Organisational Behaviour and Organisational Behaviour Applied to Management BUS-201/202

Document Type: Group Presentation

Deadline:29/10/2012

Lecturer:MsSandra Hopkins

Date Published: 12th October 2012

Group Assignments

1. Tasks

i. Group presentation – 10 minutes - (25% of overall module mark)

and

ii. Individual Written Report – 2000 words - (25% of overall module mark)

Group 1: Ivy, Sherry, Helen, Bill

Group 2: Sally, Nancy, Mandy, Demon

Group 3: Jim, Lisa, Damien, Green

Expansion in a medium sized cake making company

You and your team manage a medium sized company in Beijing which makes and sells cakes to cake shops. The company has 55 employees and is based in one building. It currently opens from 6am to 7pm. You have recently won awards for the quality of your cakes! This has created an increase in business. Congratulations!

Changes:

a) You have1 new client who wants to have a long term contract with you.

Client 1 is based in Beijing and wants the same cakes which you always produce. This means you will need to produce 50% more cake per week.

b) You have had enquiries from a client in the UK who would like to work with you to develop a new contract. If successful, this would allow you to open a branch in the UK in the next 3 years. None of the managers in your company currently speak good enough business English or know anything about UK trade.

Write a report to the Company’s Director, recommending which changes will need to be made to the organisation in order to fulfill existing contracts, new contracts and potential new contracts.

In your answer, you should consider (where relevant):

- Human Resources issues (eg, teams, groups, skills, recruitment, training)

- Facilities and operations issues (eg, buildings, location, equipment)

- Policies and Procedures issues (eg, pay, recruitment, equality, flexible working)

- Organisational structureissues (eg, organogram, hierarchy of management, teams, groups, horizontal and vertical)

- Risk issues (eg, risks associated with each change)

Your current company structure is shown in the organogram below:

2. Report Requirements

1. Your report must be in the standard business report format:

  1. Title Page
  2. Table of Contents
  3. List of Figures
  4. Executive Summary
  5. Methods
  6. Main Body
  7. Recommendations
  8. References/Bibliography

2. The report must contain 2000 words (+/- 10%) excluding the bibliography and table of contents.

3. You must cite any references you used in the text as well as in the

Bibliography.

4. You must use the Harvard referencing model.

5. This must be original work.

6. You must use the information you’ve gathered to provide your own analysis of the situation. So, whilst it is important to provide your own opinion, you need to have appropriate evidence to back any opinion up.

3. Presentation Requirements

  1. Your presentation must be 10 minutes (+/- 10%).
  1. You can use PowerPoint slides (ppts), or any forms of media that will help you convey your findings to the Board of Directors.
  1. Everyone in your group must participate in the oral presentation.

Deadline: 29th Oct 2012

4. Report Tips

The following tips will help you complete your group assignment to a high standard.

  1. This report is aimed at assessing your understanding of organisational behaviour concepts. It will assess your ability to apply theoretical knowledge you have acquired over the next few weeks.
  2. Know who your audience are and what they need to know.
  3. Remember to be succinct in your writing. Do not waste time filling your report with irrelevant information.
  4. Gather the information you need, organise it and focus on ensuring the information is clear and you have included all the relevant key points.
  5. It is strongly recommended that you do the pre-writing stage together (gathering, organising and focusing). It is much better to do this together because your report will be very cohesive then.
  1. It is also strongly recommended that you split the writing into different sections for each person of the group. The main body is the largest part so it is a good idea that you all contribute to this section. It will contain a number of paragraphs so do a number of paragraphs each.
  2. The Harvard Referencing System will be continuously used throughout this report (This includes in-text referencing!). Therefore do not give someone the bibliography portion to do. ALL of you have to contribute to that. Microsoft Office has built in formatting tools to help you with this.
  3. When editing, think about style. It is important to make the whole report look professional and uniform (i.e.) the same fonts, same line spacing and the same style of headings.
  4. Do use images and diagrams if you feel they are appropriate, just ensure you include them in the list of figures and ensure you reference them.
  5. Do get information from as many sources as you can.You should analyse the results as a source of primary information. You can read newspapers, books, websites, journals etc. for sources of secondary information.
  6. Do not leave it until the last week to complete your assignment.Start gathering information and organising your information as soon as you can.
  7. There are a number of communication strategies for staying in touch with each other even if you aren’t in the same dormitories.
  8. Do set yourselves and people in your group deadlines to produce work from the beginning. Make a schedule for what each of you needs to do by what dates.
  9. Do ensure you have version control i.e. that you all have the latest version of the report.
  10. If people are being lazy in your group and doing nothing please inform your lecturer or tutors straight away.
  11. When help is needed, just ask your teachers. We are here to guide you.

Page:
Page 1 of 5 / Document Type:
Group Presentation / Deadline:
29/10/12 / Date Published:
07/10/2012