5/11/2017 Assignments: Introduction
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About ADMN 404
Assignments: Introduction
Be sure to check the FAQs should you have any questions about the assignments.
Your final grade in ADMN 404 is based on your quiz marks and your marks on three
assignments. Each of these assignments requires you to analyze an organization's situation.
In your first assignment, you will analyze the organization’s situation and do nothing more.
In your second assignment, you will go one step further and propose some strategies the
organization might employ. These first two assignments are based on cases from the back
of your textbook.
In your final assignment, you will analyze the organization’s situation, propose some
strategies, and then recommend one of those strategies along with the most important
actions the organization must undertake to implement it.
Your last assignment will be based on an organization of your choosing. It can be a small,
private organization; it can be a large, publicly traded company. It can be an organization
with which you are involved or an organization in which you are interested. You should
immediately start thinking about the organization you will choose for Assignment 3 and,
once you make your decision, submit it for approval (by completing Assignment 0). Shortly
thereafter, one of the Academic Experts will let you know if your selection has been
approved. If not, you will have to choose another organization. The decision of the
Academic Expert may not be appealed.
Choosing an Organization
In choosing an organization for Assignment 3, keep in mind that you will need to access a
lot of information about the organization. Most importantly, perhaps, you will need access to
its financial information. This is not a problem for publicly traded corporations. And it’s
usually not a problem with nonprofit organizations. However, privately held corporations
may be more reluctant to share this sort of information with outsiders. Therefore, you
should confirm that you will be able to get access to the necessary information before you
seek permission to analyze the organization in Assignment 3. You should also confirm that
this organization does not object to you revealing some of this information to your
marker/professor.
Something else to keep in mind when choosing your organization is that your analysis must
reflect the organization’s current situation. Any significant developments happening more
than a month prior to the submission of your assignment must be reflected in your analysis.
So just to clarify, you cannot, for example, analyze Google’s situation in 2007.
Once you have chosen an organization, the next step is to get permission to analyze it. To
do this, complete and submit Assignment 0. If it’s a publicly traded organization, enter the
exchange on which it trades and its stock symbol. If it’s not publicly traded, enter the city
and the province/state/region in which it is based. You will receive a response from your
Academic Expert.
Please note that Assignment 0 does not contribute marks towards your final grade.
Be aware that you will not be permitted to submit Assignments 1, 2, or 3 until you have had
an organization approved for Assignment 3 (i.e., you have completed Assignment 0). If
you’re wondering why, it’s simply to ensure that you get an early start on Assignment 3.5/11/2017 Assignments: Introduction
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Ideally, you should start gathering information for that assignment around the same time
that you commence Assignment 1. For that reason, selecting an organization and having it
approved should be among the first things you do in this course.
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