Assignment:

Critically discuss how one or more of the classical management theories discussed in week 1 are relevant to the contemporary management practice of an organisation/company of your choice.

Evaluate whether this practice could be improved in order to gain or maintain competitive advantage and provide recommendations supported by evidence from academic research.

Guideline word count: 1500 excluding references and appendices (but there is no penalty for exceeding this word count)

Suggested Structure:

1. Intro: This should give a brief overview of the structure of the essay

2. Introduce your chosen company

3. Evaluate what classical management techniques this company uses

4. Critique the effectiveness of the company’s management techniques with reference to the wider literature

5. Make logical recommendations based on your discussions 

Expectations: As this module is about contemporary management issues, credit will be given for drawing out contemporary issues with respect to the topics covered. You should include a small number of references to relevant books, journals, and other sources set out using a name-date (some people call it Harvard) style of referencing and citing. The assignment should demonstrate some of your critical thinking, and application of academic material to your practical case. I will be particular impressed by evidence of independent research and learning – you will be given credit if you can demonstrate that you have made an effort to read outside of the core textbooks and lecture materials.

The guideline word count is 1500 words. This means it is possible to obtain a mark in the region of a 1st, within that word count. However, there is no penalty for exceeding the word count.

You must be able to think critically about the management practice of the organisation you choose, the organisation may use a blend of theories and you must be able to identify this.

In order to evaluate the current practice of your chosen organisation and provide recommendations you must draw on further reading from academic journals and research papers. Remember your recommendations must be evidence based and the strength of these recommendations is contingent on the reliability and validity of the evidence you have drawn upon!

The word limit for this assignment is 1500 words, excluding references, however you may exceed this if necessary. You must provide a full reference list using Harvard referencing. Please ensure that you use reliable and not entirely internet based resources.