1 Tim Whan, Unit Coordinator | SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND LAW MGMT11109 T1 2017 MGMT11109 Assessment details for Assessment Task 2 - Written Assessment - Management Report Task Description You will need to watch this video regarding the history of the manège (an enclosed area in which horses and riders are trained) provided below. Watch until 14.32. The most important areas are those before 14.32. You are then to write a Management Report providing analysis and recommendations about how horses and riders can be managed to success in a contemporary Australian riding school. You will focus on;  the principles, models and theories of management that you have read about in the 12 week unit and how your riding school is planned, organised, lead and controlled;  you will also discuss the external environmental factors affecting your riding school; and  the contemporary management challenge that this presents. An example of a management principle is “leaders are critical to the success of a riding school”. An example of a model may be the ‘Competing Values Framework’ and an example of a theory of management is ‘goal setting theory’. You are required to critically think (which means judge) the value and use of these principles, models and theories. The more critical thinking (ie judging) about these principles, models and theories provided in your Management Report the higher will be your marks. Critically thinking must be demonstrated in your Management Report. For example, you must show in your Management Report that you have deeply thought about or ‘critically thought’ how you are going to plan, organise, lead and control your riding school. Then you must demonstrate this ‘critical thinking’ when writing your Management Report using research (ie preferably peer reviewed academic journals). For example, you would need to critically think about specific questions, such as; “Will my riding school have a written ‘vision statement’?” You will have read about the strategic planning process in Week Seven and would address the planning function of your riding2 Tim Whan, Unit Coordinator | SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND LAW MGMT11109 T1 2017 school from the four basic management functions of planning, organising, leading and controlling, by discussing this process. You will also need to demonstrate an understanding of the environment that your riding school operates in. For example, in the Australian context, welfare of animals at a riding school would be important to stakeholders and how uneconomic animals are disposed of by the riding school would be of interest to many stakeholders. For example, you may give ‘critical thought’ to the establishment of an ‘animal welfare policy’ for your riding school. This would demonstrate your understanding of the managerial environment that your riding school operates in and the processes and priorities of managers at your school. You will also need to identify contemporary management challenges that your riding school must face. From research you should be able to identify that innovation and the management of innovation within your organisation is one way to keep ahead of competitors. Innovation is a contemporary management challenge. What should a paragraph of my Management Report look like? An example of the writing style required for your Management Report is provided in this paragraph. “The findings of Dibrell, Craig and Neubaum (2013) that strategic planning and the innovativeness of organisations are positively related ensures that strategic planning and a written vision statement are vital to the establishment of a new business. A formal planning process involving all stakeholders is recommended to ensure that a contemporary management challenge such as innovation is addressed. Taherparvar, Esmaeilpour and Dostar (2014) go on to say that knowledge from customers has a positive impact on both innovation speed and innovation quality. Knowledge from customers about their approach to animal welfare and disposal of uneconomic animals would be important in developing an animal welfare policy for the riding school. Ensuring that customers, as stakeholders, are included in the strategic planning process is likely to improve the outcome and differentiate the riding school as an innovative new organisation in the market. But how do I get started? Links in moodle (see ‘Guides to assist with developing your Research Skills’ and each weeks ‘Other Resources’) have been provided regarding how to structure and present a Management Report and the elements that are required in an Australian Management Report. Start with the ‘Guides to assist with developing your Research Skills’. Purpose The purpose of this assessment item is to evidence your research skills and your understanding of the Unit Learning Outcomes as they relate to the discipline of management.3 Tim Whan, Unit Coordinator | SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND LAW MGMT11109 T1 2017 Resources You will need to have the following resources in order to complete the assessment tasks below. 