Posted: February 3rd, 2015
Paper, Order, or Assignment Requirements
UNDERGRADUATE DEGREES
Critical Management Perspectives – Individual Paper
Learning outcomes and pass attainment level expect:
You will be assessed according to the following criteria:
The following are indicative of the threshold pass requirements for the assignment.
The stronger papers will clearly build on these threshold requirements to demonstrate increasing levels of originality, depth of research, criticality in terms of analysis and evaluation, and quality of writing and structure. Discussion relating to the levels of assessment will be an integral part of class sessions and seminars. |
Individual Written Assignment and Presentation
The assignment: The Big Idea
The nature of today’s business environment means that contemporary organisations are faced with uncertainty, ambiguity and complexity.
In order to be successful organisations need to find ways to work with and indeed exploit these conditions.
This requires individuals to become more enterprising, resourceful, innovative and creative, and demands more critical or ’outside of the box’ thinking.
Indeed, Brookfield (1987, in Thomas 2003, p6) has stated that critical thinking can be seen as “the central element in improving organizational performance” and should be applied to all facets of organisations including: strategic planning, effective decision making, creative problem solving, situational leadership, entrepreneurial risk-taking and team-building.
For example current conditions raise a wide range of questions for organisations including:
This assignment requires you to address an issue, such as one of those presented above, and by utilising a range of contrasting paradigms or lenses critically challenge current thinking and approaches to organising and the nature of organisations and propose an alternative response to the issue in question. This will become the basis of your BIG IDEA.
This is your opportunity to ‘think outside of the box’ whilst also acknowledging the constraints of ‘the organisational box’.
In response to the brief above there are two elements of assessment for the module;
To be assessed at the end of Term 1.
The presentation will be prepared during Term 2, drawing on discussion and interaction within an Action Learning Set, and delivered during the assessment weeks, subject to the exam timetable.
A presentation schedule will be discussed and confirmed.
Please see the following diagram for further clarification of the assessment. This will be discussed in more detail within the class sessions and seminars;
Presenting your BIG IDEA
There are two methods of delivering the results of your research:
Developing the assignment
This assignment must be seen as a distinct piece assessment, and should not be based on any assignments currently or previously submitted for assessment.
Your paper should have an introduction which clearly sets out your focus i.e. what viewpoints are you putting forward in response to the questions raised by the assignment brief.
The stronger papers will identify and demonstrate an understanding of theoretical perspectives drawn from a range of academic literature
The literature you introduce into your paper will depend on your focus, however you should consider researching from the following indicative resources:
The stronger papers will use the literature and examples thoughtfully to work through a series of coherent phases of analysis and evaluation discussion, from which reasoned conclusions are subsequently drawn.
Formative assessment
The assignment requirements and assessment guidelines will be introduced and discussed within class sessions, and posted on Moodle. These should be used to help prepare and plan the paper/presentation, and to assist in the self-evaluation of your paper/presentation prior to submission.
There will be opportunities within class sessions to share ideas and learning, and to discuss issues being faced with the development of drafts and the final assignment.
As with all of your assignments you should seek to make effective use of all available resources to help develop the paper. These resources include those available via Moodle, including resources and tutor support from the Centre for Academic Success – see link – http://library.bcu.ac.uk/learner/
Please note this is an individual piece of assessment and you should ensure you have read and understood the University’s guidance on avoiding issues of alleged plagiarism and collusion. Advice is introduced within the Regulations pages – uk/student-info/academic-regs“>http://www.bcu.ac.uk/student-info/academic-regs) – and on the Centre for Academic Success Moodle page. If you have any additional questions on these issues it is essential to discuss them with a Module tutor. We reserve the right to put any assignments through our plagiarism software to detect inappropriate use of secondary sources, including books, other sources, Journals and internet sources. Where appropriate we may use a viva (‘an oral examination’) as part of the assessment process to help clarify and establish student understanding, and to examine the research undertaken for the assignment.
Developing the 20 minute individual presentation
The presentation will require you to draw on the discussion and evaluation within the paper to plan, prepare and deliver a 20 minute oral presentation, and to respond effectively to questions from the observing ALS.
The assessment guidelines for the presentations will be negotiated and agreed by the ALS groups, and corporate group, and should be used to shape the individual presentations, and to assist with self-evaluation of drafts.
Method of submission
The primary method of submitting both the paper and the presentation slides will be electronic. Comprehensive instructions will be explained in class sessions.
Your assignment must include a cover sheet which indicates the Module Title, Tutor name, the hand in date, your student number and importantly the word count for your paper, (excluding the list of references and any appendices).
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