Assessment 1 (Part A) -Essay
Understanding Management and Business Context
Objectives
A business organisation is an individual or group of people that collaborate to achieve certain commercial goals. Some business organisations are formed to earn income for owners. Other business organisations, called nonprofits, are formed for public purposes. This is an individual assessment task in which you will examine critical issues related to business and management contexts. The objective is to gain greater understanding of the contextual factors internal and external to a business that impact on a business organisation and its decision making.
Purpose
This is an individual assessment task in which students will examine critical issues related to business and management context. The purpose of the task is to assist you in gaining a greater understanding of the internal contextual factors that impact on a business and the way that decisions are made in an organisation.
Before starting this assessment please read the marking criteria (in a separate document) and refer to other resources provided on the Moodle site for this course.
Description
As Masters students, you are required to engage in research as per the Australia Quality Framework (AQF) guidelines. Two specific requirements need to be considered. 1. Students need to demonstrate "a body of knowledge that includes the understanding of recent developments in a discipline and/or area of professional practice, and 2. Students must demonstrate "knowledge of research principles and methods applicable to a field of work and/or learning".
This unit has a number of required weekly readings in terms of academic texts, journals and business publications that represent the appropriate body of knowledge and recent developments referred to by the AQF. In order to demonstrate the ability to engage in appropriate research, students should read and utilise these texts and journals and publications. As Masters students, you are expected to research beyond this minimum standard through additional texts, journals and studies to demonstrate an ability to engage in independent research.
Details
Identify a ‘hypothetical' business opportunity that if you had the funds, time and drive you would pursue as a business start-up. This could be an idea you believe has the potential to become a business for you to own and grow. Business ideas can be discussed with your campus tutor, or via email consultation with the unit coordinator for distance students.
Your task is to write an essay that includes the following:
- A brief description of your organisation, including factors such as:
o its size
o the industry in which it will operate
o the country/countries in which it will operate
o the strategy and vision that it will adopt.
- An analysis of your organisation using information from Topics 1-5 on the Moodle site. This analysis could include elements such as:
o The organisational structure that best suits your new business start-up.
o The external and internal environmental forces that will impact your business organisation.
o The risks that will confront your business organisation.
o The business practices that you will adopt to enhance organisational performance.
o The most important functions within your business organisation and how these relate to its performance.
- A comprehensive reference list of sources used to support your analysis.
Students are to demonstrate knowledge of the subject matter by:
- Defining key terms and utilising the theories and concepts presented in Topics 1-5.
- Explaining major internal and external contextual factors and how they affect business structures and strategy.
- Providing well justified and feasible business recommendations based on the analysis conducted.
- Demonstrating a breadth and quality of research by using a minimum of 12-16 academic sources.
- Correctly using the APA referencing system to cite academic sources in-text and in the reference list.
- Correctly using the essay structure and using appropriate conventions of academic writing.