Faculty of Creative Industries & Business
Department of Management& Marketing
Bachelor of Business
BSNS 5390: Managing in Organisations
Assignment Two: Individual
Semester: Semester One , 2012
Date issued: 01 March 2012
Due date and time:
5.30pm Thursday 14 June in Assignment Drop box
10.00pm on Wednesday 13 June to Turnitin
No late assignments will be accepted
Delivery:
Hand in the hard copy at drop box, labeled Ken Newlands, level 4, B172.
Submit a copy to www.Turnitin.com
Keep an electronic copy of your assignment
Total marks: 140 marks
Weighting: 60% of course
Length: 4000 words maximum (excluding the reference list) Wordcount:
Instructions:
Complete this cover sheet and attach it to your assignment.
Student Name:
Student ID No:
Include all the necessary information such as page numbers
This assignment and must be your own work.
Collusion, copying or plagiarism may result in disciplinary action
Keep a copy of this assignment.
Lecturer: Ken Newlands Class time: Thursdays 5:30 – 8:30pm
Student declaration: I confirm that::
Signatures of student:
This is an original assessment and is entirely my own work.
Where I have used ideas, tables, diagrams etc of other writers,
I have acknowledged the source in every case.
This assignment has not previously been submitted as assessed work for
any academic course.
Date:
BSNS 5390 MANAGING IN ORGANISATIONS
ASSIGNMENT TWO: INDIVIDUAL (COMPULSORY)
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Expected quality: Your assignment response must be of a high professional
standard, typed in 12 point font Verdana or New Roman, 1.5 spaced, with
appropriate citation and referencing using the APA style. Marks will be deducted from
your assignment for poor quality: citations, referencing, presentation, incorrect
spelling, poor grammar, and poor sentence structure. (Refer to Writing Guidelines for
Business Students, 4th Edition (2009) by Lisa Emerson).
Use NZ or UK spelling and grammar check (Not US version), include page numbers in
footer, student id in header and justify to both left and right edges allowing sufficient
margins for the marker (2.0 cms. on right hand side).
You must respond to all the assignment questions in relation to your team’s chosen
organisation. Do not use the real name of the organisation in your answers.
Note: You must support all responses with relevant authority from relevant
textbooks, and academic journal articles available on-line in the Unitec Library, to
make your answers clear.
Failure to cite and reference correctly will result in marks being deducted
from your assignment. This could be up to 40 per cent of your final
assignment mark depending on the severity.
Plagiarism (passing off someone else’s work as your own) must be strictly
avoided; if this is found, the assignment will receive zero marks, and the student
may be liable for disciplinary action by the Programme Leader.
Expressing your own points of view using argument will also improve the
quality of your answers and assignment grade. It is suggested that you use a
minimum of 4 journal articles per question for this assignment to enhance the
quality of your answers.
You are advised to follow the marking schedule in your responses.
You must sign and attach the completed cover sheet to the front of your completed
assignment.
2. Grade Mark
Distinction: A+ 90 to 100 A 85 to 89 A- 80 to 84
Merit B+ 75 to 79 B 70 to 74 B- 65 to 69
Pass C+ 60 to 64 C 55 to 59 C- 50 to 54
Fail D 40 to 49 E 0 to 39 W Withdrawn
DNC Did not complete
ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS
This assignment is a notional continuation of the case study in Assignment One. In other
words, use the understanding that you gained about the organisation during the
assignment 1 process to envisage the context for your responses to this assignment 2.
Please answer the following questions applying them notionally to the same organisation
that you used in assignment 1.
Question One: Planning (23 marks)
The organisation is deciding whether to expand its operations into further (other) regions
of New Zealand and Australia. The CEO has been asked to prepare a presentation to the
board of directors (BOD) at next month’s meeting. They have been asked by the CEO to
address the following important issues:
i) Explain to the BOD why the organisation’s managers need to plan this important
decision (Total marks: 5).
ii) Planning has been criticised by company managers throughout the world.
However, the managers at the organisation believe in the importance of planning
in creating organisational effectiveness. Explain why planning is important to the
organisation in relation to environmental uncertainty. (Total marks: 6).
iii) What types of plans does the organisation need to consider for its expansion into
other regions of Australasia (4 marks)?
Provide examples to support your answers (4 marks).
(Total marks: 8)
iv) Compare and contrast 2 approaches to establishing goals for the organisation.
(Total marks: 4).
Question Two: Decision making and problem solving
techniques (18 marks)
i) When the organisation expands into other regions of Australasia justify the
criteria it might use if it was to set up a branch in Greymouth or Perth,
(Total marks: 6).
ii) Discuss the phenomenon ‘escalation of commitment’ and how it might happen to
the organisation if it decides to set up a branch of its business in Greymouth or
Perth. Justify your answers with realistic examples.
