Assessment Item No. 3Assessment name:Management Audit
Description:Provide a critical and thoughtful review of the performance of the strategy and management team of your company.
Length/Duration:2,000 words
Formative or Summative:Summative
Relates to learning outcomes:Unit Learning Outcomes 1, 2, & 3 and AoL goals: KS (1.1), HO (2.1), TS (4.1), SEG (5.1)
Weight:40%
Internal or external:Internal
Group or Individual:Individual
Due date:Exam Period
3Attachments
Introduction —9— CORPORATION Corporation Quick Start Guide EVALUATE RESULTS • Company reports • Industry reports • Survey READ THE CASE • Industry background • Company starting situation SIMULATION ENDS • Evaluate team performance. • Review what you have learned. STARTUP DECISION • Access simulation from course website. • Input a name for your corporation. • Team leader MUST finalize startup to allow access to first period decisions. DECISION ANALYSIS • Pro Forma • Cash Flow Analysis • SBU Valuation PERIOD DECISIONS • Business Units • Marketing & Exports • Operations • Human Resources • Finance • Incident Response SIM ADVANCES • Check Schedule for times. • Complete decisions BEFORE deadline. Your instructor may require additional assignments during the simulation. Check the schedule and messages on your course website for details. Corporation Quick Start Guide MGN423 Contemporary Strategy AnalysisSem 2, 2018 Management Audit – Assignment Overview Due date: Monday, November 4 @11:59 pm (via blackboard) Word Length: 2,000 words (excluding title page, executive summary, references and appendices, but including Tables and Figures in the body text. Penalty for exceeding word count: +10% no penalty; 2,201+ words = 0 marks!!) Topic: Management Audit Purpose:This assessment is summative. It is designed to develop students’ ability to critically reflect on their strategy and own performance. Assignment: A key success factor for management (consultants) is the ability to critically reflect on the functioning and performance of the strategy, team, and yourself. For the purpose of this audit, you are asked to determine what kind of job the management team of the firm has done. The major point you will be graded on is your ability to reflect objectively and honestly; therefore, be brutally frank in reporting your findings. Listed below are some key questions to help guide you. Strategy & performance 1. Reflect on the original/ revised goals and objectives. Did the strategies work as planned? Where the objectives met? What strategies, goals, objectives, policies, etc. were changed? Why? How closely did the firm end up doing what it said it was going to do? 2. Does the firm have a prudent dividend policy? Was it consistent? Were dividends ever reduced? Omitted? What would a committee of stockholders say about this firm's treatment of its stockholders? 3. At this point, is the firm a healthy, going concern? Did the team reduce expenditures the last period or two to make profits look better or increase dividends to increase stock price? 4. Did the strategy and execution always explicitly address implications for all its stakeholders and minimise negative impacts? What would different groups of stakeholders say about you company? 5. If the current management team were going to be transferred, what advice would you give to the new team coming in to run this company? Team 6. The managerial functions are planning, organizing, directing work, and controlling. To what extent and how were these functions handled by this team? Comment particularly on the controls that may or may not have been used. Were they effective? 7. Did the team make decisions on a rational basis or did it often "stab in the dark?" 8. Did the team uphold high ethical standards when making decisions? Can you give an example of when this was (not) the case? 9. Did the team experience any conflicts? How were they handled? How could they have been handled better? Give an example. 10. If the team were to begin again, what should be done differently? What kind of interpersonal relations occurred among the team this semester? What communication, decision-making, and cooperation efforts need improving? In other words, what should a new team do to avoid the mistakes you made? You 11. If you were ever to find yourself in such a management position in a real organisation, what would you do differently and why? Did you experience any role conflicts and how did you handle them? What communication, decision-making, and cooperation efforts need improving? Just to reiterate, you will not be penalised if the strategy, the team or you malfunctioned. The purpose of the audit is to give an objective and honest reflection! Tips for an outstanding management audit · You are auditing yourself and your team. As such, you may choose to write in first- or third-person. Whichever you feel brings out the best in your reflections. Note: do not make the mistake to think that third person writing displays higher degrees of objectivity. There is no difference in objectivity in saying: “I thought my MGN423 students this year had been amazing” versus “Henri thought his MGN423 students this year had been amazing”. Objectivity is shown in being able to reflect on what happened in an unbiased manner, trying to understand causes, taking accountability etc. For example: At the time, I thought my MGN423 students had been amazing, because… · Analyse everything but focus your writing only on the key aspects that really mattered. · Use theory and