Assignment 2: Individual Coursework (worth 60% of the module mark)
Your Task:
Choose 3 of the questions below, and draw on appropriate academic literature to demonstrate your understanding of theory and research in relation to the questions posed. You may also wish to illustrate your discussions with reference to organisational examples.
You will be penalised for answers which provide no credible evidence to support your discussions, or which are based on opinion and lack a clear theoretical/ evidence-based underpinning.
Topics:
1. Groups : Your workplace has recently merged with another local branch of the same company, and management are having trouble integrating the two teams, who are still operating as two separate ‘cliques’, with little collaboration or integration, and occasionally outright hostility between the teams. How might group theory explain this phenomenon?
2. Leadership: Your Board of Governors is concerned that the 3 most recent Chief Executives appear to have had a very negative effect on the organisation, including employee morale, and would like to ensure that the next round of recruitment for a new CEO is more successful. How might Leadership theory explain the recent problems and provide some alternative ideas for appointing more successful leaders in the future?
3. Power and Control at Work: A recent audit report of your workplace has identified that whilst rules, regulations, policies and processes exist, employees often fail to follow them, and in the report of the auditor, some teams have ‘gone feral’, working to their own rules and disregarding the directions of management. The chief operating officer thinks that the solution is a ‘crackdown’, including tighter regulation, monitoring and surveillance of employee behaviours. The head of organisation development believes that a flatter structure, looser management control and more team control and responsibility are the solution. Discuss what each of these options might achieve.
4. Wellbeing: Your Senior Leadership team has decided that Wellbeing should be a focus for the organisation in the future, and you have been asked to write them a short briefing on the value of engaging with the Wellbeing agenda for employees, for the organisation, and for society as a whole.
5. Individuals at Work- Personality: you work as a Graduate Trainee in the HR department, and have been asked to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using personality tests for graduate recruitment. With reference to theory and practice, produce a summary of key issues for your Head of HR.
6. Individuals at Work- Motivation: Your area manager has suggested ‘there is a problem with motivation’ amongst your workforce. Yet despite the recent introduction of bonuses for achieving targets in your team, employees are still failing to achieve the targets set for them. How might motivation theory explain what is going wrong?