The following list of questions will
assist you in identifying and describing case situations and problems in your
report. The list is not exhaustive and is provided to help you begin a
systematic search of the organisation case.
1.
What
is factual information about this organisation, its people, its position and
its operating environment?
2.
What
assumptions are contained in the information you have, and how much of it can
you rely on, and to what extent?
3.
What
inferences can you make from the information you have and how can you justify
these?
4.
What
are the major and minor strategic issues in the case?
5.
What
strategic theories or methods of analysis can be applied to these issues?
6.
How
do environmental factors influence this situation?
7.
What
information is missing?
8.
Are
technological factors important?
9.
Are
market factors important?
10. Are individual behaviour factors an
issue?
11. Are group behaviour factors an issue?
12. Who or what appears to be most
responsible for the situation experienced by the organisation and for driving
change?
13. What are the limitations to strategic
change
14. Are the principals in the case
assuming responsibility for strategic management?
15. What are the major strategic
strengths? Weaknesses?
16. What skills do the case principals
exhibit? What is needed?
17. Can short- and long-range
recommendations be made in relation to the strategic issues?
These are not headings and do not
imply a structure for your report
– you must decide on that yourself, but they are important issues – to some
extent the issues you may need to consider in order to do a thorough analysis.
3BM020
Organisational Strategy & Decision Making
Guidance on
the assessed report
Guidance
on structure: this is not a
prescriptive guide but is meant to offer some guidance towards the
structuring of the report.
Title page: The title
page should include the following information: title of the report, author’s
name (for this report use your student number), date.
Contents
page: the
contents page lists the main sections, sub-sections (if any are contained in
the report), and appendices, indicating their page numbers. Most word
processing packages now offer a facility that enables a contents page to be
constructed automatically.
Abstract (or
summary): the
purpose of the abstract is to provide a brief
outline of the main themes or issues contained in the report, so that the
reader can gain an appreciation of the whole report content without having to
read the full report. As such, this should be written after the report has been
completed and should not just act as another introduction to the work.
The
abstract should contain an overview
of the following:
Ø The
purpose and scope of the report
Ø What
has been done and how
Ø The
main findings
Ø Conclusions
Ø Recommendations
All
of the above not included in the word count
Introduction:
(15% of the total word count = 375 words) should
include sufficient background
information to enable the reader to understand the context of the report, in
this case the background to the sector/market in which your chosen organisation
is operating and background to the actual organisation in question. For example
you may perhaps want to offer some history behind the organisation, its size,
the nature and scope of its business, its customers, sector/market data to
indicate the nature of the environment in which the organisation operates etc. you have to be selective as it is
impossible to include and cover everything.
Main body: (15% of the total word count = 375 words) application
in relation to the relevant and significant academic concepts and models
relating to strategy, again you have to
be selective, but for example you might want to consider the following and
use them in direct application to the organisation in question:
Ø Internal
audit – Strengths & Weaknesses
Ø External
audit – Opportunities & Threats
Ø PESTLE
Ø Porters
Five Forces
Discussion:
(25% of the total word count = 625 words) in this
section you should consider how does the content of the environmental
analysis inform the strategic position and strategy of the organisation
·
Bring the audit areas of environmental analysis together in
order to discuss and critically analyse the context and strategic options, etc,
use academic concepts and referencing to support your discussion, for example:
·
Porters Generic strategies
·
VRIO/VRIN frameworks
·
Strategic capabilities i.e. Core
capabilities/threshold capabilities
·
The strategy clock etc
Evaluation:
(25% of the total word count = 625 words)
·
Where is the organisation going in terms of
Strategic direction etc? What is informing this from the discussion? The
relationship between the practical issues identified in the discussion and the
academic concepts
·
Consider any detailed supporting material -
relationship back to relevant concepts, models or academic references to
support this?
·
Again you
have to be selective as it is impossible to include and cover everything.
Conclusions:
(10% of the total word count = 250 words)
Ø The
material presented in the report should lead the reader logically to the
conclusions
Ø What
are the main points? What can be taken from the evaluation?
Ø Make
sure that the conclusions are logical, concise and clear
Ø Be
concise, stick to the main points and avoid rambling or being longwinded
Ø Be
consistent with what has gone before in the main sections of the report, do not introduce any new material at
this stage
Ø Offer
well considered conclusions, not superficial suggestions
Ø The
conclusions should be written after the main sections of the report are
completed, they should be brief and should be ordered in a way that is in-line
with the actual report
Recommendations:
(10% of the total word count = 250 words)
Ø
From the evidence included in the report
offer some recommendations
Ø
The recommendations you make should be taken
from the main sections of the report and
the conclusions
Ø
Recommendations are the important and
influential factors in affecting the future strategic actions and decision
making of the organisation you have chosen
Ø
Remember
that the recommendation are advisory, it is not for to say how
they will be specifically achieved in this report
Ø
Do
not
introduce any new material, new issues or arguments that have not been
contained within the main sections of the report or in the conclusions
References: use the Harvard referencing system
Ø The
expectation is that you will have read widely and deeply in order to inform
your report with academic content
Ø It
is important that you acknowledge other people’s work so that the reader can
easily identify the item of work that is being referred to, for this report use
the Harvard referencing system
Ø It
is very important that any sources you use are acknowledged and attributed
correctly in order to avoid plagiarism