tools to reflect and provide recommendations based on these theories and tools. · Provide evidence and examples to justify and illustrate your reflections. For example, outputs provided by the simulation, notes you took as teams during meetings, etc. · It is essential that you reflect on all three areas (strategy & performance, team, and self), but you do not need to answer all questions. They are meant as a helpful guide towards a thorough reflection. · Similarly to the point above, you do not need to limit yourself to the questions above. If you deem additional aspects vital for a thorough reflection, please add them. · In a nutshell critical reflection is the ability to identify the key issues, analyse what caused them, and provide recommendations on how to avoid in the future. · Structure and visualise the audit in a way that best brings out the message. There is no need to deal with these questions point-by-point. See example below. An example to show you how even with the worst possible individual performance, you can still conduct a good audit. I was a free-rider for most of the simulation. (good, you are being honest here!) This had two main causes. First, I was the Managing Director of Hardware and in the first week we decided to divest this division. As a result, I became the Chief Financial Officer, but I have little affiliation with finance and there were few financial decisions to be made. Second, our CEO was quite dominant and I prefer a team where we all work as equals. As a result I became really demotivated and just did as little as possible. The CEO was quite happy to make the finance decisions anyway. (good, you understand what caused it) As a company, we should have had better monitoring mechanisms in place. For example, Tosi, Katz and Gomez-Mejia (1997) argued for monitoring through reporting. Even though their results showed it had no relation with making more profit-maximising decisions, I would argue that reporting would have easily led to the detection of my shirking behaviour. Our failure to take appropriate notes and keep records therefore provided the opportunity for opportunistic behaviour. It also made me realise that when a company goes through a reorganisation, there may be winners and losers, and sometimes it may be better to let go of the losers rather than finding them alternative jobs that made them unhappy. In terms of De Wit and Meyer’s (2010)’s framework I would be classified as an opponent. My attitude could have been different if they had better understood my needs and had created a Chief Innovation Officer position for me. If that wasn’t possible, I agree with De Wit and Meyer that coercive action in terms of my dismissal would have been the best course of action for all involved. For example, Smith et al. (1994) argue for socially integrated senior teams. I think this could have helped the team better understand my needs as well as perhaps me acting more in the best interest of the organization. (good, you demonstrate how it can be handled better and use theory to justify your recommendations!). In terms of me personally, I should have been more active in voicing my disappointment, but I was so overwhelmed with the whole experience and the decision to divest the unit I managed. In that sense, I disagree with De Wit and Meyer’s classification. They label a hidden opponent someone who has a negative attitude to change but a positive attitude towards the personal change due to personal gains. I would say that I was a different type of hidden opponent, as I don’t think the others were fully aware of my concerns and slacking behaviour. Wordcount penalties · Count all words in the document, including Figures etc, but excluding title page, executive summary, references and appendices. Word limit is 2,000 words. · +0-10% = no penalty; 2201+ words results in 0 marks for the assignment!!!! · This may sound harsh, but many government tenders etc. will reject a proposal if it is even 1 character over the maximum allowed. As such, it is an important real-world skill that you can get your message across in a tightly set word limit. PowerPoint Presentation Corporation Simulation Tour Startup Menu Learn about the Corporation environment. • The Briefing provides an overview of your corporation. • The Corporation case is also found in your student manual. • Learn about simulation Regions and Ventures. Next, we’ll view the STARTUP decision―Naming your Corporation. 3 Startup: Startup Decision Your "Team Leader" must Finalize the startup decision and click Submit. After your startup decision is finalized, all other menu options will become available. When the simulation is advanced, all decisions become final and cannot be changed. Enter your Company Name. Click Startup Decision. 4 Navigating Corporation Navigation Buttons Main Menus and Sub- Menus Industry Name and User information Help notes 5 Navigating Corporation Click Print to print a copy for your records. Select the Period you wish to view. Access your Company Dashboard The simulation will be advanced according to the schedule your instructor has set. 6 Main Navigation Menus • STARTUP includes helpful information (the Briefing is a good place to start). • DECISIONS is where you will enter and review decisions each period. • ANALYSIS provides tools that can help you with your decision inputs (Pro Forma, Cash Flow, SBU Valuation). • COMPANY provides internal company reports (Income Statement, Operations, etc.). • INDUSTRY offers