WMGM1002 Principles of Management Essay Task

ASSESSMENT DETAIL

Unit Name:	Principles of Management	Unit Code:	WMGM1002
Assessment Task:	Essay	Term & Year:	Term 2 2020
Total Marks:	100	Weighting:	25%
Due:	11pm Friday, Week 4

 NATURE OF THE TASK

This is an individual assessment task.

INSTRUCTIONS

Students are required to write a 1,200-word essay (excluding the reference list) in response to the question posed below:

ESSAY TOPIC: ‘Managing in an uncertain world’.

ESSAY BACKGROUND:

The management and leadership literatures have consistently recognised the important role of ‘Management’ in influencing employee and organisational performance. The world has never seemed more uncertain than during these current times of the Covid-19 virus. Managers can always hope to muddle through the next drought, bushfire or pandemic. Or they can plan for it by having a well thought- out defence and evaluation plan.

ESSAY QUESTION: ‘Critically analyse and discuss how organisations respond to uncertainty’.

RELATED QUESTIONS:

You should critically discuss the following related questions:

1. What is the difference between a ‘vision’, a ‘mission’ and a ‘strategy’?
2. What are the four (4) basic strategy types organisations adopt in an uncertain environment?

• What type of strategy do you think managers should be considering in the light of the current Covid-19 crisis?

1. What ongoing strategy do you think MUIC should adopt in teaching its students in the light of the Covid-19 crisis?

RECOMMENDED READING LIST

The following resources will assist you in your preliminary understanding of and research for the topic.

Students are NOT restricted to these resources and can use their own independent research to find relevant information. Students are however, expected to read and utilise intext, at least 3 of the resources provided below. Remember that for a pass grade, students are expected to utilise at least 6 resources overall.

Miles, RE and Snow, CC 1978, Organising Strategy, Structure and Process, McGraw-Hill, New York. Brass, D 2010, ‘Microsoft’s Creative Destruction’, The New York Times, 4 February.

Robin, M 2013, ‘David Jones and Myer slide into irrelevance: why our department stores are failing’,

SmartCompany, 19 February.

Hambrick, DC 2003, ‘On the staying power of defenders, analysers and prospectors’, The Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 17, No. 4, pp.115-118.

Ketchen, DJ 2003, ‘Introduction: Raymond E. Miles and Charles C Snow’s “Organizational Strategy, Structure and Process”’, The Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 17, No. 4, pp.94-96.

Ariely, D 2008, Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, Harper Collins, New York.

Drucker, PF 1954, The Practice of Management, Harper and Row, New York. Various company websites.

HOW TO PRESENT YOUR ASSIGNMENT

The marking criteria rubric has been placed in iLearn (Assessment Section).

The length of the essay, including citations, but excluding the reference list, is 1,200 words. Include the word count at the end of the essay, and before the reference list. Turnitin similarly should be less than 10%.

Use 1.5 line spacing, 2.5 cm margins on top, bottom and on each side, Times New Roman font size 12. You are required to use the Harvard (AGPS) Referencing style throughout your essay.

All essays must cite, in total, a minimum of six (6) academic/scholarly and peer reviewed articles. This includes three (3) of the recommended articles featured above.

Do not use colour printing or formatting templates when submitting your report. Do not include an executive summary, content section, abstract, footnotes or endnotes. Do not use headings and subheadings.

WRITING STYLE: The essay should be written in a formal and academic style. The essay will be evaluated for discriminatory language, clarity of expression and overall presentation. Do not use bullet points, casual language or bracketed comments. Do not use headings and subheadings, as they reduce the integration and flow of your essay.

Your essay must be fully and appropriately referenced, using Harvard (AGPS) intext citations. Substantial marks will be deducted for inadequate, or incorrect, referencing. Aim for, at least, two (2) in- text citations per 100 words.

The only accepted file type for upload is:

• Microsoft Word® (.doc and .docx)

No other file types will be accepted.

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

This assessment must be submitted via the Turnitin submission link provided on iLearn. Hard copies will not be accepted or marked.

Guidance on how to submit a Turnitin assignment may be accessed from https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/tools-and-resources/ilearn/ilearn-quick-guides-for- students/assignments-and-grades.

Verify that your submission to Turnitin was successful.

