Category: Management

 
Comparison exercise exploring theory and empirical evidence and relating this to a practical critical incidents in cross-cultural settings.

Scenario “Clever Clogs International” You work for an international company, which provides management advice to a number of multinational organisations, such as Al Jazeera, Google, Shell International and a new FINANCE company called Clever Clogs International. Your company has been invited to tender for a contract to deliver cross-cultural training to this major new client Clever Clogs International. The client is expanding its international activities and needs to send a manager from Lebanon to Amsterdam, The Netherlands for a 2-year assignment. Clever Clogs aims to change the way the banking system works to avoid another economic crash. The manager to be transferred is female, Muslim and in her mid-thirties. She joined the company four years ago and has performed exceptionally well, earning two promotions in that period. Company evaluations (which you have been permitted to read) indicate that she has the right skills-set and that she would be an ideal candidate for this assignment. However, no formal training has been carried out, and this would be her first international work assignment. Your company has been invited by the client to deliver a cross-cultural briefing report to this new manager from Clever Clogs International. You MUST make reference to the industry of Clever Clogs International in each section. As a final year student, the relevance to management in practice must be made clear (answer the ‘So What?’ question by using practical examples from the news).
The report should include the following sections but make sure you guide the reader and link (sub)sections through an organised structure.

1. a brief introduction of the aim of the report on behalf of Clever Clogs International and of the current state of globalization relevant to an executive in the finance industry. Give a practical example of the current challenges.

2. a brief overview of macro-level facts of The Netherlands (e.g., socio-political environment, economic environment, etc.) that are relevant for an executive to know. You should use reliable sources such as Financial Times, CIA handbook and government websites. ( A table must be provided)

3. a brief value comparison of the country of The Netherlands based on Hofstede’s work in comparison to Lebanon. You should also include a graph as shown in class and ensure that you make the analysis relevant to the reader.

4. a critique of Hofstede’s work in terms of the relevancy of macro-level indices for daily management practice (NOT critique of Hofstede in an academic sense)

5. An analysis of the business and management challenges that an international manager faces, using the reading from this module, integrating appropriate cross-cultural theory and evaluating the challenges the manager is likely to face. For example: “As an international manager, regardless of where one lives or works, it is useful to be aware that decision making is based on XXXX theory (Bloggs, 2013) and cultural variations exist in terms of A, B and C.”
NOTE: Do not continue to use Hofstede here! Use generic, culturally intelligent advice.
You CANNOT use Wikipedia and other non-academic sources, unless they are anecdotal or current affairs. You may also use your practical experience but keep it professional – i.e., frame these into practical anecdotes, not a diary.
Your subheadings must relate to seminar topics  Value differences and Person-Organisation Fit  Decision Making  Negotiation & Communication  Leadership

6. A conclusion (summary) evaluating information presented in section a and b and three key points of advice presented with bullet points (supported by cited credible sources)
Professional delivery Max word count 2000. Over or under 10% allowed. More than that, you are subject to the critique that you cannot focus (over) or read to little (under) and this will affect your grade. Ensure you do a grammar & spell check, use a professional lay out with subheadings, include an accurate reference list incl. at least 5 articles from the reading list.
Marking Criteria Evidence that you have systematically researched the assignment and covered required areas to the expected standard. Comprehensiveness (breadth and depth) of information. Evidence that you have understood key issues and been able to effectively integrate theory and practice. Relevance and balance of contents. Integration and coherence of component parts. Evidence of effective use of a range of relevant resources. Coherence, synthesis and integration of contents. Creativity and innovation.

