Posted: April 4th, 2015

PART 1: DIVERSITY IN ORGANISATIONS

PART 1: DIVERSITY IN ORGANISATIONS

1. Self-reflection (750 words)

Applying your newly gained understanding of cognitive diversity, identify and discuss a workplace or organisational situation where your position on a particular cognitive diversity dimension influenced your involvement and the outcome.

Begin by thinking about situations from your workplace or organisational context (past or present) where you noticed differences in beliefs, attitudes or behaviours between you and other people. Was there something about that particular situation that made you wonder what was going on, and what your underlying beliefs or thought processes were? Did the apparent differences create conflict or disagreement? Or was the diversity on display well harnessed bythoseinvolved?

Next, go to the results of your personal cognitive mapping exercise. Is there one of the dimensions (e.g., in what patterns do people reason? is uncertainty avoided or tolerated? etc.) that you find particularly interesting or important in terms of your work or professional context? Did you find it difficult to place yourself on any of the dimensions? Or by contrast, did other dimensions speak to you more easily?

Now bring together the cognitive diversity dimension and the workplace or organisational situation. Describe that situation and the dimension, and discuss how your position on that dimension affected your involvement and the outcome of the situation.

For this self-reflective exercise, you are encouraged to write in the first-person. That is to say, it is permissible for this exercise to write: “I have experienced the following…. This happened to me”. Typically, you would not use the first person to write an academic assignment.

2. Literature review (1,250 words)

Drawing upon academic literature, synthesise and evaluate contemporary approaches to managing workplace inclusion with regard to the following topics: Employing Indigenous Australians

You should conduct a literature search using the online library resources. Resources to develop your library search and information literacy skills have been provided for this subject in the assessment section of the LMS site.

You should identify academic literature, and specifically peer-reviewed academic journal articles, that provide an insight into managing workplace inclusion with respect to the topic you have chosen. What are the key frameworks, practices and challenges of your chosen area of management practice? What do academics suggest constitutes best practice in managing this area?

For this component, you should ensure that you draw upon 12-15 readings from the academic literature; a minimum of 9 of these readings must be peer-reviewed academic journal articles. You may draw on no more than 2 readings currently available through the reading list for this subject. You are partly being assessed on your research and information literacy skills, and in particular your ability to conduct a library search and to identify appropriate materials for this task.

You should not use the first person to write 1.2.

3. Application exercise (1,000 words)

With reference to an organisation with which you are familiar, identify and discuss barriers to implementation of best practice in managing workplace inclusion, and recommend steps to achieve and verify a successful implementation.

The aim of this exercise is to get you to apply the knowledge you have gained through the subject, and in particular from your literature search in 1.2, to your current or previous organisation. In addition to applying your new knowledge, you are also being tested on your ability to use academic research as a form of evidence to underpin recommendations that would improve diversity and inclusion practice in your chosen organisation. For 1.3, you should continue with the topic you wrote about in 1.2. You should break down the question into two halves.

First, in terms of your chosen organisation, think about the barriers that you believe exist for implementing best practice in managing workplace inclusion. Your research for 1.2 should have given you an insight into best practice on the topic you are interested in. You should describe the barriers to implementation in your organisation, and discuss the nature and extent of those barriers.

Second, you should then develop recommended steps for achieving the implementation of best practice and verifying a successful implementation.

For this component, you should ensure that you draw upon 8-10 readings from the academic literature; a minimum 6 of these readings must be peer-reviewed academic journal articles. You may draw on no more than 2 readings currently available through the reading list for this subject. You are partly being assessed on your research and information literacy skills, and in particular your ability to conduct a library search and to identify appropriate materials for this task. The academic readings will be of primary significance for responding to the second half of the question where you are to recommend steps to achieve and verify a successful implementation.

You should not use the first person to write 1.3.

PART 2: ETHICS IN ORGANISATIONS

1. Self-reflection (750 words)

Identify and discuss an ethical decision you have taken, or an ethical dilemma you have faced, in a workplace context. How is the decision or dilemma an ethical one? Discuss the ethical approach/-es that underpinned your decision or dilemma.

Begin by brainstorming ideas for this assignment and then narrow down the possibilities to one workplace decision or dilemma that has clear ethical elements. First, you should describe your decision or dilemma: Who are the main people involved? What is the setting (organisational, industrial, cultural)? What are the key pieces of contextual and background information you need to present to help others make sense of your decision or dilemma?

In this assignment component, you need to demonstrate your understanding of what morality and ethics mean with reference to your chosen decision/dilemma. So, how does your decision involve questions and judgments about right and wrong, good and bad? Is there a line you can draw in your chosen situation between ethics and law? Was a values conflict involved? Are there issues of the common good, utility, duties and rights, justice, fairness and equality, harm or negligence involved? Remember to define any key terms used. By considering the answers to these questions, you should be able to articulate how your decision or dilemma was an ethical one.

