High Level Assessment Classification: Written Assessment Method: Business Memo & Research Report Weighting: 40%
What are the types of employability skills that I will acquire upon completion of this assessment?
| Skill Type | |
| Developed critical andanalytical thinking | þ |
| Developed ability to solve complex problems | þ |
| Developed confidence to learn independently | þ |
| Developed written communication skills | þ |
| Developed knowledge in the fieldmanaging people and organisations | þ |
| Developed work-related knowledge and skills | þ |
The purpose of this assessment is to identify the key external and internal factors that impact on the practical management of people and organisations, explain the impact on managing your organisation, and generate recommendations relevant to management functions.
| Due date: | Friday 06 Sept 2024, 5pm | |
| Weighting: | 40% | |
| Length and/orformat: | A 400-word business memo and 800-word research evidence as attachment | |
| Learning outcomes assessed | LO1, LO2,LO4 | |
| Graduate attributes assessed | GC5, GC8, GC9 | |
| How to submit: | Turnitin | |
| Return of assignment: | Turnitin within threeweeks of due date | |
| Assessment criteria: | Rubric: see end of document | |
A common form of communication used in a business is the memorandum (memo). Memos are written by everyone from junior managers to CEOs. It is important that you learn to master this basic communication form. Memos are generally written to solve problems by informing the reader about new information or by persuading the reader to take action. The most important feature of a memo is that it be concise yet complete and informative.
One format for presenting your business ideas is to write a memo and attach additional information for further reading. In this case, the audience is your CEO, who has asked you to research the external and internal business environment of your company. Your CEO wants you to make "recommendations". Remember—all CEOs are sceptics—they won’t believe your recommendations unless you back it up by carefully explaining potential business problems and presenting your business plans. However, your CEO doesn't want to read 10 pages! Your challenge is to present the important and relevant information in a 400-word memo with attached 800-word research evidence for your CEO to follow up.
This individual assessment requires you to choose one topic from a given article, identify and analyse the key external and internal factors that impact the practical management of people and organisations, explain the impact on managing your organisation, and generate relevant recommendations to management functions.
Remember, you need to use this memo to inform your CEO that some changes need to be made in your company in order to adapt to the changing business environment. Your business memo is a brief presentation of your research evidence. Remind your CEO to read your attached research evidence where he/she can find more details.
Identify internal and external factors that are closely relevant to your chosen topic.
Conduct research and analyse how these factors impact your chosen topic in relation to management functions. You can use research journals or quality business sources.
Generate recommendations relevant to at least one management function based on your analysis conducted in Step 4. Explain if your company should improve on planning, organising, leading or controlling and how you recommend to implement them. Remember, the more specific your action plans are, the more likely your CEO will be convinced.
Drawing on literature, evaluate the risks and benefits of your recommendations. This can include costs, benefits and ethical implications of your recommendations.
Keep record of the collection of resources and screen shots of key processes that you completed for this assignment (e.g. screen dump of my search and retrieval of journal articles, etc.)
Double-check your assignment to make sure you do not have paragraphs directly copied from other sources. Make sure all sources are correctly referenced following this guide: https://libguides.acu.edu.au/referencing
This assessment has two internally integrated parts: A) Business Memo and B) Research Evidence.
Business Memo is a brief presentation of your Research Evidence. Just like you are sending an important email to your CEO, you want to briefly present your findings in a short and concise memo, but refer to the attached full document for the CEO to get more details.
The structures for both parts are as follows:
Memos are generally divided into two parts: the heading and the body:
The heading segment follows this general format:
TO: (readers' names and job titles) (e.g., Ms Anderson, CEO. You can make up your CEO’s name) FROM: (your name and job title) (e.g., marketing manager. You can make up your own job title) DATE: (current date)
SUBJECT: (what the memo is about and its purpose)
Make sure you address the reader by his or her correct name and job title. Be specific and concise in your subject line.
Your memo should be concise and informative. To achieve this, it needs to be organised (refer to week 2 communications concepts). You can direct your CEO to read your attachment (research evidence) for more details (e.g., “please see the attached research document for more details...”).
The following are elements generally found in the body of the memo. You may include headings, but only include those that provide useful information to the reader.
Please keep in mind your audience and relationship as you write. You should ensure your vocabulary, organisation and tone are appropriate to ensuring clear communication and developing good relations with your CEO.
