“Phase 3 Assignment Brief

Essay This assignment is an extended individual essay which allows you to build your critical thinking skills and enhance your
understanding of how organisations work.
Critical thinking is fundamental to your success while at university and
is a skill much valued by employers.

You have written short pieces of academic
work so far some case study analyses and short essays. This more extended piece of work requires you
to explore several aspects of a question and to develop your own ideas on the
foundation of some extensive reading.

This essay makes up 55% of your grades in
Phase 3 and is the largest individual assignment on the Core Programme.
Learning Objectives
This task
will help you:

To
recognise the concept of the business organisation operating within the
parameters of a changing external environment.

To
demonstrate an awareness of current issues, facts and events in the national
and international business world

To identify some key
behavioural factors and explain their relevance to understanding
organisations and people working in them
To write an academic essay with
appropriate referencing
To manage your time to meet
deadlines and obligations including those to other members of your group

The Task
You submit a 3,000 word essay on the topic:

“” Approaches to management, as
embodied in The Human Relations and Scientific Management schools of thought,
were only relevant to management in the early 20th century, when they first hit
the headlines, and have no relevance to management in the early 21st century.””

Discuss
using appropriate, referenced theory and real-world examples to support your
argument.

The Process
In the first two weeks of Phase 3 you have
in-class activities to help you understand the different approaches named in
the essay question. These will include a
case study, a short video and support from the LRC team.

You also have lectures on the topics.

You then have a different style of class in
Week 3 or 4. Each group is allocated a
50 minute tutorial session in one of the pod sessions with your pod staff.

For this session you must prepare an outline of what you intend to say in your essay. Your staff will choose two or three
individuals to go through this outline with the group This should take a maximum of five minutes
for each one. The rest of the tutorial
will be spent discussing the topic.
Everyone is expected to contribute to the discussion.

25%
of your grade for the essay task will be made up of a grade for your
contribution in the tutorial.

Using the input from the tutorial
discussion and the feedback from your tutor in that session, you can adjust
what you want to say and write the essay.

The final pod of the phase in Week 5 moves
on to other things and you all submit by 4.00pm
on Friday March 2nd.

Reading List
University of Bedfordshire Level 1 Core Programme Textbook Volume 1, Week 2 Scientific
Management and Human Resources chapter.
This is Chapter 2 from Laurie J Mullins Management and Organisational Behaviour Edn 8

Locke, E A The Ideas of Frederick W.
Taylor: An Evaluation, Academy of
Management Reviewvol 7 no 1, January 1982
pp12-24

Pugh, D S, Hickson,,D J, and Hinings, C
R, from Writers on OrganizationsPenguin Edn 2 1974 Extracts on Elton Mayo
and F W Taylor provided for you.

Morgan, Gareth Images of Organization Sage Publications 2nd
Ed,1996 Introduction and Chapter 1
provided for you.

In addition, the LRC has a wide selection
of HR textbooks. These cover similar
territory so we suggest you use one of the following in addition to our Core
Programme textbook. There will be
various editions. Choose the most up to
date you can find but any edition in the LRC will be fine for this
purpose. Use the relevant chapter.

Aamodt, Michael G, Human Relations in Business
Wadsworth

Jones, Gareth R, George, Jennifer M, and
Hill, Charles W L, Contemporary
Management McGraw-Hill

Rollinson, Derek, Broadfield, Aysen and
Edwards, David J Organisational Behaviour and Analysis
Addison-Wesley

McKenna, Eugene Business Psychology & Organisational Behaviour A Students Handbook
LEA

Buelens, Marc, Kreitner, Robert and
Kinicki, Angelo Organizational Behaviour
McGraw-Hill

Bloisi, Wendy, Cook, Curtis W and Hunsaker,
Phillip L Management and Organisational
Behaviour McGraw-Hill

Buchanan, David and Huczunski, Andrzej Organizational Behaviour An Introductory
Text

George, Jennifer and Jones, Gareth Understanding and Managing Organizational
Behavior Pearson Prentice Hall

Gold and Silver Grades
You can choose how much you want to do and
how much you want to achieve on this task.

You can get a gold grade (up to A+) if you use
good quality additional source material
that provides more theoretical input for your work. This may be books or additional academic
journals which are likely to come from Business Source Premier on the LRC
website. The input from LRC staff in
Week 2 will provide help in finding additional material.

You can gain a silver grade (up to B-) if
your work relies wholly or almost entirely on the reading list provided. This also applies if the additional material
you use comes primarily from internet sources such as company websites,
Wikipedia and other education sites.

