Learner Assessment Brief

This unit assessment examines the connections between organisational structure and the wider world of work in a business context. It highlights the factors and trends, including the digital environment, that impact on business strategy and workforce planning, recognising the influence of culture, employee wellbeing and behaviour in delivering change and organisational performance.

CIPD’s insight

We provide you with this information from our website to connect you with our research and insights on the topic, so you can explore our latest thinking.  It is not intended to replace the learning and formative assessment provided by your Study Centre.

Organisational climate and culture (October 2024)

Organisational culture is an important aspect of organisational life and a term that has become a mainstay among business leaders. The work of HR, L&D and OD influences and is influenced by organisational culture because every organisation is made up of human relationships and human interactions. Despite its dominance, the language of culture is often unclear and difficult to define, meaning it is also hard to measure. Consequently, real culture change is near-impossible if we can’t actually pin down what we’re looking to change. Rather than culture, focusing on organisational climate – the meaning and behaviour attached to policies, practices and procedures employees experience – is a much more specific, tangible way to positively influence the workplace. This factsheet explores why organisational culture is a popular but limited construct, and why shifting to organisational climate is much more effective for employers.

Explore our viewpoint on organisational culture in more detail, along with actions for government and recommendations for employers.

https://www.cipd.org/uk/knowledge/factsheets/organisation–culture–change–factsheet/

Organisation development (May 2024)

In an ever evolving world of work, it’s important that organisations adapt to ensure businesses performance. This factsheet explains what organisation development (ODV) is, what areas of focus and expertise it involves, and explores what ODV looks like in practice.

There are many ways to describe ODV, all of which share common features despite their varied meanings. In this factsheet we will use the abbreviation ODV rather than OD to distinguish organisation development from organisation design.

https://www.cipd.org/uk/knowledge/factsheets/organisational–development–factsheet/

Task 

This task requires you to answer 12 questions, each relating to the case study. Your answers should respond accurately to the questions and should be informed by wider reading from key academic texts, articles and relevant publications. References should be included within your answers and full details presented in a bibliography at the end of your assessment.

Please ensure that your work is presented clearly, typically using sub-headings or AC references to link your responses to the questions, and that your work complies with the wordcount requirements stated at the end of the assessment brief. If you exceed the word count by more than 10% your work will be referred. References should be included within your answers (unless the question specifically states that these are not required) and full details presented in a reference list at the end of your assessment.

Case study

Calmere House provides respite and residential care for adults with care needs. Established in 1974 by David and Anna Calmere, Calmere House’s ethos is centred around high quality care with a personal touch. David and Anna’s daughter, Kirsten, took over the business in 2002 when David and Anna retired.

Kirsten’s consultative management style is similar to that of her parents. She values employee input into management decisions as employees have qualifications, skills, and experience in their specialist fields of work. Kirsten holds regular staff meetings as well as one to one checkins. The purpose of these meetings is to communicate information about the progress of Calmere House against its business goals and to gain the views of employees on the best way to achieve these goals. The nursing staff hold handover meetings at the end of each shift and work well as a team. Employee retention is high, and employees feel strong engagement and commitment to the residents, their co-workers and to Kirsten. When an employee leaves, co-workers participate in the selection process, with behaviours viewed as being as important as qualifications and experience. Onboarding includes details of the history of Calmere House, with Kirsten telling stories about how her parents founded the Company and sold their own home to raise the money needed. Policies and procedures are limited, with informal ad-hoc approaches in place. Calmere House has a flat organisational structure with all 42 employees reporting directly to Kirsten.

After more than two decades of running the care home, Kirsten has now decided that she would like to pursue her own, rather than her parents’ interests. In addition, Kirsten is worried about continuing increases in utility and staff costs and feel these may compromise residents’ care. Kirsten  decides to sell the business and use the money raised to start her own new business, a spa and wellness centre.

After great deliberation, Kirsten decides to sell Calmere House to Chaffinch Group, a large care home company. Kirsten feels that Chaffinch Group have the resources to invest in much needed refurbishment of residents’ rooms and facilities and will provide her employees with greater job security.

The sale goes ahead. Kirsten advises the employees of the sale and explains why it was necessary. Employees are shocked and find it hard to believe that the sale will go ahead as Kirsten had managed the business with passion and Calmere House was the focus of her life. Chaffinch Group appoints a manager, Kath, who has worked for Chaffinch Group for five years, and the Company starts to refurbish rooms. Chaffinch Group change the organisational structure to a hierarchical, bureaucratic structure. The workforce reports to Kath, Kath reports to one of eight area managers, who reports to one of two general managers, who reports to an operations director. Kath’s management style is autocratic, she gives instructions and expects them to be followed without discussion. When challenged by employees she responds, “I know what Chaffinch wants, and they need to see a return on their investment”. Chaffinch Group introduces the same policies and procedures in Calmere House that are in place throughout the rest of the Group, advising employees of these by email. The People team at Chaffinch Group consists of a people manager, a recruitment advisor, an employment relations case advisor, and an administrator.

