Management & Leadership Assignment - Meeting Stakeholder and Quality Needs

Instructions: You are required to prepare six short written statements and a brief reflection statement demonstrating your knowledge and understanding of how to meet stakeholder requirements to agreed quality standards and seek improvements. You are encouraged to include examples from your work area or from an organisation with which you are familiar.

Your assignment should be between 2,500 to 3,000 words. You should make appropriate use of tables, graphs, diagrams, Gantt charts and flowcharts and you must reference any sources you have used to complete this assignment listing reference journals, books, web sites. Assignment must include a bibliography.

Part 1: By completing this unit, you should now be able to understand how to identify stakeholders and their requirements (Learning Outcome 1)

• Determine the internal and external stakeholders of your organisation, or those of an organisation of your choice. Separate these stakeholders into primary and secondary stakeholders, explaining the difference between the two categories and conduct an analysis of their needs and expectations, highlighting those stakeholder expectations which may conflict with each other and require resolution.
• Discuss methods of prioritising stakeholder requirements according to organisational constraints, and describe how you would plan to meet the agreed requirements.

Illustrate your answers with examples from your own workplace where possible. (Indicative word count: 400 - 500).

Assessment Criteria: 1.1 Determine organisational stakeholders and their expectations

1.2 Discuss methods of meeting stakeholder expectations or requirements.

Part 2: By completing this unit, you should now be able to understand how to identify stakeholders and their requirements (Learning Outcome 1 continued)

• Using four practical examples (one primary external and one primary internal, one secondary external and one secondary internal stakeholder), explain the different processes that can be used to update the organisation on stakeholders' requirements.
• Having identified the stakeholders' requirements, evaluate at least two examples of different methods you would use to communicate these to your team, making it clear why you consider these two methods to be most appropriate

Illustrate your answers with examples from your own workplace where possible. (Indicative word count: 400 - 450)

Assessment Criteria: 1.3 Evaluate methods of communicating stakeholders' requirements with team members

1.4 Explain processes for updating information on stakeholder requirements

Part 3: By completing this unit, you should now be able understand how to apply and improve quality standards (Learning Outcome 2)

• Evaluate what is meant by the term 'quality' to an organisation.
• Describe three different quality policies or procedures that organisations may deploy and provide examples of how these policies and procedures are met in work activities.

Illustrate your answers with examples from your own workplace where possible. (Indicative word count: 500 - 600)

Assessment Criteria: 2.1 Evaluate the meaning of quality to an organisation.

2.2 Establish how to apply organisational quality policies and procedures.

Part 4: By completing this unit, you should now be able to conduct a quality audit (Learning Outcome 3)

• Conduct an audit of one of your organisation's quality systems or processes. Identify areas for improvement and make recommendations as to how these can be achieved and implemented.

Illustrate your answers with examples from your own workplace where possible. (Indicative word count: 500 - 550)

Assessment Criteria: 3.1 Conduct a quality audit and make recommendations for improvement.

Part 5: By completing this unit, you should now be able to understand how to promote continuous improvement and change (Learning Outcome 4)

• Discuss what is meant by the term 'continuous improvement' and identify the principles behind this concept.
• Evaluate three different work activities performed by your team and identify where these could be improved to better meet stakeholder needs or expectations.

Illustrate your answers with examples from your own workplace where possible. (Indicative word count: 400 - 500)

Assessment Criteria: 4.1 Discuss the concept and need for continuous improvement.

4.2 Evaluate work activities and identify areas for improvement.

Part 6: By completing this unit, you should now be able to:

Understand how to apply and improve quality standards (Learning Outcome 2 continued)

Understand how to promote continuous improvement and change (Learning Outcome 4 continued)

• Determine three of the ways in which employees can be encouraged to contribute ideas towards improving the quality of the work in the department or organisation. Show how two different motivational theories apply to this.
• Determine how you, as a manager, can encourage your staff to contribute to the continual improvement process on an ongoing basis.

Illustrate your answers with examples from your own workplace where possible. (Indicative word count: 300 - 400)

Assessment Criteria: 2.3 Determine how to encourage staff to contribute ideas to improving quality.

4.3 Determine a range of methods that can be used to encourage staff to contribute ideas for continual improvement.

Reflective Statement - Describe how you believe the knowledge and understanding you have gained from completing this unit will help you to improve the way in which you meet stakeholder and quality needs in the future. (Indicative word count: 250 - 300).