MN1001 Assessment Overview:
MN1001: 1st Formal, Assessed, Presentation Topic:
Title: “By outlining in some detail a piece of structural contingency research, evaluate the contributions of this general approach to studying organisation structure.”
Duration: Maximum 12 minutes per team.
Due: Workshop Week Beginning November 12th.
MN1001: 1st Formal, Assessed, Essay Topic:
Title: Scientific Management was the product of 19th Century industrial practices and has no relevance to the present day. Discuss.
Guide Length: c.2000 words
Due: November 29th 12 Noon
MN1001: 2nd Formal, Assessed, Essay Topic:
Title: Organizational culture is fundamentally about symbolic meaning and as such cannot be managed. Discuss.
Guide Length: c.2000 words
Due: February 21st 12 Noon
MN1001: 2nd Formal, Assessed, Presentation Topic:
Title: ‘Employees are always likely to work harder when their jobs offer them greater discretion and responsibility’. Critically assess this generalisation in the light of job redesign theories.
Duration: Maximum 12 minutes per team.
Due: Workshop Week Beginning March 11th.
MN100 Workshop 5:
Contingencies, structure and performance
1st Formal, Assessed, Presentation Topic:
“By outlining in some detail a piece of structural contingency research, evaluate the contributions of this general approach to studying organisation structure.”
Due: Workshop Week Beginning November 12th. General preparation questions: 1. What do you understand by the concepts of organisational structure and performance? Why might they be related? 2. Examine the major pieces of research described in Lecture 5. Make clear what you understand by ‘technology’, ‘environment’ and ‘size’. 3. What is meant by a contingency factor? 4. To what extent, in your view, is an organisation’s performance influenced by contingent factors such as technology, size and environment? Please prepare a presentation responding briefly but critically to each of the questions above. Please remember that your presentation will be timed (see below). All presentations must keep within your allotted 12 minutes! Additional questions you may wish to consider AFTER you have dealt with the ALL those above 5. To what extent can managers ignore or mediate these contextual factors? Under what general conditions might managers be forced to respond to these factors? 6. What other factors (other than the three major ones above) may influence the nature of organisational structure and efficiency?
Aims
* To understand the logic of the contingency approach * To be aware of the contributions of research studies to this approach * To develop a critical evaluation of the contribution of contingency thinking to explaining patterns of management and organisation * To practise a critical approach to management studies
Timing
* Each presentation will be limited to a maximum of 12 minutes. Please note that tutors will cut off presentations which appear to be going longer than this in order to be fair to all students so please practice your presentations before class to ensure that you can finish within time. This also requires that your presentation is well edited, focussing on the most important elements of the task so that you do not have to rush and garble your presentation. * There will be a 20 – 25 minute session at the end of all presentations for Q&A. You should have thought, in advance, of some questions that you would like to ask. These may be on aspects of the concepts that you have struggled to understand, on practical examples of the theories examined or on the relationship between contingency theory and the other approaches that you have dealt
