BUILDING QUALITY ORGANISATIONS

Introduction: Give a brief description of the organisation chosen as an example to illustrate your remarks. Remember, the purpose of the assignment is to display your depth of comprehension of the issues discussed, rather than extensive details of the organisation used to illustrate your points.

Question 1

Classify the Organisation’s structure by describing its key dimensions. Reference to models described in the literature or othe approaches may be used.

Answers to question one. (Classification of structure, description of elements, relationship of elements) Students must discuss the theory and the way it may be applied to an organisation, giving references to the text to show their depth of comprehension of the topic. Key words: complexity, centralisation, formalisation.

Question 2

Explain why the organisation has its present structure and discuss any factors or contingencies which may influence this arrangement.

Answer to question two. Explain why the organisation has its present structure. Discuss Mintzberg?s theorem and explain the organisation?s structure in terms of Mintzberg?s theorem. Key words: professional bureaucracy, machine bureaucracy.

Question 3

How effective is this structure in enabling the organisation to achieve its strategic direction.

Answer to question three. Explain how the organisation?s structure facilitates the achievement of its organisational goals. Key words: ends focus, means focus.

Question 4

How does the organisation evaluate its effectiveness?

Answer to question four: Discuss the merits of four approaches to organisational effectiveness and explain the approach use in your example organisation. Key words: goal attainment, systems, strategic constituents, balanced scorecard.

Question 5

What structural problems or organisational issues do you percieve and in what way does the current structure helpor hinder the organisation in addressing these problems?

Answer to final questions. Discuss any significant structural problem you perceive in your example organisation and explain what structural changes you would make to address the problem. This question is primarily aimed at students in the workforce who wish to explore structural improvements in their chosen organisation.

Conclusion. A summary of the key point and their supporting arguments.

References. A list of the full citation of your references in alphabetical order. URL?s listed last with date and time of access.

All discussion must be supported by argument and references to the source text. Referencing must be in-text and use the Harvard referencing style of Author-Date. Please do not use footnotes. Text must be Word.doc format in Times Roman font, 12 pt. one and a half line spacing. Assignment size 2000-3000 words.
The recommended book for this assignment is Robbins and Barnwell, 2006, Organisation Theory: Concepts and Cases, 5th Edition, Pearson, Frenches Forest