*It is acceptable to have about 10% more or less than the total word
limit (i.e., 2800 words to 3200 words for the 3000 word essay). This
includes all text from the Introduction to the Conclusion, however it
does not include your cover page(s), reference list or appendix.
Research Topic/Questions
What are the considerations of managing corporate culture, employee motivation and workforce diversity effectively?
When writing this essay, you are required to:
• use knowledge of the following topics of MMM132: Topic 3 –
Managing Motivation, Topic 4 – Managing Culture, and Topic 5 – Managing
Diversity.
• have a clear argument and structure of the essay.
• have an equal discussion of Topics 3, 4 and 5 in the body of the essay, and
• cite a minimum of 8 academic references. Out of these references you
must cite at least three essential readings and four additional readings
from Topics 3, 4 and 5 of this unit - MMM132 (see readings on
CloudDeakin).
Additional Requirements/Guidance
The
information below is in addition to your Assignment Details and is
provided to assist you in writing a good essay. As you have done
Assignment One, I expect that you understand how to write an essay with
an argument(s) and clear structure (See Assignment one for more detail).
This essay will have a similar format. Some suggestions are:
1. Suggestions on the essay structure
Introduction (Length: approximately 10% of the total word limit – i.e. 300 words)
You do need to provide a similarly clear and explicit opening paragraph
at the very start of your essay that tells the reader what your
argument is and how you will structure this into sections.
Note
that this opening paragraph below is not fully suitable to answer your
current essay question so you cannot just copy and paste into your essay
but you can adopt relevant aspects.
In this essay, I am going to
argue that the attempt to manage the culture of an organisation is both
very difficult practically and possibly questionable morally. I develop
this argument in three sections. In Section One, I outline the concept
of ‘Corporate Culture’ (Peters and Waterman 1982) and the managerial
desire to manage the deepest feelings and values of employees (Parker
2000). I consider why managers may want to seek to do this. In Section
Two I argue that while the management of culture may, on the surface,
seem like an attractive idea, in practice the management of Corporate
Culture is extremely difficult. I draw upon Jaffee (2001) and Ackroyd
and Crowdy (1990) to show just how deepseated employee’s existing values
and views may be and therefore resistant to change they are. In Section
Three I turn to consider whether it is right for managers to be seeking
to change employee’s views and values. I engage, in this section, with
the writings of Rosen (1998), Parker (2000), Willmott (1993) and Brewis
(2007) who have raised some critical views with regard to this issue. I
conclude the essay by restating my argument, that the attempt to manage
employees through controlling culture is both practically difficult and
morally questionable.
Body of the essay
- Should comprise of
several sections to support your argument as outlined in the
introduction. While using headings is not compulsory, I encourage you to
use headings as signposts for the markers which will also help the
structure of your essay clearer and easy to follow.
Some examples are:
Section
Heading for Section One (a short heading but covers key discussion
points in this section) (note that each section can comprise of several
paragraphs)
• develop your argument for section one: (link with Topic 3)
• further develop your argument
• Note that you only use direct quotes sparingly in the body of the essay.
Section Heading for Section Two
• develop an argument for Section Two (i.e., link with Topic 4)
• further develop your argument
Section Heading for Section Three
• develop an argument for Section Three (i.e., link with Topic 5)
• further develop your argument (etc.)
Note that you don’t have to follow the sequence of topics as suggested above.
Conclusion (Length: approximately 10% of the total word limit, i.e., 300 words)
• Summarises again your argument and how you developed this in the main sections of your essay to answer the essay question.
• No new information here.
2. Reading and citation requirements
As mentioned, you need to use and cite a minimum of 8 academic
references. Out of these references you must cite at least three
essential readings and four additional readings from Topics 3, 4 and 5
of this unit (all on CloudDeakin unless indicated otherwise). In
addition to the required references above, you are encouraged to use
essential and additional readings from other topics if relevant
(including reading from Topics 1 and 2 if you find them relevant). You
will need to read these items yourself and work out which aspects of
these readings are particularly relevant for the argument that you want
to develop.
You must cite three essential readings below:
• Jackson, N. and Carter, P. (2007) Rethinking Organisational Behaviour Second Edition, Prentice Hall, London.
• Ackroyd, S. and Crowdy, P. (1990) ‘Can culture be managed? Working
with “raw” material: the casef the English slaughtermen’ Personnel
Review Vol. 19, No. 5, pp. 3-12.
• Dipboye, R. And Halverson, S.