Start the memo by stating the main purpose of the correspondence. Include the context and problem, the specific assignment or task, and the purpose of the memo. This section should be short (2‐3 sentences) and used to tell the reader why you are writing the memo. An example opening statement might start with “The purpose of this memo is to inform you about the current business environment and its impact on our company…”
Note: in this section, you should guide your CEO to read the corresponding part in your attached research evidence document (e.g., Please refer to Section “Factors” in the attachment for more details).
Analysis & Findings (150 words): This section is where you include all the major information that you have gathered to support your recommendations/results. Start with the most important information. Use meaningful highlighted headings to direct your CEO. Try to write headings that are short but clarify section content. Include the following subsections:
Recommendations (150 words): This section provides key recommendations or key results you have reached and an evaluation of your recommendations to help the CEO make an informed decision. For example, you might include a statement like: “I recommend that an increase our technology staff number by 30% by year 2022”.
After the reader has absorbed all of your information, you want to reiterate your main findings and state what action you want your reader to take.
Close with a courteous ending (e.g. an offer of further assistance).
Sign your name (a signature). You can use an electronic signature.
Indicate additional information included using the word ‘Encs’, which indicates enclosures.
The research evidence attachment is a document for your CEO to understand why you reach your conclusions and propose your recommendations. He/she may read your attachment if he/she is particularly interested in any points you make in your memo. Therefore, your research evidence should detail your research and findings in the following sections:
Provide the full bibliographical information for all sources cited in your attachment (e.g. academic journals, business reports, government sources) in an appropriate style. Your reference list is not counted in the word count of your assignment.
You may choose to use any referencing style (e.g. APA, MLA, Chicago, etc)., but be sure to be consistent in your citations and references.
Please ensure your assignment makes use of in-text citations and a reference list. Missing citations or references is equivalent to plagiarism.
| My submitted assignment report is within the specified wordlimit | ☐ |
| I have included references using specified referencing style | ☐ |
| I have correctly cited all my sources and references | ☐ |
| I have formatted my report as per the specifications | ☐ |
| I have checked my Turnitin reportto ensure the similarity report is acceptable and explainable | ☐ |
| I will be able to supply the process output,if required by my lecturer to prove thismy own work (e.g screendump of my search andretrieval of journal articles, etc.) | ☐ |
| I have completed proof reading and checked for spelling and grammar | ☐ |
| I have submitted my work before the due date/time | ☐ |
| I have submitted feedforward template alongwith our assignment submission | ☐ |
Feed Forward Template: A template to use and act on feedback and provide recommendations for improvement
Feedback is an important component of learning. Please consider the feedback you received in your last assignment and provide a response on how you acted on, or intend to act upon, that feedback, and how it has informed the current assignment task. Submit this sheet along with your assignment.
| Questions | Action Plan and feedback recommendation (what I learned fromthe feedback on feedback) |
| Based on previous assignment feedback, briefly described how you acted on the feedback toimprove your workin this assignment? | |
Briefly describe what is your expectation around the type of feedback that enhances your learning. | |
| Did you have any difficulty understanding or acting on previous feedback? Please be as specific as possible so that you can gain further feedback/clarify anything you do notunderstand in the feedback |
In addition to your textbook and journal articles in the library you may also use the following:
SC: Application for Special Consideration Complete this form if you wish to be exempted from the academic penalty because your study has been affected by unforeseen circumstances.
EX: Application for extension of time for submission of an Assessment Task Complete this form if you wish to apply for an extension of time for submission of this Assessment Task.
The full criteria are compiled in a rubric, which can be found on the following page/s.
