London School of Commerce

Cardiff Metropolitan University

MODULE TITLE: Strategic Management

PROGRAMME: BA (Hons) BS,

SEMESTER: Semester Five

ACADEMIC YEAR PERIOD: FEB 16- MAY 2017

LECTURER SETTING ASSESSMENT: - Mervyn Sookun

DATE ASSESSMENT SET AND LOADED ON TO STUDENT PORTAL:

20/03/2017
DATE ASSESSMENT TO BE COMPLETED AND SUBMITTED: -
20/04/2017
SUBMISSION METHOD/MODE:-Turnitin

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------
Assessment Type: Individual Assignment and Group Presentation

1. ONE Individual written assignment

2. Group Presentation

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------

Table of Contents:
1. Description of Assessment Requirements
2. Marking Scheme and Learning Outcomes (Individual Assignment)
3. Group Assignment based on the attached case study
4. General Guidelines
5. Notes on Plagiarism
6. Harvard Referencing
7. Group Presentation
8. Group Presentation Evaluation Criteria
1.Description of Assessment Requirements: Individual Written Assignment

Mintzberg et al. (2000) argue that strategy concepts and ideas could be understood
by categorising them into ten schools of thought. On the other hand, Johnson
Scholes and Whittington (2010) suggest that strategy research, teaching and
practice have changed significantly over the years, and therefore strategy could be
best understood by using a number of "lenses".

Drawing on relevant business examples, compare and contrast the schools of

strategy and strategy lenses as perspectives for understanding the complexity of
strategy development and implementation. Conclude with a view as to whether or
not you find the "lenses" more useful than the 10 schools in the 21st century. Submit
your work in essay format.

.
Total: 3000 words
Assessment value: 25%

2.Marking Scheme (Individual Assignment)

 The assignment assessment criteria and mark allocation are as

follows :

L.O. Critically analyse how the different perspectives of social

science disciplines inform strategic management
Introduction .( 10 marks)
Literature review of content and process approaches to strategy
(40 marks)
Comparative analysis of selected models (30 marks)
Business examples (20 marks)

(Total 100 marks: value=25%)

Group Assignment
You are required to conduct research on the business strategies
implemented in the last five years of two companies operating in the
same industry. Drawing on relevant models, concepts and theories
covered in this module and those gathered from your research attempt
the tasks below:
Task 1
Compare and contrast both companies' business models. (20 marks)
Task 2
Identify and discuss the possible strategic directions that ONE of your
chosen companies could follow in the future to improve its competitive
advantage. (50 marks)
Task 3
Discuss the internal challenges required in ONE of these companies to
improve its strategic positioning and make your recommendations upon
how the needed changes could be achieved. (20 marks)
Report presentation (10 marks)

(Total 100 marks: value=25%)

Marking Scheme: Group Presentation and PowerPoint Slides

Organisation and Evidence of Teamwork 10 marks

Topic Knowledge 50 marks

Creativity 10 marks

Visual Aids 10 marks

Summary 10 marks

Impact on audience 10 marks

Total 100 marks

Value 25%
Section 7: Grading Criteria
MARK 29 or less 30 - 39 40 - 49 50 - 59 60 - 69 70 +

CONTENT: Vague, Some mention Barely answers Some looseness/ Well focused Highly focused
Has the question been random, of the issue, but the question – digressions
answered? unrelated a collection of just reproduces
material disparate points what knows
about the topic
TOPIC No evidence No evidence of No evidence of Some reading Good reading. Excellent reading.
KNOWLEDGE of reading. reading. reading. Very evident, but Good range of Well chosen
Is there evidence of having No use of An implicit hint basic theories confined to core theories included. theories.
read widely theory – not at some mentioned but texts.
and use of appropriate and even hinted knowledge of not developed
up to date material to make a at implicitly. theory, etc. or well used.
case?
UNDERSTANDING & No theory Vague Long winded Some long winded Good summary of Succinct, effective
SYNTHESIS included. assertions/poor descriptions of sections. theory. summaries of
Are ideas summarized rather explanations. theory. Some quotations, Good use of theory. Excellent
than being reproduced, and but stand alone. quotations that choice and
are they inter-related with Some inter- flow with threading of
other ideas? connections. narrative. quotations into
Good inter- argument. Good
connections. counterpoising of a
range of
perspectives.
No No/limited/ Few Uneven Good Excellent range
APPLICATION examples inappropriat examples examples examples of examples.
Does it show e examples
appropriate use of
theory in a
practical situation?
ANALYSIS Vague Largely Limited insight Some good Good, detailed Comprehensive
Does it identify the key issues, assertions descriptive with into issues. observations. analysis. range of issues
etc in a given scenario, about issues. no identified and
proposal or argument? identification discussed fully.
and analysis of
central issues.
No Uncritical Some Good Good critical Full critical
EVALUATION & evaluation. acceptance of evaluation but interpretation. assessment. assessment and
CONCLUSION material. weak. Little Some but limited Independent substantial
Does it critically assess insight. sophistication in thought individual insight.
material? argument. displayed.
Are there a workable and
imaginative solutions?
REFERENCING No No referencing Limited/poor Some Appropriate Appropriate
Thorough and accurate referencing referencing inconsistencies in referencing referencing
citation and referencing referencing