(2004) ‘Subtle (and Not So Subtle): Discrimination in Organizations’ in
Griffin, R. and O’Leary-Kelly, A. (Eds.) The Dark Side of Organizational
Behavior, Wiley, San Francisco.
a) Every article referred to is
accurately cited using in-text referencing, Deakin author-date/the
Harvard referencing style; NOT foot note). All direct quotes must have
page numbers in addition to author, year. (See more information on the
Harvard referencing style in Assessment folder on CloudDeakin)
b)
All references referred to in text are placed in your Reference List,
and are correctly formatted using the Harvard referencing style.
c)
You can use other academic references such as book, book chapters or
peer reviewed journal articles which are available from Deakin
University Library online databases (e.g., Business Source Premier, ABI
Inform, Emerald Management Plus, or Science Direct)
d) Note that
Wikipedia, answers.com, general websites and other personal opinion or
social networking websites are NOT accepted. Assignments that cite these
websites will be penalised.
e) Note that lecture slides are NOT
counted as an academic reference so if you want to use the information
on slides, you need to track down the original source and reference it
properly as all the ideas on the slides come from the readings or
citations outlined in the slides.
Other requirements for both assignments
3. Formatting Requirements
Your assignment should be presented in a reader-friendly way and include the following:
• be a MSWord document (a .doc, or .docx format; NO other format is accepted)
• no long paragraphs (250 words maximum), or no very short paragraphs
(one or two short sentences unless it is a connecting sentence between
two sections)
• 1.5 spaced, 2.5 cm margins
• 12 font size, Times New Roman
• have page numbers consecutively
• use headings as signposts for the markers and help the structure of
your essay clearer (although using headings is not compulsory).
4. Assignment submission and receipt of marked assignments
Please read the instructions below carefully (some have been mentioned in Unit Guide).
a) You are required to submit ONE electronic copy of the assignment; no
hard copy is required in the area provided on Cloud (in the Assessment
folder). When submitting online, you must check that you have submitted
your essay correctly by having an email to confirm that your essay has
been submitted successfully.
b) Do not send your assignment via email to the Unit Chair or Campus Coordinator.
c) Please submit your assignment file named as the following:
Assignment 1: StudentID_MMM132_Assignment 1
Assignment 2: StudentID_MMM132_Assignment 2
d)
Extensions to the dates for submission of assignments conducted during
the trimester will be considered on the grounds of illness or special
circumstances. If you need an extension please discuss this with the
unit chair as soon as possible. Documentation such as medical
certificate must accompany any extension requests. (For all students,
please contact Dr Huong Le:
huong.le@deakin.edu.au). We will not consider or reply to any extension requests within 24 hours before the due date/time.
e) Late submissions: A 5% penalty of the total marks (per day) of the
assignment for late submission within one week (i.e., 1 mark/day for
Essay One and 1.5 marks/day for Essay Two). Assignments or other
assessment tasks conducted during the trimester submitted more than one
week late without an extension being granted will not be marked (this
includes the weekends).
f) Return of marked assignments: you will
receive your marked essay and feedback by 15 working days after the due
date (unless we have unexpected issues). Late submissions will be
returned by 20 working days after the due date.
5. Other useful resources for you
1. Essential readings and additional reading of this unit are very
useful to help you to engage with the teaching and learning materials.
The library resources online are great, so you need to make a full use
of on line databases.
2. Referencing - the Harvard referencing style
located in Assessment folder which is used at Deakin, Faculty of
Business and Law to guide you how to reference your essay.
3.
Avoiding plagiarism and collusion weblink is located in Assessment
folder. It is very important to learn what plagiarism and collusion is
so that you can avoid it. If plagiarism and collusion is evident in your
essay, it will be reported to Faculty Student Misconduct Committee and
receive a zero for the essay and even a zero for the whole unit in some
cases.
4. Marking rubric will be used as a marking guide to mark
your essay, so make sure that you read marking rubric (grade form) at
the end of this document.
5. Frequently Asked Questions (for Assignment) and Frequently Asked Questions (General)
6. All B&L CloudDeakin sites now have a Turnitin dropbox and
resources for students to check their work for plagiarism. You are
encouraged to submit DRAFTS of you assignment to the Turnitin dropbox
provided and you will receive an originality report. These resources are
located in a folder titled Check your work, within the Assessment
folder. Please note that it may take a few hours or longer for the
originality report to be generated so post your assignment to Turnitin
well in advance before the due date. Instructions on how to submit your
assignment to Turnitin and how to interpret a Tunrnitin Originality
Report are provided on Cloud Homepage › Assessment › Check Your Work.
Aim to keep your similarity index under 20%. You are required to submit
your final copy to Assignment dropbox, not “Check your draft dropbox” -
Turnitin.
A visual representation of how an essay should be
structured is provided in Assignment One (please have a look if you are
unsure).