(Total marks: 6)
iii) Explain why the decision for the organisation to expand into other regions of New
Zealand might create unstructured problems that require non-programmed
decisions. Provide relevant examples to support your answers
(Total marks: 6).
Question Three: Leadership theories and practice, and
control (47 marks)
i) How might the leaders of the organisation use expert power and referent power
to help influence leadership effectiveness. Provide relevant examples to support
your answers (Total marks: 6).
ii) Discuss the statement: ‘Single leadership is mainly redundant in most
contemporary organisations today. It is up to the team members to work
together to solve problems and achieve set goals.’ Your answers need to critically
discuss: The relevancy of empowering employees; How this might provide
challenges for an organisation that has a mechanistic structure; and what the
organisation needs to do to enable the empowerment of its employees to
effectively happen. (Total marks: 15)
iii) The organisation wants to introduce sustainability as a ‘strong’ organisational
culture value.
a) Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this strategy for the
organisation in relation to the impact on its employees, customers,
suppliers, and shareholders (Total marks: 8).
b) Outline how the CEO should introduce sustainable practices at the
organisation in a programme of organisational change
(Total marks: 8).
c) Discuss the implementation of a control system that could be used to
ensure that the change programme in the question above 3iii) b) is an
effective one. What might the organisation need to do if the change
programme is not working to required expectations?
(Total marks: 10 marks).
Question Four: Motivation theories and leadership
(32 marks)
i) Suggest 5 ways that the employees at the organisation would know that they
have reached their self actualisation needs. Support each of your suggestions
with an example. (Total marks: 10).
ii) What would be the implications on team effectiveness if the supervisors at the
organisation formed a single team that included both X Theory workers and Y
Theory workers. Support your answers with examples in a typical working day
context. (Total marks: 10)
iii) Discuss the possible cross-cultural challenges facing leaders of organisations that
effect employee motivation in the areas of individualism and collectivism, by
applying it to the societies of: Australia, South Africa and an Asian Country of
your choice, such as Japan. Support your answers with relevant examples.
(Total marks: 12).
Question Five: Organisational structure (20 marks)
i) Provide an overview of how organisations have changed in structure since the
information technology/new knowledge revolution (6 marks), and how these
changes have impacted on how managers manage in today’s organisations (4
marks). (Total marks: 10)
ii) Discuss what aspects of these structural changes have been adopted or have not
been adopted (or both) by the organisation (6 marks). Include in your discussion
whether you think the structures used the organisation are appropriate/not
appropriate/or both and justify your reasons (4 marks). (Total marks: 10)
3. ASSIGNMENT TWO: INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
MARKING SCHEDULE
Total Marks: 140
Weighting: 60% of your final course grade
Question One: Planning (23 marks)
i) 5 main reasons for planning in the context of the scenario are provided. 1 mark
for each reason, for a possible 5 marks. (5 marks)
ii) 6 criticisms for planning in the context of the scenario are provided. 1 mark for
each criticism; for a possible 6 marks. (6 marks)
iii) At least 4 plans are provided (1 mark each), with relevant examples (1 mark
each); for a possible 8 marks. (8 marks)
iv) 2 approaches are provided; both are compared (2 marks) and contrasted (2
marks); for a possible 4 marks. (4 marks)
Question Two: Decision making and problem solving
techniques (18 marks)
i) 6 criteria are chosen and justification; (6 marks)
ii) Escalation of commitment is explained (2 marks).
iii) How it might apply to the organisation in its expansion into Greymouth or Perth
(2 marks).
Another 2 marks for providing examples to justify answers. (6 marks)
iv) The expansion strategy is explained in relation to unstructured problems that
require non-programmed decisions; 4 marks. Another 2 marks for relevant
examples. (6 marks)
Question Three: Leadership theories and practice, and
control (47 marks)
i) The use of expert power and referent power to help influence leadership
effectiveness is explained (4 marks). Relevant examples are given (2 marks).
(6 marks).
ii) A detailed discussion of the relevance of empowering employees in today’s
workplace is provided; for a possible 10 marks. How a mechanistic organisation
might deal with the empowerment issue that leads to effective empowerment, for
a possible 5 marks. (15 marks)
iii)
a) A discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of sustainability for the
organisation in reference to its impact on employees, customers, suppliers,
and shareholders; for a possible 8 marks. Note: each of the 4 stakeholders
provided must be discussed. (8 marks)
b) One method of organisational change must be provided and discussed in
detail that relates to the organisation; for a possible 8 marks. (8 marks)
c) One control system must be provided and discussed; for a possible 7
marks. Your answers also need to consider what needs to happen if the
change programme is not working; for a possible 3 marks. (10 marks).
