POSTGRADUATE DIPLOMA IN BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
ORGANISATIONAL STRATEGY PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT
NOTE: At postgraduate level, you are expected to substantiate your answers with evidence from independent research.
| INTRODUCTION TO THE ASSIGNMENT • This assignment consists of FOUR compulsory questions. Please answer all of them. • When you answer, preferably use information from your own workplace, or, alternatively, from a workplace with which you are familiar. This is referred to as “your company” in the questions that follow. • When you make statements or recommendations concerning “your company”, then be sure to use actual practical examples from your company in support thereof. • Good luck! |
ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS
QUESTION 1 [25 MARKS]
In the context of your own company, critically summarise the key points of the Delta Change Model and the Resource-Based View. Then, highlight the key elements in your company’s business model and evaluate whether the Delta Change Model’s focus on ‘customer bonding’, or the Resource-Based View’s focus on ‘rare and valuable internal resources’, is more relevant to your company, and which one would give you the best chance of growth in the future.
| SCORING CRITERIA | ||||
| TOPIC(S) | POOR | DEVELOPING | PROFICIENT | MASTERLY |
| Summarize and | Little or no attempt | Basic attempt made | Satisfactory attempt | Outstanding attempt |
| critically evaluate the | made to summarize | to summarize and | made to summarize | made to summarize |
| relevance of the Delta | and critically evaluate | critically evaluate the | and critically evaluate | and critically evaluate |
| Change Model and | the relevance of the | relevance of the Delta | the relevance of the | the relevance of the |
| the Resource-Based | Delta Change Model | Change Model and | Delta Change Model | Delta Change Model |
| View with regards to | and the Resource- | the Resource-Based | and the Resource- | and the Resource- |
| own company | Based View with | View with regards to | Based View with | Based View with |
| regards to own | own company | regards to own | regards to own | |
| company | company | company | ||
QUESTION 2 [25 MARKS]
Critically evaluate your organisation with regard to its vision, mission, and value statements, and assess how these are aligned to the organisation’s strategy and culture. Your answer should consider whether there are areas of improvement regarding its vision, mission, and value statement. Finally, recommend key stakeholders who may be consulted in this process, and justify your recommendations.
| TOPIC | POOR | ROOM TO DEVELOP | PROFICIENT | MASTERLY |
| CRITERIA | ||||
| Critically | Little or no attempt | Basic attempt made to | Satisfactory attempt | Outstanding attempt |
| evaluate | made to critically | critically evaluate | made to critically | made to critically |
| elements of own | evaluate elements of | elements of own | evaluate elements of | evaluate elements of |
| company’s | own company’s mission | company’s mission | own company’s | own company’s |
| mission | statement | statement | mission statement | mission statement |
| statement. | ||||
| Consider areas | Little or no attempt | Basic attempt made to | Satisfactory attempt | Outstanding attempt |
| of improvement | made to consider areas | consider areas of | made to consider | made to consider |
| and evaluate its | or improvement, or | improvement, and to | areas of | areas of |
| impact on | evaluate its impact on | evaluate its | improvement, and to | improvement, and to |
| stakeholders, | stakeholders, and | stakeholders and | evaluate its | evaluate its |
| and recommend | recommend | recommend | stakeholders and | stakeholders and |
| improvements | improvements | improvements | recommend | recommend |
| improvements | improvements | |||
QUESTION 3 [25 MARKS]
Within the context of your company’s organisational strategies, extract several of its most important long-term objectives and critically analyse how these coincide with – or deviate from – the proposed annual objectives for several functional divisions within the company.
Then, critically evaluate the extent to which:
- The annual objectives can be considered in alignment with long-term objectives and offer a reasonable chance of contributing towards their achievement; and
- The annual objectives between each of the functional divisions within your company are logically and symbiotically aligned with one another.
Finally, propose recommendations, with practical examples, for improving the alignment and synergy between the long-term and annual objectives and/or between the annual objectives of various functional divisions within your company.
| TOPIC | POOR | ROOM TO DEVELOP | PROFICIENT | MASTERLY |
| CRITERIA | ||||
| Analyse, and critically | Little or no attempt | Basic attempt made to | Satisfactory attempt | Outstanding attempt |
| evaluate, the | made to analyse, and | analyse, and critically | made to analyse, and | made to summarize, |
| relationships between | critically evaluate, the | evaluate, the | critically evaluate, the | and critically evaluate, |
| the long-term and | relationships between | relationships between | relationships between | the relationships |
| annual objectives, and | the long-term and | the long-term and | the long-term and | between the long-term |
| between the functional | annual objectives, and | annual objectives, and | annual objectives, and | and annual objectives, |
| divisions within own | between the functional | between the functional | between the functional | and between the |
| company, with | divisions within own | divisions within own | divisions within own | functional divisions |
| recommendations for | company | company | company | within own company |
| improvement | ||||
| Propose | No attempt has been | Student has attempted | Student largely | An outstanding |
| recommendations for | made to propose | to propose | proposed | response in which the |
| improving the | recommendations for | recommendations for | recommendations for | student has largely |
| alignment and synergy | improving the | improving the | improving the | proposed |
| between the long-term | alignment and synergy | alignment and synergy | alignment and synergy | recommendations for |
| and annual objectives | between the long-term | between the long-term | between the long-term | improving the |
| and annual objectives | and annual objectives. | and annual objectives. | alignment and synergy | |
| However, the students | However, a few | between the long-term | ||
| answer is largely off- | mistakes can be noted. | and annual objectives | ||
| track | These include steering | |||
| off topic or | ||||
| spelling/grammatical | ||||
| errors | ||||
QUESTION 4 [25 MARKS]
Conduct an evaluation of your own company’s strategy from about 3 – 5 years ago, following the usual three steps of the strategy evaluation process:
- Examine the underlying bases of your company’s strategy;
- Compare your actual results with your expected results; and
- Take corrective actions to ensure that performance conforms to plans.
Make your “yes / no” decisions clear after each step of the process, as per the flow diagram in your study guide and prescribed text book illustrating strategy review.
If you answer “yes, significant changes have occurred” after either Step 1 (the underlying bases of your company’s strategy) or Step 2 (a comparison between actual and expected results), then make recommendations, with examples, of where and how your company needs to take corrective action(s).
| SCORING CRITERIA | ||||
| TOPIC(S) | POOR | DEVELOPING | PROFICIENT | MASTERLY |
| Review own | Little or no attempt | Basic attempt made | Satisfactory attempt | Outstanding attempt |
| company’s 3 – 5- | made to review own | to review own | made to review own | made to review own |
| year-old strategic | company’s 3 – 5- | company’s 3 – 5- | company’s 3 – 5- | company’s 3 – 5- |
| plan in terms of (a) | year-old strategic | year-old strategic | year-old strategic | year-old strategic |
| bases of strategy and | plan in terms of (a) | plan in terms of (a) | plan in terms of (a) | plan in terms of (a) |
| (b) actual versus | bases of strategy and | bases of strategy and | bases of strategy and | bases of strategy and |
| expected results, then | (b) actual versus | (b) actual versus | (b) actual versus | (b) actual versus |
| (c) recommend | expected results, and | expected results, and | expected results, and | expected results, and |
| corrective actions if | (c) recommendations | (c) recommendations | (c) recommendations | (c) recommendations |
| and where necessary | for corrective actions | for corrective actions | for corrective actions | for corrective actions |
| if and where | if and where | if and where | if and where | |
| necessary. | necessary. | necessary. | necessary. | |
TOTAL MARKS: 100
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