The following should be covered in your assignment:
a) Background: Identification of management of change situation and the context; this will include only a very brief background to the organization, its product/service, location, employment, business strategy and goals being pursued (this of course can be anonymized); b) Analysis and discussion of change management, team working, leadership and structural issues associated with the organizational change. This is the most important part of the assignment. You will need here to blend in relevant concepts and frameworks from the course; c) Conclusions and any recommendations for change, improvement and/or learning that follow from your analysis and discussion Assignment Question:
ASSIGNMENT DETAILS
Your assignment is to present an analysis of your own organization (or an organization at
which you have worked), focusing upon the team working, leadership, structural and change
management issues associated with any significant change experienced in the recent past
(or anticipated in the near future) and to present practical recommendations.
GUIDANCE
The following should be covered in your assignment:
a) Background: Identification of management of change situation and the context; this
will include only a very brief background to the organization, its product/service,
location, employment, business strategy and goals being pursued (this of course can
be anonymized);
b) Analysis and discussion of change management, team working, leadership and
structural issues associated with the organizational change. This is the most
important part of the assignment. You will need here to blend in relevant concepts
and frameworks from the course;
c) Conclusions and any recommendations for change, improvement and/or learning that
follow from your analysis and discussion
Your answer should focus upon one or more particular change initiatives and draw explicitly
upon the course materials in those areas to produce a well-balanced and integrated
examination of the issues concerned. So, for example, leadership and cultural issues may
be explored separately but will need to be brought together in a combined analysis of any
issues and in the generation of any recommendations (rather than be considered
piecemeal).
Although you are not restricted just to using the ideas, concepts and frameworks specifically
looked at in the course, you should certainly aim to draw upon those materials and
incorporate them in your analysis. Good marks will only be obtained by assignments that
blend together nicely practical experience with the insights that can be gained using
academic materials from the course.
Any internal or consultancy reports (etc.) on actual management of change situations in your
organization can of course be referred to as ‘evidence’ in your assessment or used as
secondary source materials. However, they should not be used to substitute for your own
analysis and recommendations. Instead, they will only add value to the assignment if they
are made subject to scrutiny, using appropriate concepts and frameworks from the course.
Assignments that consist of material reported at length from such reports will attract very low
marks. You need to ‘step back’ from any pre-existing conclusions and apply your own
reflective skills.
MARKS DISTRIBUTION
Marks will be awarded based on the following broad distribution:
1) Identification of issues and clear rationale 10%
2) Understanding shown of relevant concepts and literature 25%
3) Quality of analysis, critical reasoning and application 25%
4) Quality of evidence used to back up arguments 20%
5) Integration between themes and through sections 10%
6) Quality of presentation 10%
Further guidance will be given as the course progresses and especially in the final online
session.
