Reference no: EM132158191 , Length: word count:1000

Assignment -

This is an individual assignment. Each week, based on the hour of e-learning activity that has been prescribed, you are required actively to engage with the material by writing a short discussion of how the material that was prescribed relates to the topic(s) of this unit and how it relates to your own personal experience.

You create a blog each week where you provide evidence that you have engaged in this way with the prescribed e-learning activity. In the blog, you mention any extra material relevant to the activity that you have researched on the net.

In your blog, you should address the following two sections:

(1) Section 1: list the key ideas you have extracted from the prescribed e-learning activity.

(2) Section 2: apply those ideas to your own experience, to an organisation you know and to the topic(s) of this subject.

Week 1 -

Activity 1: Ford and Taylorism

Questions to consider:

1. Would workers in Australia, America or Europe accept the Taylorism in this form today?

2. Consider the design of scripts for use in Call Centres, can you see Taylorism in that? Explain.

3. This 'clip' is showing history from 100 years ago. Some would say that 'the world has moved on' and these ideas are out of date. However, could there be parts of the world today for which these ideas might be just what they need? Explain.

Week 2 -

Activity 1: Thomas Friedman on Globalisation; 3 Eras of Globalisation; World is flat

Questions to consider:

1. What would be some of the key drawbacks or risks of living in the flat world of Globalisation 3.0 as Friedman describes it?

2. Do you agree with Friedman's iron rule of the flat world? Explain.

3. Is the level of globalisation uniform across the world? Explain.

Activity 2: Pankaj Ghemawat on Globalisation

Questions to consider:

1. Has your view on globalisation changed after listening to Professor Ghemawat? Explain.

2. Consider where you have seen the fears that people have about globalisation. Do you think these fears may subside with some data points that may suggest otherwise?

Activity 3: Online tool to explore different countries' 5 dimensions by Hofstede

Questions to consider:

1. How does the Australian culture compare to other world cultures (eg. Your home country or other countries that you have visited)?

2. Do you agree with the survey results for the Australian culture? Why or why not?

Activity 4: 'The myth of national culture' - Counter argument to Hofstede's work by Professor Brendan McSweeney at Royal Holloway, University of London

Questions to consider:

1. Do you agree with Professor McSweeney's view on national cultures? Why or why not? After viewing the survey result done by Hofstede on your home country, who do you think offers a more compelling argument on national cultures? Can a single culture be used to determine the actions of entire population?

Activity 5: ' Riding the waves of culture' - Talk given by Fons Trompenaars at TEDxAmsterdam

Questions to consider:

1. Consider your experience with cultural conflict or culture shock. What were the different viewpoints that you had to reconcile? And how did you overcome the differences?

2. What would be the benefits of connecting different viewpoints as Trompenaar suggests?

Activity 6: 'Building a cross-cultural web design for a wider audience' (Christian Arno in Design on 22nd Jun 2010)

Questions to consider:

1. Can the concept of High and Low Context cultures be applied to other areas of business? - marketing and advertising, PR, customer and supplier relationship management, etc.

Week 3 -

Activity 1: Corporate culture and strategy

URL: 'Culture clash: When corporate culture fights strategy, it can cost you' •

Questions to consider:

Can you think of any examples where you experienced various culture types (Market, Clan, Adhocracy and Hierarchy culture) as a consumer to, or employee of, an organisation?

If so, what is your evaluation of the aligment between its corporate culture and strategy?

Activity 2: Definition of culture

URL: What is Organizational Culture? And Why Should We Care?

Questions to consider:

Why do you think people's definition of culture may vary?

Which definition of culture do you agree with most and why?

Activity 3: Corporate culture instilled in HRM practices and customer satisfaction

URLs: (1) 'Why Zappos Pays New Employees to Quit--And You Should Too'

(2) 'Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh talks about building a culture-based company'

Question to consider:

What does building a culture-based company entail?

Activity 4: Toyota's corporate culture and the problem of spreading its culture

URL: 'MIT's Steven Spear Discusses Toyota's Corporate Culture' (Interview on Bloomberg TV)

Question to consider:

How would you describe Toyota's culture using the seven dimensions of organisational culture and/ or the Cultural Web?

