Referencing Styles : Harvard 1. Assessment Details The Report is approximately 3000 words (not including title page, references, or ancillary materials). The Report is due by 5pm on 18 May 2015, and is worth 30 marks. Reports submitted after this time will be penalised according to University policy. Extensions will only be granted via the … Continue reading “University Special Consideration process. | My Assignment Tutor”
Referencing Styles : Harvard 1. Assessment Details The Report is approximately 3000 words (not including title page, references, or ancillary materials). The Report is due by 5pm on 18 May 2015, and is worth 30 marks. Reports submitted after this time will be penalised according to University policy. Extensions will only be granted via the formal University Special Consideration process. Such requests must be accompanied by documentation (i.e., doctorâ€
s certificate) and be submitted prior to the due date. Group Report Topic You have been hired as a team of consultants to provide some theoretically sound and practical advice to the Chief Executive Officer of Sopranos Smallgoods. Founded in 1920, the Soprano family of farmers and butchers had a dream to provide the Australian public with the finest quality meat, cured using traditional Italian recipes. In 2015, the Sopranos are a major supplier of smallgoods to the Australian market. The product range spans across traditional Italian salami, ham, bacon and traditional smallgoods. The company has state-of-the-art facilities located in Bundoora, Victoria and employ over 250 workers. The company has a very flat organisational structure – the CEO reports to a Board of Directors (made up of members of the Soprano family). Each department has a manager, with the production department having supervisors who directly manage the production line worker. In a recent independent health and safety investigation, the auditor found ‘multiple instances of lax safety practices by front line workers†and ‘a poor attitude towards safety amongst front line staff, supervisors and middle managementâ€. However, the auditor commended senior management on their general commitment to the safety of workers, but found ‘this has not translated into safe working practices on the factory floorâ€. The auditor cited several examples of dangerous practices he witnessed on the production line, including workers reaching into mincers to remove blockages whilst the mincer was operating; poor manual handling practices; workers not wearing their personal protective equipment; dangerous use of forklifts; equipment such as knives not being put away properly; and safety barriers on machines being removed to speed up the production process. In his recommendations, the auditor suggested that Soprano Smallgoods ‘work towards developing a culture of safety within the organisationâ€. Vincenzo Soprano, the CEO, is concerned about his workerâ€s safety. In a private meeting, he lamented ‘its just a matter of time before someone is seriously injured or dies on the factory floor. What can I do? We have good procedures. We have spent a lot of money on making sure the factory is safe. But, I canâ€t make the supervisors and employees follow our safety procedures…..I canâ€t watch them all the timeâ€. Vincenzo has hired you to come up with five recommendations as to how he can create a ‘safety culture†within Sopranos Smallgoods. He has asked for a comprehensive Report that he can give to the Board of Directors. The Report should: Briefly outline the legal responsibilities that employers have to ensure a safe workplace Define the term ‘safety culture†(drawing on appropriate academic literature) Explain how a safety culture can improve safety behaviours of employees (drawing on appropriate academic literature) Identify five recommendations that Sopranos should implement to improve the safety culture within the organisation. These recommendations may incorporate multiple HRM functions, including performance management, rewards, training and development, recruitment and job design. For each recommendation, a clear explanation about how this will lead to improved safety behaviours should be provided. All references material must be appropriately cited in the text of your Report. Include a separate reference section that includes the full citation information. Follow the style guidelines for the Academy of Management Journal. Note that Wikipedia and similar websites are NOT acceptable sources for this assignment. Your Report must be typed and have standard margins on all sides. Double-spacing is preferred. It is essential that your Report is written in a neat, professional, and engaging manner. Check your writing for accuracy in spelling, grammar and punctuation. Convey your ideas in a clear, concise manner, and use appropriate transitions between ideas and sections. La Trobe University has many resources to help you develop your writing skills. Please see the Subject Coordinator or your tutor if you need help. Please remember that the University takes a very serious view with regard to plagiarism, and you are strongly advised to read the Universityâ€s policies on academic integrity at the following website: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/learning/integrity. Please be aware that plagiarism is a form of serious academic misconduct and will be penalised accordingly. Plagiarism detection and prevention software (i.e., Turnitin) is used to aid in identifying possible incidences of plagiarism in written assignments (see http://www.latrobe.edu.au/turnitin/). Your report should follow the following format: Title page Executive Summary (no more than 300 words) Table of Contents List of Figures (if required) Introduction to the Report [outlining the legal responsibilities that employers have to ensure a safe workplace] Findings and discussion [defining key concepts such as safety culture or climate; summarising the main findings in the literature about how to improve safety outcomes in organisations, drawing on appropriate academic studies and Government reports] Recommendations [and justification for each recommendation] Conclusion Appendices [if required] References There are many different resources available to help you with how to structure your Report. This Helpsheet, created by the University of Melbourne, may be useful: Business Report Helpsheet. 