Residents are also becoming disgruntled. Initially, they welcomed the idea of room refurbishments but have found that the rooms now lack individual character, and all look the same. Previously, permanent residents could choose the colour schemes and decor of their rooms and great care was taken to ensure the residents preferences were actioned.

As time goes on, employees start to leave as they do not like the new culture; they are often replaced with agency workers. Kath notifies the Agency of the requirement for the roles, the agency workers’ qualifications and experience are checked by the Agency and an agency worker is offered the work. Chaffinch Group does not undertake any further assessment of their suitability. In addition to employee turnover increasing, sickness absence has also risen. Existing employees are starting to feel hopeless and are becoming more dissatisfied as they find that: their workloads have increased as they cover absences; they miss the support of co-workers who have left; they work longer hours to reduce the impact on residents; they feel their views and opinions are no longer sought or valued; and they no longer know what the business is planning or how plans will affect them. Overall, employees feel that the change in ownership is not positive and was not managed well.

Chaffinch Group is also unhappy. Calmere House is not generating the income anticipated due to long-term residents choosing to move to alternative care homes and difficulties in attracting new permanent residents and new respite care residents. Chaffinch Group are wondering why a previously stable workforce now has high employee turnover and why Calmere House has changed from the care home that had a waiting list of potential residents to one with empty rooms. Chaffinch Group have set a goal to fill 100% of resident rooms within six months.

Questions

Q1. Evaluate the extent to which the flat non-hierarchical structure was appropriate under Kirsten’s ownership and the extent to which the hierarchical bureaucratic structure is suitable under Chaffinch Group’s ownership.  (AC 1.1)

Q2. Analyse how Chaffinch Group could use a rational approach to strategy formulation to ensure that services provided meet customer needs. (AC 1.2)

Q3. Analyse one external factor that is currently having a negative impact on the residential care industry and one external factor that is currently having a positive impact on the residential care industry. (AC 1.3)

Q4. Under Kirsten’s ownership of Calmere House, there was little investment in technology. Chaffinch Group want to change this approach and have decided to implement technology to deliver better patient care and employee experience. Assess how technology could be used by Chaffinch Group and how this would impact work at Calmere House. (AC 1.4)

Q5. Using theories and models which examine organisational and human behaviour, explain why problems have arisen following the takeover of Calmere House by Chaffinch Group. (AC 2.1)

Q6. Assess how changes to selection and employee voice have impacted organisational culture and behaviours at Chaffinch Group. (AC 2.2)

Q7. Explain how Chaffinch Group could have better managed the change from a small ownermanaged care home to Calmere House being part of a large organisation. (AC 2.3)

Q8. Explain the experience of change for the employees at Calmere House and examine how this is reflected through the stages of one model. (AC 2.4)

Q9. Assess two factors that could impact employee wellbeing at Calmere House including why it is important that these factors are addressed. (AC 2.5) 

Q10. Discuss how the people manager, recruitment advisor and employment relations case           advisor could support the retention stage of the employee lifecycle. (AC 3.1)

Q11. Analyse how people practices could help Chaffinch Group to fill 100% of resident rooms          within six months. (AC 3.2)

Q12. Discuss how Kath could consult and engage with employees to understand why employee          turnover at Calmere House has increased. (AC 3.3)

Your evidence must consist of:

Written answers to the assessment questions, approximately 4550 words (+/- 10%), refer to

CIPD word count policy.

Answer Checklist

You may find the following checklist helpful to make sure that you have answered all the questions. You don’t have to use it if you don’t want to.

Marking Guidance for Assessors

You should mark in line with the marking descriptors set out on page 12 of this brief.

You must provide a mark from one to four for each question set. You must provide constructive, developmental feedback against each question where you award a mark of one, so refer/fail and rich summary feedback at the end of the feedback form, following the instructions provided there.

To pass the unit assessment learners must achieve a mark of two (Low Pass) or above for each of the questions. You must refer/fail them if you award a mark of one for any of the questions.

Please ensure that you use the correct terminology. Learners have three attempts at the assessment. They only ‘fail’ the assessment if they do not achieve a mark of two for any of the questions at their third attempt. Until then they are ‘referred’.

When you have marked each question, you should total the marks awarded and determine the unit outcome. The table below shows the marking bands for each outcome for this unit.

Please note that the unit outcome is provided:

• to help learners understand where they are performing well and where they may need to develop
• to help inform your teaching practice
• for moderation purposes

The qualification is not graded and unit outcomes do not appear on learners’ certificates.

Marking Descriptors