Posted: April 18th, 2015

MELBOURNE INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY

MELBOURNE INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY

MMM132/MMMP132 Management

Trimester 1, 2015

Assignment 1— Academic Essay (individual work)

Background:

Some 90 years ago Max Weber proposed his ‘ideal’ bureaucratic system of organisation design and administration to increase efficiency and effectiveness. According to Samson and Daft (2012, p. 60) the rules and procedures so characteristic of bureaucracies have ensured that ‘everyone gets equal treatment, and everyone knows what the rules are. This has enabled many organisations to become extremely efficient’. There is evidence however in support of arguments against this claim.

 

Task: Write a 2000 word essay in which you discuss and critically analyse claims that Weber’s bureaucracy can contribute to increased efficiency and effectiveness in today’s organisations.

ASSIGNMENT Requirements:

Compulsory assessment task: Students must complete the assessment task for this unit in order to be considered for a pass grade or better. It is therefore compulsory to submit this assignment.

Due date:  Online submission to MIBT Portal by 1.00 pm on Monday 20 April 2015.

Assessment marks: This assignment is worth 40 marks, which is 40% of your final grade.

Word limit: 2000 words (+ or – 10%; excluding in-text citations and reference list).

Relevant learning objectives: On completion of this assignment students should be able to:

• demonstrate a critical understanding of some aspects of the historical evolution of management;
• critically analyse some of the ongoing and contemporary issues facing managers in organisations;
• collect, compare and integrate information from different sources;
• research, summarise and critically assess that information about a management issue.

Sources: Students should use a minimum of six (6) articles from academic journals and your prescribed textbook, but NOT Wikipedia or other non-academic sources.

Suggested academic sources to use in this assignment: NOTE you may be able to download these ONLY from Deakin computers on campus.

Clegg, SR 2012, ‘”The End of Bureaucracy?” in Reinventing Hierarchy and Bureaucracy – from the Bureau to Network Organizations’, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, vol. 35, pp. 59-84.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X(2012)0000035005

 

Cummings, S & Bridgman T 2011, ‘The Relevant Past: Why the History of Management Should Be Critical for Our Future’, Academy of Management Learning & Education, vol. 10, no. 1, pp 77-93.

http://www.deakin.edu.au//library/find/mibt-database-passwords.php

(Please note you will be asked for a login/ID and a password. Your login/ID is mibt and your password is deakin)

 

Dwyer, RJ 2005, ‘Formal organizations in contemporary society’, Management Decision, vol. 43, issue 9, pp 1232-1248.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00251740510626290

 

Hales, C 2002, ‘”Bureaucracy-lite” and Continuities in Managerial Work’, British Journal of Management, vol. 13, pp. 51-66, retrieved 30 October 2014, Business Source Premier database.

 

Hartley, NT 2006, ‘Management history: an umbrella model’, Journal of Management History, Vol. 12, issue 3, pp. 278-292.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17511340610670188

 

Houghton, JD 2010, ‘Does Max Weber’s notion of authority still hold in the twenty-first century?’, Journal of Management History, Vol. 16, issue4, pp. 449-453.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17511341011073933

 

Jamali, D, Khoury, G & Sahyoun, H 2006, ‘From bureaucratic organizations to learning organizations: An evolutionary roadmap’, The Learning Organization, vol. 13, issue 4, pp. 337-352.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09696470610667724

 

Johnson, P, Wood, G, Brewster, C & Brookes, M 2009, ‘The Rise of Post-Bureaucracy: Theorists’ Fancy or Organizational Praxis?’, International Sociology, vol. 24(1), pp. 37-61

http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0268580908100246

 

McKenna, S, Garcia-Lorenzo, L, & Bridgman, T 2010, ‘Managing, managerial control and managerial identity in the post-bureaucratic world’, Journal of Management Development, vol. 29, issue 2, pp. 128-136.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02621711011019260

 

Walton, EJ, 2005, ‘The Persistence of Bureaucracy: A Meta-analysis of Weber’s Model of Bureaucratic Control’, Organization Studies, vol. 26(4), pp. 569-600.

http://oss.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/26/4/569

 

Please note there are ten articles listed. You will see from the marking guide/rubric (at the end of this paper) that the more sources appropriately used, the more marks will be available to students. In other words, six (6) is the minimum number of sources required for this paper. Remember you may use your textbook, and other academic sources beyond those listed above.

Citations and references: all ideas from reading sources must be correctly cited and referenced using the Deakin author-date (Harvard) system.

HOW TO PRESENT AND FORMAT YOUR ASSIGNMENT

Your paper should have the follow sections:

1. Introduction (approximately 200 words):

A good introduction includes: a background of the topic, the aim/purpose of the essay, and the approach you will take (overall essay structure).

