2500 word (+/- 10 %) formal business report B u s i n e s s F i n a n c e

you are required

to write a 2500 word (+/- 10%) Formal Business Report that critically analyses the management

of an identified change using theoretical perspectives and approaches to change management

studied during the module. Your report should demonstrate an ability to take a critical and

analytical view of the change and its management and explicit practical application of theory to

practice within your discussion.

Your report should be written in the third person, be professional in its tone and include key

sections such as a Cover Page, an Executive Summary, Content Page an 1.0 – Introduction, 2.0 –

Main Findings, 3.0 – Conclusions, a set of 4.0 – Recommendations, a Reference page, and

Appendices (if appropriate). All headings and sub-headings should be numbered and presented

in a hierarchical format.

Once a cover page, executive summary, content page and an introduction has been drafted, the

main findings should focus on the following tasks:

Task 1 – Planning for Change

The first area you should consider discussing, is how your case study organisation planned for

the change. This could focus on the drivers for the change, the level of change experienced and

a stakeholder analysis of individuals affected by the change.

Task 2 – Resistance to Change

This section would require you to investigate why people resist change, what are the indications

of resistance and what strategies could be put in place to overcome resistance.

Task 3 – Power, Politics and Change

This segment of your report should address the level of power that is held by stakeholders both

internally and externally to manage the change. Also, consideration should be given to any

organisational politics observed.

Task 4 – Managing Change

The next area of your report should focus on how your case study organisation managed the

change using a variety of appropriate theories, such as Lewin’s Force Field Analysis and Lewin’s

Three Step Model of Change.

Task 5 – Evaluating Change

And finally, attention should be drawn to how the case study organisation would evaluate the

change using an appropriate evaluation process.

Meaningful conclusions should also be drawn based on evidence from your investigation with a

set of realistic recommendations made to the case study organisation on how the change could

be implemented successfully.

GUIDANCE FOR STUDENTS IN THE COMPLETION

OF TASKS

NOTE: The guidance offered below is linked to the five generic assessment criteria overleaf.

1. Engagement with Literature Skills

Your work must be informed and supported by scholarly material that is relevant to and focused

on the task(s) set; you should make use of scholarly reviews and primary sources, as appropriate

(for example, refereed research articles and/or original materials appropriate to the discipline).

You should provide evidence that you have accessed a wide range of sources, which may be

academic, governmental and industrial; these sources may include academic journal articles,

textbooks, current news articles, organisational documents, and websites. You should consider

the credibility of your sources; academic journals are normally highly credible sources while

websites require careful consideration/selection and should be used sparingly. Any sources you

use should be current and up-to-date, mostly published within the last five years or so, though

seminal/important works in the field may be older. You must provide evidence of your

research/own reading throughout your work, using correctly a suitable referencing system,

including in-text citations in the main body of your work and a reference list at the end of your work.

Guidance specific to this assessment: You should show a wide level of reading from a variety

of sources including textbooks, academic journals, academic and corporate websites, and

academic databases. A minimum of 30 credible sources should be used and all acknowledged

using the Harvard Referencing Method including your Reference Page.

2. Knowledge and Understanding Skills

At level 7, you should be able to demonstrate a systematic understanding of knowledge, and a

critical awareness of current problems and/or new insights, much of which is at, or informed by,

the forefront of your academic discipline, field of study or area of professional practice, with a

comprehensive understanding of techniques applicable to your own research or advanced

scholarship. Your work must demonstrate your growing mastery of these concepts, principles,

current challenges, innovation and insights associated with the subject area. Knowledge relates

to the facts, information and skills you have acquired through your learning. You demonstrate

your understanding by interpreting the meaning of the facts and information (knowledge). This

means that you need to select and include in your work the contemporary concepts, techniques,

models, theories, etc. appropriate to the task(s) set. You should be able to explain the theories,

concepts, etc. meaningfully to show your understanding. Your mark/grade will also depend upon

the extent to which you demonstrate your knowledge and understanding; ideally each should be

complete and detailed, with comprehensive coverage.