Next, think about what guided your decision or the dilemma? Here you need to reflect on the underpinnings of your approach to making your ethical decision. In this section, you must refer to and use at least one ethical concept or theory covered in the subject to discuss your approach. These concepts or theories could include: cognitive moral development (Which level and stage were you reasoning at?); utilitarianism (Were you trying to maximise utility for the greatest number of people?); Kantian ethics (Were you driven by duty? Was there a maxim involved?); justice as fairness (Were you honouring or violating somebody’s rights? Were there procedural or distributive justice issues involved?); virtue ethics (Was your decision based on a particular trait of your moral character?); feminist ethics (Was your decision located in an ethics based on abstract principles, or an ethics of care?). Remember to define any key terms used.

In discussing your approach/-es, you might like to reflect critically on the process and/or the outcome of your decision or the dilemma.
For this self-reflective exercise, you are encouraged to write in the first-person. That is to say, it is permissible for this exercise to write: “I have experienced the following…. This happened to me”. Typically, you would not use the first person to write an academic assignment.

2. Literature review (1,250 words)

Drawing upon academic literature, synthesise and evaluate current understandings of either ethical leadership or whistle-blowing.

Pick the topic that you are more interested in: ethical leadership or whistle-blowing. Then you should conduct a literature search using the online library resources. Resources to develop your library search and information literacy skills have been provided for this subject in the assessment section of the LMS site.

You should identify academic literature, and specifically peer-reviewed academic journal articles, that provide an insight into current understandings of your chosen topic. What are the current debates in the literature on ethical leadership or whistle-blowing? What is the dominant understanding of your chosen topic? What are the strengths and weaknesses of these dominant understandings?

For this component, you should ensure that you draw upon 12-15 readings from the academic literature; a minimum of 9 of these readings must be peer-reviewed academic journal articles. You may draw on no more than 2 readings currently available through the reading list for this subject. You are partly being assessed on your research and information literacy skills, and in particular your ability to conduct a library search and to identify appropriate materials for this task.
You should not use the first person to write this section.

3. Application exercise (1,000 words)

With reference to an organisation with which you are familiar, evaluate whether there are ethical issues that require attention and discuss how these might best be addressed.

The aim of this exercise is to get you to apply the knowledge you have gained through the subject, and in particular from your work for components 2.1 and 2.2, to your current or previous organisation. In addition to applying your new knowledge, you are also being tested on your ability to use academic research as a form of evidence notably for your discussion of how the ethical issues you have identified in your chosen organisation could be addressed.

For this component, you should ensure that you draw upon 8-10 readings from the academic literature; a minimum 6 of these readings must be peer-reviewed academic journal articles. You may draw on no more than 2 readings currently available through the reading list for this subject. You are partly being assessed on your research and information literacy skills, and in particular your ability to conduct a library search and to identify appropriate materials for this task. The academic readings will be of primary significance for responding to the second half of the question where you are to recommend steps to achieve and verify a successful implementation.

You should not use the first person to write this section.

PART 3: MAJOR CSR LITERATURE REVIEW

In 2000 words, student is required to Critically analyse and evaluate the following statement: “A number of authors have been critical of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) based on its managerialist, discretionary and fundamentally instrumental conceptualization.” At a minimum, this review will reference 10 journal articles identified by the student, in addition to the readings from the textbook (Crane, A., Matten, D., & Spence, L. J., 2013, Corporate Social Responsibility: Readings and Cases in a Global Context).

How is a lit review different from an academic research paper?
Main focus of an academic paper is to develop a new argument/findings, focus of a lit review is to summarise and synthesize the current arguments and ideas of others without adding new contributions.

Techniques for conducting a lit review:
Compare and contrast groups of authors
Critique the studies
Clarify the main issues for the reader
Note areas of disagreement
Highlight exemplary  areas/contributions of studies

Goals of a lit review:
Demonstrate a familiarity with a body of knowledge and establish credibility to show the path of prior research
How a current project is linked to it
To integrate and summarise what is known in an area
To learn from others and stimulate ideas.

Format:
Introduction: Nature of topic and its parameters
Body: identification of key concepts and definitions from the literature, current mainstream vs alternative viewpoints including differing theoretical assumptions and political outlooks and other conflicts, areas of knowledge/research gaps (what the literature doesn’t cover)
Conclude by identifying the research questions arising from the review of the literature.

PART 4: MINOR CSR LITERATURE REVIEW

In 500 words, students are required to demonstrate understanding and application of the theories and concepts explored in the subject readings. The topic for discussion is “Stakeholders’ share value”.

Reading provided:
1. Ronald K. Mitchell, Bradley R. Agle, Donna J. Wood, 1997, Toward a Theory of Stakeholder Identification and Salience: Defining the Principle of Who and What Really Counts, The Academy of Management Review, Vol. 22, No. 4 (Oct., 1997), pp. 853-886
2. Crane, Palazzo, Spence and Matten (2014), Contesting the Value of “Creating Shared Value”, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY VOL. 56, NO. 2, p. 130-153
3. Journals, Iosr; Alpana (2014) Traditional CSR Vs Creating Shared Value: A Process of Stakeholder Engagement, IOSR Journal of Economics and Finance (IOSR-JEF), Vol. 3, Issue 4, PP 61-67