Assessment 1- Individual Assignment - Short essay (10%) - 750 words
Date due: Monday, 31 August 2015
Please select ONE question
1. Is the understanding and maintaining of the ‘psychological contract’ important for today’s organisations? Why is this relevant to the role of managers? Illustrate your answer with examples. ?
2. Discuss the impact of an increasingly diverse workforce on today’s organisations. How is this relevant to the role of managers? Illustrate your answer with examples. ?
3. Discuss the relevance of emotional intelligence and emotional management to the workplace today. When is this relevant to the role of managers? Illustrate your answer with examples. ?
Explain the concepts in your own words and use specific examples to highlight your understanding. Examples can come from your own experience in one or more workplaces, from reading articles in magazines/ newspapers or from watching media news/ documentaries.
Guidelines:
• This assignment is not meant to be difficult. These are not ‘trick’ questions and you should be able to answer any of the three questions after attending the first two lectures and tutorials and reading Chapter 1 and 2 of your recommended textbook. However, you will note that the questions also require you to think independently and demonstrate your understanding through application and/or use of examples. You are encouraged to use sources other than your text to inform your essay (such as scholarly journal articles) and to demonstrate or apply theory by example (such as from reports in the business press). ?
• You should write in essay style (maximum 750 words). This means your assignment has to have a beginning (introduction), middle (body of essay) and end (conclusion). In this essay, you can include elements of report writing such as numbered headings and bullet-point lists – but make sure you use them appropriately (i.e. to enhance clarity of your message). Do not use sub- headings, table of contents, or appendices. ?
• Please use 1.5 spacing and align your text to the left (Ctrl + L); ?
• You are expected to cite at least 2 or 3 quality references (such as from relevant journal ?articles) to support the argument in your essay. You are additionally encouraged to demonstrate ?the argument in your essay (e.g. by citing examples from the business press) ?
• Be careful when using material from written sources (e.g. the textbook, journal articles, business ?magazines) that you reference your work thoroughly in text using the Harvard Referencing System*, and that you provide a list of references at the end of your essay. References (but not reference list) contribute to the word count. If you are unsure about referencing conventions, please contact the Library or the Student Learning Centre for help (see study guide at http://www.flinders.edu.au/slc_files/Documents/Blue%20Guides/Harvard%20Referencing.pdf) ?For example, always cite a page number when you can but particularly if a book or quote, thus referencing in text looks like this:
• Mintzberg’s work indicates that managers are very busy people (Bartol, Tein, Matthews and Sharma, 2008: p8). ?
• Mintzberg discovered that “managers handled an average of 36 pieces of mail per day” (Bartol, Tein, Matthews and Sharma, 2008: p8). ?
After the first citation you may use the shorthand notation: et al. e.g. (Bartol et al., 2008: p12).
• Law students please discuss this with your tutor if necessary.?
Assessment Criteria:
The marking criteria which will be used to assess your work are listed on the feedback form for this assignment. A copy of the feedback form is shown on the next page. While each criterion is equally weighted, as the criteria are inter-related, you will receive a single mark for the essay rather than individual marks against each criterion.
A good standard of English language and expression is expected. It is advisable to use the spell/grammar check function in your word processing package when drafting your work. Please note that some members of our teaching team are from a non-English speaking background. We are sympathetic and encouraging to students working in their second language.
We encourage you to discuss your work and exchange ideas with other students. However, when you come to write your essay this must be your own work, and in your own words. In each question you are given an opportunity to demonstrate originality by generating examples and/or drawing upon your own experience.
The electronic text matching software application Turnitin will be used to indicate potential plagiarism.
Learning agreements:
One of the main purposes of this assignment is to allow the teaching team to assess your strengths and development needs, and to give you early feedback and direction. It is likely that some of you will be disappointed with the grade awarded. The assignment is weighted at 10% in order to minimise the risk to your overall grade for the topic. Please accept that there is nothing wrong with failing. It just means that we have to try harder and learn to do things differently. As we shall learn during this topic, failure is often a pathway to innovation, change, and reform if only we are prepared to critically reflect upon and learn from our mistakes.
If the teaching team think that you are struggling, we will ask you to attend for consultation to discuss and help diagnose the problems. We will then ask you to enter into a learning agreement with us. These are very individual, but typically would involve you agreeing to attend some study- skills session(s) and setting some goals for improvement.