*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).
No comments:
Post a Comment