BUSI1702 Organisational Decision Making

Assessment 2021-22

First sit Deadline or Weighting Maximum Marking Learning

assessments exam period out of length type outcomes
100%* mapped to
this
assessment.
Management 17th December 100% 3,000 words Stepped 12345
report 2021 (excluding and
11.30pm reference numerical
list)
*The weighting refers to the proportion of the overall module result that each assessment task
accounts for.

Assessment requirement

Management report
You are required to write a 3000-word management report to review decisions and make
recommendations for future decisions and actions in ONE of the following live business case
studies.

Word count: 3000 words

A submission with word count – or + 10% of 3,000 is acceptable; submissions without
meeting the minimum or the maximum word count would be penalised)

Live Case Study Option A

WeWork is an American commercial real estate company that offers workspace rental service
to individuals and organisations. The company reported a loss of $2.1b in the first quarter of
2021 due to losing 200,000 customers amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the restructuring
costs that includes scaling back from unprofitable locations and paying a settlement the co-
founder Adam Neumann (Hammond, 2021). The company has made strategic decisions to
reduce its global expansion and costs since Sandeep Mathrani replaced Adam Neumann as
the new Chief Executive Officer.

You are expected to step into the role of the General Manager for WeWork UK, Ireland, and
Emerging Markets to produce a report for the executive team and the investors. The
executives and investors are concerned with the financial losses, the history of problematic
decisions, and the negative coverage of the company in the media.

You are tasked with (1) evaluating the strategic decisions your company recently made (1a)
to restructure the organisation that involved making staff redundant (Nast, 2020), and (1b) to
attract and retain customers, including expanding the membership benefits, focusing on city
centres, and developing a new ‘Growth Campus’ initiative that targets UK university students
and Small Medium Enterprise employees (Thomas, 2021).

Your report should (2) review evidence relevant to these decisions with a focus on (2a) the
external, organisational, managerial, and behavioural factors that influenced these decisions
and (2b) the impact of these decisions on different stakeholders.

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You are required to (3) recommend future actions to improve the business performance,
decision making, and publicity in the operational environment of the UK and/or Ireland.

References
Hammond, G. (2021) WeWork loses $2.1bn and sheds members as lockdowns bite, Financial Times, 20 May.
Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/60ea2f72-586f-4f3e-b153-3455b93539b8 (Accessed: 9 June 2021).

Nast, C. (2021) WeWork triggers second wave of mass layoffs in the UK, Wired UK, Available at:
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/wework-redundancies-uk-restructure (Accessed: 30 July 2021).

Thomas, D. (2021) WeWork offers UK tenants greater flexibility to tempt them back, Financial Times, 15
February. Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/d540a330-d64c-4ae7-bd03-6e6ec0ad651b (Accessed: 12
March 2021).

Live Case Study Option B

Asda is one of the largest supermarket chains in the UK by market shares. The company was
previously owned by Walmart but recently acquired by EG Group and TDR Capital. Asda
focuses on customer satisfaction and engagement as two key HR measures in managing its
business performance. With over 160,000 employees, Asda has a recognised union GMB.
The company reported a 16.7% decline in operating profit in the first quarter of 2021, losing
£486.5m due to the costs related to the COVID-19 pandemic (Reuters, 2021). The company
has made strategic decisions to meet the changes to work and consumer demand that were
accelerated by the pandemic.

You are expected to step into the role of an HR Manager at ASDA to produce a report for the
executive team following the recent acquisition. The executives are concerned with the HR
implications of the changing consumer behaviours and the employee expectation of work.

You are tasked with (1) evaluating the HR decisions your company recently made (1a) to
layoff 1,200 staff to meet the changing customer demand that shifted from traditional in-store
to online grocery shopping (Butler, 2021) and (1b) to adopt a hybrid model that allows its
4,000 head office staff to decide where they would like to work (Partridge, 2021).

Your report should (2) review evidence relevant to these decisions with a focus on (2a) the
external, organisational, managerial, and behavioural factors that influenced these decisions
and (2b) the impact of these decisions on different stakeholders.

You are required to (3) recommend future actions to improve the business performance,
decision making, and talent management in the operational environment of the UK.

References
Butler, S. (2021) Asda to cease baking in stores, with 1,200 jobs at risk, the Guardian, 14 April. Available at:
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/apr/14/asda-to-cease-baking-in-stores-with-1200-jobs-at-risk
(Accessed: 21 May 2021).

Partridge, J. (2021) Asda to let head office staff choose where they work, the Guardian, 2 July. Available at:
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jul/02/asda-to-let-head-office-staff-choose-where-they-work
(Accessed: 11 June 2021).

Reuters (2021) Asda sales growth accelerates in latest quarter, Reuters, 10 June. Available at:
https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/asdas-sales-growth-accelerates-under-new-ownership-2021-06-10/
(Accessed: 03 July 2021).