 
Imagine that you are the founding entrepreneur of a software company that specializes in developing games for home computers. Customer demand for your games has grown from a busy one person operation to one with 16 employees. In addition to yourself, you employ six software developers to produce the software, three graphic artists, two computer technicians, two marketing and sales personnel and two secretaries. In the next year you expect to hire 30 new employees and you are wondering how best to manage your growing company.
1. Use the principles of Weber and Fayol to decide on the system of organization and management that you think will be most effective for your growing organization. How many levels will the managerial hierarchy of your organization have? How much authority will you decentralize to the subordinates? How will the division of labor between subordinates be establish ? Will the subordinates work alone and report to you or work in teams?
2. Which management approach do you propose to use to run the organization? Write a statement describing the management approach that will motivate and coordinate subordinates, and tell why this style is the best

 
REPORT GUIDELINES

Students are assigned to Project Teams, normally consisting of 3 to 5 students. Each group negotiates and agrees which project to undertake from the following projects:
1. Opening a subsidiary in a foreign country.
2. Opening a master franchise in another country.
3. Opening a division of ESE in Moscow, Paris or Mexico City.
4. Building a House for international clients.
5. Organising an international trade show.
6. Designing a new product or service.
BREAKDOWN OF WORK BETWEEN STUDENTS

Each member of the group should be assigned at least one distinct area of research to undertake, and at least one part of the Report to write. For groups of 3 or 4 there is some flexibility into the report content. For groups of 5 all areas have to be completed. Please see the Project Structure below.
PROJECT STRUCTURE

Introduction – this should be relatively short detailing the selection of the project. Group
(Compulsory)

Conceptualisation – the chosen solution, with regards to the triple constraints of Time, Cost and Specification. Critically reflect on the various forms of concept that could resolve the issue. Individual (Compulsory)

Project Planning – produce a project plan from work break down structure, timing, and precedence. Form an AON network diagram and a critical chain. Critically reflect on the advantages of PERT or CCPM in this particular project. Individual (Compulsory)

Risk Management – produce a risk management strategy for this project, critically reflect on numerate and non-numerate forms of risk analysis. Individual

Project Management Strategies – identify the team structure and management style of the project team. Critically reflect on the effects of diversity in an international project team. Individual

Control Strategy – Review the various forms of control strategy; select with critical evaluation the most appropriate control strategy for your chosen project. Individual

Conclusions – a review of the process undertaken and likelihood of success. Group (Compulsory)

i Arabia: Moderating of Cognitive Diversity
References must be from ranking Journals.
Literature review, Gap, Contribution, Methodology, Objectives, and Questions must be clear.

Additional Instructions:

Writing a convincing and well argued research proposal is an essential part of being accepted for a research degree. It meets several purposes:
1.It helps you to clarify your own ideas on what you want to do and what your priorities are.
2.It enables the department to which you have applied to decide whether or not it has the expertise to supervise you, and, if it does, to identify appropriate supervisors. It also enables us to discuss with you any changes which we might wish to suggest so that we are able to supervise it more appropriately. We recognise that in Science-based areas the research proposal may already be determined by a departmental research team or the supervisor in the context of a funded research project. In these cases, many of the guidelines presented here may not apply.
3.At an early stage it allows potential supervisors and other members of the department to ask questions about content, approach, values and methodology before you embark on the study and to determine the facilities required for the research.
4.It allows potential problems to be identified at this preliminary stage and to be resolved before you progress.

Normally, your proposal should be up to about 1400 words long (or up to 5-6 sides of A4), but it is advisable to check this with your chosen department as it may vary. Within it, you should ensure:
◾that the title indicates the field, scope and topic of the proposed study
◾that you can indicate an awareness of some of the significant literature in your chosen field or whether there is very little, if any, relevant literature in this field
◾that you formulate clearly the research question, problem or issue that you wish to address and indicate how it might contribute to the advancement of knowledge and scholarship in this field: in other words, you have to state why you think your proposed research is important and how you might make an original contribution to knowledge
◾that you provide an account of the kind of research methods you feel are appropriate to such a study (i.e. questionnaire, interviews, participant observation, archival and library research, laboratory work, team-based research etc.), and the balance between these
◾that you provide enough information on yourself and the topic to show how the study fits with your past or present experience, your concerns and interests, and, if appropriate, the concerns of your current employer or organisation
◾that you have already ascertained that the individuals, data sources and organisations that will be critical to your study will be accessible to you.

