To what extent is our understanding of organisations and management over the last 100 years applicable

Question: To what extent is our understanding of organisations and management over the last 100 years applicable to the 21st century?

 Given that organisations are an inescapable part or all our lives it becomes important that we develop an understanding of what they are and how they work (or do not work).  The lecture programme has emphasized the idea that organisations are not a single entity and that making sense of them requires us to examine them through a variety of theoretical perspectives as well as our own perceptual lens.  This postmodern understanding argues that organisations are socially constructed phenomena, so questions like; ‘what the organisation is’, ‘why it is there’ and ‘how it works (or doesn’t)’, ‘why’, ‘who should manage’ and ‘how’ should be addressed from these different, but interrelated theoretical constructs.  This is quite different from the views of scientific management theorists.

 

The various perspectives offered during the lectures can all be employed to help you make sense of organisations and the management of them.  These may include the following but you are not confined to these;

 

Historical

Sociological

Rational technical

Political

Psychological

Cultural (organisational and national)

Symbolic

 

An additional implication of the postmodern understanding is that the person making sense, (you), must acknowledge their own influence on the sense making process, that is, you are also involved in socially constructing the organisation even as an analyst, and are not examining it from a distance.  This will involve you in a consideration of your own background and life experience.  You are encouraged to offer insights of your own, and given that we are understanding organisations as any community of people, large or small and with whatever purpose, you should use your own experience.  This may include any organisations of which you have experience, for example; part time or full time work, schools and other educational establishments, leisure time organisations, political organisations.

 

Finally, you are also required to use examples from contemporary organisations to support and illustrate your points.  These might come from your reading of contemporary events, from news sources or television documentaries.

 

Summary

 

To summarise, you are required to write an essay which explores the notion of organisation using a variety of theoretical perspectives and supported by examples from your own experience as well as from your reading of academic work and from contemporary organisations.  This will require you to use the lecture material, books and articles, contemporary news sources.  The emphasis is on writing a persuasive essay which builds a case for a particular point of view and which is drawn together in the conclusion.  Your account should be analytical and critically informed, and not simply a description of an organisation.

You must use the Harvard referencing system and reference all authors and dates referred to in the text.

 

Length: 3000 words

 

Module Title Making Sense of Organisations Level/Year Level 6 – Third Year Assessment title Making Sense of Organisations Weighting and marking This assessment contributes 100% to the overall marks for the module. Deadline   Please note that submissions up to 5 (five) working days after this date will have their marks capped at 40%. The only exceptions to this are:

 

·         If you have a disability statement granting you extra time to complete the assessment.

·         If you consider that you have exceptional extenuating circumstances that prevent you submitting your assessment on time you may either:

o   Request deferral of your assessment attempt until the next time the module is assessed, which will probably be at the resit or next time the module is taught

o   Request a coursework extension.

·         For either of these cases you must follow the University procedures for submitting a claim for Exceptional Extenuating Circumstances and make this claim seven working days before the assessment deadline.

You are advised to make yourself familiar with the Standard Undergraduate Assessment Regulations if you need to use this process.

 

 

Note on Plagiarism, Collusion and Cheating

When you submit the assignment you declare that you:

• Have read and understand that university’s guidance on plagiarism and cheating.
• You confirm that it is solely your own work or, in the case of a group submission, that it is the result of joint work by members of the group that you represent.
• That it contains no unreferenced material from another source.
• That you keep a copy of the assignment.

Failure to abide by the rules will result in disciplinary action against you.

Advice

• Do not copy tracts of work from printed material, the internet or another student.
• Do not share an electronic copy of your work with anyone not concerned in its production.
• Use the Business School standard for Harvard Referencing http://www.bcu.ac.uk/essential/harvard.html

 

A Viva Voce examination (henceforth called ‘viva’) is a live oral examination in real time between student and examiners.

A viva may be required in situations including (but not limited to) the following:

• Where a viva is prescribed as a fundamental part of the assessment (for example in the examination of a doctoral thesis)
• Where there are concerns about the authenticity of the primary data collected or the process of its collection by a student for a dissertation or other assessment
• Where there is an inability to agree a mark by two examiners, or by an examiner and an internal moderator, without further information from the student
• Where there is doubt in the mind of the examiner about the student’s understanding of what s/he has written in the assessment
• Where a student’s handwriting in an examination is insufficiently legible
• At the recommendation of an external examiner to resolve any issue with the assessment of a particular student or students.

The viva is part of the normal assessment process and is NOT part of the University’s disciplinary procedure. If a viva reveals evidence of Academic Misconduct, that evidence will be submitted to an Investigating Officer and the normal University procedure for the investigation of Academic Misconduct will be followed subsequent to the viva.

 

Assessment Criteria

 

The following assessment criteria give a general indication of the required standard at each specific classification. Shortcomings in some aspects of the examination may be balanced by better performance in others.

 

1st Class

 

The student will demonstrate a clear, in-depth and critical understanding of relevant theories and concepts relating to organisation studies. He or she will correctly apply this knowledge to the question set. He or she will effectively evaluate evidence and arguments, making well-reasoned judgements to present appropriate and well-supported conclusions.

 

2:1

 

The student will demonstrate a clear and critical understanding of relevant theories and concepts relating to organisation studies. He or she will apply this knowledge to the question set. He or she will evaluate evidence and arguments, making well-reasoned judgements to present appropriate and well-supported conclusions.

 

2:2

 

The student will demonstrate a reasonable understanding of relevant theories and concepts relating to organisation studies. He or she will apply this knowledge to the question set. He or she will evaluate evidence and arguments, making well-reasoned judgements to present appropriate conclusions.

 

3rd Class

 

The student will demonstrate a reasonable, though at times limited, understanding of relevant theories and concepts relating to organisation studies. He or she will demonstrate a limited ability to apply this knowledge to the question set. He or she will only present limited evaluation of evidence and arguments relevant to his or her conclusions.

 

Fail

 

The student will fail to demonstrate a reasonable understanding of relevant theories and concepts relating to organisation studies. He or she will be unable to apply this knowledge to the question set. He or she will be unable to evaluate evidence and arguments relevant to his or her conclusions.