You must check that your submission is displayed on iLearn after submitting it.

When you successfully submit your assignment in Turnitin, you will see a message that confirms receipt of the assignment and includes the submission time and date. You then need to click on your submitted assignment to check that it can be displayed in Turnitin.

If you experience any problems with online submission, you must:

1. Take a screenshot of the error message that is displayed
2. Contact your teacher, Wayne Kingston (kingston@mq.edu.au) immediately using your Macquarie University student email advising him of the problem.
3. You must attach the screenshot AND the file of your
4. The email must be received by your teacher before the submission deadline.

If you cannot access or view your submission via Turnitin on iLearn, you have not correctly submitted your work and will need to do so prior to the due date.

If you require assistance submitting through Turnitin, you may lodge a OneHelp Ticket or refer to the IT help page. Please take a screenshot to include with any requests for assistance.

You may make several submissions via Turnitin to check your work for plagiarism and make adjustments accordingly up until the due date.

If you submit after the due date, your submission will be counted as a late submission and penalties will apply (see Late Submissions section below).

Please note that if you wish to resubmit your work after the due date, you will need to contact Wayne Kingston (wayne.kingston@mq.edu.au) using your Macquarie University student email and attach a copy of your submission as a Word document. If you submit again after the due date your submission will be counted as a late submission and penalties will apply.

Please note that for a first-time submission the similarity report will be available immediately but for any subsequent submissions it may take 24 hours for the similarity report to be generated in Turnitin.

It is your responsibility to:

• allow sufficient time for submission of your work and any uploading of documents so try to avoid submitting your work just prior to the

·         ensure that you make the correct submission and that your document can be viewed in Turnitin.

Technical issues such as an internet outage or computer failure are not considered grounds for special consideration. For further details please check the Special Consideration Policy.

LATE SUBMISSIONS

Late submissions are possible but they will be penalised unless the student has been granted an approved extension (refer to the Special Consideration Policy). Late penalties will be calculated based on the marks allocated to the specific assessment task. The penalty for late submission is as follows:

• 5% of the total possible marks will be deducted if it is late by up to 30 minutes
• 10% of the total possible marks will be deducted if it is more than 30 minutes late and up to 24 hours late
• A further 10% of the total possible marks will be deducted for each 24-hour period up to 3 days (including weekends)
• 100% of the marks will be deducted after 3 days and zero marks will be awarded

Please note that online submissions are electronically tracked, and the electronic record of submission will be used to determine late penalties. This means that submitting your work even a few seconds after the allocated deadline will result in a late submission which will attract the penalty noted above. There is no flexibility with the applying of penalties as they must be applied fairly and consistently to all students.

RETENTION OF RECORDS

Student are required to keep a copy of all items submitted or completed for the purpose of assessment or evaluation until the end of the grade appeal period.

FEEDBACK

Feedback will be provided in Turnitin via iLearn by the end of Week 6. Marks will be available in Gradebook.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

Using the work or ideas of another person, whether intentionally or not, and presenting them as your own without clear acknowledgement of the source is called Plagiarism.

Macquarie University promotes awareness of information ethics through its Academic Integrity Policy. This means that:

• all academic work claimed as original must be the work of the person making the claim
• all academic collaborations of any kind must be acknowledged
• academic work must not be falsified in any way
• when the ideas of others are used, these ideas must be acknowledged

All breaches of the Academic Integrity Policy are serious and penalties apply. Students should be aware that they may fail an assessment task, a unit or even be excluded from the University for breaching the Academic Integrity Policy.

EXPECTATIONS OF STUDENTS

Students are responsible for their learning and are expected to:

• Actively engage with assessment tasks, including carefully reading the guidance provided, understanding criteria, spending sufficient time on the task and submitting work on time;
• Read, reflect and act on feedback provided;
• Actively engage in activities designed to develop assessment literacy, including taking the initiative where appropriate (e.g. seeking clarification or advice, negotiating learning contracts, developing grading criteria and rubrics);
• Provide constructive feedback on assessment processes and tasks through student feedback mechanisms (e.g. student surveys, suggestions for future offerings, student representation on committees);
• Ensure that their work is their own; and
• Be familiar with University policy and faculty procedures and act in accordance with those policy and procedures.