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ASSIGNMENT PREPARATION
To briefly go over what you are required to do for the assignment:
You are asked to analyse an organization of your choice. For part-time students, this means your own organization, for full-time students you need to identify an organization that you have knowledge of, or that you have worked in. Whilst it is permissible to use case studies, as you have already been told, case studies from text books do not provide you with enough indepth organisational analysis for you to do a comprehensive assignment. If this is all you can do, however, then you must check with your tutor about the appropriateness of the case study BEFORE you start to do any work on it.
In terms of analysing the organization, if your organization is a large one, then you can narrow it down to your department. Also, you must not do a whistle-stop tour of every topic that you have covered on the module. Select one, two, or even three, that are of interest to you, or are relevant issues within your organization. Remember that certain topics do go together very well, eg. structure and culture, power and culture, gender and power, ethics and gender, technology and structure. I know that it is difficult to confine yourself to one or two topics – as you read and study about one topic, then naturally others come in – that’s the nature of organization theory, but you need to remain focused.
Perhaps the most daunting aspect of this assignment to you is that of how you integrate your paradigmatic perspective into your analysis. In class you were asked to look at the paradigms of Burrell and Morgan. However, if after your reading, you are more comfortable with other paradigmatic approaches then please use these. For example, you were given the article by Meyerson and Martin, who identify three paradigms of culture and change. You could take one of these paradigms if you were looking at these topics. The text by Mary Jo Hatch called Organization Theory, assesses literature from 3 other perspectives – the modernist, postmodernist and symbolic interpretivist. Jackson and Carter in Rethinking Organizational Behaviour and also in your customised text book again have different perspectives such as the post-structuralist. The important thing to remember however is that whatever your approach you need to always maintain this approach throughout your work – don’t mention your paradigm at the beginning of the assignment, and then never refer to it again. You have to analyse, use theories, concepts, opinions etc that are appropriate for your approach. For example, if you are a radical humanist you cannot say that management theories on how to manage culture, control people are necessary, relevant and effective. You are anti-management – you have to see organisations as modes of domination, preventing people from reaching their full potential etc. As interpretivists you are exploring symbol and meaning – trying to understand what is happening and being experienced so that you can ‘interpret behaviour’. As functionalists you fundamentally believe in the structure of organisations and their necessity, seeking solutions to problems. As radical structuralists, you don’t really like organisations at all other than as showing further evidence of the dominant discourse of capitalism!#p#分页标题#e#
指导英国课程作业There is no getting away from it – you will have to read the relevant chapter in Burrell and Morgan’s text to fully understand the implications of your paradigm. It is not sufficient to use the slides that have been given to you.
When we talk about analysis, we are talking about the synthesis of theory and practice. You must underpin your observations and argument at all times with the relevant theory. But please remember that we do not need huge chunks of theory, followed by a description of how your organization has this theory, or fits this theory or uses this theory! You need to pick relevant points out of the theories in order to critique what is going on. For example, if you are a functionalist and you are using the theories of Mintzberg, the does what he have to say for example about the professional bureaucracy relate to your organization? Don’t just describe your organization as a professional bureaucracy! Your tutor will be able to discuss this with you further in your next session.
The structure of the assignment can be as follows. Remember that it is not a report – it is an academic assignment, although you can use sub-headings. For example:
Introduction:
What you are analysing , what is your paradigm, what are the implications of this in terms of your data collection methods and analysis. Please remember however, that you do not need to do questionnaires or interviews for your assignment – http://www.ukassignment.org/ygkczy/ you just need to be able to tell us that you understand whether you prefer objective or subjective methods.
Brief background to your organisation
Analysis/critique
Conclusions
Recommendations (but only when a functionalist)
Use this plan for the lesson, and make sure that you know which theories you will be using. The tutor will check this out with you. The tutor however, will not be reading complete drafts of work. They can look at brief plans, or perhaps a paragraph if you are wanting to check that you are analysing in the correct way.
Best of luck!
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