2. Body (approximately 1700 words):

• Critically evaluate the claim that Weber’s bureaucracy can contribute to increased efficiency and effectiveness. Using a minimum of 6 sources, analyse the views of your chosen source materials to present your argument about the statement. What evidence can you find to support the statements you make as you present your argument?
• Research widely from the sources to present a comprehensive analysis (see section headed Critically analyse and synthesise the information gathered in rubric/marking guide).
• Use appropriate referencing, and ensure your essay has a logical and coherent argument (see sections headed Communicate information accurately and Evaluate and organise information in a logical and coherent way in rubric/marking guide).
• You may use meaningful headings to help structure your essay if you wish (this is not compulsory).

3. Conclusion (approximately 100 words):

• Sum up the findings of your research.
• Make sure you summarise the core arguments you have presented and provide explicit links back to the essay topic/statement.

4. References

• You are expected to prepare for the assignment by reading and citing at least 6 academic references from the articles provided. You may use all of the articles provided, and/or may choose other additional readings from other peer-reviewed journal articles.
• Wikipedia, answers.com, cheat websites, personal opinion without source support, and social networking sites are NOT permitted. Assignments that use these sources of information/provide personal opinion without source support will be returned unmarked. If unsure, consult your lecturer or the Academic Skills Advisor.

ASSIGNMENT SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Students are required to submit their assignment (in MS Word) online on the Portal through the Turnitin submission box.
2. Information about online submission will be placed on the Portal in the week beginning Monday 13 April 2015. Please note that a hard copy of the assignment is not required, only the online submission will be accepted. Students are expected however to keep a soft copy of their assignment in addition to submitting the paper online.
3. Students MUST ensure the following:
   • the paper is typed, with 1.5 line spacing
   • page numbers are included
   • a title page with title of your essay, your name, id, class, lecturer name, and submission date
   • your document must be named using your id, first name, and family name as the following example indicates:
     • student John Smith, ID SMIJO1302 would submit as SMIJO1302_John Smith

4. No extensions will be considered for assignment submission due date without the approval of the Unit Coordinator. If you believe you have circumstances beyond your control that make you eligible to apply for an extension, you must apply directly to the Unit Coordinator, Terry Gibson, via e-mail: [email protected] before the due date for assignment submission. Supporting documentation must be provided. You will need to download and submit an Assignment Extension form available on the Portal also.
5. Late submissions without an approved extension will attract a penalty of 10% per day. Assignments submitted more than one week after the due date, where an extension has not been approved, will not be marked. Contact your lecturer if you have any issues related to writing and/or submitting this paper.

assignment results:

Your results and assessor’s comments will normally become available to you within 15 business/working days of the due date (unless an extension has been granted). Marks can be accessed from the Portal once the Unit Coordinator has released the marks (ie after all marking has been completed). Papers will be returned to students via the Portal. You will be advised by e-mail when marked papers are ready for you to access.

Before results are returned to students, the unit team will moderate the marking process to ensure that the same marking standards are applied to all students within the unit. If necessary, you may request additional information from your lecturer.

Please note that it is compulsory to submit the Assignment, but it is not compulsory to pass the Assignment in order to pass the unit.

If you wish to discuss your essay results with your lecturer, you MUST ensure you have read through the feedback carefully, and can justify why you believe the grade to be incorrect.   Your lecturer will then examine your essay to determine if a review of the grade is warranted. Should your lecturer ascertain so, your lecturer will notify the Unit Coordinator. A request for a review of results will only be accepted by the Unit Coordinator from a lecturer within 5 days of the marks being released. Please remember, receiving a disappointing result is not a justification for review.

WRITING and referencing SKILLS:

In this academic essay students have the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of management through a practical and realistic approach to their basic research methods and discussion of relevant research materials.

Researching, writing and referencing skills are valuable in all facets of management practice. Effective writing is an essential skill for good managers because written documents provide busy executives with accurate information and appropriately informed viewpoints from reliable sources. Poorly researched work leads to poor decision-making, thereby compromising management.

Students are also expected to be constructively critical and analytical when they write about what they have read. This ensures that the conclusions drawn are not biased.

Please note that all ideas within your essay which have been obtained from your sources, will need to be cited and referenced using the Deakin author-date (Harvard) system. This system is used for other assignments submitted for Faculty of Business and Law units.

These are the reasons why you need to develop your academic writing skills and learn the art of constructive essay writing.

