organizational analysis Home

16 Jul organizational analysis Home

To integrate and apply the topics from the course, you will create a leadership and management profile of an organization of your choosing.   Your ‘role’ will be a Management Consultant or trusted employees hired by senior management to write a report on the organization.

The purpose of the organizational analysis is to get you actively engaged in integrating your learning in the course with your career choice. The analysis should provide you with opportunities to further enhance your understanding of ways to improve the organizations in which you will work. It will also help to foster your long-term understanding of Management and Leadership, and the complexity of many of the issues managers / leaders must face. This is particularly critical in understanding issues of Strategic Management, Organizational Culture, Organizational Change and Development, and Managing Organizational Growth. These topics / issues are inherently complex and interdisciplinary and require knowledge of many fields and prior readings.

Students are expected to be working on this project in advance of the deadline and this absolutely should not be written the week or days before it is due.    The week before it is due should be reserved for final revisions, editing, proofreading, checking references/citations and compiling the final version.   NOTE:  Portions of the work that are not properly cited will not be given any credit.

The requirements for your paper are as follows:

· APA formatted and at least 8 pages in length excluding title and reference pages.

· Use a variety of sources in discussing the issues and concerns and in developing possible ‘solutions’ to these issues and concerns. More specifically, you should have at least 4-5 references/sources beyond our text, assigned readings, and discussions. These sources should include interviews with colleagues, scholarly articles from professional / academic journals, and articles from noteworthy business resources (including newspapers, magazines, trade publications, and reputable online resources).

· Part 1

1. Provide an overview of the organization, context, and issues/concerns you plan to address. Include any brief history or other information that will be pertinent to understanding the issues, your discussions, and the recommendations you will make. Describe the mission and vision of the organization.

2. Describe the business strategies. This is how the organization competes. What are the sources of competitive advantage?

3. What is the role of leaders in driving the business strategies? Include an overall ‘assessment’ of the management/leadership based on course resources and class discussions. Focus on the inter-relatedness of the readings and class discussions from throughout the course. What is good about the management/leadership? What areas seem to be most lacking or need of improvement? What positive or negative impacts have the management/leadership had on other people or the organization?

· Part 2

4. Briefly describe the organization’s structure and how compatible it is to their business strategies.

5. Conduct a SWOT, including competitors.

6. What are some of the diversity practices observed or identified through research?

7. Describe the Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics policies, if they exist.

· Part 3

8. How do the financial measures (you can identify a few such as stock price, return on assets, etc.) compare to competitors?

9. Discuss situational constraints that affect the management/leadership within the organization (or work unit or team). Identify issues related to organizational structure, culture, industry, or personnel that might complicate or facilitate the development or application of good management/leadership.

10. Propose solutions addressing the issues and concerns, including why they are most appropriate or better than others. Also discuss any potential limitations or unintentional consequences of your proposed solutions.

Deliverables

· Unit 2: Analysis Overview

· Unit 4: Outline

· Unit 7: Analysis paper

Refer to the next pages for the grading rubrics.

Grading Rubric for the Analysis Overview

CRITERIA	Deficient	Proficient	Exemplary
	0-59 Points	60-79 Points	80-100 Points
Analysis	Overview significantly incomplete or missing.	Overview missing key elements.	Complete overview provided.

Grading Rubric for the Initial Outline

CRITERIA	Deficient	Proficient	Exemplary
	0-59 Points	60-79 Points	80-100 Points
Analysis	Outline significantly incomplete or missing.	Outline missing key elements.	Complete outline provided.

Grading Rubric for Organizational Analysis Paper

CRITERIA	Deficient	Proficient	Exemplary
	0-35 points	36-49 points	50-60 points
Content	Content is missing many key elements; class material and outside resources are slight or not in evidence; proposed solutions are inappropriate.	Content is missing minor elements; class material and outside resources are integrated but not in all cases; proposed solutions are	Comprehensive and complete description of the organization per the requirements; class material and outside resources are fully integrated; proposed solutions are appropriate and sound.
	0-15 points	16-19 points	20-25 points
Higher Level Thinking	Inadequate demonstration of knowledge depth, and critical thinking; opinions not supported.	Adequate demonstration of knowledge depth, and critical thinking; opinions mostly supported.	Significant demonstration of knowledge depth, and critical thinking; opinions fully supported.
	0-10 points	11-12 points	13-15 points
Clear and professional writing and format	Errors impede professional presentation; guidelines not followed	Few errors that do not impede professional presentation	Writing and format is clear, professional, APA compliant, and error free