Assignment - Strategic Management in Health & Social Care The module is assessed through a submission of an essay. Students are required to undertake an essay (up to 6000 words excluding list of references, tables, figures, diagrams, in-text references/citations, appendices) where they (a) identify major challenges which may be positive and/or negative for a health/social care organisation/institution of your choice by using strategic management tools -Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats analysis (SWOT analysis) and Political, Economic, Social and Technological analysis (PEST analysis ) (b) propose strategies to meet these challenges using the results of SWOT and PEST analysis and (c) describe the leadership role management should play during the implementation of these proposed strategies in this organisation/institution. The essay should be structured so that the arguments that students are aiming to make are well supported by theoretical concepts which they have learned in this module and literature or prior research on subject/topic area as well. Structure of the essay This is not fixed; but may serve as a template if desired: (1) Introduction (Maximum words limit -300) You might include Definition of strategic management Very brief discussion on importance of strategic management in health/social care organisation Very brief description of the goals and key functions/activities of an organisation of your choice . Aims of the essay When you are writing the introduction you should select material from a wide range of appropriate sources (e.g. text books, journal papers, the documents of your chosen organisation ) in order to develop a line of argument. (2) The Context of the Organisation of your choice (Maximum words limit -300) (The chosen organisation could be your department, your organisation, a NHS Trust, a NHS hospital, a ward/unit of a NHS hospital etc.) This section may include: Brief description of the context of the organisation of your choice (goals and key functions of the organisation, and internal/external environment). (3) Critical discussion on Strategic Management in Health and Social Care (Maximum words limit - 1300) Critical discussion on the strategic management process and strategic management tools (e.g. SWOT, PEST etc) in the context of health and social care (integrate the theory, literature and any examples from organisations). Here you may discuss about importance of strategic management in health/social care organisations and advantages and/or disadvantages of employing strategic management tools in managing these organisations (4) Major challenges (positive and/or negative) for the health/social care organisation/institute (Maximum words limit - 2000) Discussion on process of analysis using strategic management tools(PEST and SWOT) to identify major challenges which may be positive and/or negative for the chosen organisation (e.g. the current estimates show that Manchester in the UK has 90,000 adults and 14,000 children that are obese in a total population of 464,000. The figure for adults is expected to rise to 137,000 by 2015 with an additional 168,000 overweight adults by that time; a challenge - tackling the obesogenic environment: Encourage an environment that supports active lives with more active travel options, and enables people to eat a healthy balanced diet). Here you need to integrate the examples/facts from the organisation and theory/literature to argue your case (5)Description of proposed strategies (Maximum words limit-1400) Description of strategies (these strategies may be directional, adaptive, market entry or competitive) Discussion on how these strategies meet the challenges which you have identified Critical discussion on the usefulness/limitations of the SWOT and PEST tools used in developing these strategies (integrate theory and the facts from your organisation to argue your case) (6) Role of strategic leadership (Maximum words limit-500) Critical discussion on the leadership role management should play during the implementation of the proposed strategies in the chosen organisation/institution (integrate theory/literature and the facts from the organisation to develop your argument). (7) Conclusion (Maximum words limit -200) In the conclusion bring your central ideas into sharp focus. You should summarise the evidence and arguments you have presented in the essay. Do not introduce new evidence at this point. Instead you should synthesise the main points without repeating everything what you have said in the introduction and the discussion.