Assignment
Select Microsoft one of the world’s largest companies and choose a recent organisational change decision that the company took or is considering to take.
Examples of strategic decisions or change initiatives might include merger and acquisitions, restructuring, culture change and expansion of the organisation.
Prepare an assignment of 2000 words in length, in which you will:
Section 1 (20%) (approximately 400 words)
Briefly introduce the organisation that you chose to analyse.
Among others but not limited to, you should explore:
The organisation and its structure – Overview on the organisation (mission, objectives, areas of operations etc.) – Background (when it was created, how it developed so far, main achievements, etc.) – Track record (size and performance).
The Market that the company operates – Market position and potential growth for the company.
Main products/services.
The Organisational Change decision
Section 2 (40%) (approximately 800 words)
Utilising relevant theories analyse, discuss and explain:
How has the leader of the company managed to empower his/her subordinates regarding the recent decision or change event?
What do you believe the leader should have done differently?
Were there any negative consequences?
Section 3 (40%) (approximately 800 words)
Utilising one of the organisational change models, evaluate the role of Board of Directors or the TMT in in the implementation of the change.
Your discussion should include the following:
Governance and organisation structure – Governance policies and procedures, – Governing bodies and committees;
The team (history, composition, turnover, remuneration)
Evaluate the CEO’s leadership style using leadership theories and concepts learnt in this module. Additionally, you can use data derived from speeches, communication, annual reports for this purpose.
Does the CEO possess the elements/traits of a successful change leader?
References
Appendixes
Extensive use of appendices for this section is highly advisable so that you can support and justify your arguments in the main body of our assignment.
GUIDANCE
Previous experience suggests several important differences between excellent and mediocre written case analyses.
Excellent written analyses “tell a story” about a firm’s strategies.
Excellent analyses justify each major point with reference to critical facts in the case. Ideas and concepts from lectures and the readings are incorporated into the discussion as appropriate and in a seamless way.
The application of these ideas and concepts often leads to surprising, counter-intuitive analyses and recommendations.
At the end of these excellent written analyses, the reader is absolutely convinced of the wisdom of any final recommendations.
Points for consideration – does my case study include the following traits:
Relevant information presented in a comprehensive and unbiased fashion;
Explains adequately the application of the relevant frameworks;
Accurate information;
Appropriate sources/citations;
Well-written;
Appropriate structure and flow;
Selected appropriate scope for firm issues;
Present competitive data, company history and/or additional data and supporting documentation where needed;
Relevant data and issues clearly identified (or embedded in the case) for the reader to identify.
General hints about good practices and common problems to avoid in your paper:
Focus –
Strive to develop a small set of actions or tactics that will work together in a coherent manner. By contrast, do not throw all possible ideas into your paper. Creativity is good – and logical consistency for a viable set of actions is just as important.
Pay attention to assumptions –
You will have to make assumptions in any project. For instance, you will likely make assumptions involving:
1) competitive reactions (e.g., if and how competing firms will respond to actions you consider),
2) the outcome of various company actions (e.g., product development or clinical trial efforts),
3) patient/consumer responses (e.g., whether citing clinical data is enough to convince end users that an intervention has medical value).
Try to make these assumptions as reasonable as possible and indicate why you think your assumptions are reasonable.
Also, try to think through the possible implications for your recommendations if each assumption is wrong.
Above all, make sure that you explicitly identify the assumptions you make. An important part of effective strategy is making sure you know what you don’t know.
Specify your proposals in a concise, yet concrete manner –
Put recommendations into concrete terms that managers and/or policy makers would understand and be able to act on. For instance, it is much more direct to specify that a product “should run patient testimonial advertisements in magazines targeted to medium- to high-income people over 50 years old” than it would be to simply state that the product “should engage in direct to consumer advertising.”
Balance analytics and creativity –
The most rigorous analytical work does not necessarily lead to a great idea (ideas can be right without being exciting). In parallel, the most creative ideas do not necessarily hold up to analytical scrutiny (ideas can be exciting without being right).
In the early phase of your work, try to cycle back and forth between brainstorming (for creative ideas) and careful analysis (for correct ideas).
is particularly important when you are trying to identify the concrete offering (e.g., product/service/intervention) that you will evaluate.
Sources
Use a combination of sources to back up your arguments.
It is important that the sources you use are accurate, thorough and verifiable. Sources that you can use are the following:
scholarly, and/or peer-reviewed articles from the online library of the University; articles from the Google Scholar and ssrn.com.
books and book chapters;
business magazine and newspaper articles;
reports from consulting companies, government agencies or institutions;
interview and speech transcripts and recordings;
personal communications
Appendices
An appendix contains material which is too detailed or technical to include in the body of the assignment. Appendices are put at the very end of the coursework. Each appendix should be clearly, neatly and numbered.
Appendices are always supplementary to the assignment.
As such, your study must be able to stand alone without the appendices, and the paper must contain all information including tables, diagrams, and results necessary to understand the research problem.
The key point to remember when including an appendix is that the information is non-essential, and if it were removed, the reader would nonetheless be able to comprehend the significance, validity, and implications of your research.
It is appropriate to include appendices for the following reasons:
Including this material in the body of the paper that would render it poorly structured or interrupt the narrative flow;
Information is too lengthy and detailed to be easily summarised in the body of the paper;
Inclusion of helpful, supporting, or useful material would otherwise distract the reader from the main content of the paper;
Provides relevant information or data that is more easily understood or analysed in a self-contained section of the paper;
Can be used when there are constraints placed on the length of your paper; and,
Provides a place to further demonstrate your understanding of the research problem by giving additional details about a new or innovative method, technical details, or design protocols.
References
All citations should be supported with appropriate literature sources. Include all references with appropriate formatting in the Harvard Referencing Style.
