Assessment Details and Submission Guidelines
Trimester T1 2022
Unit Code HI6008
Unit Title Business Research Project
Assessment Type 1. Research Project Development (including Topic, Problem Statement, Research Question), with Team Charter Appendix (Presentation may be requested)
Assessment Title Topic Development
Purpose of the assessment (with ULO Mapping) Clearly identify your chosen topic, having carried out some basic review of available secondary data to secure your interest (e.g. at least 3 academic articles, plus a business report, plus a relevant current news item). Indicate the Research Problem, as you see it so far, and at least ONE research question at this stage (additional questions may be defined as you progress with this unit).
Unless you are a SOLO GROUP (i.e. one person working alone) this assignment also requires the addition of an appendix in which you list the student numbers and names of your team members and complete a Team Charter, indicating what role(s) each will contribute throughout the project.
A brief presentation in-class may be requested by your lecturer.
Matches to Unit Learning Outcomes 1, 2, and 5
Weight 20 % of the total assessments
Total Marks 20
Word limit Not more than 1200 words for the Topic Approval [Note that a Team Charter, which is to be appended unless your group is ‘solo’, is additional to the 1200 word-count of the Topic Approval]
Due Date Before midnight on the Friday of Week 6, i.e. 29 April
Submission Guidelines • All work must be submitted on Blackboard by 12 midnight on the due date, with a completed Assignment Cover Page as one single document. [If no cover page your mark may be reduced -20%; Late submissions attract penalties at the rate of -5% per day]
• The group members’ names and student numbers listed on the Cover Page must align with the members officially registered in your group. [any errors or omissions may affect your grade and there is no guarantee of any adjustment]
• The assignment must be in MS Word format, 1.5 spacing, 12-pt Arial font and 2 cm margins on all four sides of your page with appropriate section headings, paragraphing, and page numbers.
• Reference sources must be correctly cited in the text of the report, and listed appropriately at the end in a reference list (see Holmes Adapted Harvard Referencing Style)
*Note: Students are required to form groups consisting of 3 students per group. If you are unable to form a group, you will have to undertake this assignment as a ‘solo-group’, in which case you must enroll yourself as a group of 1 (i.e. you). By working solo you will unfortunately forego the marks allocated to the Team Charter appendix. You will not be able to submit your assignment unless you are OFFICIALLY enrolled into a group. Submit the assignment as a single document, including the Holmes official COVER SHEET as the first page. Once formed, the group composition remains fixed for the duration of the trimester. For help with any group formation matters, please address your email to bbhelpdesk@holmes.edu.au ensuring that your full details (Name, student ID, unit name and number, assignment details, and campus) are included.
Assignment 1 Specifications
Purpose:
This unit aims to give you an opportunity to combine many facets of your acquired MBA skills into the production of a high-quality research project. Your tutor’s main role will be to FACILITATE you through the process, week by week. The learning will be progressive, so for best results you will need to be listening to the weekly lectures as well as in contact with your tutor during the interactive tutorials.
Assignment 1 - the Topic Development - is to ensure you have given sufficient thought to the topic you are choosing to base your research project on. For this assignment the topic you choose must be a business problem relevant to the state in which you are based in Australia and must be specified as related to a particular industry that is relevant to that state.
You must select one of the 2 projects listed below. The one you select must hold your interest for the full 12 weeks. You do NOT need to request approval for your topic and DO NOT expect your tutor to allocate you a topic. You are required to develop your topic to ensure that it has relevance as a business-related problem and has a specific Research Question that you intend to try and resolve. Your research must be as current as what the relevant academic literature supports (typically post-2018)
Each group must select one of the following interest areas (no exceptions are allowed):
Select ONE from this list:
• A case study of organisational behaviour in an Australian small business or owner-managed family business. This study must be grounded in the theories you learned in your Management, Leadership, or Organisational Behaviour MBA unit.
• An appreciation of the types of Ethical dilemmas in an Australian business (must be grounded in ethical theory)
The title of your submission must contain the economic sector / industry / company, and the Australian state that you base it on.
You will work in a group consisting of 3 students (i.e. the maximum size of an assignment group in this unit is 3 persons). Your respective contributions in this first assignment (as well as assignments 2 and 3) will be governed by your assignment group’s Team Charter, which is an appendix you will submit at the same time as your Topic Development. The Team Charter appendix must indicate what roles will be undertaken by each member of the team. If you are working SOLO, the team charter appendix is NOT required.
Assignment Structure
Your Topic Development Report should be in accordance with the following structure:
1. Official Cover Sheet (see Blackboard site)
2. Project Title in full (must contain the actual business activity/problem that it relates to; and/or the economic sector or industry or company that you are focusing on; the Australian state that you base it on) and discuss in detail why this topic interests you (see Marking Rubric row 1)
3. Discuss your initial search for relevant literature and show that it has provided you with a good initial contextual understanding of the topic and its associated business-related problem(s). (see Marking Rubric row 2)
4. Define the Research Problem that your team intends to address. (see Marking Rubric row 3)
5. Propose at least ONE specific Research Question that your team will be seeking to answer through your research project. (see Marking Rubric row 4)
6. Append a Team Charter (unless working Solo) and include the student numbers and names of your team members.
HI6008 Assignment 1 – Topic Development - Marking Rubric
Excellent
5 Good
4 Satisfactory
3 Questionable
2 Unsatisfactory
0-1
Topic is correctly specified and discussed in detail Topic is clearly identified with robust concise discussion Topic is clearly identified with very good discussion Topic is clearly identified with good discussion Topic is identified Missing or confused
Initial literature search and sources 5 or more current academic sources with compelling argument At least 4 academic sources with good argument At least 3 academic sources with good discussion At least 3 academic sources with some useful discussion Insufficient rigour
Statement of Research Problem Clear, concise, compelling The research problem is very-well evident The research problem is well-evident The research problem is evident Missing or confusing
Statement of Research Question Clear, concise, compelling The research question is very-clearly stated The research question is clearly stated The research question is stated Missing or confusing
Total Marks (20)