Guidance specific to this assessment: Throughout your report, you should demonstrate a

sound level of knowledge and critical understanding of the theoretical perspectives and

approaches to change management your discussion should be informed by the latest research

and you should also consider any limitations to your knowledge base.

3. Cognitive and Intellectual Skills

You should be able to: evaluate critically current research and advanced scholarship in the

discipline; evaluate methodologies and develop critiques of them and, where appropriate, to

propose new hypotheses; deal with complex issues both systematically and creatively to make

sound judgements in the absence of complete data. Your work must contain evidence of logical,

analytical thinking, evaluation and synthesis. For example, to examine and break information

down into parts, make inferences, compile, compare and contrast information. This means not

just describing what! But also justifying: Why? How? When? Who? Where? At what cost? At all

times, you must provide justification for your arguments and judgements. Evidence that you have

reflected upon the ideas of experts within the subject area is crucial to you providing a reasoned

and informed debate within your work. Your choice of methodologies to gather data and

information must be rigorously defended. Furthermore, you should provide evidence that you are

able to make sound judgements and convincing arguments using data and concepts. Sound,

valid, persuasive conclusions are necessary and must be derived from the content of your work.

Where relevant, alternative solutions and recommendations may be proposed.

Guidance specific to this assessment: Your report should not only identify and describe the

various theoretical perspectives and approaches to change management, but there should be

clear evidence that the theory and approaches used have also been analysed and evaluated to

demonstrate how theory works in reality. Valid conclusions should also be drawn based on the

evidence gathered from your investigation with a realistic set of recommendations.

4. Practical Skills

At level 7, you should be able to demonstrate originality in the application of knowledge, together

with a practical understanding of how established techniques of research and enquiry are used to

create and interpret knowledge in the discipline. This includes acting autonomously in planning

and implementing tasks at a professional or equivalent level, originality in tackling and solving

problems, and decision-making in complex and unpredictable contexts or situations. You should

be able to demonstrate mastery of the leading edge subject-related concepts and ideas as they

relate to real world situations and/or particular contexts. How do they work in practice? You will

deploy models, methods, techniques, and/or theories, in those contexts or circumstances, to

assess current situations, perhaps to formulate plans or plausible, justifiable recommendations to

solve problems, or to propose new models, or to create artefacts, which may be innovative and

creative, thereby demonstrating your understanding of how the boundaries of knowledge are

advanced through research and/or application. This is likely to involve, for instance, the use of

real world artefacts, examples and cases, the application of a model within an organisation and/or

benchmarking one theory or organisation against others.

Guidance specific to this assessment: All underlying theoretical perspectives and approaches

should be made applicable to your identified organisational change and chosen case study

organisation.

5. Transferable Skills for Life and Professional Practice

Your work must provide evidence of the qualities and transferable skills necessary for

postgraduate-level employment in circumstances requiring sound judgement, personal

responsibility and initiative in complex and unpredictable professional environments. This

includes demonstrating: the independent learning ability for continuing professional development

to advance existing skills and acquire new competences of a professional nature that will enable

you to assume significant responsibility within organisations; that you can initiate and complete

tasks, projects and procedures, whether individually and/or collaboratively, to a professional level;

that you can use appropriate media to effectively communicate information, arguments and

analysis in a variety of forms for a variety of audiences; fluency of expression; clarity and

effectiveness in presentation and organisation. Work should be coherent and well-structured in

presentation and organisation.

Guidance specific to this assessment: Your final report should be written in the Third Person

and presented using a Formal Report Structure that contains a Cover Page, an Executive

Summary, a Content Page, an Introduction, Main Body, Conclusions, set of Recommendations a

Reference Page and Appendices (if appropriate). All headings and sub-headings (from your

introduction to your references section) should be numbered in a hierarchical manner and

correspond to your content page.