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Diagnosing the Causes of the Organisational Challenge

Management in Practice

Assignment 1: Individual Report – Diagnosing the causes of the organisational challenge.

Weight: 20%

Length: Maximum of 3000 words

Feedback mode: 

Formative feedback is provided throughout the semester in your in-class workshops/tutorials. Your workshop leader will work with you providing you with real-time feedback based on the work that you share with her/him. If you come prepared to your workshops then your workshop leader will have more opportunity to provide you with formative feedback.

Summative feedback will be provided in the marking rubric. We will provide comments in each cell of the marking rubric and in the general comments section at the end. We aim to provide feedback that is:

• Specific – that is, the feedback will relate to the work that you have completed
• Informative – that is, the feedback will help you to understand the level of achievement that you attained
• Directive – that is, the feedback will give you strategies, ideas and a direction for further improvement

Assessment Declaration:

I declare that in submitting all work for this assessment I have read, understood and agree to the content and expectations of the Assessment declaration. (Links to an external site.)

Learning Objectives Assessed:

This assignment assesses Learning Objectives 1 and 5

• Apply broad theoretical and practical knowledge of management in real business situations.
• Evaluate management approaches and alternatives through a collaborative process to solve business problems in ethical and socially responsible manners.

Details: 

Purpose of the assignment:

This assignment is designed for you to identify and analyse the elements that define the challenge faced by the partner organisation. You are to present your analysis in a business report format. This involves undertaking an external and internal SWOT analysis of the organisation and making predictions about its potential role engaging with the case study organisation.  Overall management challenge: The FFCRC, as an R&D organisation, helps energy businesses design solutions to technical & management problems.  This semester, we will advise the FFCRC on the best way to approach the business development challenges of Engie Energy Resources.

This assignment is designed to get you to think more deeply about Part 1 of how you might solve the overall management challenge and why your chosen approach could be the “best way.”  Whereas your goal in A2 (Part 2) is to analyse a particular energy product created by Engie Energy Resources (listed in A2).  In A3 (Part 3), you will bring what you have learned in A1 and A2 together to design a business model / roadmap for FFCRC to present to Engie Energy Resources about how the two organisations could work together to commercialise that product.

SUGGESTED TEMPLATE FOR ASSESSMENT ONE

Requirements for the assignment:

Examine the data provided by the partner organisation and undertake your own research to find more relevant data.

• Do you have the data you need? What other data would be helpful?

Analyse the data / information you have collected using appropriate management tools and theories.

• External organisational analysis – this includes describing both the Singapore and global energy sectors
• Internal organisational analysis – include a discussion of the governance structure & purpose of the PO

Explain how the FFCRC’s potential approach to the challenge results from a combination of external and internal factors that you have discovered through your research

Make sure you re-define the management challenge as a problem that can be solved through the combination of management theory and practice.

Write a business report diagnosing & analysing the role of the FFCRC in the energy sector and what management lens(es) you are using

Other useful information:

• You have to include in-text citations and compose a reference list
• Please follow RMIT Harvard referencing style conventions: https://www.rmit.edu.au/library/study/referencing (Links to an external site.)
• Please refer to RMIT guide  (reports/learning lab) for a report format https://emedia.rmit.edu.au/learninglab/content/reports-0
• You may submit your assignment multiple times on Canvas up until the due date / time.

Further discussion about the 1st assignment: 

• Your job is to offer meaningful insights about the PO operating environment by making balanced use of a variety of analytical frameworks to interpret the data / information you have collected.
• By analysing internal / external environments, you are redefining the management challenge(s) as a business problem(s) that can be solved.
• Remember that you are functioning as a management consultant.  Part of the intellectual work you need to do is provide a unique perspective or prism through which you interpret the PO and its role in the energy sector.  Each student will have a slightly different interpretation – and that is okay.  You will be marked on how well you support your point of view with robust use of theoretical frameworks.
• You should not offer solutions/practices to how the PO should engage with the Case Study organisation at this point.  You will do so with the 2nd & 3rd assignments.