1. American Psychological Association (APA) abridged guide updated Term 2 2016; 2. The textbook. Further Details This is an individual assessment task with a maximum word count of 2500 words. Before starting this assessment please thoroughly read this document and the marking criteria below.4 Tim Whan, Unit Coordinator | SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND LAW MGMT11109 T1 2017 The above document (completed by the marker) will be returned to you following marking and contain your marks and comments regarding your management report. These comments and marks will be available following certification of grades on 7th July 2017. The Management Report is written in the third person passive academic style. The Management Report provides evidence of your management competencies and research skills learnt during your study of this unit. The Management Report has a focus on demonstrating your research skills developed in this unit and your ability to judge quality research materials (predominately peer reviewed academic journals) and provide a summary of this material to support your findings in a Management Report. Your assessment will be assigned a mark (out of the possible marks in the brackets below) based on how well your overall assessment addresses the assessment criteria. CONTENT: Demonstrate the academic research skills necessary to at least pass this criterion by providing at least EIGHT (8) academic scholarly references. Further references, well summarised, will score above 8/15. Scholarly references must include the prescribed textbook. Scholarly references must be relevant to the discipline area of management, be from the last five years and be predominately peer reviewed journals (15 marks). Provide critical analysis and demonstrate critical thinking when responding to the assessment task and the inherent contemporary management challenges (15 marks). Demonstrate an understanding of the environmental factors and their impact on managerial and organisational processes and priorities (10 marks). PRESENTATION: Demonstrate a professional approach to the presentation of the Management Report – including structure and presentation, grammar, expression, punctuation and correct spelling using Australian English (5 marks). Observe a strict conformity to the referencing protocol as set out in the CQU American Psychological Association (APA) abridged guide updated Term 2 2016 (5 marks). 50 marks = 50% weighting of assessment for this unit. What are Scholarly References? Scholarly references, defined for this assessment, are primarily peer reviewed journal articles written by academics. A textbook published by an academic publishing house is also defined as an academic reference. Textbooks score less than peer reviewed journal articles for this assessment. You should include the textbook in your reference list for this assessment. A passing ‘References’ list for this assessment, that scores 8/15 would contain the textbook and seven peer reviewed journal articles that are well used, current (published within the last five5 Tim Whan, Unit Coordinator | SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND LAW MGMT11109 T1 2017 years with a publish year of 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 or 2016) and considered a scholarly reference. A reference list is required for the Management Report, however, it is excluded from the word count. Should I use a software system to generate my reference list? The answer here is ‘no’. A relatively small number of references are required for this assessment, the use of software system such as EndNote or Microsoft Word will not save time. You are required to create your references manually for this assessment using the American Psychological Association (APA) abridged guide updated Term 2 2016. The link to this document is below. https://www.cqu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/151126/APA-Abridged-Guide-EdnStudy-Period-2-2016.pdf. If your list is not in accordance with this Guide above your PRESENTATION mark out of five for Criterion Five will be disappointing to you. Late Penalty: A late penalty of 2.5 marks per day will be deducted for each day AND each part day that the assessment is lodged late without a recorded and approved official extension. Students may apply for an extension on the left hand side of moodle under the ‘SUPPORT’ tab prior to the due date. Word Length: A word length of 2500 words is required excluding the ‘Reference List’. Significantly less than these words will impact on all criteria particularly the PRESENTATION criteria for structure and presentation of the Management Report. Management Reports under 2000 words are likely to not score highly in the demonstrated understanding of environmental factors and their impact on managerial and organisational processes and priorities. Also Management Reports under 2000 words are likely to not score highly as you will not have used all words to demonstrate your ‘critical thinking’ skills. Think of a concert that you attend (may be Adele). You think the artist will play on stage for 180 minutes. If they perform for 40 minutes, even though the 40 minutes is good, you will be disappointed and mark down the artists performance for this concert. Management Reports over 2500 words are likely to score lowly in the fourth criteria for presentation and structure as the author would not have followed the directions for this assessment. Following directions is important in Management.6 Tim Whan, Unit Coordinator | SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND LAW MGMT11109 T1 2017 References Dibrell, C., Craig, J.B., & Neubaum, D.O. (2014). Linking the formal strategic planning process, planning flexibility, and innovativeness to firm performance. Journal of Business Research, 67(9), 2000-2007. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.10.011 Taherparvar, N., Esmaeilpour, R., & Dostar, M. (2014). Customer knowledge management, innovation capability and business performance a case study of the banking industry. Journal of Knowledge Management, 18(3), 591-610. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JKM-11-2013-0446