Assignment Brief (RQF)

Assignment Brief (RQF)-

Higher National Diploma in Business Management

Student Name/ID Number:

Unit Number and Title: Unit 12 – Organisational Behavior

Academic Year: 2019/2020

Unit Assessor: Soumitra Chowdhury

Assignment Title: A1 Organisational Cultures and Workforce Motivation

Issue Date: 6th September 2019

Submission Date: 14th November 2019

Internal Verifier Name:

Date:

Submission Format:
The submission is in the form of an individual written report. This should be written in a concise,
formal business style using single spacing and font size 12. You are required to make use of
headings, paragraphs and subsections as appropriate, and all work must be supported with
research and referenced using the Harvard referencing system. Please also provide a bibliography
using the Harvard referencing system. The recommended word limit is 2,000– 2,500 words,
although you will not be penalised for exceeding the total word limit.
Unit Learning Outcomes:
LO1 Analyse the influence of culture, politics and power on the behaviour of others in an
organisational context.
LO2 Evaluate how to motivate individuals and teams to achieve a goal.

Assignment Brief and Guidance:

Case Study: A melting pot for forging success
Paul Belche uses a culinary metaphor to explain how he tries to coax the best qualities from the
mix of cultures at the steel plant he runs in western Germany, close to the borders with France
and Luxembourg. ‘If you mix the yellow part of an egg with mustard and oil without being
careful, you will produce something unexciting. But, if you pay correct attention to the details,
you end up with the best mayonnaise,’ he says. He is explaining his approach to managing

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Assignment Brief (RQF)

Dillinger Hütte, a global leader in specialist steels for applications such as oil pipelines. Mr
Belche’s tactics for getting the best out of his employees provide wider lessons for managers of
diverse workforces.
The company aims to take advantage of the different cultural characteristics of Saarland – the
German state where it is based that, over the centuries, has switched between French and
German sovereignty. Of the 5,500 employees in Dillinger, about 10 per cent have French as their
main language, and the rest German. Mr Belche, a 56-year-old physicist, is from Luxembourg.
‘The Germans are strong when it comes to practical work. The French are good at theory and we
try to get the best of these two characteristics,’ he says. Mr Belche poses a question: ‘Who do
you think would be better at plant safety – the German [speakers] or the French? You might
think it would be the Germans. But actually it’s the French – they realise they are possibly
behind in this field and so they work at it. Sometimes weakness can be a strength – as long as it’s
recognised.’
His approach, he says, is to put teams of people from the different cultures together and
encourage them to learn from each other. The factory follows the French approach to dining,
with a siren announcing the end of the lunchtime break at 3pm, an hour later than is normal at
other German steelworks. ‘This is to give us time for a decent lunch,’ says Mr Belche. When it
comes to sales and technology, he says, the aim is to link the practical aspects of steelmaking
and its applications, which he considers more German, and the theoretical, which he considers
more French.
This mixing of the practical and theoretical must be linked to a single aim: making good
products that will do a better job of solving customers’ problems, Mr Belche says.
He sums up his philosophy: ‘The biggest costs are the ones that the accountant will miss. They
come from the products that you never developed or the prices [of specific types of steel] that
you never reached because you weren’t good enough at selling them.’ In the tough business of
making money out of steelmaking, it helps if companies can offer something special. In the
effort to make this happen, the mix of cultures at Dillinger provides a soufflé of experiences, Mr
Belche believes, that gives it a decent chance of success even in the current uncertain climate.

Source: Marsh, P. ‘A Melting Pot for Forging Success’, Financial Times, 8 March 2009. Copyright © 2009 The Financial Times
Limited.

Mr. Paul Belche has just hired your Group as Organizational Behaviour experts to advise him on
the followings:
Tasks 1
Prepare about 25 – 30 presentation slides with accompanying notes for Mr. Belche addressing the
influence of culture, politics and power on the behaviour of others in the above organisational
context

Task 2
Provide a brief report for Mr. Belche on how to motivate individuals and teams to achieve a
goal.

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Assignment Brief (RQF)

PRESENTATION
1. The assignment should have a cover page that includes the assignment title, assignment
number, course title, module title, Lecturer/tutor name and student’s name. Attach all the
pages of assignment brief/achievement summary with your report and leave them blank for
official use.