Relevant LO/GCs |
Criterion |
Does not meet expectations |
Meets expectations |
Exceeds expectations | ||
NN (0-49) |
PA (50-64) |
CR (65-74) |
DI (75-84) |
HD (85-100) | ||
GC5 LO1 Weights: 8 marks TL=3 Learning Stage: Iand D | Identify the key internal and external factors thatimpact on the practical management of people and organisations. (8 marks) | Fails to identify the key external and internal factors that impact on the practical management of people and organisations; mostly vague (0-3.9 marks) | Adequate identification of the external and internal factors that impact on the practical management of people and organisations; would benefit from more concrete illustrations. (4-5.1 marks) | Credible identification of the key external and internal factors that impact on the practical management of people and organisations. Some illustrations are included and reasonable clarity. | Distinctiveidentification of the key external and internal factors that impact on the practical management of people and organisations. Clear illustrations are included. | Highly distinctive identification of the key external and internal factors that impact the practical management of people and organisations, excellent illustrations are included. (6.8-8 marks) |
| (5.2-5.9 marks) | (6-6.7 marks) | |||||
GC8 LO2 Weights: 8 marks TL=3 Learning Stage: Iand D | Critically explain the impact of the above factors on management functions (8 marks) | Fails to critically explain the impact of the above factors on management functions (0-3.9 marks) | Adequate critical explanations of the impact of the above factors on management functions; would benefit from including the positive and negative impacts. (4-5.1 marks) | Credible critical explanations of the impact of the above factors on management functions; accurate explanation of both positive and negative impact. Some illustrations are included and have reasonable clarity. | Distinctive critical explanations of the impact of the above factors on management functions; clear explanation of both positive and negative impact. Clear illustrations are included. (6-6.7 marks) | Highly distinctive critical explanation of the impact of the above factors on management functions; thorough explanation of both positive and negative impact; excellent illustrations are included. (6.8-8 marks) |
| (5.2-5.9 marks) | ||||||
GC9 LO4 Weights: 8 marks TL=3 Learning Stage: D | Develop recommendations related to one management function to sustain business and social outcomes. (8 Marks) | Fails to generaterecommendations related to one management function to sustain business and social outcomes. (0-3.9 marks) | Generates adequate recommendations related to one management function to sustain business and social outcomes; mostly general recommendations. | Generates credible recommendations related to one management function to sustain business and social outcome; accurate application with | Generates distinctive recommendations related to one management function to sustain business and social outcomes; strong application with clear, specific | Generates highly distinctive recommendations related to one management function to sustain business and social outcomes; thorough application |
| (4-5.1 marks) | some illustrations. (5.2-5.9 marks) | illustrations. (6-6.7marks) | with actionable plans. (6.8-8 marks) | |||
GC8 LO2 Weights: 8 marks TL=3 Learning Stage: D | Apply ethical perspectives in informed decision-making by evaluating the risks and benefits of the recommendations with proper evidence from the literature. | Fails to evaluate the risks and benefits of the recommendations based on literature. (0-3.9 marks) | Adequate evaluation of risks and benefits of the recommendations basedon literature. (4-5.1 marks) | Credible evaluation of risks and benefits of the recommendations basedon literature. (5.2-5.9 marks) | Distinctiveevaluation of risks and benefits of the recommendations basedon literature. (6.0-6.7marks) | Highly distinctive evaluation of risks and benefits of the recommendation basedon literature. (6.8-8 marks) |
| (8 marks) | ||||||
GC9 LO4 Weights: 8 marks TL=3 Learning Stage: Iand D | Use effective communication in the written Englishlanguage and use sufficient academic writing. (8 marks) | Fails to use appropriate communication techniques for the task. Many errors in the genre, audience, message, and mechanical techniques. In addition, the task fails to draw on appropriate sources and/or fails to acknowledge sources appropriately. (0-3.9 marks) | Uses adequate communication techniques for the task: genre, audience, message and mechanical techniques are used. In addition, the task draws on some appropriate information and acknowledges sources with some general errors in style. (4-5.1 marks) | Uses credible communication techniques for the task: genre, audience, message and mechanical techniques are used coherently and consistently. In addition, the task draws on mostly appropriate information and acknowledges sources with some occasional errors in style. | Uses distinctive communication techniques for the task: genre, audience, message and mechanical techniques are used coherently and consistently. In addition, the task draws on appropriate information and acknowledges sources with few errors in style. (6-6.7 marks) | Uses highly distinctive communication techniques for the task: genre, audience, message and mechanical techniques are used coherently and consistently with no errors. In addition, the task draws on consistently appropriate information and acknowledges sources entirely accurately. (6.8-8 marks) |
| (5.2-5.9 marks) |
GC—Graduate Capability; LO—Unit Learning Outcome; TI—Taxonomy level (or level of complexity) (see Bloom’s Taxonomy); Learning Stage—Introduced (I), Developed (D), Assured (A).
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