Summary

Provide evidence in your proposal of:
◾Appropriateness of title
◾Literature appreciation
◾A carefully framed research question or problem
◾Research methods
◾Suitability to personal situation and experience
◾Accessibility of information sources

If these are properly covered in your proposal, we will be able to provide you with a more helpful, accurate and quick response to your application.

 
– Report style approx 3,500 words
– Include graphs and tables
– Focus and discuss on management theories and how they are implemented in both the USA and China. For example (X and Y managerial style) and more.
– How does CULTURE INFLUENCE Managerial choices
– Emphasize on the cultural aspect of both countries.
– include many examples of case studies and actual events or incidents that took place.

 
hi I would like to resubmit my essay( I already submit it to the university but unfortunately I did not pass and the instructor ask me to rewrite it again )
so I need to rewrite it again in academic style with supported theory and I should not be descriptive .
the essay is below (pls. use the information on the essay below and add to it supported theory .) :

Introduction
Organization behavior is a field of study the affect of organization structure, motivation system , culture and leadership style on employees behaviors .In this assignment I will study and analyze the Organization that I am working with in term of its individual, motivation system, group dynamics, Leadership style, structure and culture.
Section 1: Case study organization
Jarir Company established on 1972 as family business. It was only one store selling Arabic books and some stationary materials in old town of Riyadh .In 1979 holding company established under the name of Jarir marketing which consist of two companies under its operation. One company for retail and the other one were for wholesales. In 1980 the Jarir expand its activity and started selling stationary and office furniture to government agencies in tender basis. This gave the company new business opportunity which enhance sales and improve profitability. During gulf war in 1990, government was the main customer for Jarir, and there were huge demand for stationary, office supply and furniture. After the war, the company started opening showroom in large scale “ 4000 sq feet “ and expand its operation around the kingdom .also , corporate sales division was establish at that time to cover all corporate companies stationary requirements . In beginning of year 2000, the company converted from family business to public company. The founder family sold out 40 % of the company share to investor and public and in the begging of 2001 its share started trade in Saudi stock market.
During 2005 company introduce smart phone to its product portfolio which added a tremendous growth to the company sales. In one year later the company expand its operation to Gulf countries and its open branches in Qatar, Kuwait and UAE. Today Jarir have more than 33 showrooms cross the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and GCC, with total sale of 4.5 billion SR. Jarir plan to open another 30 showrooms in the next five years with expectation of total sales to reach 10 billion SR.
Section 2: Individual
Personality is award come from Latin word persona, which referred to a theatrical mask work by performers in order to either project different roles or disguise their identity (3).According to Kraus Kopf,C.J &saunders,D.R,(1994) ,personality is a dynamic and organized set of characteristics possessed by a person that uniquely influences his or her cognition , motivation and behavior in various situations .Personality trait (big five) play major role between employee relationship in work and how they do their job. Managing people with different personality require awareness of those personality traits and how manager should match between job and employee personality. In my organization we pay little attention to personality trait during hiring process .our selection to the new employee especially in the operational level is mainly based on interview, employee past experience and references or recommendations from others .this way of hiring some time cause that we need to change the job assigned to the new employee after discovering that he cannot do that job due to personality miss matching with job requirement.
In some cases employee decide to resign from the company due to this reasons. In the other hand, personality trait matching with job is much better in most of our sales function. Most of our salesmen have high conscientiousness and low in agreeableness, this is why most of them achieving their sales target and able to collect money from customers on due date. salesmen with high agreeableness trait, however, fail to collect money from customer due to their low level of aggressiveness and their tendency to bless the customers or they are not able to disagree or reject their customers request of delaying due payments .The main weakness of our salesmen personality trait is their low ability to adapt change and accepting new way of doing work; in this perimeter they have low openness to experience. Most of them focus in selling fast moving items and bay little attention for other product which have good margin. For senior management job , selection depend on some of personality test in addition to deep and frequent interview for the new manager .its noticeable that due to mixing selection process between personality test and interview , we have good match between manager personality trait and job assigned to him .
