LB170 Employability Assignment: 1546576

Question:

  1. Read the case carefully and complete the proposal by filling in the correct sentence NUMBERS. (Some parts of the proposal will have more than one sentence) Do not copy the sentences; do not add your own ideas.

Zinn’s Burgers and Pizza

1. Zinn’s Burgers and Pizza is a medium-sized chain of fast-food restaurants. Its branches are predominantly based in the north-west and Midlands of the United Kingdom and, until lately, this regional concentration and profile has enabled the chain to compete with the larger, international fast-food brands in these areas (many of whom have outlets near to a Zinn’s restaurant).  2. However, in recent years, many of Zinn’s restaurants have begun to struggle; they are losing both customers and staff.  3. The décor and furniture look tired, cooking equipment needs replacing; the menus require updating.  As with all fast-food businesses, the chain’s sales have been threatened by the recent trend towards ‘healthy eating’ and concerns over the environmental impact of the fast-food sector.  5. The recent recession has boosted sales slightly as customers look for cheap opportunities to eat out. 6. Zinn’s Burgers and Pizza should move to healthy combination of meals along with healthy drinks that needs careful planning with the help of food dieticians. 7. Various contests like ‘the happy family moments’, ‘coast to coast’, ‘Full of care’ are to be introduced. 8. Direct marketing as the term suggests, is a method of directly marketing to your consumers by means such as telephone marketing, Online marketing, E-mail based marketing, etc. which Zinn’s Burgers and Pizza needs to tap especially now.  9. The working hours and pay scale of the staff must undergo revision. 10. Lugo furniture manufacturers, situated in Midlands, use the extremely attractive Candi Tube Collections that attracts all ages. The company has quoted very reasonable charges for refurnishing. 11.  By introducing the contests there will be a boost in sales and market share by creating an awareness of the brand and instilling it in the minds of the consumers. 12. The telephone, online marketing that offers direct information to the consumers on their diverse products and services will giving the consumers sufficient knowledge about the products and deals of Zinn’s Burgers and Pizza. 13. Good décor and furniture attract the eyes naturally.   And the rule goes if the staff is happy, the customers are also happy. 14. There is threat that Zinn’s Burgers and Pizza may be labelled as JUNK FOOD SUPPLIERS and POOR SERVICE PROVIDERS, if changes are not made. 15. No business wants to close down because customers do not trust.

CategorySentence Number
 Analysis of the problem:  
 The Reasons:  
 Proposed Solutions:   
 Benefits of the proposed solutions:  
Risk to the organisation if the proposed changes are not made:  
  • Read the sentences below and decide the function of each sentence by specifying which states a claim and which states a support. Fill your answers in the blank boxes.
Sentence Function
Belgrade, as a tourism destination, is not competitive in terms of walking tours around the city compared to other major Serbian destinations.   
This is due to the undeveloped infrastructure around green areas (Maksin, 2011). 
As a post-industrial city, Belgrade lacks revitalization, which makes it less competitive. 
So, a holistic economic approach that takes into account human and environmental needs may help change the situation (World Tourism Organization, 2011). 

PART II (50 marks)

In well written essay of around 300 words, answer the following question.

  1. Team working is one of the core skills for employability. According to Schein (1980), teams form for both functional and psychological reasons. Write an essay discussing the functional and psychological reasons according to Schein theory. (This question will test your essay writing and paraphrasing skills.)

Answer:

  1. Read the case carefully and complete the proposal by filling in the correct sentence NUMBERS. (Some parts of the proposal will have more than one sentence) Do not copy the sentences; do not add your own ideas.

