University of Gloucestershire
MODULE TITLE: Strategic Management

PROGRAMME:  BA (Hons) BS,

SEMESTER: Semester Five

ACADEMIC YEAR PERIOD:  Aug-Nov 2015

LECTURER SETTING ASSESSMENT: – Mervyn Sookun

DATE ASSESSMENT SET AND LOADED ON TO STUDENT PORTAL:

DATE ASSESSMENT TO BE COMPLETED AND SUBMITTTED: –

SUBMISSION METHOD/MODE:-Turnitin

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Assessment Type: Individual Assignment and Group Presentation

1.    ONE  Individual written assignment
2.    Group Presentation

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Table of Contents:
1.    Description of Assessment Requirements
2.    Marking Scheme and Learning Outcomes (Individual Assignment)
3.    Group Assignment based on Abercrombie Fitch (see attached case study)
4.    General Guidelines
5.    Notes on Plagiarism
6.    Harvard Referencing
7.    Group Presentation
8.    Group Presentation Evaluation Criteria

1.Description of Assessment Requirements: Individual Written Assignment

“The twenty-first century has seen the emergence and growing acceptance of new streams of research that offer still more promising means of coping with organisational reality”(Johnson et al., 2011, Exploring Corporate Strategy, 9th Edition, p.17).
Drawing on relevant studies and models , critically evaluate this statement within the context of complexity theory and chaos. Use business examples to support your argument.
Total: 2000 words
Assessment value: 25%

2.Marking Scheme (Individual Assignment)

•        The assignment assessment criteria and mark allocation are as follows :

L.O. Critically analyse how the different perspectives of social science disciplines inform strategic management
Introduction .( 10 marks)
Literature review of content and process approaches to strategy (40 marks)
Comparative analysis of selected models (30 marks)
Business examples (20 marks)

(Total 100 marks: value=25%)

Group Assignment

You are required to answer the following questions based on the case study of your choice. You must not use a case that you previously studied in another module. Make and state any reasonable assumptions. Use academic models to support your analysis.

Question 1 (Internal Analysis)
Drawing on strategic capabilities models, conduct an internal analysis on the company.  In your view, are any of the core resources and core capabilities under threat? Justify your answer

Question 2 (External Analysis)
Using relevant models, critically discuss the impact of external forces on the company.

Question 3 (Industry Analysis)
Critically evaluate the structure of its industry and discuss the implications for the company.

Question 4 (Strategy Formation)
In the light of your analysis, discuss the possible strategic options open to the company. Evaluate these options within the frameworks of qualitative and quantitative models, and recommend a suitable strategy option to the company .

Marking Scheme: Group Presentation and PowerPoint Slides

Organisation and Evidence of Teamwork         10  marks

Topic Knowledge                    50  marks

Creativity                        10  marks

Visual Aids                        10  marks

Summary                        10  marks

Impact on audience                    10  marks

Total                             100 marks

Value                             25%

Section 7: Grading Criteria

MARK    29 or less    30 – 39    40 – 49    50 – 59    60 – 69    70 +

CONTENT:
Has the question been answered?
Vague, random, unrelated material    Some mention of the issue, but a collection of disparate points    Barely answers the question – just reproduces what knows about the topic    Some looseness/
digressions    Well focused    Highly focused
TOPIC
KNOWLEDGE
Is there evidence of having read widely
and use of appropriate and  up to date material to make a case?    No evidence of reading.
No use of theory – not even hinted at implicitly.    No evidence of reading.
An implicit  hint at some knowledge of theory, etc.    No evidence of reading.  Very basic theories mentioned but not developed or well used.    Some reading evident, but confined to core texts.    Good reading.
Good range of theories included.    Excellent reading.
Well chosen theories.
UNDERSTANDING & SYNTHESIS
Are ideas summarized rather than being reproduced, and are they inter-related with other ideas?
No theory included.    Vague assertions/poor explanations.    Long winded descriptions of theory.
Some long winded sections.
Some quotations, but stand alone.
Some inter- connections.    Good summary of theory.
Good use of quotations that flow with narrative.
Good inter-connections.    Succinct, effective summaries of theory.  Excellent choice and threading of quotations into argument.  Good counterpoising of a range of perspectives.
APPLICATION
Does it show appropriate use of theory in a
practical situation?    No examples    No/limited/
inappropriate examples    Few examples    Uneven examples    Good examples    Excellent range of examples.
ANALYSIS
Does it identify the key issues, etc in a given scenario, proposal or argument?    Vague assertions about issues.    Largely descriptive with no identification and analysis of central issues.    Limited insight into issues.    Some good observations.    Good, detailed analysis.    Comprehensive range of issues identified and discussed fully.
EVALUATION & CONCLUSION
Does it critically assess material?
Are there a workable and imaginative solutions?    No evaluation.    Uncritical acceptance of material.    Some evaluation but weak.  Little insight.    Good interpretation.  Some but limited sophistication in argument.
Good critical assessment.  Independent thought displayed.    Full critical assessment and substantial individual insight.
REFERENCING
Thorough and accurate citation and referencing    No referencing    No referencing    Limited/poor referencing    Some inconsistencies in referencing
Appropriate referencing    Appropriate referencing
PRESENTATION
Lgical and coherent structure to argument and effective presentation
No structure apparent.
Poor presentation.
Poor structure.
Poor presentation.    Acceptable, but uneven structure.
Reasonable presentation.    Reasonable structure.
Good presentation.    Good argument.
Well presented material.    Excellent argument.
Very effective presentation format.

