Managing Organisational Behaviour Assignment: Written assignment
Critical analysis of a personal experience:
Task 1 -
Think of a story/scenario about an incident/event/problem which has occurred or is currently occurring in your working life and/or organisation (which may include experiences working/attending charity, school and sporting organisations) and in which the concepts of learning, team dynamics and communication are relevant.
Write this story/scenario down (in no more than 500 words or one page). Be sure to include the titles/descriptions of key people/actors and descriptions of relevant situational variables (who? what? where? why? how?).
Several examples of scenarios appear in the 'Assignment 2' topic area on the MGT5000 Study desk (Note: some of the concepts may differ in the scenarios from the concepts you are being asked to capture).
Guidelines to write the scenario
- The scenario should commence with an opening statement which sets the scene in terms of the relevance of the scenario to you, eg, "This scenario relates to a case of a colleague in my area who caused me extra workload because he took unexpected leave."
- Try to limit the number of people/players you introduce into your scenario - the less complicated the scenarios the more easily and accurately the evaluator can come to understand the scenario.
- The scenario must describe an event/problem which could be analysed from a learning perspective (be it an individual's learning experience, or a team's learning experience or even at the organisational level of learning). (See chapter 4 of text)
- The scenario must describe an event/problem which could be analysed from a team dynamics perspective. (See chapter 7 of text)
- The scenario must describe an event/problem which could be analysed from a communication perspective. (See chapter 13 of text)
- The story/scenario should be concrete (about real people, actions and events); familiar to a work setting and believable to those who read it.
- Structurally your story should involve a setting, a build-up (trouble's coming!) and a crisis, problem or climax.
- The information you include in this assignment is for assessment purposes only. If you feel the need, you are welcome to change identifying information such as names of people, organisations and places. If you feel a particular scenario is too sensitive to discuss - then please select another scenario from your experience that you are comfortable discussing in your assignment.
Task 2 -
Analyse the scenario/event/problem by critically discuss the following organisational behaviour issues as they pertain to the scenario:
1. Identify content from Chapter 4 of the textbook related to learning and reinforcement that is relevant to your scenario. Critically discuss the impact that the reinforcement mechanism/s evident in this scenario had on the learning of the key player(s) in the scenario. Draw on additional sources to support your analysis.
2. Identify content from Chapter 7of the textbook related to team-building processes, team performance and team cohesiveness that is relevant to your scenario. Critically discuss the impact that the team building process and team cohesiveness had on the team's performance in the scenario. Draw on additional sources to support your analysis.
3. Identify content from Chapter 13 and the Module 5 Study Guide related to communication that is relevant to your scenario. Critically discuss the impact that communication had on the events described in your scenario. Draw on additional sources to support your analysis.
NOTE on Task 2: Don't be put off by the terms 'critically discuss'. In simple terms, it involves the process of analysis. Unfortunately, over the years, many students don't quite understand what an analytical approach to assignment questions mean. Instead, they present an answer to an assignment question in very descriptive terms - that is, they just define terms and describe or repeat what the textbook presents. Every answer will contain an initial aspect of description but the analytical aspect of your writing is when you identify the issues in the material, the arguments and results that are apparent in the material and the differences of opinion expressed by various authors on the topic under discussion. You answer the question by presenting and analysing the 'facts' contained in the relevant material, and presenting an answer as a supported and logically presented argument - a critique. Your support comes from the authoritative references you present. Critical analysis or discussion can involve commenting on the significance of mismatches/matches between the scenario and theory. You can focus on the strengths and weaknesses of the theory and links between or disconnects between theories or scholarly writings about the theory. A strong answer from a student that incorporates critical discussion within the context of their scenario might for example follow this example formula:
Briefly describe Reinforcement theory X which predicts that ABC will happen when EFG occurs.
Let's say EFG has occurred in this scenario but ABC has not resulted.
This highlights a shortfall in the theory X.
And perhaps the competing impact of Z's theory of communication may explain this variance.
Task 3 -
Draw up a table of recommendations in which you make a total of three (3) recommendations that management could implement to resolve or improve the challenge or issue described in your scenario. You need to make a recommendation for each part of Task 2, that is, one recommendation that addresses learning and reinforcement issues; one recommendation addressing the team dynamics; and one recommendation addressing communication issues described in your scenario. Your recommendations need to be a logical extension of the discussion in Task 2. This means you need to provide a rationale for each recommendation that draws on the theories you discussed in Task 2.
An example of a 'table of recommendations' appears in the 'Assignment 2' topic area on the MGT5000 Study desk (Note: the topic area in the example is different to the ones you need to discuss).
Research and referencing:
You are required to find and cite within your answer a minimum of ten (10) sources.
The emphasis should be on refereed journal articles to support your arguments; however you are also to refer to your text book as a distinct source.
Private web pages such as pages of study notes from other university courses are not acceptable. If you elect to use a website it must be of a scholarly and credible nature that clearly displays the sponsoring organisation, and if available, the author of the article.
These sources should be published from the year 2005 to the present. However, this rule does not apply to 'seminal' articles that contain original thought on a theory (for example, Hackman and Oldham's Job Characteristics Model was authored in 1976!)
Use Harvard AGPS referencing conventions. Here is a link to guidelines for using Harvard AGPS.
The template contains a reminder to include a list of references at the end of your paper using the Harvard referencing style.
Attachment:- Assignment Files.rar