Assessment: Skillset and drivers and contract

Length: 500 words each task

Task

Objective

By the end of this assessment task, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate a perspective on the theory and practice of organisational change, through examination of change management practice, relevant research, and case studies;

• Identify their group members, case study organization, and drivers of change.

• Prepare a team contract.

In preparation for the group work in Assessments 2 and 3, the first assignment task requires you to complete three tasks:

TASK ONE: Skillset

1. Read this website about Belbin's team roles and decide which roles you are most comfortable with: http://www.belbin.com/about/belbin-team-roles/

2. Access a job seeker web site and find an advertisement for a change manager or change agent which mentions teamwork; use this ad as YOUR template (remember to cite the URL) to discuss your experience, your skills, your preferred team roles, and any restrictions on your time.

3. Post this on your blog (you will also need to upload this to Turnitin) as this will outline to others in the student cohort how you might contribute to being part of a team of change agents who are working remotely from the organisation, and in the virtual space. You will be marked individually on this task.

TASK TWO: Group nomination and group contract

Review the job advertisements posted on each students' blog page in Week 1 and use these to find your prospective change team [this is the forming stage of Tuchman's model of group development]. Develop a team contract - doing this will enable the team to progress through the storming/norming stages of Tuckman's model more quickly and help the group become a more cohesive team [keep in mind you may need to revisit these stages as your task progresses].

In developing the contract, you will be involved in communicating, negotiating and setting standards for the team to move forward [issues like expectations, restrictions, and contingency plans are essential to discuss in this phase!!]. Quality standards will be set, as well as the required interactions and also the consequences for breach and inactivity. Dysfunction in teams can come from an uneven workload and/or self-limiting behaviours of the team members so a team contract can help negate some of these potential issues. Your team contract should be divided into these major sections:

• establishing team procedures
• identifying expectations
• setting team norms
• specifying the consequences for failing to follow these procedures and fulfil these expectations

This part of the assessment will be marked as a group.

TASK THREE: Individual assessment of case study drivers

Although this is an individual task, you as a group should select one organization for evaluation from the four listed on the following website: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/stressbuster/

These four organisations were utilized for a series on stress in organisations but the cases are excellent for change management analysis:

- RSPCA
- Express Link
- Swan Care
- W.A. Police Communications

(NB: the subject coordinator will be ensuring all four cases are diagnosed, so you will be requested to nominate your team under the selected organisation on the unit site).

Watch the first short video and individually prepare a summary of the internal driving and restraining forces AND the external driving and restraining forces influencing change at that organization.

Online submission via Turnitin is required for this assignment. Details will be provided by your subject lecturer.

Rationale

During the first few weeks of the session, you will work through the weekly topics, learning about the context of change and change agency. The theoretical underpinning of the concepts will inform you and encourage you to think about the context of change. At the same time you will begin forming your groups of three to undertake the remaining tasks because feedback from students suggests the earlier the groups are formed the better they perceived the outcome. Results suggested this was also true because they were able to test each other's assumptions, deal with differing viewpoints, and come to a better understanding of how best to meet the task requirements.

Learning about your group members is an essential first step; what skills do they bring to the table? What are their strengths and weaknesses? Do they hold the same expectations of outcomes as you? Do they juggle family, work, and outside interests? Are they morning or evening people?