Strategic Management and Leadership Individual Assignment

Module

Strategic Management and Leadership

Assignment Title

Critical review of an organisation – environment, resources and structure.

Assignment Type

Individual Assignment

Word Limit

4000 (+/- 10%)

Weighting

100%

Plagiarism

When submitting work for assessment, students should be aware of the InterActive guidance and regulations in concerning plagiarism. All submissions should be your own, original work.{" "}

You must submit an electronic copy of your work. Your submission will be electronically checked.{" "} {" "}

Harvard Referencing & Special Instructions

The Harvard Referencing System must be used. The Wikipedia website must not be referenced in your work.

You are allowed to upload only{" "} ONE attachment (e.g. an Excel sheet) apart from your original assignment, unless there is a requirement for more than one document in the assignment brief.

If you Submit Your Assignmentwork as a PDF version, then please include the exact word count of the assignment on the title page.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this assignment you will be able to:

1. Identify and assess contemporary approaches to strategic management and leadership{" "}
2. Analyse and differentiate the roles of process and leadership in strategic management
3. Asses the role of understanding the external operational environment of an organisation in making strategic decisions{" "}
4. Apply and critically appraise the strategic approaches to practical situations in various types of organisations{" "}
5. Evaluate the importance of recognising the necessity of making tactical responses to strategic management decisions

Grading Criteria

Postgraduate Grading Criteria for this assignment is available at the end of this document.

Your Task

Carry out a full strategic analysis of any large multi-national organisation of your choice within the global food retailing market. Your analysis should include as a minimum:

A critical review of the external and market environments of the organisation, including a review of such aspects as key trends, the primary opportunities and threats experienced, and a review of the market. (LO1, LO2, LO3, LO5)

A critical evaluation of the organisation’s key resources – human, financial, and its core competences, including how it adds value.{" "} (LO1, LO2, LO4)

Based on your findings, identify what challenges you believe the company will face in the future and how to address them. (LO5)

Guidelines

Please read all questions and information provided carefully. Answers should be made in appropriate length keeping in view the requirement of each question and total word counts allowed.{" "}

In addition, your assignment should demonstrate the following qualities:

A critical appreciation of relevant literature and its use to support argument, substantiate calculations and other aspects of the assignment.

Show extensive and appropriate use of suitable models to develop a clear analysis of the organisation.

Taking ownership of the content, being prepared to debate and argue a personal position, and providing evidence of evaluative skills. A submission made up of extracts from published sources which is descriptive or simply just theoretical regurgitation is not acceptable. Your submission must have interpretation and consideration of the challenges and issues of taking theory into practice.

Logical flow of ideas and treatment; appropriate selection of real world factors related to the companies under scrutiny.

Evidence of additional personal research, and the ability to analyse material from a variety of appropriate relevant perspectives.

Presentation, structure, appropriateness of methodology, breaking into section headings/subheadings, tidiness.

Marks will be awarded for proper referencing and originality of work. Also note that plagiarism is a serious offence and your submission will be electronically checked.{" "}

Your report must be handed in electronically no later than given date of submission.

Grading Criteria {" "}

70%+100

60-69%

50-59%

0 -49% Fail

Generic skills:

communication and presentation.

Comprehensive and correctly structured assessment. Style of writing is very fluent and develops a coherent and logical argument. Excellent referencing.{" "}

Well structured report which follows appropriate format but some aspects of layout and referencing could be improved. Style of writing is fairly fluent. Good referencing.{" "}

Good report in most aspects but suffers from variations in quality and the layout contains some inadequacies.

Style of writing is satisfactory.

Referencing needs improving.

Very poor report which is incorrectly structured and contains major errors and omissions. Style of writing is descriptive, lacks coherence and fluency. Poor referencing.{" "}

Knowledge & Understanding {" "}

Demonstrates excellent knowledge of theory and provides critical theoretical underpinning. Very good interpretations and summarising of main themes.{" "}

Wide range of knowledge demonstrated and evidence of good understanding of the topic.{" "}

Ability to interpret and summarise succinctly.{" "}

Good range of knowledge demonstrated but with some room for improvement. Some understanding displayed of the topic.{" "}

Summary and interpretation are satisfactory.

Very poor range of knowledge, research and interpretation of information that is subjective and lacks conceptual coherence. There is no clear identification, understanding or interpretation of main themes.{" "}

Analysis {" "}

Excellent use of theoretical and conceptual models to guide analysis linked with a critical discussion of main themes.{" "}

Has demonstrated an ability to discriminate in the use of more abstract concepts and techniques.

Very good use of the theoretical and conceptual models with good critical discussion. Has applied a range of analytical skills with greater independence and understanding of more abstract data or concepts.

Use of theory and concepts limited in scope and depth but relevant. Application could be improved and there is a tendency towards description rather than application of concepts.

Very poor use of theory and very little application of core concepts.{" "}

Very little or limited analysis and evaluation in relation to fundamental principles and concepts.{" "}

Synthesis/ Creativity/

Application {" "}

Logical presentation of themes with appropriate examples being demonstrated. Very good demonstration of synthesis.

Models have been clearly applied to the argument.{" "}

Very good account of main themes with sound application. Good attempt at applying models to the argument. Fairly good attempt at synthesising the salient points.{" "}

Good account of main themes with some attempt at application. Limited evidence of synthesis.{" "}

Very poor account of main themes with little or no application. No links between models and argument.{" "}

Evaluation {" "}

Shows clear evidence of in-depth critical reflection and evaluation of the argument by providing a robust defence of the opinions presented in the assessment.{" "}

Shows evidence of critical reflection and evaluation and a fairly cohesive defence of the argument{" "}

Shows some evidence of critical reflection but could have been developed.

Shows little or no evidence of critical reflection and needs to be much more developed. There is no defence of the opinions presented.{" "}