Note that the use of additional material
does not guarantee a higher grade. If
you use a wider range of sources and still produce a weak or poorly referenced
essay, you can still get below a B- grade.

Gold and silver grades apply to the essay
submission only and not to the tutorials.
A full range of grades is available to everyone for their tutorial
contributions.

What are we Looking for?
In the tutorials we are looking for
students to be able to present a coherent and well-supported argument for the
point of view they are taking in their essay.
We expect all students to be able to contribute arguments and
justifications for a point of view in the course of the tutorial.

Do not worry if you are not asked to
present your outline as staff will allow for this and make sure you have other
opportunities to contribute during the session.

For the essay itself there are four foundations
for success:

A good
understanding of scientific management and human relations management
The
ability to relate the theory to appropriate examples
The
ability to analyse the theories and present a well-supported point of view
about the different approaches to understanding organisations
Accurate
referencing

Understanding the Theory

You need to absorb the various readings on
the theories and be able to express them clearly in your own words, logically
and accurately.

Relating the Theory to Examples

The question asks you about the application
of the theories to the modern world so examples of how the two approaches
relate to modern companies are important.
This also helps to show that you really understand the theory and can
see the relevance to modern business.

Analysis and a Well-Supported Point of View

This is the most important step to take to
move from an OK grade to a good grade.
The first element of this is to have a point of view. What is your view of the two different
approaches? How do you think they apply
in the modern world?

The second element is to support your view
with evidence. The evidence comes from
your consideration of the theory you read about and the application of it to
real examples. Note that we are looking
for evidence from your reading not from your personal experience.

The third element comes from how you build
this material in a logical way. Move
step by step building a coherent, logical path through the topic to build to a
conclusion.

Accurate Referencing

As well as a required element in producing
good academic work, referencing is a way of showing the quality of your
reading. Make sure you have a reference
in your text for the source of all your theory and your examples as well as a
list of your references at the end.
Resources
As well as the initial reading list and the
support in the Phase 3 process outlined above the following are available to
help you:

BREO
Learning Units on each of the four elements highlighted as the foundations
for success. A range of material
previously on BREO (eg on Referencing) brought together for this phase as
well as new material. Lecture notes
will be posted here.
A copy of
Alistair Bonnetts How to Argue
is included in your textbook pack specifically for this assignment. Careful use of this book will definitely
increase your grade.
Feedback
on case studies, reflections and other essay-type assignments. Note particularly any comments on being
descriptive rather than analytical and look at the Analysis learning unit
if you want to improve this area.

Submission
25% of the marks for the essay are awarded
for your contribution to the tutorial session of your group. Note that if you miss the tutorial without SID
exemption, you lose the 25% altogether.

Submit your essay through the Assignments
folder of your cohort BREO site by 4.30pm on Friday 2nd March. You should also submit a printed copy of your
assignment at the Student Centre, also by Friday 2nd March.

Note that if you fail to submit by that
date, the Student Centre staff will mark your assignment Late and the maximum
grade you can achieve (unless you have SID permission) is D-.

