Assessment task-Academic Essay

Purpose - The primary purpose of this assessment item is to help students develop skills in critical thinking in relation to organisational change in the contemporary business environment.

The secondary purpose of this assessment task is to give students the opportunity to enhance their analysis, critical thinking and written communication skills; particularly in the areas of developing argument and essay writing. Description

Assessment task requires the writing of an ACADEMIC ESSAY. This essay should be an 'argumentative essay', and must therefore contain an argument that is used as the structuring element of the paper. Students are expected to engage in extensive research within the academic literature (peer reviewed journals) relating to organisational change and evidence your argument from scholarly sources.

Details

The underlying paradigm, upon which almost all change models rest, is that change is episodic, a disruption to an otherwise static business. I cautiously predict the next decade will hasten the demise (a demise that has been predicted for some time) of the notion of a business as a mechanistic, static entity, with rigid structures, and punctuated by episodic major change. This old paradigm can be seen in two additional canonical (and I think highly inaccurate) change metaphors, Business as Usual (BAU) and the oldest change model, unfreeze, change, refreeze10. The first of those metaphors suggests that there are things that are changing and things that are stable. The second of those implies that organizations are stable, and then you have to -unfreeze- them. There is no -frozen- in today's businesses.

(Gibbons, 2015, p. 25.)

You are to identify, and critically examine, the key issues raised by Gibbons (2015) in the above statement extracted from the prescribed text. You must undertake research of relevant academic literature (peer reviewed journals); use this research to provide a critical analysis, which must be supported with evidence from the literature including theories and models to develop your argument. It would enhance your discussion to use specific organisational examples to further evidence your claims. Any specific organisational information must be referenced (this may come directly from the organisation, in addition to any material that is available in scholarly works).

Additional Information

Your essay should be a properly constructed ACADEMIC ESSAY. It should contain an effective introduction, body and conclusion. The introduction should introduce the essay and include your argument. The introduction should reflect the task and provide purpose, scope and context. The body should be the critical analysis where you present your argument, which is supported throughout using the evidence you have collected from your research, and the conclusion should restate your argument, summarise the evidence, and make a conclusion regarding your argument. The conclusion should link to the introduction.

The essay should contain a coherent, and appropriate critical review of the academic literature across the issues you identify from the statement. The literature review should be integrated throughout the essay to evidence the critical analysis and develop your argument.

• DO NOT INCLUDE HEADINGS IN YOUR ESSAY.
• DO NOT INCLUDE AN ABSTRACT.
• DO NOT INCLUDE A TABLE OF CONTENTS.

A reference list is compulsory (and prepare according to the CQU APA Referencing Protocol). DO NOT include a bibliography.

This assessment item involves researching your assigned topic to enhance your understanding of organisational change concepts and utilisation of academic literature. The prescribed textbook for the UNIT must be cited in relation to change management principles. You will be expected to present information and evidence from, and cite, relevant academic peer reviewed journal articles. You must undertake research more broadly than articles posted on Moodle. The minimum to pass this criterion [8/15] is EIGHT (8) scholarly references, which must include the prescribed textbook, plus SEVEN (7) relevant academic peer reviewed journal articles. The quality and number of citations will demonstrate the breadth and depth of the literature used to formulate your argument. It is not only about the number of references, but also it is about how you use the content from your research. You can cite an article more than once as appropriate to develop your argument. Keep your research recent so sources from 2011 onwards, unless a defining moment in the topic areas, or you are using the primary source articles of theories and/or models.