ASSIGNMENT: A Critical Individual Essay (Critical Persuasive Essay)

Word limit: 2000 Words.

Task: Students are to choose an organisation they work for/have worked for/have experiences with/have read about. Students are then to identify two major management issues this organisation is facing/experiences. Theseissues should be analysed and explained by adopting two different Organisation Theory lenses from the following list of Organisation Theory perspectives:

1. Agency Theory

2. Institutional theory

3. Bureaucracy

4. Transaction Cost Economics

5. Stakeholder Theory

6. Power & Politics

7. Ethical & moral dimensions of Organisation Theories.

Students need to discuss, how do these lenses apply to the selected organisation and chosen issues? How well do they apply? What do they capture? What do they miss? Through this assignment students need to demonstrate their understanding of different Organisation Theory lenses and their ability to apply these lenses to specific organisations.

The essay must be structured in three parts:

1. Introduction: briefly describe the chosen organisation and the identified management issues. Introduce the theoretical lenses that will be used to analyse these issues and outline the main arguments developed in the essay.

2. Discussion: describe the two chosen organisation theory lenses and explain their relevance for your chosen case/organisation. Discuss how these lenses explain the identified management issues and the implications from the application of the theories. Outline the theories contributions (how well they explain the management issues) and shortcomings (what are the gaps, limitations, what is not explained). Here students must illustrate their deepening personal and critical awareness of the theoretical and practical limitations/possibilities in the literature they have addressed.

3. Conclusion: summarise your arguments and insights. Reflect on the applicability of the selected Organisation Theory lenses to management practice/practitioners.