Assessment 1: Online Participation
Activity: Post a 150-200-word response on the Discussion Board in MySCU to the ten (10) Discussion Topics listed.
Task
- Assessment 1 is about ENGAGING so must be completed throughout the session.
- Write a 150 – 200-word +/-10% response on the MySCU discussion board to each of the ten (10) topical questions. Please note some topics give you a choice of two questions.
- The online posts are designed to create engagement with the materials beyond passive reading alone. Engage with your fellow classmates!
- Your comment may only be a couple of sentences, but it will require you to read through the discussion board posts made by your peers. NB: You do not need to read every other student’s postings.
- This assessment will help build your critical thinking skills and engagement with others by creating a community of learners and practitioners.
- Please submit your posts each week. This gives each and everyone of you the opportunity to respond to each other in the same week.
We want students to participate so they can learn from each other. We know that active involvement in learning increases what is remembered, how well it is assimilated, and how the learning is used in new situations. In making statements about your own thoughts on a topic, you must articulate those thoughts and also submit them to constructive examination by others. In so doing you will come across many different ways of interpreting and applying the class material, and thus be able to integrate many examples of how to use the information. In a unit
that stresses application of material, the discussion board participation is an essential element of your learning.
Topic 1: The evolution of management thinking
As organisations become more technology-driven which do you think will become more important: the management of people or the management of technology ?
Topic 2: Part A – The environment of management
Consider an organisation you are familiar with (it could be either your work or social group) and identify both visible levels of culture (those that can be seen at the surface level) and invisible values and shared understandings held by organisation members. OR Topic 2: Part B – The environment of management Choose an organisation you think highly of and outline some proactive social responsibility strategies it has or could potentially implement. What impact might this have on its performance?
Topic 3: Managing change
As a manager, how would you deal with resistance to change when you suspect employee fears of job loss are well founded?
Topic 4: Human resource management
Is it wise for managers to evaluate a candidate’s postings on social networking sits such as Facebook as grounds for rejection before even interviewing a candidate? What might be some ethical and legal issues managers should consider?
Topic 5: Individual behaviour in organisations
What proactive approaches can managers take to combat the growing stress levels in today’s workplace?
Topic 6: Leading in organisations
Suggest some personal traits that you believe would be useful to a business leader today. Are these traits more valuable in some situations than in others? How do you think traits differ from strengths?
Topic 7: Motivating employees
Today’s multi-generational workplace poses a challenge for managers leading age-diverse teams. Identify some of the generational differences in values and job expectations managers must recognise so that individualised approaches can be made with motivation, recruitment, and retention.
Topic 8: Communication in organisations
If you were asked to design a training program to help managers become better communicators, what would you include in the program?
Topic 9: Teamwork in organisations
If you were the leader of a newly formed team, what might you do to make sure the team developed norms of high performance?
Topic 10: Sustainable operations, managing the value chain, IT and e-business
Do you think that increasing productivity by using technology is suitable in all industries? Consider the use of automated telephone enquiry handling in your answer.
Assessment Criteria:
This is a guide to the criteria used in assigning a mark to Assessment 1. Broadly speaking, work will be assessed on four criteria:
1. Engagement ◦ Demonstrates engagement in online discussion by posting responses to each topical question and commenting on overall discussion
2. Range of knowledge ◦ Summarises key issues arising from topical questions and online discussion ◦ Continuity of argument ◦ Sequencing ◦ Management of ideas
3. Quality of argument and analysis ◦ Identifies and describes practical implications and potential criticisms related to key issues ◦ Ability to sustain a response over the entire answer ◦ Arguments are clear and evaluated ◦ Counterclaims are explored ◦ Implications are drawn.
4. Presentation and style ◦ Clear, coherent writing style with detailed attention to spelling, punctuation, grammar, syntax, sentence patterns, paragraph structure.