For me I have completed my personality questionnaire; which indicate that I have same level of score between agreeableness and emotional stability, which is helping me to work with different group and solving many work problems and conflict. My openness trait is in moderate level and that explain why some time I do not accept big change in work process .also, I need to work on improving my conscientiousness trait, so I will be able to enhance my productivity level. Based in the above analysis our organization clearly has weak hiring process in term of not considering personality trait very well in our selection process. as I say above most our operational job selection based on interviewing new employee .this cause for us waste of time and effort .for senior management position ,considering personality test and frequent interview with new manager help us in good matching between manager personality and job requirement . It also, give us indicate o about type of the training new manger need to perform his job in better and productive way.
Section 3: Motivation
Motivation is important factor in human life, it is continues process that help employees to maintain their momentum toward achieving their goals. In my organization motivation is one of major methods which help employees to achieve company annual target and their personal goals. All departments have their own budget and it is department manager duty to motivate his team to achieve his goals. Our Organization mainly motivates employees in many ways; it depends on employee level and job type. Basically, yearend evaluation considers major evaluation elements for all non sales jobs. It identifies employee need and company gaols. Based on employee performance for the previous year, he gets salary increase and annual bonus. We are applying the economic model of motivation, by this model individual are rewarded mainly by economic reward. However, applying this concept creates some time dissatisfaction among employees due to the gap between what they expect and what company gives. These differences in expectation consider one of main factor of employees turn over. For sales job, the main motivators for salesmen are achieving their annual sales budget. This will motive them in the way that increasing sales and customers’ base eventually will lead to improve their income. achieving sales budget will make salesmen feel more responsible in front of management and they gets more respect among their colleague .we are mainly applying David Mc Clelland need theory to motivate our salesmen .For manger and senior managers, there are many motivational factors, which includes achievement and recognition from board of directors in addition to the profit sharing scheme .Some senior managers gaining power is their main motivator, other’s getting more shares are their main motivator. Also, some of senior management in our
organization whom they are one of company owner are motivated by doing what they feel interesting in job itself, other owners growth of the company is their main and maybe sole motivator. Goal setting as motivation method does not exist in our company .most department puts goals in their business plan, however it never be the motivator for most of employees. One reason is that employees usually not involve in goal setting process and they feel it is management obligation to achieve those goals. Personally, the theory that best describe why I work hard as I do is motivation – hygiene theory. In the beginning of my carrier the main motivator was money (economic model of motivation). The reasons were to fulfil a lot of family obligation and self financial need .after fulfilling most of my obligation and needs, belongingness to work and relationship with other was my main motivator. As of advancement in carrier I notice that I’m more motivated through job itself and how is it challenging .I’m now more motivated throughout achievement and recognition. So in the early stage of my work life the economic model best describe my motivation in work. In the following year’s motivation –hygiene theory is more describing as my work motivation.
Finally, motivation plays the role of engine in our work. All mangers including company owners should make sure to understand the main motivator of their employee .they should examine and understand employees’ needs and what the main motivator to them is and enhance their performance and productivity.
Section 4: Group
Group is a collection of two or more people, who share same goals and purpose, and they are either connected with each others in social or formal way.
In our organization we have different type of group and these groups are varying in their goals and purposes. Also, they have diffident size and composition, which most impacted our group performance and activities in many ways. In some cases we establish sub group for special task (for example, product development team to new ball pen introduction in the market).I’m managing sales department, and it’s consist of 9 groups. Each group has 6-9 salesmen and one supervisor to manage the group activity. The composition of our groups is a mix between homogenise and diversified , our sales group consist of different nationality ( Saudi 20 % , Jordanian 50 % ,Yamani 20 % ,and others 10 % ), experience ,and customers type ( office supply or school supply ) .Salesmen in homogenise group ( same nationality ,customer type .. ) , which represent the majority of our group composition ,have better communication between them in term of new products knowledge ,prices in the market ,competitors activities in the market and customers requirement . Generally they have better performance compare to other group and they are more satisfy and motivated. However, these groups in some cases and due to its homogeneity become a good environment to form cohesive groups which lead to group thinking. One of these cases for example they slow or postpone sales once they achieve their budget. In other case they reject or difficult to accept price increase for some of fast moving items (like copy paper) by informing management that the prices in the market still not increased, and these are some of major failing of these groups .Marketing and product development group in our organization is a good example of diversity group in term of its consistence of different nationality, education level, and age and experience in the field. They have creative thinking for products development and packaging design. Also, they study the market and evaluate competitor’s products and prices compare to ours items.
