My Topic: Inventory management strategies used by MNCs and evolution of these strategies. Literature: News and articles related to introduction of forklifts and cranes, bar code systems, impact of transportation on inventory management. Make sure you do your literature review based on credible sources. Main Data Source: Publicly available data/stats of the companies, interviewing officials, case studies. You may find information in these sources. Dependent Variable: Change in performance of companies, change in time taken to process/supply parts, reduction in expenditure. You will need to fine-tune but a performance outcome is likely to be the dependent variable. Independent Variable: Strategies used by companies, history of the companies, environmental conditions, cultural restraints. This could constitute independent variables. Likely Outcome: Change technology brought to strategies used by companies, type of strategies good for specific companies. You are likely to fine tune this too but a good start. My profession is “engineering management” (you’ll need it for the first part of the assignment) Assessment 1: Project context and proposal (40%) This is an individual, written assessment, to be completed in report format. The required length of the report is 1,250 to 1,750 words (excluding title page, preliminaries, tables, figures, reference list and appendices). In-text referencing and a full reference list, provided in APA style, are required. The purpose of this assessment is to provide the contextual background to YOUR future profession, alongside a proposal detailing the topic of YOUR professional project. In order to successfully complete assessment 1, you are required to reflect upon your course (program) of study and the ‘profession’ that is associated with this course. This requires you to explore the notion of ‘profession’ in general, alongside your future career pathways and the specific profession, towards which you are studying. In particular, you are required to write a report including the following: 1. Project context (500 – 750 words; at least 5 high-quality academic and/or practitioner references): Identify and explore YOUR future profession (marketing, HR, accounting or management) Produce a critical review of your understanding of what it means to ‘become a professional’ in YOUR future profession. 2. Project proposal (750 – 1,000 words; at least 10 high-quality academic, peer-reviewed journal articles): Identify a problem or issue – this must be CRUCIALLY relevant to your profession – which your professional project will address, and write the following: • Clear and concise working title for your project; • Background and definition of the issue/problem, including a justification why this issue/problem is crucially relevant to your profession; • Your project’s proposed aim and objectives/research questions; • A preliminary critical literature review on this issue/problem, particularly highlighting any gaps in the literature; • An overview of how you will be proceeding with your project, including secondary information sources, approaches to analyse them, major milestones and a Gantt chart schedule. 1st section of assignment one: • Introduction: How best should I summarise my first assignment arguments • What is a professional? • What is a person in my professional supposed to do in an organisation? • What differentiates them from other workers? • YOUR CRITICAL REVIEW ON PROFESSIONALS AND YOUR KIND SHOULD BE FLESHED OUT AROUND HERE, INCLUDING: • How do they balance technical expertise with general managerial skills? • How does a professional contribute to an organisation? • What standards must a professional in my area maintain? • What level of integrity, ethics must a professional in my area display? And is this something that is mandated by an industry body? • Overall, what does the literature say about professionals generally and someone with a particular training background, such as a CPA, engineer, marketing specialist, etc. 2nd section of assignment one: • What is an important area of expertise that the professional might achieve? • Why is it an important area? • Why is it an important area to research? • What is the background to the problem, including according to the literature? • What theories provide a usual way to think about the problem and research the problem further according to the literature? • YOUR CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE SPECIFIC SUBJECT AREA FOR THE RESEARCH SHOULD BE AROUND HERE. • What gap in the literature has been researched or the secondary data has identified is important to fill, provide insight? • What research questions could a study undertaken on the gap be studied to provide more insight? • Can you derive propositions or hypotheses too? NB. Propositions are usually used for qualitative studies and hypotheses for quantitative studies. • What would be a good methodology for studying the phenomenon/phenomena and why. YOU SHOULD HAVE A FEW SENTENCES ABOUT WHY A METHODOLOGY WILL WORK, ALTHOUGH DO NOTE THAT YOU WILL NEED TO EXPLAIN THIS IN MORE DETAIL IN ASSIGNMENT 2. • How would you summarise what you have argued, explained so far so that someone reading this understands professions generally, your proposed profession, an interesting area to study and why? Your assignment will be marked on the following eight criteria, with the weighting given on the rubric (see above): • Project context • Title, background, definition, justification • Aim and objectives/research questions • Preliminary critical literature review • Organisation of the project • Written communication • Evidence of tutor/lecturer engagement • Quality and appropriateness of references, and accuracy of referencing