Assessment
This assessment is designed to test your knowledge and understanding of
organizational behaviour and human resource management, research and practice. There follows five questions that each relate to some aspect of the OB/HRM subject area.
You should choose any three of the five questions to answer. (I will choose three questions and marked it as red color) We would expect a minimum of 700 words per question, but some might require more detailed answers so taking you the maximum of 3000 words. You must support your answers with evidence from acknowledged academic sources. You may use personal experience to illustrate the application of a topic/theory, but you must still provide evidence from acknowledged sources to support your answer. A list of websites that have been shown to provide inappropriate and inaccurate information is available from the module blackboard site. You use these sites at your own risk but you should be aware that these sites often
appear in the work of students who do not pass the assessment.
Each answer should develop a critical analysis of the research being presented and where relevant include case study examples which can help you apply the research.
1. “To survive the 21st century, we are going to need a new generation of leaders”
(Warren Bennis 1992)*. Critically discuss this statement using appropriate
theory and relevant examples to support your answer.
* See:
Warren G. Bennis, (1989),”Managing the Dream: Leadership in the 21st Century”, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 2 Issue 1 pp. 6 – 10
or
Warren G. Bennis, (1992),”Managing the Dream: Leadership in the 21st Century”, Management Decision, Vol. 30 Issue 6 pp.6-10
2. Critically explore why bureaucratic organisations come into existence? Is it inevitable that an organisation must become bureaucratic? 700 words
3. “A strong culture can be used to control behaviour, motivate staff and improve performance and should therefore be encouraged”. Critically explore the validity of this statement. 700 words
4. Reward systems have to take account of a range of issues in order to be
equitable to staff within an organisation. What are these issues and why are they important? 600 words
5. Central to a systematic approach to staff selection is the process of “knowing the job and the person to do it”. Critically evaluate this statement and explain how you would ensure this process is carried out effectively in any large organisation.
There is a marking matrix at the end of this guide that provides more guidance on the assessment criteria.
Advice:
You have a limited amount of words for each answer so this requires the skills of précising the research material you have collected.
“A précis is not an outline but a summary of the research. It is useful as an exercise in grasping the essential ideas that you collected in researching the question and in stating these ideas in a concentrated form. It is about developing a valuable skill that enables you distil research evidence and present this concisely without losing the academic rigour or critical analysis. Since the précis says a great deal within a brief space, it is of great service in taking notes in the library, preparing assignments, general reading and in writing reports in the workplace.”
(Adapted by G. Craik from Donald Davidson,
American Composition and Rhetoric. Scribner’s, 1968)
“To provide a summary you do not copy the exact words from the text. Indeed, the idea is to use your own words to describe the important elements of what you have read. In doing this, you will learn to recognise the important bits and then write those down for future reference. The act of summarising, in this way, will develop your reading, memory recall, interpretation and analytical skills. To remember and analyse something you read it is important to write – in your own words – a summary of what you have read. Doing this will improve your understanding of the subject area.” P.Jepson (2011)
Referencing & Researching
It is important to develop skills in researching and referencing. Referencing is important because it provides pointers to where you have developed your arguments from. Referencing also allows the person reading your work to go back to the material you read and read how that argument was originally developed. A brief guide to referencing is provided at the back of the module guide. Further information and a more detailed discussion on how to reference can be found on the LITS website. This university has a preference for using the Harvard System when referencing the work of others in assignments and dissertations. Not referencing correctly may result in you gaining a lower mark. Not referencing will result in lower marks.
As with referencing it is important that you develop the skills as a researcher for the assignments. This is not just about the requirement of referencing and the ability to provide a separate reference page at the end of the work. It is evident that more students now use the web to locate source material but do not understand how to present these references in the work.
British Universities want students to learn to use the internet properly. At SHU we have access to two internet sites which help students do this. The University has an Intranet site called InfoQuest [ELECTRONIC LEARNING RESOURCE]: information skills for learning which provides a course in how to make the best use of the web for these sorts of academic purposes. You should be able to access it via SHUSPACE (e.g. by using the search function). If you can’t find it, ask LITS.
There is another site with the same end in view called Intuit. It is external to SHU but has been developed by a consortium of UK universities. As at August 2009 it is available at http://www.vts.intute.ac
Last Completed Projects
| topic title | academic level | Writer | delivered |
|---|