There are two dimensions we have to look at it when we want to evaluate our group size.
The first dimension is the number of salesmen in each group and the second one is the number of customers with each salesmen. Large group size (more than 9 salesmen) leads to less concentration of their supervisor in sales activity and collection of money from customers. Sales supervisor is not having enough time to review sales and collection performance with each salesman in regular basis. He is focusing only with salesmen whom have high sales budget (he will see and visit only key customers).also salesmen having too many number of customers (more than 25) concentrating only with customers having large order value per invoice and neglecting small one. In the other hand, supervisor with only 6 salesmen is more focus and he is able to visit most customers and has more time to review sales budget with his salesmen. the group have better communication between its member and more productive compare to other sales group .also, salesmen with less that 20 customer have excellent record of growth for most of their customers and wide range of products display and assortment in customers showrooms.
In conclusion , we have mixed group composition , some of our groups have high homogoncty which enable them to have better communication and performance .they are more satisfied compare to diversify group and they have low level of turnover .group size is also important to our operation in term of h of efficiency and customer service . the ideal group size in my opinion fit our business operation and gives good performance is compose of 6 salesmen with 20 customers with each one of them .this size of the group enable sales supervisor to spend sufficient time with ach salesman and also allow salesman to have more time with customers.
Section 5: Leadership
I’m reporting to one of our company owners (shareholder). The leadership questionnaire shows that he is more toward people concern. He is lower than medium in term of task completion (his score in task is 9, and 12 for people).
He is in my opinion more toward democratic leader. He delegates a lot of responsibility for his subordinates and gives full support. He some time focus in certain task and make sure the necessary action has been taken. He is more concern in all task related to government regulation and legal issue.
I believe his leadership and management style in this stage (he was more involved in tasks before) is good and it added value to our work.
In my opinion the balance between manager concern toward task or people is the factor of leadership .if manager focus only on task and he is not communicating with people, this will effect employee moral and productivity .on the other hand if he is only care of people and not looking for task completion, work productivity will be effected .so the most important thing to be effective leader is to communicate and motivated employees’ to achieve goal and company strategy.
Section 6: Structure
An organization’s structure is the formal system that provides the map
for how its parts fit together. It dictates the means, by which people are
assigned to task, are allowed to exert authorities, are required to
coordinate activities, and are held responsible for their
actions (.put source …..).
Formalization
Our organization is having a relatively high formalized structure for
most of its work process wherein all activities of the organization are
registered in system as a rule or procedure. There is clear and defined
work process for each activity and each employee knows exactly what
he’s suppose to do in terms of following work procedure and
formalities. For example each salesman has a defined customer and sales
budget and budget for each product category. Also, each customer has
define credit limit and there is a clear procedures as to how to increase
credit limit for him .the positive aspect of this is reflected in our
organization’s performance in terms of reducing ambiguity of work
and increase management control over operation of outside branches and sales offices. Also, it preserves company’s and customers right and
money , through documenting all selling and shipping activity between
them . However, this high work formality in some cases reduce
employee flexibility in certain circumstances ,wherein they require
to make little adaptation to work procedure in order to meet
Customers’ needs or respond to their complaint immediately.
Standardization
My organization exhibits relatively low level of work Standardization in
sales departments, which enables the sales team to do their work in more
flexible way to meet customers’ requirements. The drawback of this in
some cases salesmen do not utilize their time in proper way. Due to low
standardization of route plan assigned to salesmen, sometime they waste