SECTION 8 : Group Presention Guidelines

Students are required to fully participate in and contribute to the development of the Group Presentation. Non-participation and/or non-attendance will result in restriction of marks for this aspect of assessment

•    The group size will be determined by the module leader and module teaching team and will normally be 4 group members (normal maximum).
•    The formal Group Presentation will be delivered by  all members of the group.
•    The absolute maximum presentation period is 20 minutes. This will be timed and there will be NO extensions to this time period. Student Groups are strongly advised to rehearse their presentation to ensure that the time period is strictly adhered to.
•    Presentations will be stopped by the lecturer/assessment team at the end of 20 minutes.
•    Presentations are followed by Questions which are required to be fielded by/responded to by  members of the group who have not  delivered the presentation (i.e. non-presenters). The absolute timed period for questions is 10 minutes.
•    Both times are required to be strictly adhered to.
•    There is a stipulated Maximum of 15 power point slides in the 20 minute presentation.
•    Students are required to be aware and are formally advised of all maximum times which will be cut off times with no exceptions.
•    Power Point printouts with the individual texts provided for the presentation by each student are required to be handed in to the assessment team/lecturer at the time of the presentation immediately before the commencement of the presentation and will be retained by the lecturer/assessment team.
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•    The Assessment Weighting for this aspect of the group assessment is 25% (all students in the particular group are awarded the same mark)

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SECTION 9:Notes on Plagiarism & Harvard Referencing

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is passing off the work of others as your own. This constitutes academic theft and is a serious matter which is penalized in assignment marking.

Plagiarism is the submission of an item of assessment containing elements of work produced by another person(s) in such a way that it could be assumed to be the student’s own work. Examples of plagiarism are :

•        the verbatim copying of another person’s work without acknowledgement
•        the close paraphrasing of another person’s work by simply changing a few  words or altering the order of presentation without acknowledgement
•        the unacknowledged quotation of phrases from another person’s work and/or the presentation of another person’s idea(s) as one’s own.

Copying or close paraphrasing with occasional acknowledgement of the source may also be deemed to be plagiarism is the absence of quotation marks implies that the phraseology is the student’s own.

Plagiarised work may belong to another student or be from a published source such as a book, report, journal or material available on the internet.

Harvard Referencing

The structure of a citation under the Harvard referencing system is the author’s surname, year of publication, and page number or range, in parentheses, as illustrated in the Smith example near the top of this article.

•        The page number or page range is omitted if the entire work is cited. The author’s surname is omitted if it appears in the text. Thus we may say : “Jones (2001) revolutionized the field of trauma surgery.”

•        Two or three authors are cited using “and” or “&” : (Deane, Smith, and Jones, 1991) or (Deane, Smith & Jones, 1991). More than three authors are cited using et al. (Deane et al. 1992).

•        An unknown date is cited as no date (Deane n.d.). A reference to a reprint is cited with the original publication date in square brackets (Marx [1867] 1967, p. 90).

•        If an author published two books in 2005, the year of the first (in the alphabetic order of the references) is cited and referenced as 2005a, the second as 2005b.

•        A citation is placed wherever appropriate in or after the sentence. If it is at the end of a sentence, it is placed before the period, but a citation for an entire block quote immediately follows the period at the end of the block since the citation is not an actual part of the quotation itself.

•        Complete  citations are provided in alphabetical order in a section following the text, usually designated as “Works cited” or “References”. The difference between a “works cited” or “references” list and a bibliography is that a bibliography may include works not directly cited in the text.

•        All citations are in the same font as the main text.

Examples

Examples of book references are :

•        Smith, J. (2005a). Dutch Citing Practices. The Hague: Holland Research Foundation.

•        Smith, J. (2005b). Harvard Referencing. London: Jolly Good Publishing.

In giving the city of publication, an internationally well-known city (such as London, The Hague, or New York) is referenced as the city alone. If the city is not internationally well known, the country (or state and country if in the U.S.) are given.

An example of a journal reference :

•        Smith, John Maynard. “The origin of altruism,” Nature 393, 1998, pp. 639-40.

An example of a journal reference :

•        Bowcott, Owen. “Street Protest”, The Guardian, October 18, 2005, accessed February 7, 2006.