Management lab and business skills

BM1202 Management Lab and Business Skills

Individual coursework CW3 instructions

Principles and summary

This is a major individual piece of coursework which offers you the chance to draw on the various activities within the module.  You are advised to start it when it is released although you have until after the end of week 11 to submit it.

You should aim to write this as an essay of up to 2000 words.  There are four parts to the coursework and each carries equal weight when we mark it.  You should provide references using the Harvard system and the reference list is not included in the word count.  You must follow some important principles of good scholarship: you need to cite your references, consider whether sources which you draw on are valuable, trustworthy and relevant, and you should keep direct quotes from other sources to a minimum and make it very clear when you do include such quotes. In producing this coursework we would like you to demonstrate:

• That you can produce a significant and well structured piece of written work, and draw on sources that you find and interpret yourself (skills seminars weeks 7 and 8)
• That you can interpret management theory and consider how to apply it to practical examples (lectures weeks 2 and 4)

The particular sessions and lectures mentioned above do not constitute an exhaustive list and you can draw on any part of the module or indeed of any other module within your course.

We will use plagiarism detection software to check submissions for this coursework.

Choosing a function

For this coursework you should focus on one of the following eight functions within a business.  These are the same functions that are used in the Millcaster exercise that starts in week 6.  It is up to you whether to write about the same function that you will be working in within Millcaster but you may find it useful to agree with other members of your team at an early stage of the term, which function each of you will be performing.

ACC: Accounting and finance

CAL: Coordination and legal

CSR: Corporate social responsibility

DGI: Design and innovation

HUM: Human resources

ISP: Information systems and project management

MKS: Marketing and sales

PSC: Procurement and supply chain

You must choose one of these and apply it to each of the four parts of this coursework

Specific coursework instructions

Part A: Consider what you expect to be the most important characteristics of an effective manager in this function over the next ten years.  You can identify personal characteristics, or abilities, or skills that a manager should develop.  This is your opportunity to find out more about the function and to summarise what it entails.

Part B: Choose one business or other organisation with which you are familiar.  The Quinn framework which is discussed in the week 2 lecture, and represented in the diagram in appendix 1 of this document, is based around four possible models.  Which of these models best describes the organisation which you have chosen, and why?  What particular requirements would a manager in your chosen function need to deal with in an organisation based around this part of the Quinn framework?

Part C: Choose one instance where your chosen function has been pivotal in one of the Millcaster decisions.  What were the key challenges facing the team member in this function and how could they be addressed?

Part D: Choose one of the contemporary or historic management thinkers listed below.  Some of these were mentioned in the week 4 lecture and others have been referred to during this module and other parts of your course.  How could this thinker’s ideas be relevant to your function?  More background on the thinkers is in appendix 2

Chris Argyris and Donald Schon

Peter Drucker

Theodore Levitt

Warren Bennis

Clayton Christensen

Henry Mintzberg

Ikujiro Nonaka

CK Prahalad & Gary Hamel

Tom Peters and Robert Waterman

Michael Porter

Richard D’Aveni

Rachel Botsman

Kim, W. Chan and Renée Mauborgne

Jim Collins

Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini

Roger Martin

Pankaj Ghemawat

Linda A Hill

Assessment criteria

The criteria for this coursework mirror those explained in the module handbook, and it is marked according to the standard Bayes grade related criteria which are shown in your assessment handbook.  For CW3 we are looking for an indication in your coursework that

• you are able to apply concepts from your studies to practical business issues
• you recognise complexity, for example by understanding that actions in one part of a business can have unintended consequences in another
• you are able to supplement the course material with things that you find out yourself, including high quality background reading, and are able to recognise when sources of information are authoritative and whether they could be biased
• you have used the university library, or other specialised libraries or databases, and not relied solely on information that can be found using a simple Google search
• you follow detailed instructions where they are provided and use your initiative to determine what to do where something is not defined unambiguously
• you recognise the specific properties and requirements of the function that you are basing your coursework on and do not purely write in a way which could refer to any generic type of manager

Submission and practicalities

Guidance on referencing is available through the university library including the online resource Cite Them Right.  Please do not reference Wikipedia and do not reference anything which might be interpreted as an essay cheat site.

