General instructions and information for Assignment 1 and 2
The first two assessments are based on the same topic area. To complete these, you will be required to create your own hospitality/tourism/events service organisation, large or small, that you may like to manage (or own) someday. You will need to think about the key aspects of service delivery and as such, focus on the operational management concept rather than simply presenting a business proposal or plan.
Your service deliver plan will be broken down into two parts and it is strongly advised that before you commence Assignment 1 (Part A), you read the requirements for Assignment 2 (Part B) to identify some of the key concepts that you will need to apply to your organisation at a later stage.
One of the major differences between a manager with a university degree and a manager without a university degree is the use of evidence based decision making. We want to see you use this type of decision making with the service organisation you create. As a university graduate you should be able to draw on relevant literature and think constructively and critically about the information you obtain. For more information on critical thinking please refer to the document “Critical Thinking – A brief recap” which is available on the Blackboard site, under “Assessment Help”.
Other important points you should consider when planning, writing, and submitting Assignment 1 (Part A) and 2 (Part B):
There is no need for you to approach any organisation to obtain information. Your analysis must be based entirely on secondary information sourced from observation, academic or applied literature and other web-based sources.
Your reports must be word-processed and double spaced. Handwritten assignments are not accepted and will not be marked.
All assignments must be submitted via Turnitin.
You might find the Factiva database, hosted through the SCU Library website a useful tool for sourcing relevant newspaper/trade journal articles. Consult with Library staff if you are not familiar with this database.
Part A: Your organisation and its Strategic Service Vision (Stages 1&2)
Many organisations face choices regarding the types of services they wish to offer and to whom, and the operational procedures they employ. Frameworks are sometimes used to assist in these decisions. Using Heskett’s ‘strategic service vision’ framework as a template, specifically stages one and two, provide an overview of your organisation, its ‘target market segments’ and its ‘service concept’. In addition to the above, the following questions should be addressed:
1. Outline your core and peripheral services that make up the bundle of services you will offer to your customers.
2. Provide a description of the proposed servicescape. Note that although this is relevant to Part B, it will provide substance to your overview.
3. The service sector is now a key generator of economic prosperity in many countries. However, changes in the context in which businesses operate are having an impact on their ability to provide this economic wealth. Using newspaper articles (print or online) written in the past five years, identify three current issues that would impact on your specific organisation. You will need to include these with your assignment submission.
4. Using a range of sources of information, including both media articles and academic literature as supporting evidence, identify and evaluate four factors that you think will impact on your business in the future.
Guidelines to your Strategic Service Vision report – Part A
This assessment is designed as an experiential learning exercise by having you apply theoretical concepts to a potential real-world situation in a critical manner. You should adopt the mindset of a real business owner/investor for the organisation you have elected to base your report on.
Your strategic service vision report must be presented using academic report format. It should conform to the following format, and should also include a professionally laid out table of contents prior to the executive summary. The word count for each section is a guide to help you, but you may be longer or shorter in some sections depending upon you organisaiton.
Executive summary
An executive summary of a report is a summary that contains a statement of the report’s purpose and an overview of the findings. For this assessment, it should be around 250 words. The summary can only be written after you have completed your report. Write in past tense (e.g. The purpose of this report was to…). If an executive summary is well written the reader should be able to understand the main points, findings, and conclusions of the actual report without having to read the full report.
Section one – Introduction
This is a brief statement of the purpose of the report, what its objectives are, and an overview of how the report is structured. Aim for under 100 words.
Section two – Organisation overview
This is where you will briefly showcase your organisation, its name, description of operations, its bundle of services (core and peripheral services) and its servicescape. A good place to start is Topic 2 of the Study Guide (core and supplementary services) and your text book (servicescape). Your goal here will be to sell the idea of your organisation to the reader/marker. You should aim to keep this under 400 words.
Section three – Target market segments
In this section you are to refer to Heskett’s strategic service vision, stage 1 and using the most relevant headings, identify the type of customers you plan to attract. Although there are a number of headings, you are not restricted to this list and it is recommended that you source other data and/or literature to help determine the appropriate markets. Study Guide Topic 2 is useful for this section and aim for around 400 words.
Section four – Current and future implications
You need to identify three issues (sourced from media and academic literature) that will have future implications on your organisation. It is important here to source information that is actually relevant to your organisation and you must critically analyse the information, potentially exploring strategies to minimise these factors and implications. For example, if your organisation is tourism based you might source information from a research report published by Tourism Australia as well as a media story on traveler fears. As part of your critical analysis you should weight these pieces of information (ie. the research report is more likely to have valid data than a journalists’ story and would influence your decision making more). Aim for under 400 words.
Section five – Service concept
Here you are laying down the foundations for Part B of your assessment and will be brief (around 100 words). It is the how and what of service design, where you need to bridge the customer ’ s needs (as determined in your Target Market research) and the intent of your organisation. You should be aiming to show how you wish the services to be perceived by the customers and other stakeholders. For example, if your organisation is a backpacker accommodation, you might emphasise a cheaper service utilizing mobile technology whereas a luxury resort may emphasise quality service and personalised attention.
Section six – Conclusion
Within this section restate the purpose of the report, then provide an overview of main points covered in your analysis. Ensure that you do not include any new information, only that which has been discussed within the main body of the report. Aim for around 100 words.
Reference list
All works cited must be included in your reference list. Citations must conform to the Harvard referencing style which can be found under Assessment Help (Referencing
Guides).
Appendices
This is an optional section in which you are able to place relevant material which would have otherwise disrupted the logical flow of your report e.g. business data reports. Material included in this section will not count towards the overall word count for this assessment.
Marking criteria
The marking criteria for this assessment can be categorised as general – which apply to the report as a whole; and specific – which apply to specific sections of the report (outlined above).
Marks for this assignment will be apportioned as follows:
Section 2 Organisation overview 5 Marks
Section 3 Target market segments 5 Marks Section 4 Current and future implications 5 Marks Section 5 Service concept 5 Marks Referencing (in-text referencing) 1 Marks Reference List (relevance and consistency) 2 Marks Presentation (table of contents, executive summary, intro and conclusion) 2 Marks
Total 25 Marks
General marking criteria
Below are three general marking criteria that will be used to mark your report:
Demonstrated ability to critically analyse sources
You are expected to ask critical questions of the material you read. Only minimal marks will be awarded in cases where you have merely re-stated what the authors have already said. Can you identify any potential flaws in the concepts? Is there a difference in opinion between scholars? Who do you think is right, and why? These are potential areas of critical analysis you could focus on.
Evidence of original thought and creativity
You must show that you have developed an ability to think about how the theories and concepts covered might be applied in the real world.
Quality of presentation structure; overall content; quality of bibliographic details; written expression
You should present your work in a logical, easy to read format. It should also conform to the structure outlined previously. Students will be marked down for poor written expression, bad grammar, and spelling errors. The expectation is that you have the ability to hone your writing skills, and should thus present well written and presented work. Correct referencing, both in-text and reference list, is essential.