RECENT ASSIGNMENT

THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTHAMPTON
Faculty of Business and Law
MODULE NAME: Leadership in a Changing Context
Module Code Level Credit Value Module Leader
HRMM058 7 20 Hugh Davenport
Assessment Brief
Assessment title:
Cross-Cultural Engagement Report
Deadline:
Please see NILE
Weighting: 50%
Feedback and Grades due:
Please see NILE
Resit Date:
Please see NILE
Please read this assessment brief in its entirety before starting work on it.


Purpose of the Assessment
To write a “Senior Management” Report discussing, exploring and evaluating some of the key opportunities, challenges and issues inherent in implementing an “employee-engagement” strategy across several different regions of the world.
Assessment Task
Imagine that you are promoted to be the head of the HR Division of an organisation with subsidiaries in China, India and England. You can relate this to a previous employer if this “fits”?
You have been tasked with producing an internal report to the Senior Management Team, in which they have asked that you to discuss an “employee engagement” strategy.
The Management Team wants to make sure that teamwork, motivation, engagement and work performance is effective and functioning to a high level across all of these locations.
In your report you need to clearly identify the opportunities such a strategy offers the company but (more importantly) you also need to identify and evaluate the different issues, problems and challenges which you would associate with implementing this type of working across these different cultures and also within these different countries. Please provide related context information as you see fit.
You should examine and address any relevant issues around leading and managing people in these countries. If you can see clear preferences for certain communication styles, are those associated with cultural patterns (of all underlying cultures) and if so, do those advance or hinder the development of good co-operation within these dispersed cross-cultural teams? How do you envision communication taking place and what issues might you associate with these communication processes?
In essence, “what would you summarise as the commonalities which can be introduced right across these different cultures when developing and implementing the “employee-engagement” strategy and what would need to be tailored for any specific country?” (China, India or England)
You need to make practical, specific and relevant recommendations that you consider would help future co-operation and employee-engagement.
You are required to critically evaluate and academically substantiate your proposed considerations and recommendations.
Assessment Guidance
Guidance on how to complete the task:
• Formatted to a high degree, suitable to present to Senior Management
• Clear adherance to the instructions and requirements
• The Report must be research-informed, which means you need to present evidence based on academic reading, not your own practical experience
• You must properly reference sources that you have used
• You must provide a conclusion and present recommendation
Learning Outcomes
The learning outcomes that are being assessed in this assessment are:
a) Contextualise and synthesise literature related to leadership, engagement and cross-cultural functioning.
b) Apply concepts at the forefront of cross-cultural leadership and engagement practice in order to apply in new contexts

Employability & Changemaker Skills
f) Provide an extended critical argument and justification in an appropriate written format.
Your grade will depend on the extent to which you meet these learning outcomes in the way relevant for this assessment. Please see the grading rubric at the end of this assessment brief for further details of the criteria against which you will be assessed.
Word Limits (where appropriate)
The maximum word limit for this assessment is 2,000 words
In accordance with the Assessment and Feedback Policy, as stated in section 4.40 where a submission exceeds the stipulated word limit by more than 10%, the submission will only be marked up to and including the additional 10%. Anything over this will not be included in the final grade for the assessment item. Abstracts, bibliographies, reference lists, appendices and footnotes are excluded from any word limit requirements.
In line with section 4.41 of the same Policy, where a submission is notably under the word limit, the full submission will be marked on the extent to which the learning objectives have been met.
Assessment Support
Generic Grading Criteria
You will find the generic grading criteria for achievement at University Grading Criteria. Also explained here are the meanings of the various G grades at the bottom of the grading scale.
Assessment Submission
To submit your work, please go to the ‘Submit your work’ area on the NILE site and use the relevant submission point to upload your report. The deadline for this is 11.59pm (UK local time) on the date of submission.
Written work submitted to TURNITIN will be subject to anti-plagiarism detection software. Turnitin checks student work for possible textual matches against internet available resources and its own proprietary database.
When you upload your work correctly to TURNITIN you will receive a receipt which is your record and proof of submission.
If your assessment is not submitted to TURNITIN rather than a receipt you will see a green banner at the top of the screen that denotes successful submission.
N.B Work emailed directly to your tutor will not be marked. The only exception to this is when you are instructed to do so because TURNITIN is down.
Late submission of work
For first sits, if an item of assessment is submitted late and an extension has not been granted, the following will apply:
• Within one week of the original deadline – work will be marked and returned with full feedback, and awarded a maximum bare pass grade.
• More than one week from original deadline – maximum grade achievable LG (L indicating late).
Extensions
The University of Northampton’s general policy with regard to extensions is to be supportive of students who have genuine difficulties, but not against pressures of work that could have reasonably been anticipated.
For full details please refer to the Extensions Policy. The module leader can, where appropriate, authorise a short extension of up to two weeks from the original submission date for first sits only.
Mitigating Circumstances
For guidance on Mitigating circumstances please go to Mitigating Circumstances where you will find detailed guidance on the policy as well as guidance and the form for making an application.
Please note, however, that an application to defer an assessment on the grounds of mitigating circumstances should normally be made in advance of the submission deadline or examination date.
Plagiarism and Academic Integrity
Unless this is a group assessment, the work you produce must be your own with work taken from any other source properly referenced and attributed. The University of Northampton policy will apply in all cases of copying, plagiarism or any other methods by which students have obtained (or attempted to obtain) an unfair advantage.
If you are in any doubt about what constitutes plagiarism or any other infringement of academic integrity, please read the University’s Academic Integrity and Misconduct Policy. For help with understanding academic integrity go to UNPAC and follow the Top Tips for Good Academic Practice on the student hub.
Please note that the penalties for copying work from another source without proper referencing are severe and can include failing the assessment, failing the module and expulsion from the university.
Feedback and Grades
These can be accessed through clicking on the Feedback and Grades tab on NILE. Feedback will be provided by a rubric with summary comments. For work submitted to TURNITIN, please also click through for within text comments