2. Ensure that authenticity declaration has been signed.

3. This is a Group assignment.

4. Content sheet with a list of all headings and page numbers.

5. A fully typed up professionally presented report document. Use 12 point Arial or Times New
Roman script.

6. Your assignment (notes in Task 1, and report on Task 2) should be word-processed and should
not exceed from 2,000 to 2,500 words in length.

7. Use the Harvard referencing system.

8. Exhibits/appendices are outside this limit.

9. The assignment should contain a list of any references used in the report.

NOTES TO STUDENTS FOR SUMMISSION

• Check carefully the submission date and the instructions given with the assignment. Late
assignments will not be accepted.
• Ensure that you give yourself enough time to complete the assignment by the due date.
• Do not leave things such as printing to the last minute – excuses of this nature will not be
accepted for failure to hand-in the work on time.
• You must take responsibility for managing your own time effectively.
• If you are unable to hand in your assignment on time and have valid reasons such as illness,
you may apply (in writing) for an extension.
• Failure to achieve a PASS grade will results in a REFERRAL grade being given.
• Take great care that if you use other people’s work or ideas in your assignment, you properly
reference them in your text and any bibliography.
• NOTE: If you are caught plagiarizing, the University policies and procedures will apply.

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Assignment Brief (RQF)

Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria

PASS MERIT DISTINCTION

LO1 Analyse the influence of culture, politics and power on the behaviour of others in an organisational
context.
P1 Analyse how an M1 Critically analyse how the LO1 & 2 D1 Critically evaluate
organisation’s culture, politics culture, politics and power of an the relationship between culture,
and power can influence organisation can influence politics, power and motivation that
individual and team behaviour individual and team behaviour and enables teams and organisations to
and performance. performance. succeed, providing justified
recommendations.
LO2 Evaluate how to motivate individuals and teams to achieve a goal.

P2 Evaluate how content and
process theories of motivation,
and motivational techniques,
enable effective achievement of
goals in an organisational
context.
M2 Critically evaluate how to
influence the behaviour of others
through the effective application
of behavioural motivational
theories, concepts and models.
LO1 & 2 D1 Critically evaluate
the relationship between culture,
politics, power and motivation that
enables teams and organisations to
succeed, providing justified
recommendations.

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Assignment Brief (RQF)

STUDENT ASSESSMENT SUBMISSION AND DECLARATION

When submitting evidence for assessment, each student must sign a declaration confirming that the
work is their own.

Student name: Assessor name:

Soumitra Chowdhury

Issue date: Submission date: 14th Submitted on:

November 2019
6th September 2019

Programme:
Pearson BTEC Higher National Diploma in Business

Unit 12 Organisational Behaviour

Assignment number and title:

A1: Organisational Cultures and Workforce Motivation
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is a particular form of cheating. Plagiarism must be avoided at all costs and students who
break the rules, however innocently, may be penalised. It is your responsibility to ensure that you
understand correct referencing practices. As a university level student, you are expected to use
appropriate references throughout and keep carefully detailed notes of all your sources of materials
for material you have used in your work, including any material downloaded from the Internet.
Please consult the relevant unit lecturer or your course tutor if you need any further advice.

Student Declaration

Student declaration

I certify that the assignment submission is entirely my own work and I fully understand the
consequences of plagiarism. I understand that making a false declaration is a form of malpractice.

Student signature: Date:

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 Assignment Brief (RQF)

Achievement Summary
Achieved? (Tick)

Assessm In this assessment, you will have the

Learning
Learning outcome ent opportunity to present evidence that
Outcome
Criteria shows you are able to: First IV
Rework
Attempt Check

P1 Analyse how an organisation’s

culture, politics and power can
P1
Analyse the influence individual and team
influence of behaviour and performance.
culture, politics
and power on the
behaviour of
others in an
organisational M1 Critically analyse how the
context. culture, politics and power of an
M1
organisation can influence individual
and team behaviour and performance.
LO1

P2 Evaluate how content and process

theories of motivation, and
P2 motivational techniques, enable
effective achievement of goals in an
Evaluate how to organisational context.
motivate
LO2 individuals and
teams to achieve
a goal. Critically evaluate how to influence
the behaviour of others through the
M2 effective application of behavioural
motivational theories, concepts and
models.

Critically evaluate the relationship

between culture, politics, power and
LO1 & LO2 D1 motivation that enables teams and
organisations to succeed, providing
justified recommendations.

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Assignment Brief (RQF)