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Your assignment must be submitted on 21st – 29th March 2015. 5. Your assignment should be prepared individually. You should not copy another person’s assignment. You should also not plagiarism another person’s work as your own. EVALUATION This assignment accounts for 60% of the total marks for the course. OBJECTIVE: To understand and apply the concepts and theories of organizational management to overcome results-oriented challenges faced by managers. INSTRUCTIONS: The discussion should be clear, articulate, and of graduate standard. Use management concepts, theories and terminologies.
QUESTION: The rise of the Internet turned careers (and lives) upside down. Students dropped out of school to join Internet start-ups and started their own. Managers in big corporations quit their jobs to do the same. Investors salivated, and invested heavily. The risks were often ignored or downplayed – sometimes tragically as the boom went bust! A key to understanding the success of a company whether traditional, Internet-based, or a combination of both – is the competitive advantage a particular company holds and how well it can sustain that advantage.
To survive and win over time, your organization has to gain and sustain advantages over your competitors. You gain competitive advantage by being better than your competitors at doing valuable things for your customers Bateman & Snell (2015)”. What distinguish those organizations that succeed from those that don’t are good managers. Good managers deliver performance. The fundamental success drivers of performance are innovation, quality, service, cost competitiveness and sustainability. This assignment is about organization and managers.
It is designed to explore why organizations exist, how managers manage, what they have in common and how they differ. The assignments for this course have always had only one purpose: To help you develop your present and future capabilities as a manager in your organization. What you will be learning through this assignment is not traditional “book-learning” based on reading and memorization but practical knowledge and skills that help managers perform their jobs better. Likewise, to learn first hand what it’s like to be a manager, interview a manager (any level: top, middle, low) that you know, asking him/her the questions shown below.
These managers can belong to a variety of organizations, namely large reparations, small businesses, government agencies, hospitals, museums, schools, and non-traditional organizations such as cooperatives, not-for- profit organizations, Nags and Chambers of Commerce. The different level in experience, age, gender, and job sector does not matter here. Explain any theories involved as you write your answers. Your textbook contains many management theories and concepts, so do cite them. The discussion should include these questions that you will ask the manager: 1 .
Explain the role and characteristics of this organization in general. 2. Briefly describe your current position and responsibilities. 3. How do you define ‘management’? 4. What are some of the management processes that you do? 5. Do you think that a manager’s role is universal? 6. When your organization is hiring a manager, what are 3 – 5 skills or competencies that you believe are most critical in a candidate? 7. What is the biggest challenge your organization is facing regarding change? 8. What strategies do you use to implement the needed change? 9. What, if anything, about your organization would you refuse to change? 0. What is the most unique or unusual responsibility or role held by a manager within your organization? 11. Do you have a mentor who can teach, guide and encourage you? Is he/she in the organization or out? 12. Which of his/her teaching(s) that you have found particularly interesting and helpful? 13. How does globalization affect your organization? What effect does globalization have on managers? 14. Has your organization demonstrated socially responsible actions (like donating to the poor/physically handicapped, etc)? Why? 15. What does your workforce look like today? 16.
What are you predicting they would look like in 5 years time? 7. How is your organization helping employees balance quality work and life? 18. Think about the skills and knowledge that you heavily depend on to be effective and efficient in your job. What are they, and how did you acquire them? Are innovation, quality, service, speed, cost competitiveness and sustainability fundamental for managerial performance? 19. Do you think you are a successful manager? Why? [Each question carries 5 marks] [Usage of PAP format carries 5 marks] [TOTAL: 100 MARKS] Assign meet Format: a.
Use double space and 12-point of Times New Roman font. B. The assignment should contain about 3000 – 5000 words (15 – 20 pages) c. Provide reference using the American Psychological Association (PAP) format d. References should be latest (year 2005 onwards) Notes: Assignments should be submitted according to the due date. You are to submit a softly of your assignment online through movie and a hardcopy to your facilitator. Plagiarism is not acceptable. If you are not sure what is meant by plagiarism, refer to the various websites which discuss this matter, e. G. Owl. English. Purdue. Du/handouts.