Organisational Change and Development

Business Report - Change Proposal

Commercial For-Profit College Case Study:

Apply knowledge gained during lectures and develop a business change proposal

Background information:

Put yourself in a position of an external change agent who has been hired by senior management of an international for-profit college to oversee major organisational change.

Imagine the following areas have been identified as areas for improvement:
- environmental sustainability
> printing cost
> water consumption
> energy consumption
- errors in databases
> student records
> employee records
> financial records
- communication
> between departments
> between management and employees
> between peers
- IT infrastructure
ICT hardware
> LAN and wireless network speed
> photocopy machines used within the business
- student engagement and pass rate
> low attendance
> low pass rate
> high plagiarism

Objectives to be achieved at the college by the end of 2017:
- reduce printing cost by 50%
- reduce water consumption by 40%
- reduce energy consumption by 25%
- reduce errors in student and employee records by 99%
- reduce errors in financial records by 100%
- create culture of openness and transparency
- improve written communication between departments, and written as well as oral communication between management and employees
- improve interaction, sharing of knowledge and information, as well as openness, transparency, and oral communication between peers
- upgrade ICT hardware
- upgrade LAN and wireless network
- upgrade photocopy machines used within the business
- achieve student attendance of 90%Your task is to:
- brainstorm how research could be conducted and relevant data collected and analysed - data to identify root causes of the problems (speak to your lecturer to get direction how this could be done)
- provide solution to each problem supported by literature review and real-world examples you are aware of, case studies, business reports, etc.
- develop a business change proposal for the international college management

Suggested structure of the report:
- Executive summary
- Table of contents
- Introduction
- Objectives to be achieved
- Scope and limitation of the report
- Background information (issues identified and analysed)
- Proposed operative suggestions for each problem identified and analysed, supported by literature review and real-world examples, case studies, business reports
- Potential risks identified for each operative suggestions provided; mitigation strategy for each risk provided; alternative suggestions (Plan B) provided
- Implementation plan / Action Plan provided
- Conclusion
- Recommendations for further development of the international college
- References

Note: This is a Bachelor level assignment and you will also be marked on:
- overall presentation of the report (e.g. formatting, cover page, table of context, etc.)
- structure of the report (e.g. headings used, flow of information, etc.)
- quality of the report (e.g. language used, arguments presented and discussed, etc.)
- conclusion of the report (e.g. summary of the presented information, conclusion, recommendations made, etc.)
- referencing (use of external information sources, quality, validity, relevance of information, consistency of a reference style, etc.)

Oral presentation:
You will be required to present your assignment in class at an allocated time.
- the presentation to be 7 to 10 minutes (4 to 5 minutes each student)
- the presentation to have around 10 slides (12 slides maximum)
- information and graphical images used within the slides to be referenced appropriately

Note: This is a third year unit and requires professional presentation, hence your will be marked also on:
- verbal communication (terminology, clarity of the language used, cultural sensitivity, etc.
- nonverbal communication (body, facial, spatial, eye, paralanguage communication)
- readiness to present (at an allocated time)
- timing and organisational skills of the group
- interactivity with audience and professionalism (overall impression of the presentation)