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Report structure
Introduction approx. 300 words
 A brief introduction to the organisational context related to one of the assigned case
studies, describing specific organisational problems and relevant decisions
 An outline of concepts covered by this module that are specifically relevant to the
organisational problems and decisions

Hint: revise Week 2 content about how to describe the problems and decisions
specifically in terms of how, who, what/where, when

Evaluation approx. 1500 words

 An evidence-based discussion about external and organisational factors1 that
influenced the organisational problems and decisions
 An evidence-based discussion about managerial and behavioural factors that
influenced the organisational problems and decisions

Hint: revise Week 5-7 content about how to acquire & appraise four types of
evidence; revise week 8-10 content for managerial & behavioural factors

 An analysis of how the organisational problems and decisions affect the most relevant
stakeholders

Hint: revise Week 3 content about three stakeholder attributes, including power,
legitimacy, and urgency

Recommendations approx. 1200 words

 A statement about whether the decisions are good/plausible, or poor based on your
evaluation & analysis
 An analysis of alternative decisions/solutions to the organisational problems in the
assigned operational environment
 An evidence-based discussion about whether your alternative decision could produce
better desirable outcomes for the most relevant stakeholder 2 & whether your
alternative is feasible

Hint: Revise Week 4 for the content related to alternative solutions, costs and
benefits, resources and constraints, and the desirability and probability of decision
outcomes

References
 Include only the references that you have read and cited in the report
 Use Harvard referencing

1
Examples of external factors: changing national regulations on workplace health and safety during the
pandemic; organisational factor: business model, ownership, structure; managerial factors: staffing practices;
behavioural factors: judgemental heuristic & bias.
2
For instance, good practices that improve business performance, decision making, publicity OR talent
management in relation to the assigned decisions and operating environment (see case study requirements)

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Report content
Your report should evaluate at least one of the (1) assigned organisational decisions (1a OR
1b) and recommend actions with reference to (2) at least three of the key concepts and
theories and (3) all four types of evidence covered by this module.

(1) You are expected to evaluate at least one of the (1) assigned organisational decisions
If you decide to discuss problems and decisions in addition to the one(s) required by
the assessment, you MUST make sure that these problems and decisions you
identified are of clear and logical relevance to the required ones. The number of
decisions that you choose to evaluate does not affect your grade. You are encouraged
to keep the number of decisions to max. three, which would ensure sufficient space
for in-depth evolution of the decisions and proper analysis.

(2) You are expected to demonstrate awareness, understanding, and ability to apply
at least three of these key conceptual/theoretical ideas in a critical manner. The
key conceptual and theoretical ideas covered by this module include rational choice
theory, institutional logic, evidence-based management, bounded rationality, intuition,
judgemental heuristics and bias, behavioural decision making, system 1 and system 2
thinking, utility theory, prospect theory, and framing effect.

(3) You are expected to draw on all four types of evidence in your report. The four
types of evidence covered by this module include practitioner evidence (i.e. CIPD,
CMI report based on expert opinions), stakeholder evidence (i.e. news articles that
features stakeholder views and values), organisational data (i.e. statista information or
IPO application form or annual report), and scientific evidence from peer-reviewed
empirical studies (academic journal articles).

Marking criteria
You should read the following criteria carefully in preparation of your report. You can use
the following information as a checklist to assess your report yourself before submission.

Criteria 1: Content 40%

o Does the report demonstrate an awareness of at least three key conceptual and
theoretical ideas covered by this module? 10%
o Does the report identify the contextual factors that influenced the assigned
organisational decisions? 10%
o Does the report present a sound evaluation of how the decisions affected different
stakeholders? 10%
o Does the report offer specific and relevant recommendations in the assigned
operating environment? 10%

Criteria 2: Research 40%

o Does the report draw on all four different types of evidence to support the
arguments? 10%
o Does the report interpret the cited sources of information accurately? 15%
o Does the report interpret the cited sources of information critically? 15%

Criteria 3: Communication 20%

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 o Does the report have a logical structure overall? 5%
o Is the report well-written, grammatically correct, and spell checked? 5%
o Does the report present logical, concise, and well-developed arguments? 5%
o Does the report use Harvard referencing correctly? 5%

Important note: Coursework is marked on the understanding that it is the student’s own
work on the module and that it has not, in whole or part, been presented elsewhere for
assessment. Where material has been used from other sources, this must be properly
acknowledged in accordance with the University’s Regulations regarding Academic
Misconduct.

Marking, feedback and next steps

To pass this module, students must achieve an overall mark of 40 for the assessment.

For coursework, the marks and feedback will normally be provided to students within
fifteen working days of the submission deadline. In exceptional circumstances, where
there is a delay in providing feedback, you will be informed by the module leader.

If you do not pass a module at the first attempt, you may be eligible for a resit opportunity
on the failed assessments. This will be confirmed after the Progression and Award Board
(PAB). Note that marks on resit assessments are capped at 40% unless extenuation has
been applied for and granted.

For further details on resit assessments, please see section 7 below.

The assessment and feedback policy can be accessed at Assessment and Feedback Policy

Extenuating circumstances and student support

The University recognises there are times when serious and unexpected matters which are
beyond a student’s control (such as serious illness or injury, death in family) impact on their
academic performance and ability to complete assessments by the deadline. Guidance on
claiming extenuation can be found at: Extenuating circumstances