Activity 5:Cultural web and its use in practice (call centre)

URL: 'Using cultural models for changing corporate culture'

Questions to consider:

1. Do you agree with the author's view on the effectiveness of cultural web model in changing corporate culture (compared to other models of corporate culture) as presented in the article? Why or why not?

2. What would be the benefits of using typology type instead?

Week 4 -

Activity 1: Structure and strategy

URL: BCG's Yves Morieux view on Organisation Designx

Questions to consider:

1. Yves Morieux claims that structure follows strategy. Is this always the case?

Activity 2: Holacracy

URL: Zappos just abolished bosses. Inside tech's latest management craze.

Questions to consider:

1. What's your understanding of holacracy? How would you describe it compared to bureaucracy and team-based structure?

2. Discuss how Contingency Factors of Organisational Design are at work in the case of Zappos?

3. In what ways do you think innovative culture is related to (agile) organisational structure?

Week 5 -

Activity 1: The Milgram Experiment

(1) Milgram Experiment

(2) Milgram Experiment replicated in Australia (Psychology study by La Trobe University in the 1970s)

Questions to consider:

1. To what extent would you be capable of inflicting real pain (physical, mental and/or emotional) on another human being?

Activity 2: Solomon Asch and Group Conformity

Questions to consider:

1. Does your own personal decision-making always reflect an objective process?

2. Does the desire to be accepted as a part of a group leave one susceptible to conforming to the group's norms?

3. Identify and discuss situational factors that can enable a group to exert pressure strong enough to change a member's attitude and behaviour.

Week 6 -

Activity 1: Linear Programming Word Problem

Questions to consider:

1. What insights into rational decision making approach can you draw from this video?

2. What would be the limitations of linear programming?

3. In what kinds of situation could the linear programming be useful to decision making?

Week 7 -

Activity 1: Management by Objectives (Prof. Fredmund Malik)

Questions to consider:

1. Do you agree with Prof Malik's views on objectives and planning? Why or why not?

Activity 2: PERT

Questions to consider:

1. From watching the video clip, can you identify the benefits of using critical path for planning?

Week 8 -

Activity 1: Product Life Cycle

Questions to consider:

1. Identify at least one product that fits into each stage of the Product Life Cycle.

Activity 2: THE ANSOFF MATRIX

Questions to consider:

1. Can you think of some examples of organisations diversifying the product (service) offerings or diversifying into other markets?

Week 9 -

Activity 1: Hawthorne Studies

Questions to consider:

1. Explain in your own words the main findings of Hawthorne Studies.

2. Based on Hawthorne studies, explain how norms and status exert influence on an individual's behaviour.

Activity 2: Repatriation Integration Program

Questions to consider:

1. Identify the challenges that repatriated employees and their employers face upon their return to home country.

2. What should the repatriation integration program entail to address the logistical and psychological concerns of the repatriated employees?

Week 10 -

Activity 1: Hertzberg's Theory of Motivation

Questions to consider:

1. Explain the key concepts of Hertzberg theory of motivation.

2. Explain how would use the finding of the Hertzberg theory of motivation to motivate your workers in a fast food industry?

Activity 2: Employee Motivation: Expectancy Theory

Questions to consider:

1. After watching the videos, how do you use this theory to motivate yourself?

2. What are the strengths and weakness of this theory?

Week 11 -

Activity 1: Igniting creativity to transform corporate culture -

URL: Catherine Courage at TEDxKyoto 2012

Questions to consider:

1. Do you agree with Catherine's view on creative thinking - i.e., it is our birth right and we should learn to be creative drawing on our childhood?

2. How practical are her approaches to bringing creativity to workplace?

Activity 2: Lead and be the change

Questions to consider:

1. Have you experienced an emotional rollercoaster when faced with a radical change, as described by Professor Mueller-Eberstein in the video? Discuss how the Theory of Transition may be applied to your experience.

2. Can you relate Kotter's 8-Step Change Model to Professor Mueller-Eberstein tips for successful change management

Week 12 -

Activity 1: Law of Requisite Variety

Question to consider:

1. Discuss the dangers of not applying the Law of Requisite Variety to organisational control systems.

Note - Need online Week 1: Ford and Taylorism and Week 3: Corporate culture and strategy Activities.

Attachment:- Assignment File.rar