Management and Organisational Change Coursework Assignment
Part One:
Mr Simon has spent 12 years continuous service as a line manager in a retail organisation. In the past three years he has twice been considered for promotion via a formal interview process and was unsuccessful. On each occasion the successful candidate had better formal qualifications than Mr Simon, although he had more experience.
He has very recently been rejected for promotion for a third time and is thought to be becoming disillusioned as a result of this. On passing him in the corridor you (Mr Simon's team leader) overhear him saying to a colleague, 'I can see there is absolutely no possibility of advancement in this organisation for me, it's time I moved on'.
Mr Simon is a very hard working and diligent worker and is highly regarded by your team members and replacing his skills and abilities will be extremely difficult.
You are currently studying attitudes, teams and motivation theories as part of a management qualification. Explain why the topics you are studying may be useful in analysing this particular situation and what positive measures could be implemented to attempt to re-motivate this employee.
Part Two:
According to Rollinson (2010) a leadership can be defined as "a process in which leader and followers interact in a way that enables the leader to influence the actions of the followers in a noncoercive way, towards the achievement of certain aims or objectives".
With this in mind, critically evaluate how the leadership style adopted by a manager may either facilitate or hinder change in organisations.
Assignment Considerations - It can be good practice in your preparations for each part to undertake a number of activities. These include:
- Establishing key issues/areas raised by the question
- Defining fundamental terms
- Describing contextual information e.g. background to topic and its significance and/or interesting statistical data
- Identifying, explaining in detail and cross-comparing relevant concepts, models and theoretical approaches
- Applying concepts to contemporary issues within business settings
- Applying models/theories to workplace/organisation/industry examples and/or evaluating the practical application of models/theories
- Drawing parallels between theory and practice
- Evaluating relative merits and drawbacks of opposing academic viewpoints with a view to building independent opinions
- Formulating balanced, persuasive independent arguments based on academic evidence and judgement
- Stating a clear, overall answer to the question
Part One Particular consideration may be given to:
- Assessing the relationship between attitude, job satisfaction and commitment
- Identifying the key issues influencing motivation
- Explaining and comparing theoretical approaches to motivation (content and process) and relating these to the context of employee dissatisfaction/disillusionment
- Analysing the practical applicability and usefulness of motivation theories for managers/leaders
- Evaluating team-working and its impact on addressing individual and to organisational needs
Part Two Particular consideration may be given to:
- Defining and exemplifying organisational change
- Establishing the role leadership plays in directing organisational change
- Identifying leadership traits and/or styles and analysing their impact on organisational change programmes
- Explaining and comparing leadership theories and relating these to the context of organisational change
- Evaluating the practical limitations of leadership theories