Executive Summary (max of 200 words)
4. Table of Contents page
5. Report content (maximum of 1500 words). To determine the word count the marker will simply highlight all text from the first word in the first heading, to the last word prior to the Reference List. The Word software program will identify how many words are in this area. Headings and in-text reference details are therefore included in the word count total. 
6. Reference list. Follow the Library's Harvard Referencing style guide.

Report content 

Groups can adopt any structure they like for the report content (i.e. use of multiple sub-sections). While your analysis and writing skills are critically important, do not overlook the need for a report that is well-presented. 

Groups will find the maximum word limit to be a key challenge of this assignment. The objective is to be very succinct with your writing and focus on providing information that is directly relevant to your discussion. Note that 1500 words IS the maximum limit. Reports with more than 1500 words will be returned to the group for editing.

References 

Both in-text and reference list skills must be demonstrated. The report is to include a minimum of six (6) distinct references from academic journal articles. You may cite your textbook and reference sources identified in it but they do not contribute towards the reference count. Tip: groups should avoid 'planting' superfluous references in their report.

Quoting is not permitted. Paraphrase the information you obtain from your various sources to support your own logic and rationale.

Formatting Style 

Adopt the following features for the report:

• Apply page numbers. The coversheet and coverpage are unnumbered, the Executive Summary is page i and the Table of Contents is page ii. Page 1 is the first page after the ToC. Use the 'page numbering' and 'Table of Contents' formatting functions available in word for their respective purposes. 
• Font style: Times New Roman, 12pt, justified, 1½ line spacing. 
• Margins – top/bottom to be 2.54cm. Left/right to be 2.54cm. No page borders.
• Spelling – if using a Microsoft package, specify Australian English language/grammar when running your spell-check. 

Individual Component

Individual students are to undertake and submit a review of their Group's performance. The 'Performance Review' report (max 500 words) will identify and analyse the key factors (good and/or bad) that contributed to the group's performance (process and outcome). The report will be assessed according to the 'Individual Component' marking criteria (available in the Asmt 3 file).

Tip: students should avoid simply 'describing' their experience. Rather, the focus should be on analysing the reasons 'why' positive and/or negative behaviours contributed to the group outcome.

Submit: The report is to be submitted via 'Turn-it-in'. This link, which can be accessed from the Assignment 3 file in BB, is active from week 10. Students can submit their report and check the similarity result any time leading up to the due date. The file you submit should be labelled:

Surnameý initial, student code, MNG10247, asmt 3 IC

For example – Gillett, P, 012345, MNG10247, asmt 3 IC

Marks: 15 marks in total (which is 15% of the unit)

Report Format

The single document submitted for this component of the assignment is to contain the following elements and formatting features:

1. Assignment 'Coversheet' with all details completed (document is available in the Assignment 3 file on Blackboard).
2. Performance Review report (max 500 words). Use the title 'Performance Review' as your heading.
3. Reference list. Follow the Library's Harvard Referencing style guide.

References

Both in-text and reference list skills must be demonstrated. The report is to include a minimum of two (2) distinct references from academic journal articles. You may cite your textbook and reference sources identified in it but they do not contribute towards the reference count. Tip: avoid 'planting' superfluous references in their report.

Quoting is not permitted. Paraphrase the information you obtain from your various sources to support your own logic and rationale.

Formatting Style 

Adopt the following features for the report:

• Apply page numbers. The coversheet is unnumbered. 
• Font style: Times New Roman, 12pt, justified, 1½ line spacing. 
• Margins – top/bottom to be 2.54cm. Left/right to be 2.54cm. No page borders.
• Spelling – if using a Microsoft package, specify Australian English language/grammar when running your spell-check.

Every group member is accountable for their own knowledge and learning. However, the key purpose of the group activity is to assist each other to gain knowledge and bring out better outcomes in the activities. The group performance depends on various factors (Nijstad, 2009). These factors impact the process as well as the outcome of the activities. Our group studied and prepared the report on the topic, 'The report of Employee Satisfaction's Evaluation and Solution Based on Human Relation Model'. There are various positive and negative factors that contributed in performing or preparing the report. This report is the performance review of the group, which will identify and analyse various factors that contributed to the preparation of the report ( Harvard Business Review, 2015).

Innovation: The group faced unexpected challenges. One of the biggest challenges was to understand the Human relations model. However, the group members were very resourceful in exploring the topic, understanding and comprehending well in each of their parts. Each member established good innovative methods such as group interactions, evaluation method, which includes getting feedback from team members for their work. The group displayed imagination and original thinking for their work. They contributed with suggestions to each other’s work to improve their group work.

Problem Solving: Each of the group members genuinely researched all the information on the topic of employee satisfaction and tried to develop the best possible report. However, few group members faced problems in understanding certain concepts such as aspects of human relations model. As it was not their part of work in the report, these group members were little reluctant in taking the initiative and learning. Hence, the participation and initiative in learning and problem-solving circumstances in some of the group members were lacking.

Teamwork: For any group task, it is essential for the group members to perform in a team. This helps in completing the task on time and produce efficient work (Nijstad, 2009). From dividing and assigning each part to the group members till the consolidation of the final report, there was excellent teamwork in the group that helped the team to prepare a report on this topic at ease. Further, at the end of the report, we followed the team analysis theory by analysing the work done by other team members and provided suggestions (Nijstad, 2009). This helped us to analyse and improve whatever went wrong.