It is highly recommended that you access appropriate resources to assist you with planning, writing, and referencing your assignment. The following resources will be of use to you: your lecturer (your lecturer CANNOT read through your draft prior to submission however you can make appointments with your lecturer to discuss aspects of your paper, to check referencing in areas where you may be unsure, to provide detail about any sections in the marking rubric); Academic Skills Advisor (the AS Advisor can assist with queries about planning your essay, structuring your essay, referencing, paragraphing, paraphrasing, plus any other academic skills needs you may have. You can make an appointment to see the Academic Skills Advisor on your campus through the MIBT Portal); the AS (Academic Skills) Moodle site available on the Portal; Deakin’s referencing site: http://www.deakin.edu.au/students/study-support/referencing/harvard

Plagiarism and other forms of cheating:

Assignments will be checked for plagiarism (via Turnitin) and disciplinary procedures will be initiated if any student’s work is found to include plagiarism (i.e., penalties will be imposed relative to the degree of infringement. Please see Plagiarism and Collusion, and Academic Integrity Policy on the Portal under Forms).

Assignments will be checked also for authenticity, meaning checked to ensure that the student who submitted the assignment is the only author of the work submitted. DO NOT engage any other person directly, or indirectly, to help you write your assignment.

Plagiarism is the copying of another person’s ideas or expressions without appropriate acknowledgment and presenting these ideas or forms of expression as your own. It includes not only written works such as books or journals but data or images that may be presented in tables, diagrams, designs, plans, photographs, film, music, formulae, web sites and computer programs. Plagiarism also includes the use of (or passing off) the work of lecturers or other students as your own.

Plagiarism is a form of cheating that MIBT regards as an extremely serious academic offence. The penalties associated with plagiarism are severe and extend from cancelling all marks for the specific assessment item or for the entire unit through to exclusion from your course.

It is important to realise, however, that it is certainly not cheating to use the work of others in your essay. On the contrary – a well-constructed essay should normally refer to and build on the work of others for positioning, supporting and strengthening your work and advancing knowledge. Plagiarism occurs when due recognition and acknowledgement of the work of others is not provided. Therefore, whenever you are using another person’s research or ideas (whether by direct quotation or by paraphrasing) you must appropriately cite the source. If you are ever in doubt about the most appropriate form of referencing, you should consult your lecturer or the Academic Skills Advisor.

Talking about your assignment with other students is acceptable and encouraged. However, jointly writing up the assignment, or using the same written words from your discussion, is a form of cheating because we are not able to identify whose idea the information is. Unauthorised collaboration involves working with others with the intention of deceiving examiners about who actually completed the work. If there has been any collaboration in preparing individual assessment items, this must be disclosed (clearly stated that it is a joint effort). In the case of group project work, lecturers provide guidelines on what level of collaboration is appropriate and how the work of each participant in the project is to be presented. If you have any doubt about what constitutes authorised and unauthorised collaboration you should consult your lecturer or the Academic Skills Advisor.

Plagiarism occurs when a student presents the work of another person as the student’s own work, or includes the ideas of others as quotations, summaries or paraphrases, without acknowledgement as to its authorship.

 

Collusion occurs when a student obtains the agreement of another person for a fraudulent purpose with the intent of obtaining an advantage in submitting an assignment or other work.

ACADEMIC REFERENCING

• You must show that you have read and understood the academic sources you have used in writing your essay.
• All ideas from the academic sources you have used must be correctly cited and referenced following the Deakin Harvard referencing style. Please see the Academic Skills (AS) Moodle tab for more information, and seek guidance from your lecturer and the Academic Skills Advisor on your campus.

WRITING ACADEMIC ESSAYS

 

In an academic essay there is no right or wrong answer. You will be assessed on the basis of:

• whether you have selected appropriate academic sources to address the question;
• how well you have understood and analysed these academic sources in order to discuss and critically evaluate the statement in the question;
• how well you communicate your response to the question in academic essay format.

 

 

An essay at university level is:

• an argument
  • more specifically it is your argument in relation to the question/statement that you have been set. This means that it is not just a summary of someone else’s views or writing, but is instead a piece of academic work in which you present your answer to the question/statement that draws on a range of other people’s published academic material to support and develop your answer.
• this argument must have a clear, logical structure;
  • this means explicit sections, that each deal with a particular aspect of your core argument and an Introduction that tells the reader what you will argue and how you will structure your argument.
• that has evidence of substantial reading of relevant academic material;
• that supports its main points through references to published academic material;
• that has a Conclusion which summarises again your argument and how you developed this in the main sections of your essay;
• that has an alphabetically ordered reference list of the items referenced in its pages.        