Zinn’s Burgers and Pizza

1. Zinn’s Burgers and Pizza is a medium-sized chain of fast-food restaurants. Its branches are predominantly based in the north-west and Midlands of the United Kingdom and, until lately, this regional concentration and profile has enabled the chain to compete with the larger, international fast-food brands in these areas (many of whom have outlets near to a Zinn’s restaurant).  2. However, in recent years, many of Zinn’s restaurants have begun to struggle; they are losing both customers and staff.  3. The décor and furniture look tired, cooking equipment needs replacing; the menus require updating.  As with all fast-food businesses, the chain’s sales have been threatened by the recent trend towards ‘healthy eating’ and concerns over the environmental impact of the fast-food sector.  5. The recent recession has boosted sales slightly as customers look for cheap opportunities to eat out. 6. Zinn’s Burgers and Pizza should move to healthy combination of meals along with healthy drinks that needs careful planning with the help of food dieticians. 7. Various contests like ‘the happy family moments’, ‘coast to coast’, ‘Full of care’ are to be introduced. 8. Direct marketing as the term suggests, is a method of directly marketing to your consumers by means such as telephone marketing, Online marketing, E-mail based marketing, etc. which Zinn’s Burgers and Pizza needs to tap especially now.  9. The working hours and pay scale of the staff must undergo revision. 10. Lugo furniture manufacturers, situated in Midlands, use the extremely attractive Candi Tube Collections that attracts all ages. The company has quoted very reasonable charges for refurnishing. 11.  By introducing the contests there will be a boost in sales and market share by creating an awareness of the brand and instilling it in the minds of the consumers. 12. The telephone, online marketing that offers direct information to the consumers on their diverse products and services will giving the consumers sufficient knowledge about the products and deals of Zinn’s Burgers and Pizza. 13. Good décor and furniture attract the eyes naturally.   And the rule goes if the staff is happy, the customers are also happy. 14. There is threat that Zinn’s Burgers and Pizza may be labelled as JUNK FOOD SUPPLIERS and POOR SERVICE PROVIDERS, if changes are not made. 15. No business wants to close down because customers do not trust.

CategorySentence Number
 Analysis of the problem: 2
 The Reasons: 3
 Proposed Solutions:  6, 7, 8, 9
 Benefits of the proposed solutions: 11, 12, 13
Risk to the organization if the proposed changes are not made:14 
  • Read the sentences below and decide the function of each sentence by specifying which states a claim and which states a support. Fill your answers in the blank boxes.
Sentence Function
Belgrade, as a tourism destination, is not competitive in terms of walking tours around the city compared to other major Serbian destinations.  Claim
This is due to the undeveloped infrastructure around green areas (Maksin, 2011).Support
As a post-industrial city, Belgrade lacks revitalization, which makes it less competitive.Claim
So, a holistic economic approach that takes into account human and environmental needs may help change the situation (World Tourism Organization, 2011).Claim

PART II (50 marks)

In well written essay of around 300 words, answer the following question.

  1. Team working is one of the core skills for employability. According to Schein (1980), teams form for both functional and psychological reasons. Write an essay discussing the functional and psychological reasons according to Schein theory. (This question will test your essay writing and paraphrasing skills.)

The following segment will evaluate the framework of organizational culture devised by Edgar Schein while consider its functional as well as psychological reasons.

As per Schein, a culture does not seemed to be implemented in an organization on a single day instead it tends to get integrated in the due course of time. During this course of time comprises the employee’s encountering with various changes while trying to adapt to the external environment and further solve problems (Darling 2017). Under his perspectives, the modular framework for organizational culture tends to propose a model of culture being established under the organizational spectrum. It states the existence of basic assumption as being the factors shaping values and further values shaping behavior and practices that seems as the cultural part as being visible (Duerr et al 2018). Schein provides three levels existing in the spectrum of organizational culture with the first one being artifacts, the consecutive level includes values and lastly basic assumptions. In consideration of the management theory proposed by Schein, the foremost influence of culture is brought through the primary resistance to change within an organization alongside an accurate understanding of dynamics surrounding an organization (Shymko 2018). As such the ability to act as a team member is also based on certain values that seems to influence one to work collaboratively. An organization that seeks to promote the basic assumption of working in a team certainly seem to grant the psychological support for involving oneself in a joint effort. On the other hand, the functional reason specifies basic to work in joined effort while seeking to promote the culture teamwork. As such, while one seems to feel as a necessity to work as a team member, the other seems to anticipate the expected attributes and as such one tends to participate in a teamwork.            

Reference List

Darling, J., 2017. A conversation with Edgar Schein: Aligning strategy, culture, and leadership. People & Strategy40(2), pp.64-68.

Duerr, S., Holotiuk, F., Wagner, H.T., Beimborn, D. and Weitzel, T., 2018, January. What is digital organizational culture? Insights from exploratory case studies. In Proceedings of the 51st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

Shymko, V., 2018. Object field of organizational culture: methodological conceptualization. International Journal of Organizational Analysis.