Question Four: Motivation theories and leadership
(32 marks)
i) 5 ideas to illustrate employees achieving self-actualisation. 5 examples to justify
the given ideas. (10 marks)
ii) 5 ideas are provided that relate to team effectiveness or ineffectiveness in
relation to the types of team members given. 5 marks for examples given to
justify the student’s answers. (10 marks).
iii) The students need to discuss (supported by examples) both individualism and
collectivism cultural dimensions for each of the 3 given. 1 mark for each cultural
dimension and 1 mark for each example- for each country selected (3 in total).
(12 marks).
Question Five: Organisational structure (20 marks)
i) Mechanistic and organic organisations are discussed. The discussion covers how
managers manage in organisations of today. (10 marks)
ii) The structures that are used or not used by the organisation are provided and
discussed (6 marks). The student needs to discuss the appropriateness of these
structures used by the organisation and why they think that they are
appropriate/not appropriate/or both; for a possible 4 marks. (10 marks)
Deduction of up to 40%: e.g. Cover Sheet completed, Header and footer
ID/ or your name page number. A4 paper, 12 point, justified to left and
right, Spelling and Grammar check NZ not USA, Professional presentation
and stapled Corrected cited and referenced APA style. Turnitin used no
apparent plagiarism. See also Course book p28 for examples of grades.
Do you want to do the best that you can do on this assignment and improve your grades?
You could:
• Talk it over with your lecturer
• Visit Te Puna Ako or Maia for learning advice and support
• Visit the Pacific Centre for learning, teaching and research (Pacifica)
• Contact the USU Advocate for independent advice
• For contact details and more information, go to www.usu.co.nz
For an A Grade
Content: A comprehensive and well-planned answer where the report clearly
meets the requirements of the questions asked. Succinctly integrates a range of
relevant concepts, principles, practices and theories. All answers are fully
justified and are supported by evidence from relevant literature and current
practice. Can demonstrate the ability to analyse a comprehensive range of
issues and reach supported conclusions/recommendations; is able to identify all
key issues, processes and contexts; can apply theory to practice; answer
contains no irrelevant material.
Presentation: Report professionally presented. It is well structured, including
page numbers and a properly referenced text and bibliography. There are no
spelling or grammatical errors.
For a B Grade
Content: Answer is relatively comprehensive, and integrates many relevant
concepts, principles and theories. Answers are adequately justified and are
supported by some evidence from relevant literature and current practice; can
demonstrate the ability to analyse a range of issues and reach conclusions and
recommendations; is able to identify some key issues, processes and contexts;
can apply some theory to practice. Answer may contain some irrelevant
material.
Presentation: Presentation is very good, but falls short of excellent in several
areas, particularly in terms of grammar and referencing.
For a C Grade
Content: Understands the topic and can link some concepts, principles and
theories. Answers have little justification and support from evidence or from
literature and current practice; can demonstrate the ability to analyse some
issues, processes and contexts in order to reach conclusions or
recommendations; answers are descriptive and typically lack any real critical
discussion or evaluation; applies little theory to practice, produces irrelevant
material.
Presentation: Typed, layout is generally clear, but contains spelling and
grammatical errors. Referencing errors occur.
For a C/E Grade
Content: Poor answer; shows little understanding of the theory and concepts.
Areas will be missing and mismatches may occur between the theory and
practice; may be unable to cite supporting material; answer is disjointed and
fails to reach conclusions and make relevant recommendations.
Presentation: Not acceptable, for example, not typed, untidily presented, high
level of errors, poor and confusing layout.
SOLUTION
Answer 3
Leadership
1)
In every organization there is requirement of a team effort if the team is not being motivated towards the goal and objective of the organization it may result in the inefficiency and inability of the team that affect the growth and efficiency of the organization. Lussier & Achua (2004) state that leadership is an integrated procedure that not only influenced employee’s perception, but leaders as well, to accomplish the objective of the organization effectively and efficiently.
Leadership is all about getting things done by the people in an effective and efficient manner that helps in achieving competitive advantage to the organization for this leadership may use the referent power or expert power:
Refrent power is when the followers see the leader as their role model and and to embibe the qualities of leader and become like him. Such leaders influence their follwerers by their behavior, personality, and the way they tackle situations. E.g. a leader has patience while handling the most difficult situations and is alos showing followers in difficulty we shold not lose our calm. Kouzes & Posner (2007) add that effective leadership comes from modeling and defining the way, inspiring a shared vision and perspective, challenging the traditional process, motivating and encouraging others to act and make a change.
Expert power is when the follower sees the leader as someone who has expertise in particular domain of work, and the followers get an opportunity to learn from him. E.g. A leader solves the most difficulties in the functioning of particular domain, by his knowledge and skills and this is the responsibility of leader to influence his followers to make a combination of refrent power nad expert power within the team, there is a requirement of the effective leadership approaches for the betterment of the employees and organization.