 

 

 

 

 

 

MMM132/MMMP132 ASSIGNMENT MARKING RUBRIC – ACADEMIC ESSAY – 40%

Learning Objective	Performance Indicator
	No Attempt Fail	Needs More Work Fail	Acceptable Pass	Good Credit		Well Done Distinction	Excellent High Distinction
Find and select information appropriate to the task               (max. 8 marks)	No readings used or not cited or readings used very poorly.           (0 mark)	Does not meet readings/citation requirements:   Less than the minimum of six academic references/ readings used and cited and/or readings used very poorly.       (2 marks)	Meets reading requirements: 6 academic references used and cited.     Either inappropriate sources were selected or those selected were poorly used.     (4 marks)	Meets reading requirements: 6 or more academic references used and cited.   Information taken from the readings were relevant, but lacking some depth.       (5 marks)		Exceeds readings/citation requirements: 8 good academic references or more used and cited.   Some evidence of more subtle understanding of the points the readings make.     (6 marks)	Exceeds readings/citation requirements: 10 good academic references or more used and cited.     Highly relevant points taken from the readings and real grasp of the issues.       (8 marks)
Evaluate and organise information in a logical and coherent way           (max. 8 marks)	No attempt               (0 mark)	Poor or no Introduction.   Discussion is disjointed and fragmented.           (2 marks)	Introduction provides little useful information regarding the essay that follows.   Discussion lacks flow and is somewhat disjointed and fragmented.     (4 marks)		Introduction provides some information on what student will argue.   Discussion flows quite well, but is disjointed or fragmented in some places.     (5 marks)	A good introduction provides clear information on what student will argue in relation to the question asked.   Discussion has a logical flow.       (6 marks)	Excellent introduction provides clear information on what student will argue in relation to the question asked.   Discussion has a logical flow and coherent line of argument.     (8 marks)
Critically analyse and synthesise the information gathered                     (max. 8 marks)	No attempt                   (0 mark)	The essay is mostly descriptive or merely reproduces taken-for-granted ideas.   No constructive analysis of the information. No conclusions drawn.             (2 marks)	Some attempt to consider, not merely summarise, the readings.   Little attempt to compare the different depictions of managerial work.   A summary rather than conclusions is provided, little comment on the relevance of theories discussed.     (4 marks)	A fair attempt to consider, not merely summarise, the readings.   Some attempt to compare the different depictions of managerial work.   The conclusions drawn make some comment on the relevance of theories discussed.   (5 marks)		A clear attempt to select and consider key issues from the readings.   A good attempt to compare the different depictions of managerial work.   The conclusions drawn begin to make a thoughtful comment on the relevance of the theories discussed.   (6 marks)	A good attempt to select and consider key issues from the readings.   A very good attempt to compare the different depictions of managerial work.   The conclusions drawn make a thoughtful and well considered comment on the relevance of the theories discussed.     (8 marks)
Communicate information accurately                         (max. 8 marks)	No attempt                           (0 mark)	Extensive spelling, punctuation and/or grammatical errors.   Paraphrasing closely resembles a quote.   Much quoted material provided and presented incorrectly   Very poor academic style and vocabulary.       (2 marks)	Some spelling, punctuation and/or grammatical errors.   Paraphrasing uses too much of the original authors own words.   Too much quoted material provided, and some presented incorrectly.   Mainly correct use of academic style and appropriate vocabulary (4 marks)	Few spelling, punctuation and/or grammatical errors.   Paraphrasing correctly portrays another’s ideas in student’s own words.   Too much quoted material used, but presented correctly.   Correct use of academic style and appropriate vocabulary (5 marks)		Minor spelling, punctuation and/or grammatical errors.   Paraphrasing correctly portrays another’s ideas in student’s own words.   Fewer quotations could be used, but presented correctly.   Mainly correct use of academic style and appropriate vocabulary   (6 marks)	No spelling, punctuation and/or grammatical errors.   Paraphrasing correctly portrays another’s ideas in student’s own words.   Quotations used sparingly and presented correctly.   Excellent use of academic style and appropriate vocabulary     (8 marks)
Reference information sources accurately           (max. 8 marks)	No attempt             (0 mark)	In-text citations not utilised or inaccurate.   Reference list is not correctly formatted using the Harvard style.   (2 marks)	In-text citations are too sparse and/or mostly inaccurate.   An attempt to set out the reference list using the Harvard style, but with several errors.   (4 marks)	In-text citations are accurate in most   Reference list set out using the Harvard style is accurate in most cases.   (5 marks)		In-text citations are accurate and support the arguments made in the essay quite well.   Reference list set out using the Harvard style is accurate.   (6 marks)	In-text citations are accurate and support the arguments made in the essay very well.   Reference list set out using the Harvard style is accurate.   (8 marks)