Appendix 1: Diagram of Quinn competing values framework

Appendix 2: Management thinkers

Period: post 1945 to 1980 – Improving Quality and standards of physical products; expanding manufacturing capacity; Recognition of workers as social actors; rise of Japanese economy

Author	Subject of principal concern	Reference to start your search
Warren Bennis	Leadership – Developing a good leader.	Argyris (1977) ‘Double Loop Learning in organizations’ HBR Sep/Oct77, Vol. 55 Issue 5, p115-125. 11p. 1 Chart.
Clayton Christensen	The impact of disruptive technologies on successful companies.	Christensen C (1997) The innovator’s dilemma Harper Business (1997 and 2000)
Henry Mintzberg	Many original ideas of which 2 key ones are – •     Organisational structures of corporations – the 5 ideal types based on detailed study of organisations at the time; Management roles based on shadowing CEOs	Mintzberg (1979) The structuring of organizations Prentice –Hall International
Ikujiro Nonaka	Knowledge management – originator of the concepts of tacit and explicit knowledge in the context of business. Period: 1990s	Ikujiro Nonaka (1991)’The Knowledge Creating Company’ Harvard Business Review. Nov- Dec 1991 Vol. 69 Issue 6, p96- 104.; reprinted by HBR 2007
CK Prahalad & Gary Hamel	Concept of the core competences of an organisation – a fundamental concept for assessing the strengths of an organisation.	CK Prahalad  and Gary Hamel  (1990) ‘ The Core Competence of the Corporation’ Harvard Business Review May/June 1990

 

Author	Subject of principal concern	Reference to start your search
Chris Argyris and Donald Schon	individual and organizational learning – original proposer of concept of double loop learning – key method for critical review of mindsets.	Argyris (1977) ‘Double Loop Learning in organizations’ HBR Sep/Oct77, Vol. 55 Issue 5, p115125. 11p. 1 Chart.
Peter Drucker	Many original ideas including – •        Management by Objectives – for organisations, managers and workers; primary company objective is to serve the customer; •        First known presentation of the concept of Knowledge Worker; now a fundamental idea for all companies	Drucker (1955) The practice of management Pan The Drucker Institute at http://www.druckerinstitute.com/
Theodore Levitt	Introduced the two ideas – marketing and globalisation.	Levitt, Theodore. (1960) ‘Marketing Myopia’ Harvard Business Review. Jul/Aug1960, Vol. 38 Issue 4, p45-56

 

Period: 1980s and 90s – Managing competitive pressures; market volatility; managing large diversified corporations; market volatility

Tom Peters and Robert Waterman	Several original ideas including – •        Management practices that achieve successful companies (US sample) – the importance of focusing on developing employees •        7 S model	Tom Peters and Robert Waterman (1982) In search of excellence, Lessons from America’s best run companies Harper and Rowe
Michael Porter	Many original ideas of which best known are: •        Developing a Competitive Strategy for an organisation – the 5 forces model •        The Value chain; This model identifies a number of functions/activities that Porter considered would normally be found in most companies.	Michael Porter (1979) Competitive Strategy; Techniques for Analysing Industries and Competitors Free Press Michael Porter (1985) ‘Competitive Advantage’ chapter 2 The Value chain;  Free Press; New edition edition (19 Jan. 2004)

 

Period: 21^st century

Author	Subject of principal concern	Reference to start your search
Richard D’Aveni	3D printing technology and Additive manufacturing	D’Aveni (2018) The Pan-Industrial Revolution, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt New York
Rachel Botsman	The effects of digital technology on trust in institutions and the community	Botsman R (2017) Who Can You Trust? How technology Brought us together – and Why it could drive us apart Portfolio Penguin London
Kim, W. Chan and Renée Mauborgne	“value innovation” model in which companies must look outside their present paradigms to find new value propositions. Their approach complements most of Porter’s thinking, especially the concept of differentiation.	Kim,. Chan; Mauborgne, Renée.’ Blue Ocean Strategy’  Harvard Business Review. Oct2004, Vol. 82 Issue 10, p76-84. 9p. 1 Diagram, 2 Charts.
Jim Collins	Leadership of great companies	Jim Collins (2001) Good to Great Random House Business Books ISBN 0 7126 7609 6
Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini	The value of reducing bureaucracy and how to re-organise to achieve this!	Hamel and Zanini (2018) ‘The end of Bureaucracy’ Harvard Business Review November-December 2018; pages 51-59
Roger Martin	Management issues in the 21st century – need for creative thinking; avoiding the behavioural trap, the talent economy	Martin R (2017) Management is much more than a science Harvard Business Review September- October 2017, p129-135
Pankaj Ghemawat	Globalisation in 21st century –  differences matter.	Ghemawat, Pankaj. (2011) ‘ The Cosmopolitan Corporation’  Harvard Business Review. May2011, Vol. 89 Issue 5, p92-99
Linda A Hill	Leadership; training managers	Hill, L.A. (2004) New manager development for the 21st century, Academy of Management Perspective, 18( 3): 121-126