2)
Empowerment of employees is one of the basic steps to improve the effectiveness within the organization, Empowerment is the power given to the followers to have a power in the decision making process and to give them the right to presnt their ideas and view,
In a mechanistic orgnaisation there is centralization of authority and power,formulated procedures and policies are followed,and there is an ease to follow all the procedures, but such organization find it difficult to cope with rapid changes in the organization structure. In such organization it is the responsibility of leader to do a proper allocation of responsibility and authority among the followers. In mechanistic structural organization, the main task of leader is to guide the employess to handle a chaotic situation and have patience, adapt to the changes in the environment and adapt to the rapid change in the environment which is required for success and growth of the organization. One of the most important characteristic of effective leadership is using human talents and skills to grow performance, effectiveness and integrity among the employees and the organization (Daft, 2005).
Single line leadership: He should influence his followers in such a way that they themselves have the feel of working together and achieving the organization goals and objectives. Single line of leadership is also influential as well as diversified form of leadership because the ulitimate fact is to influence the followers to work in a team together.
3) A)
Sustainability is an important feature in the growth of the organization, not only for their employees but, also for their outside customers, suppliers and shareholder, sustainability in an organization is the dedication of the employees toward their roles and responsibilities. This would lead to organization growth because it is ultimately the employees who will influence the productivity, so if employees are not concerned about their responsibility, it will influence the customers of company, bring down their share value and bring a bad image for the company in the market, so it is important to follow the strategy of sustainability in the organization. Sustainability should be considered as an attribute and due to the presence of such an important attribute, the resulting responsibility the organization gets or takes, which must be understood as ‘having a duty, an obligation’ (Takala and Pallab, 2000).
3) B)
Elkington (1997), who formulates the triple-P perspective, states that an organization is sustainable if a optimal performance is attained in the three so-called ‘p-area’s’, here the three P’s stand for people, planet, and profit. In order to implemt the sustainability in the organization it the role of leader to implement a proper strategy for the allocation of roles and responsibilities in the organization. A proper target and the role accepted from each employee should be assigned and also show them the how they can achieve it. So this will motivate them to work in a better way. When employees are assigned a pre-defined role, and a perk and incentive that is attached to it they are motivated themselves to give their best. A healthy work environment will also influence them to perform in a better way.
3) C
Control system is required to check that the roles and responsibilities assigned to each employee is being achieved by them, leader should implement the policy which is also the appraisal sytem where the employess resonsiblity are checked and how much they are concerned about their work. On the basis of this measure, their perk and growth in the organization is decided, this is a kind of control system in itself because it is giving the employess a feeling that their performance is monitored in the organization.
4) Motivation
A)
Employees in an organization can realize that they have reached the self actualization stage when:
1) They realize that they have the security for future by working in the organization. E.g. an employee sees his career growth and finds that his/her future is secured in the particular organization.
2) He realizes that he is monetarily satisfied: Eg an employee feels that this is what I wanted to earn for my life and reaches his dream to achieve the success.
3) He is satisfied in terms of love and belongings- An employee feels his work and performance is given importance in the organization and there is a friendly, co operative work environment in the organization.
4) Achieves the self esteem he/she wants: an employee feels that he is getting the self respect he wants from the organization then it will make him/her more motivated.
5) Achieves the knowledge and skills to move furher to high level-An employee may feel he can use his knowledge gained to rise further and use it to gain further success.
B)
If X theory and Y theory employees are mixed in the organization, there may be positive as well as negative effect. Positive effect is X theory, employees will be influenced by the Y theory employees to perform in a better way and become dedicated towards their assigned work. Negative effect will be when the Y theory employees will be influenced by the X theory employees and they lose their interest in the organization. So a leader must develop such strategy which will make positive effect to the diversified work environment.
C)
Today in almost all the organization there are employees from different nations, like south Asia , Australia, South Africa or Japan, because nowadays organization believe in expanding their functions cross borders and diversification to gain synergy. It is again like a challenge for leaders to mange such cross cultural people, e.g. A leader may face difficulty in understanding the behavior and way of working of different employees from different nations. In such situations he needs to monitor closely the way of working of cross cultural people and should develop such strategy which will motivate to them effectively, and not be rigid on their own countries values, principles and policies.
References
Daft, R. (2005). The Leadership Experience, Toronto: Southwestern
Elkington J. 1997. Cannibals with Forks; The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business. Capstone: Oxford.
Kouzes, J. & Posner, B. (2007). The leadership challenge (4th ed.). California: Jossey-Bass.
Lussier, R., & Achua, C. (2004). Leadership Theory, Application, Skill Development, Minnesota: Southwestern.
Takala T, Pallab P. 2000. Individual, collective and social responsibility of the firm. Business Ethics: a European Review 9(2): 109-118.
Motivation Theories: Individual Needs, cited from http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Motivation-Theories-Individual-Needs.topicArticleId-8944,articleId-8908.html [accessed on 21st May 2012]
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