This assignment is an extended individual
essay which allows you to build your critical thinking skills and enhance your
understanding of how organisations work.
Critical thinking is fundamental to your success while at university and
is a skill much valued by employers. You have written short pieces of academic
work so far some case study analyses and short essays. This more extended piece of work requires you
to explore several aspects of a question and to develop your own ideas on the
foundation of some extensive reading. This essay makes up 55% of your grades in
Phase 3 and is the largest individual assignment on the Core Programme.This task
will help you:
To
recognise the concept of the business organisation operating within the
parameters of a changing external environment.
To
demonstrate an awareness of current issues, facts and events in the national
and international business worldYou submit a 3,000 word essay on the topic:”” Approaches to management, as
embodied in The Human Relations and Scientific Management schools of thought,
were only relevant to management in the early 20th century, when they first hit
the headlines, and have no relevance to management in the early 21st century.””
Discuss
using appropriate, referenced theory and real-world examples to support your
argument.In the first two weeks of Phase 3 you have
in-class activities to help you understand the different approaches named in
the essay question. These will include a
case study, a short video and support from the LRC team.You also have lectures on the topics.You then have a different style of class in
Week 3 or 4. Each group is allocated a
50 minute tutorial session in one of the pod sessions with your pod staff. For this session you must prepare an outline of what you intend to say in your essay. Your staff will choose two or three
individuals to go through this outline with the group This should take a maximum of five minutes
for each one. The rest of the tutorial
will be spent discussing the topic.
Everyone is expected to contribute to the discussion. 25%
of your grade for the essay task will be made up of a grade for your
contribution in the tutorial.Using the input from the tutorial
discussion and the feedback from your tutor in that session, you can adjust
what you want to say and write the essay.The final pod of the phase in Week 5 moves
on to other things and you all submit by 4.00pm
on Friday March 2nd. University of Bedfordshire Level 1 Core Programme Textbook Volume 1, Week 2 Scientific
Management and Human Resources chapter.
This is Chapter 2 from Laurie J Mullins Management and Organisational Behaviour Edn 8 Locke, E A The Ideas of Frederick W.
Taylor: An Evaluation, Academy of
Management Reviewvol 7 no 1, January 1982
pp12-24Pugh, D S, Hickson,,D J, and Hinings, C
R, from Writers on OrganizationsPenguin Edn 2 1974 Extracts on Elton Mayo
and F W Taylor provided for you.Morgan, Gareth Images of Organization Sage Publications 2nd
Ed,1996 Introduction and Chapter 1
provided for you.In addition, the LRC has a wide selection
of HR textbooks. These cover similar
territory so we suggest you use one of the following in addition to our Core
Programme textbook. There will be
various editions. Choose the most up to
date you can find but any edition in the LRC will be fine for this
purpose. Use the relevant chapter.Aamodt, Michael G, Human Relations in Business
WadsworthJones, Gareth R, George, Jennifer M, and
Hill, Charles W L, Contemporary
Management McGraw-HillRollinson, Derek, Broadfield, Aysen and
Edwards, David J Organisational Behaviour and Analysis
Addison-WesleyMcKenna, Eugene Business Psychology & Organisational Behaviour A Students Handbook
LEABuelens, Marc, Kreitner, Robert and
Kinicki, Angelo Organizational Behaviour
McGraw-HillBloisi, Wendy, Cook, Curtis W and Hunsaker,
Phillip L Management and Organisational
Behaviour McGraw-HillBuchanan, David and Huczunski, Andrzej Organizational Behaviour An Introductory
TextGeorge, Jennifer and Jones, Gareth Understanding and Managing Organizational
Behavior Pearson Prentice HallYou can choose how much you want to do and
how much you want to achieve on this task.You can get a gold grade (up to A+) if you use
good quality additional source material
that provides more theoretical input for your work. This may be books or additional academic
journals which are likely to come from Business Source Premier on the LRC
website. The input from LRC staff in
Week 2 will provide help in finding additional material.You can gain a silver grade (up to B-) if
your work relies wholly or almost entirely on the reading list provided. This also applies if the additional material
you use comes primarily from internet sources such as company websites,
Wikipedia and other education sites.Note that the use of additional material
does not guarantee a higher grade. If
you use a wider range of sources and still produce a weak or poorly referenced
essay, you can still get below a B- grade.Gold and silver grades apply to the essay
submission only and not to the tutorials.
A full range of grades is available to everyone for their tutorial
contributions.In the tutorials we are looking for
students to be able to present a coherent and well-supported argument for the
point of view they are taking in their essay.
We expect all students to be able to contribute arguments and
justifications for a point of view in the course of the tutorial. Do not worry if you are not asked to
present your outline as staff will allow for this and make sure you have other
opportunities to contribute during the session.For the essay itself there are four foundations
for success:You need to absorb the various readings on
the theories and be able to express them clearly in your own words, logically
and accurately.The question asks you about the application
of the theories to the modern world so examples of how the two approaches
relate to modern companies are important.
This also helps to show that you really understand the theory and can
see the relevance to modern business.This is the most important step to take to
move from an OK grade to a good grade.
The first element of this is to have a point of view. What is your view of the two different
approaches? How do you think they apply
in the modern world?The second element is to support your view
with evidence. The evidence comes from
your consideration of the theory you read about and the application of it to
real examples. Note that we are looking
for evidence from your reading not from your personal experience.The third element comes from how you build
this material in a logical way. Move
step by step building a coherent, logical path through the topic to build to a
conclusion.As well as a required element in producing
good academic work, referencing is a way of showing the quality of your
reading. Make sure you have a reference
in your text for the source of all your theory and your examples as well as a
list of your references at the end.As well as the initial reading list and the
support in the Phase 3 process outlined above the following are available to
help you:25% of the marks for the essay are awarded
for your contribution to the tutorial session of your group. Note that if you miss the tutorial without SID
exemption, you lose the 25% altogether.Submit your essay through the Assignments
folder of your cohort BREO site by 4.30pm on Friday 2nd March. You should also submit a printed copy of your
assignment at the Student Centre, also by Friday 2nd March. Note that if you fail to submit by that
date, the Student Centre staff will mark your assignment Late and the maximum
grade you can achieve (unless you have SID permission) is D-.”