/20
Penalties Applicable Late submission: …………. Days @ -5% per day = ………………….
no team charter -10% (unless solo group)
No cover sheet / incorrect / inaccurate / not single document @ -20%
Non-compliant referencing @-10% Recorded Mark
/20

Team Charter Appendix (NOT for SOLO groups)
Here the team members must discuss their individual interests, strengths and weaknesses and contemplate who can best contribute what over the period of the business research project. For example, while all members of the team must contribute to the whole project, the team members may decide that a particular person will take the lead role in a certain section of the project, such as the sourcing of relevant literature. [If one member takes on the lead role it doesn’t mean that others don’t do any of the work, just that they will be guided by the one leading that section of the project]. It is recommended that each team member assumes a leading role for one aspect of the team effort. The result of your discussions should be documented as a five-point plan, as indicated below:
1. Explain the team’s agreed goals and timeline for completion (Due dates, meetings, milestones, deliverables)
2. Who will be responsible for each activity? and/or What particular team-roles will each member contribute to the team?
3. What are your team’s expectations regarding meeting attendance (being on time, leaving early, missing meetings, etc.)?
4. What process will team members follow if they have an emergency and cannot attend a team meeting or complete their individual work promised to the team (deliverable)?
5. How will your team ensure that members contribute as expected to the team and that the team performs as expected?
Append this Team Charter as the last page of your Topic Development submission.
Holmes Adapted Harvard Referencing
Holmes has now implemented a Holmes adapted Harvard approach to referencing:
1. Reference sources in assignments are limited to sources which provide full text access to the source’s content for lecturers and markers.
2. Your Reference list is to be located on a separate page at the end of the essay and titled: References.
3. It should include the details of all the in-text citations, arranged alphabetically A-Z by author surname. In addition, it MUST include a hyperlink to the full text of the cited reference source.
For example;
Hawking, P., McCarthy, B. and Stein, A. 2004. Second Wave ERP Education, Journal of Information Systems Education, Fall, http://jise.org/Volume15/n3/JISEv15n3p327.pdf
4. All assignments will require additional in-text reference details which will consist of the surname of the author/authors or name of the authoring body, year of publication, page number of content, paragraph where the content can be found.
For example;
“The company decided to implement an enterprise wide data warehouse business intelligence strategy (Hawking et al, 2004, p3(4)).”

Adherence to Referencing Guidelines is Mandatory
If students do not follow the above guidelines:
1. Students who submit assignments which do not comply with the guidelines will incur penalties.
2. Students whose citations are fake will be reported for academic misconduct.