STRATHCLYDE BUSINESS SCHOOL MBA PROGRAMME

MANAGING

ASSIGNMENT

1 OCTOBER 2011 30 SEPTEMBER 2012

1

If you have not already done so, please read the Introduction, Overview and Learning Approach of the Guidance Notes before reading these assessment details. The unit is assessed by written coursework as detailed below. A deadline for submission of coursework will be issued separately. Please note that you may not attend the Strategic Issues Exploration workshop unless you have submitted this coursework.

COURSEWORK DETAILS This course work may be carried out individually or in a group of strictly not more than 5 members. If you work in a group you will be asked to peer assess your group members (details are given later in this briefing). In order to ensure that this does not present problems at the end of the course, we strongly encourage you to discuss at the start, and from time to time thereafter, the way in which you will provide mutual support for each other and each contribute to the groups effort. It is the groups responsibility to make this work. If there are difficulties that you cannot resolve, you are advised to engage the assistance of the lecturer. You should not attempt to complete this coursework until all 3 of the inter-element tasks have been completed. However, we ask you to read this specification before you start work on these elements and have it in mind throughout. We suggest that you make notes about ideas, concepts and theories that may have relevance to your final submission as you go through the earlier tasks. You will find that these help you to get started on the assignment.

You are asked to write a very carefully argued, critical essay about the ways in which you think you might use theories relating to management and managing, such as those exemplified in elements 2, 3 and 4, to enhance your management practice, and conversely, how your management practices might inform better theories. Make explicit use of theoretical commentary on reflective practice and best practice to inform your thinking. Your argument should centre around the use of management theory in general rather than around any specific examples of theory. You are encouraged to draw from your own experiences of managerial practice to illustrate the points you wish to make, and you may also use examples from the theories discussed in elements 2, 3 and 4 and the case studies of experience that you discussed in the seminar if these are helpful in forming your argument. Concentrate on the relevance of your argument for your future practice as a manager. A good assignment will consider your own practice not that of anonymous managers. Write your essay on 2 3 (not more) sides of A4 paper. You may wish to use figures or tables to help clarify your argument. Your essay needs to be coherent and clear enough to be understood by someone who has not been involved in your experiences, thinking and discussions. However, keep descriptions of theory or practice situations to the minimum sufficient for ensuring clarity to the reader (who may be presumed to have read the articles in the course materials!). Focus instead on using the theory and the practice situations to help form and justify your argument. 2 You are asked to keep your working notes and append items as indicated below.

We ask you to think very carefully about these 2-3 pages. The mark you gain for this unit will be based on these alone. We are looking for evidence of deep thinking and strong argumentation developed from, and supported by, reference to theories of reflective practice. Theories should not be taken for granted, but should be subjected to critical examination of their validity and value. Alternative theoretical perspectives should also be recognized. We ask you to try to broaden your imaginative reach as you develop the focus and depth of your argument. Once way of doing this is to use reading material perhaps a small number of articles read in depth to trigger your thinking. The integration of students own ideas with those of published authors is usually the hallmark of a highly graded assignment. If you seek out additional references to those in the Reader or on the class intranet site, take care to assess the validity of the source. In particular, be wary of web and other internet material as this may not necessarily be based on facts or sound research. Do not be misled by the short page-length of the assignment into thinking that only superficial notes are required. In this assignment every word and the way the words are put together counts! However, if you have worked actively, thoughtfully and critically with the material and exercises throughout, you will be a long way towards developing the coherence and strength of argument that you need for this final task. Note carefully: the specific material in Elements 2, 3 and 4 is NOT intended as the main basis of the written piece; submissions that focus solely upon this material (rather than using it as an example) are unlikely to pass. Please be sure to reference ideas taken from the literature using accepted conventions of format and style (e.g. Harvard referencing rules), and include a full, detailed reference list at the end of your 2-3 pages. Your grade will be reduced if your referencing is sloppy. Be careful also to focus on practical suggestions related to possibilities for your own future practices. Frame your essay in terms of ways that you, yourselves are likely to behave in the future: as a general rule it is best to avoid the phrase, managers should .. Assess your suggestions for their practicality by asking whether you could really envisage yourselves acting on them. Some exemplar assignments are available on the Intranet. Use these to help you in getting a sense of how to focus your own thinking, but do not copy either the content or form of these. Instead, treat them as an additional input to your thinking. Please note that 3 sides is the absolute maximum length allowance for the submission (including any figures or tables, but excluding your reference list and cover page), using a font size equivalent to Times Roman 11 or 12 point, with single line spacing. 10 percentage points will be deducted from your grade for every page, or part of a page, that exceeds this limit. However, we would encourage you to make full use of the available space; you are unlikely to reach the depth of argumentation required unless you do so. Please submit the 2 - 3 sides plus cover page, references and appendices, stapled in the top left hand corner without covers or bindings. If electronic submission is set up for your cohort you will be given further instructions about how to do this. 3