their time visiting customers in different part of the city which
reduce productivity and time utilization.
Centralization
My organization exhibits high level of Centralization . Most decisions
are made by top management with very limited authority given to
middle manager. This affects the performance negatively in terms of
increasing decisions at times process and time which lead to
delay of many work tasks. Some times and due to this we miss
opportunities and quick response to market changes. In other cases it
slow down business expansion and increase frustration among middle
managers. In conclusion, our organization structure having high formality
, low standardization and Centralized decision process. Work formality helps
us in conserving company and Customers rights . it also, help in
controlling outside operation . Low standardization of the work process gives
our employee more flexibility to do their job .however , centralizing decision
delay and slow work flow .
Section 7: Culture
Management theory describes an organizations’ culture as its set of
shared meaning and values within a system that work to influence the
daily thinking , behaviour , and interactions of its members the basic
assumption that I think effect our organization’s culture, are (1 ) the
natural of human relationships and (2) the nature of time.
The first assumption is manifested in the stories that show how the
company establishes and all the difficulties happened during that period.
Also, who are the heroes of the company during time of gulf war I&II.
Language, also, Cleary in our company value, respect of senior staff is
example of that .on the other hand, there is no dress code in our
company which is reflects of one of owner’s value of
casualty in work and humbleness. Most employees express same value
during meeting and discussion .however ,
in reality , and during work pressure , some employees act in different
way ( they show their enacted value ) . Management in this situation
involve to correct wrong act . In this since the nature of human relation
between our employees effect positively in term of cooperation between
them and the company value encourages culture based on spirit of group
work and cooperation .however , and in my opinion , this type of culture
in the organization create relaxed environment between employees so they
do not need much effort to comet in goal achievement .actually they feel
that they do not have to challenge and compete with each other and there
is no necessary of having stretching their goals .as result of that and due
to that cooperative culture , it is become difficult to grow in new
market and adding new products line .The second assumption is
reflected in the importance of time .as we are a distribution company,
time is very significant for our business. It’s very important for us to
delivery our products to customers in the right time. We always review
past history of our customer buying cycle to be able to plan for
future orders .end of the year is also important for us in term of
reviewing our performance and evaluating its progress.
Since most of our products are used by schools students, we should
deliver it in the right time of the season. So we always make sure all our
supply go on timely manner and our delivery to customer as will.
otherwise we will end up with high inventory and a lot of non-moving
items .finally , I can consider our organization as consistent culture ,
since we are operating in almost stabile market , high level of value
agreement between employees ,most operation done in orderly basis and
most of the employees predict and follow company norms .
Section 8: Recommendations for improvement
In conclusion of this assignment, I think in our organization there are two areas needs improvements ,they are (1) individual (employee selection) and (2) employee motivational system.
For individuals we have clear weakness in new employee selection process , as we depend mainly on job interview and past experience ,we never consider employee personality traits ( big five ) .This is definitely effect over all work performance , company citizenship , counterproductive behavior of the employee and employee interpersonal behavior with others in the organization to improve our selection process of new employees is to introduce cognitive ability and big five personality tests like Wonderlic Personnel and NEO-FFI (neo-five-factor inventory )Test , which is not expensive if we compare it with the cost of hiring wrong employee .These kind of assessment for the new employee at least gives an indication about his personality and helps in matching job requirement and employee trait , capabilities .In addition to this , educating the HR managers about the importance of these personality trait will enhance to improve selection process and future career of employee . For motivational part, I think the main problem we have is, there is no participation of employee in goal setting, so most of them they do not see achievement of their goals as motivator factor for them .To improve this we should let our employees involve in goal setting for their jobs so it will be meaningful for them and they become committed and excited to achieve it. Also we can link between goal achievements and reward systems so they can anticipate the future outcomes.
Finally, in my opinion the most important thing in employee motivation is to educate and train company managers and owners about how to select, and motivate employees. Building awareness among our company managers about personality traits and motivational theory will have greater impact on company success.
Section 9: Engagement in the module’s Activities