2. What are the expectations? In completing this Report, you must support your arguments and recommendations with relevant academic literature, including reference to a minimum of twelve academic, peer-reviewed journal articles. All references material must be appropriately cited in the text of your Report. The Report should represent your understanding of the literature – so, please ensure that you write the Report in your own words, and acknowledge the source of the information and evidence you are presenting. Direct quotes should be kept to an absolute minimum. Follow the style guidelines for the Academy of Management Journal. Note that Wikipedia and similar websites are NOT acceptable sources for this assignment – only scientific studies (reported in academic journal articles), commentaries by eminent academics or Government Reports. It is essential that your Report is written in a neat, professional, and engaging manner. Check your writing for accuracy in spelling, grammar and punctuation. Convey your ideas in a clear, concise manner, and use appropriate transitions between ideas and sections. La Trobe University has many resources to help you develop your writing skills. Please see the Subject Coordinator or your tutor if you need help. 3. A step-by-step guide to meeting these expectations Regardless of whether you are studying Human Resource Management, Tourism, Sport Management, Marketing, Events, or any other Business degree, you will need to be accountable for your decision-making in your professional life. The easiest way of ensuring you can justify your actions is through evidence-based decision-making. The Report is an introduction to using evidence to justify a position or decision. Vincenzo Soprano will decide whether to implement your recommendations based on this information you provide them. In order to be accountable for your decision-making you will need to look at the evidence from the literature and use it to justify your recommendations. You have to persuade him that your recommendations will improve safety outcomes in his factory. Step 1: Develop a general understanding of the key literature on creating a safe working environment The first thing you need to do is to identify and find the literature on improving safety outcomes in organisations. So, you might want to start by looking at Health and Safety legislation, to examine the responsibilities of employers and employees. You might then move on to research studies that examine how to build a safety culture/climate – find studies that show that by building a safety culture/climate, we can improve safety outcomes. Then look to see how these safety cultures/climates were built and sustained. Use this literature and get ideas that we know work. You need to read and analyse the literature and synthesize the information. Step 2: Think about the specifics of the Sopranos Smallgoods factory There are some specific problems the company has – it seems that workers and supervisors are not adhering to safety policies, but senior management is very committed to safety in the workplace. So, this is something that you need to address (perhaps consider how this might link to the research of Clarke 1999). Step 3: Generate your recommendations Don’t forget to justify your recommendations to Vincenzo. You have to persuade him that your recommendations will work – and you will do this by citing evidence that your recommendations have worked elsewhere. Think about how you can use HRM functions to support safety outcomes – things like training, rewards, performance management and so on. 4. Suggested literature for safety culture/safety climate Clarke, S. (1999) ‘Perceptions of organizational safety: Implications for the development of safety cultureâ€. Journal of Organizational Behaviour, 20(2): 185. Cox, S. and Flin, R. (1998) ‘Safety culture: Philosopherâ€s stone or man of straw?†Work and Stress, 12(3): 189-201. Dollard, M., Bailey, T., McLinton, S., Richards, P., McTernan, W., Taylor, A. and Bond, S. (2012) ‘The Australian Workplace barometer: Report on psychosocial safety climate and worker health in Australiaâ€. Report for Safe Work Australia, http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/swa/about/Publications/Documents/748/The-Australian-Workplace-Barometer-report.pdf, accessed 6 January 2015. Saksvik, P.O. and Quinlan, M. (2003) ‘Regulating systematic occupational health and safety management: Comparing the Norwegian and Australian experienceâ€. Relations Industrielles, 58(1): 33-59. Zohar, D. (1980) ‘Safety climate in industrial organisations: theoretical and applied implicationsâ€. Journal of Applied Psychology, 65(1): 96-102. http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/ 5. Presentation requirements In terms of the physical presentation of the Report, please ensure you comply with the following: The Report should be 1.5 line spaced, and justified Headings should be differentiated from other text (ie: bold, italics, underlined) Use the following fonts: Times New Roman, Arial or Calibri Reference list should start on a new page Page numbers should be located on the bottom right hand corner of the page Do not place any other information identifying you on the actual document
