19. Teams
General Framework
Discuss the emergence of teams as a key feature of the modern workplace and trace its origins in the context of the changes in thinking associated with the development of schools of management thought.
Individual Components
1. Outline Tuckman’s stages in team development identifying the leader’s role at each stage (Use examples)
2. Apply insights from the study of managerial decision making to decision making in teams
3. Give examples of how the physical structures have been designed to facilitate teamwork
4. Outline the ways in which managers might promote teamwork
The final report on your topic will be written up as a seminar report (worth 15%) and submitted to your lecturer by the end of the semester. You may incorporate ideas generated in the live presentation. The written report should begin with the broad research topic which is followed by each individual component identified by the individual student who prepared it.
Organisation of the research report:
Your essay is to be structured and written as a business report. It, therefore, must begin with a Management (or Executive) Summary within which you state in stark form (i.e. unsupported by argument) what you are asserting in this report and you must do that in less than two pages. As already stated above, you begin the main body of the report with some general background on the broad research topic. This introduction should end with a brief paragraph outlining the plan of the rest of the essay. What follows is the specific issues of each individual component which were considered. As for any good business report these components should be structured into sections and sub-sections and the heading for these should be in the Table of Contents. In these individual components the in-depth discussion of the relevant issues is elaborated based on the existing literature and/or data. You must provide in-text references to your sources. The last section of the report contains a brief summary followed by a complete list of references that are cited in the text of the essay. Follow a standard (havard) referencing method consistently. Suggested limits are as follows:
Management Summary: ideally one page but no more than two.
Sections 1: Introduction 400-600 words,
Section 2: Main body of the essay consisting of each of the individual components limit each component to approximately 1,000 words each,
Sections 3: Conclusions 100-300 words,
Summary and Complete List of References (5-15 references).
Assessment Criteria: There are two components of assessment adding to a total possible mark of 25% of the subject:
The Report which is worth 15 marks. It is here that we assess the academic quality of your work (including referencing) as well as your ability to correctly structure a business report.
The Management Summary 4 marks
Report Structure (TOC, Paragraphs, Sections and use of Diagrams) 3 marks
Academic Quality (incl. Referencing) 8 marks