There are 7 activities in this module. I have completed all three elements of the activity, i.e. completed the required analysis using the Activity Questionnaire, posted a message on the Discussion Board addressing the topic(s) suggested in the activity, and discussed the topics with other Study Group members, for less than 4 of these
activities. The main reason behind that is I am not familiarized with interaction through black board, its consider the first time for me to study online

 
Topic : Role of management consultants and the methodology used for an HR technology transformation project : An organisational study (Case study)

THIS IS FOR MASTERS LEVEL 7

The main part of the proposal should discuss the following:

• Research Aims/Objectives
• Literature Review (the background of the research)
• Research Paradigm
• Research Approach (inductive, deductive)
• Research Nature (exploratory, explanatory, descriptive)
• Research Hypotheses/questions (if relevant and as appropriate)
• Methodological Choices and Research Strategies (as defined by Saunders et al., 2012)
• Research Techniques
• Population profile, sampling theories and sampling size
• Time frame (as defined by Saunders et al., 2012)
• Ethical and accessibility issues
• Implementation Time Plan (Gantt-like chart)

Module Title Strategic Management Analysis
Word Limit 3,000 words
Number of questions set: 4 out of 7 (please follow instructions)

Instructions to Candidates

1. The assessment contains four sections that cover the four main thematic areas of the module. For sections 1, 2, and 3, select and answer one question. Section 4 contains only one question, which is compulsory.
2. You are required to carry out your own research on this case organization and collect relevant information beyond what is provided in the case-study (i.e. corporate reports, corporate websites, press releases, media outlets etc.).
3. 5% towards the total mark will assess your presentation skills, that is appropriate use of Harvard System of Referencing, formatting, style
of writing and use of language, word limit.

QUESTIONS:

SECTION 1. MISSION, VISION, AND STAKEHOLDERS (20%) [LOs 1-2]
Select and answer one of the following questions:

1.1. Write a mission and a vision statement for British Petroleum (BP).

1.2. Identify British Petroleum’s (BP) key stakeholders and map these stakeholders in terms of the power/interest grid.
SECTION 2. SCENARIOS AND INDUSTRY ANALYSIS (25%) [LOs 2-3]
Select and answer one of the following questions:

2.1. Describe and analyse some of the key trends and uncertainties facing the energy (oil & gas) industry over the following 10 years. Build on this analysis to generate two possible scenarios for British Petroleum (BP). What implications are there for British Petroleum’s (BP) strategy?

2.2. By employing relevant data from the case, conduct a five forces analysis of the energy industry. What do you conclude about that industry’s attractiveness?
SECTION 3. RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES (25%) [LOs 2-3]
Select and answer one of the following questions:

3.1. Evaluate the bases of British Petroleum’s (BP) strategic capabilities by utilizing the VRIO/VRIN criteria (value, rarity, inimitability, organisation and/or non-substitutability). Which are the key strategic capabilities that provide, or could provide, British Petroleum (BP) with a sustainable competitive advantage? Why?

3.2. Evaluate British Petroleum’s (BP) resources and capabilities by utilizing the value chain framework. How is the company creating value? Discuss how could the company develop and improve further in respect to this?
SECTION 4. BUSINESS AND CORPORATE STRATEGIES (25%) [LOs 1-4]

British Petroleum (BP) has shrunk after selling assets in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico disaster in 2010 and is now worth considerably less than rivals Exxon Mobil or Shell (i.e. The Economist, 2014; Financial Times, 2013)*. Moreover, in April 2015, the company reported ‘a sharp fall in profit as the dramatic fall in oil prices took its tall’ (BBC News, April 2015)**. What suggestions could you make to British Petroleum’s (BP) senior management team to achieve sustainable competitive advantage in the competitive global energy market?

n

company:TUI group
1.Analysis of the organisation’s strategic direction:
Examination making practical use of mainstream strategy concepts, models and frameworks (Ansoff matrix BCG, GE/McKinsey) chose two of them.
2.Critical evaluation of the organisation’s strategy: This is in terms of its suitability, acceptability, feasibility and sustainability (SAFS Framework).
3.Recommendations:The ability to draw together a coherent and consistent set of recommendations, as appropriate to the organisation.
Grounded in reality.
3.Application of Industry Analysis: Demonstrates knowledge, understanding and the ability to apply Porter’s 5 Forces model within a critical context.
4.Conclusions:Demonstrates the ability to draw together a coherent and consistent set of conclusions.