Assignment

Organisational Analysis - Are we in fit?

You are a member of a team of consultants that have been hired by a CEO of an organisation to undertake a review of the organisation's structure. You have been asked to:

- Summarise the current state of the mission of the organisation and classify the strategy currently pursued by the organisation

- Describe the current structure of the organisation, including its size

- Analyse the level of uncertainty in the organisation's external environment (including the state of the environment)

- Identify three of the main current challenges faced by the organisation

- Discuss whether there is an appropriate ‘fit' between the current structure of the organisation, and the strategy, environment and size of the organisation.

- Based on your analysis, what course of action would you recommend to enable the organisation to achieve fit?

In classifying, describing and analysing this organisation, your group should employ appropriate theories and frameworks. Such theories and frameworks include the work of Miles and Snow (1978) and Burns and Stalker (1961). Works available through Reading List.

Your team should consist of 4-5 members. You can select a company that you are familiar with, or talk to the subject coordinator about a suitable company to analyse. Conduct your research as a team, and then present your analysis to the CEO (the subject coordinator) in the form of a PechaKucha style presentation.

You must not contact the organisation directly - all information to be used in this assignment must be publicly available [or from secondary sources].

Start with the organisation's own website, and use the La Trobe Library Guide (or other public sources you can find) for further information.

- La Trobe Library Guide to Business Analysis
- La Trobe Library list of databases for Business and Management company information

What is a PechaKucha style presentation?

A PechaKucha presentation is a PowerPoint presentation of 20 slides and each slide is set with the software's timer to display on the screen for exactly 20 seconds before the next slide advances. For this reason, PechaKucha is sometimes referred to as 20x20 presentation.

PechaKucha, which means ‘the sound of conversation' in Japanese, was first conceived by Tokyo architects Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham, who were seeking a way to encourage student presenters to use PowerPoint in a more organized and succinct manner. The format inspires creativity by imposing constraints upon the presenter. You only have 20 seconds to convey the information on each slide, so you need to think very carefully about how you present the information visually on the slide, and what you will say about the slide in 20 seconds. Remember to keep your final slide (the 20th) free for your Reference list

For this assessment task, your team will need to record your presentation narrated PowerPoint file, remembering to set your slideshow timer for 20 seconds per slide, and then export it as a video file. The easiest way to manage this is to work on your PowerPoint slides first (as a team), negotiating who will record the audio for each file, and then work through adding your voiceover.