PRESENTATION No structure Poor structure. Acceptable, but Reasonable Good argument. Excellent argument.
Lgical and coherent structure apparent. Poor uneven structure. Well presented Very effective
to argument and effective Poor presentation. structure. Good material. presentation
presentation presentation. Reasonable presentation. format.
presentation.
 SECTION 8 : Group Presention Guidelines
Students are required to fully participate in and contribute to the development of the Group
Presentation. Non-participation and/or non-attendance will result in restriction of marks for
this aspect of assessment

 The group size will be determined by the module leader and module teaching team and will normally
be 4 group members (normal maximum).
 The formal Group Presentation will be delivered by all members of the group.
 The absolute maximum presentation period is 20 minutes. This will be timed and there will be NO
extensions to this time period. Student Groups are strongly advised to rehearse their presentation to
ensure that the time period is strictly adhered to.
 Presentations will be stopped by the lecturer/assessment team at the end of 20 minutes.
 Presentations are followed by Questions which are required to be fielded by/responded to by
members of the group who have not delivered the presentation (i.e. non-presenters). The absolute
timed period for questions is 10 minutes.
 Both times are required to be strictly adhered to.
 There is a stipulated Maximum of 15 power point slides in the 20 minute presentation.
 Students are required to be aware and are formally advised of all maximum times which will be cut off
times with no exceptions.
 Power Point printouts with the individual texts provided for the presentation by each student are
required to be handed in to the assessment team/lecturer at the time of the presentation immediately
before the commencement of the presentation and will be retained by the lecturer/assessment team.
.
 The Assessment Weighting for this aspect of the group assessment is 25% (all students in the
particular group are awarded the same mark)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SECTION 9:Notes on Plagiarism & Harvard Referencing

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is passing off the work of others as your own. This constitutes academic
theft and is a serious matter which is penalized in assignment marking.

Plagiarism is the submission of an item of assessment containing elements of work

produced by another person(s) in such a way that it could be assumed to be the
student’s own work. Examples of plagiarism are :

 the verbatim copying of another person’s work without

acknowledgement
 the close paraphrasing of another person’s work by simply changing a
few words or altering the order of presentation without
acknowledgement
 the unacknowledged quotation of phrases from another person’s work
and/or the presentation of another person’s idea(s) as one’s own.
Copying or close paraphrasing with occasional acknowledgement of the source may
also be deemed to be plagiarism is the absence of quotation marks implies that the
phraseology is the student’s own.

Plagiarised work may belong to another student or be from a published source such
as a book, report, journal or material available on the internet.

Harvard Referencing

The structure of a citation under the Harvard referencing system is the author’s
surname, year of publication, and page number or range, in parentheses, as
illustrated in the Smith example near the top of this article.

 The page number or page range is omitted if the entire work is cited.
The author’s surname is omitted if it appears in the text. Thus we may
say : “Jones (2001) revolutionized the field of trauma surgery.”

 Two or three authors are cited using “and” or “&” : (Deane, Smith, and
Jones, 1991) or (Deane, Smith & Jones, 1991). More than three
authors are cited using et al. (Deane et al. 1992).

 An unknown date is cited as no date (Deane n.d.). A reference to a

reprint is cited with the original publication date in square brackets
(Marx [1867] 1967, p. 90).

 If an author published two books in 2005, the year of the first (in the
alphabetic order of the references) is cited and referenced as 2005a,
the second as 2005b.

 A citation is placed wherever appropriate in or after the sentence. If it

is at the end of a sentence, it is placed before the period, but a citation
for an entire block quote immediately follows the period at the end of
the block since the citation is not an actual part of the quotation itself.

 Complete citations are provided in alphabetical order in a section

following the text, usually designated as “Works cited” or
“References”. The difference between a “works cited” or “references”
list and a bibliography is that a bibliography may include works not
directly cited in the text.

 All citations are in the same font as the main text.

Examples

Examples of book references are :

 Smith, J. (2005a). Dutch Citing Practices. The Hague: Holland

Research Foundation.

 Smith, J. (2005b). Harvard Referencing. London: Jolly Good

Publishing.

In giving the city of publication, an internationally well-known city (such as London,

The Hague, or New York) is referenced as the city alone. If the city is not
internationally well known, the country (or state and country if in the U.S.) are given.

An example of a journal reference :

 Smith, John Maynard. “The origin of altruism,” Nature 393, 1998,

pp. 639-40.

An example of a journal reference :

 Bowcott, Owen. “Street Protest”, The Guardian, October 18, 2005,

accessed February 7, 2006.