KEEPING YOUR WORKING NOTES AND SUBMITTING TO TURNITIN Please keep all of your rough working notes relating to this assignment until your mark for the Managing course has been ratified by the Board of Examiners. You may be asked by a tutor or the Board of Examiners to submit these at any time until that date. In some cases, the local counsellor may require you to submit these along with your assignment, on the assignment submission date. This requirement is concerned with academic honesty assurance. rough notes will not be judged by the Board of Examiners. The quality of these

Before you hand in your assignment, please submit it to Turnitin. Include the Turnitin score on the cover page of your assignment and submit the full Turnitin report as an appendix (see below). Note that for a team assignment only one team member should submit the assignment to Turnitin. If updated versions are submitted as you refine your submission, they must be submitted by the same team member otherwise the Turnitin results will be meaningless.

ITEMS TO APPEND Please append the following 4 sets of items (note that your assignment will not be marked until these are all received): 1. Copies of both the slides (6 to a page) and the single A4 side of notes created for the 3 presentation tasks. This is not the essence of the coursework but is required as a demonstration of your participation in the unit and of the work that has led to your reflection. Open Learning students who have not attended the course face to face can alternatively submit an essay format piece of work (1-3 pages) for each inter-element task by answering the questions and engaging with the three so-what questions. Submitting this material is a requirement of passing the unit.

2. For group submissions, a clear statement, signed by all group members, about what each member contributed to the groups work on the unit, including details of the roles they took in each of the inter-element tasks, and a peer assessment weighting (see below). The inclusion of a persons name on the submission will be taken to imply that all named group members confirm the weighted contribution of all others named. All group members will be held responsible for the academic honesty of the submission in this respect. A mark will be allocated to the submission; individuals will receive the mark adjusted, where appropriate, by the peer assessment weighting. 3. A statement of academic honesty using the wording indicated below is required. 4. The full Turnitin report.

DETAILS FOR APPENDIX ITEMS 2 AND 3 Item 2: Peer assessment weighting for group coursework The group must agree a contribution weighting for each member, which will determine what proportion of the submission mark that they receive. The weightings may be from the following scale: 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1. A contribution weighting of 1 suggests that the group agree that the individual contributed fully to the work of the group and implies that the individual will receive the full mark allocated to the submission. A weighting of 0 suggests that the group agree that the individual contributed nothing to the work of the group and implies that the individual will receive a mark of 0% (this is equivalent to leaving the persons name off the submission). All other weightings suggest that the group agree that the individual contributed less than fully (in proportion to the weighting) to the work of the group and imply that the individual will receive a mark that is the full mark allocated to the submission multiplied by the weighting. Eg if the individual is agreed to have contributed only 50% as much as others, a weighting of 0.5 should be allocated and the mark allocated to the submission will be adjusted accordingly. Ie if the allocated mark were 65%, the individuals mark would be 65 x 0.5 = 33%. You will need to have a group discussion about the allocation of these weightings. Some things to consider are: whether someone who apparently contributed less was hindered from doing so by dominant or otherwise unhelpful other group members; whether the frequency of someones contributions actually equates to the positiveness of their contribution. Dont forget to discuss everyones contributions to the group at the start and from time to time thereafter, so that problems can be managed on the way. Remember that you are advised to engage the assistance of the lecturer if there are difficulties that you cannot resolve.

Item 3: Statement of academic honesty The clause in square brackets is optional. For an individual submission < NAME OF ASSIGNMENT > I confirm that, except where I have used explicitly cited quotations that are fully referenced, no aspect of this coursework has been copied from any other source. I confirm that [while I have discussed ideas and concepts relating to the course with fellow students / others] the work in the assignment is entirely my own.

I fully understand that any act of academic dishonesty such as plagiarism or collusion on my part may result in the non-award of my MBA.

For a group submission < NAME OF ASSIGNMENT > We confirm that, except where we have used explicitly cited quotations that are fully referenced, no aspect of this coursework has been copied from any other source. We confirm that [while we have discussed ideas and concepts relating to the course with fellow students / others] the work in the assignment is entirely based upon the groups discussions, analysis and/or investigations. We fully understand that any act of academic dishonesty such as plagiarism or collusion on our part may result in the non-award of our MBAs.