case study report

Order Description

The case study has three parts:
Part A). Draft a properly formatted academic report to investigate any TWO key areas. ( 2500 words)

Part B). Write a draft email to Babcock International identifying the issues arising ( one page only).

Part C). Reflective Practitioner CIT Reflection (one page only).

You are asked to focus on Preparing for Change, Resistance to Change and Communication as the issues in your Literature Review and Analysis.

To help you write best I am including the core text book reference for this module:

Palmer, I., Dunford, R. and Akin, G. (2008) Managing Organizational Change: a multiple perspectives approach McGraw Hill International

You must format as an academic report to investigate TWO key areas of the case study.
Your report should include:
Model of culture and change related to relevant national cultures.

Method of communication to successfully manage HPWTs (high performance work teams)

The report must include 15 journal references not before 2009 related to your investigations

Viable recommendations for Babcock international should be offered.

Report must have the following format:

• One page executive summary
• Content page
• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Method
• Analysis
• Conclusion
• Recommendations.
• References

Please read the report format in details:

ASSIGNMENT

This is an individual piece of work which You should consider the change process undertaken, the outcomes both immediate and over time. Evaluate the impact that the change has had both at an individual and organisational level. The case study given offers a range of presenting problems around change, which you will have to examine, link to theory and research and define some solutions for as well as demonstrating an awareness of the change process and the difficulties inherent in implementing it

This investigation will take a report format (see attached guidelines) and will require independent peer reviewed journal research to support your observations. We are expecting you to refer to the models and research in the Literature Review which you later rely on during your Analysis section. Unreferenced work will fail.
Using models of diagnosis and change should help you to analyse the situation more effectively.
Please see the guidance on the Harvard Referencing system which is the only one accepted

CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENT
a) full report: HR Changes for Babcock 60
Include:
i) Selected areas from those listed in the email that you have investigated
ii) what you intend to do to address the problems outlined
iii) suggest a diagnostic and a change model to aid the transfer from theory to practice
iv) potential problems with their implementation.
[The report should contain a minimum of 15 journal references to support the points you are making]

You may get some preparatory Question at the end of case study which is only for your preparation for your reports and you don not have to answer these questions, it is just for you to be able answer them to help you write the report.

Format

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This summarises the entire report including your aims and objectives, results, analysis, conclusions and recommendations. It is short and factual and is not included in your wordage.
Written in the past tense, it is usually written last; although it appears first.
A useful way to write it is to summarise each chapter in one sentence and then work on them until they flow into a coherent paragraph.
The most common mistake here is to write it as if it were an introduction instead of a summary.
Ensuring that your findings and recommendations are included to avoid this common pitfall.
Your ES should be about 200-500 words and is a concise overview of the entire report.

1. INTRODUCTION
This sets out the aims and scope of the report. You must clearly define what your objectives are in writing this report. State the presenting problems and ensure that they are relevant to the module content.
An example of an Introduction might look like this:
1. Introduction
1.1 Definition of change
1.2 Background to the organisation: Babcock
1.3 presenting problems as you see them
1.4 Scope of the report: what will/will not be covered in this report
(you cannot focus on all the issues highlighted in your email)
2. A LITERATURE REVIEW
Do bear in mind that you will have to continuously link your journal research with your practical observations and methods in the analysis section, to achieve a coherent theory to practice link. Do not see the literature review section as compartmentalised but rather as a primer for the reader to acclimatise to your sources so that they can recognise them at a glance when you refer to them later in the analysis section. You will have several subheadings to include in this chapter
A Literature Review accounts for 33% of the total report wordage.
Extensive quotations are discouraged, as paraphrasing will ensure that you are engaging with the material and aware of its relevance to the area of change under discussion. All statements must be referenced in the text (name, year) and again in full in the reference section. References from 2009+ are expected and where this is not possible a more recent article indicating that the theory is still being currently considered should be cited eg Kolb (1974; Simmonds 2008).
Journal references are expected to dominate here.

An example of what a Literature Review might look like:
2.1 General literature relating to change & its historical roots
2.2 Specific literature on the subsection of the areas you have identified as requiring attention eg communication, culture etc
3. METHOD
Here you should outline the models you will use to effect the change. You will require
i) a diagnostic model &
ii) a change model
It is short and factual and can be put in a table if you prefer

4. RESULTS / FINDINGS
Give a brief overview of your findings.
As this is a case study these may relate to how the organization fits with the literature in how it carried out its change.
Again this is a brief and factual section which could be put into a table.

5. DISCUSSION/ ANALYSIS
Discuss your findings and compare the organization and changes under consideration against the models and literature cited. It is crucial that you link your findings to current academic theory/journal research (already mentioned in lit review) and models (identified in the methodology). Whether your findings bear these theories out or contradict them; they will still give scope for discussion.
Suggest why certain findings may have occurred

A subheading on the limitations of your report is also useful.

An example of what an analysis chapter might look like:
5. Analysis
5.1 Relate findings to the models identified in the Methodology
5.2 Relate your findings to the literature
5.3 differences between theory (from the literature) and practice
5.4 what might be the impediments to implementing any of the ideas discussed. Support with appropriate references on RTC
6. EVALUATION* (some may choose to integrate this into analysis)
Evaluate how effective the change experience was both at an individual and an organizational level.
Consider how it could have been improved.
Suggest what might support or hinder the new change process
Refer to literature and theoretical models for support see lecture refs and reading list for guidance as well as your independent study week materials.

7. CONCLUSION
This summarises your findings and is present or past focused
It offers no new material but sums up what has gone before.
Just as the Discussion flows from the Results so the Conclusions are drawn from the discussion material and pave the way for the Recommendations to follow
Conclusions look back at the report and recommendations look forward to offer solutions

7 Conclusions
7.1 Summarise your findings from the report overall in one paragraph

8. RECOMMENDATIONS
This offers practical and academic recommendations and is future focused.
i) Practical recommendations could be practices or procedures which could be adopted or adapted to suit the individual & organizational needs you observed.
ii) An academic recommendation could be for further research into a particular area. Recommendations are required for both individual and organizational levels.
All recommendations should be specific as vague recommendations do not earn any marks.
An example of how a recommendations chapter might be formatted

8. Recommendations
8.1Practical Recommendations for the organization you have examined to adopt with suggestions of how they might be rolled out
8.2 Academic recommendations of areas for further research .
You may also deliver these as a table if you choose:

Recommendation Who to
Execute Steps to Execution
Timings
for
Rollout Notional
costings Intended
benefits

REFERENCES
All references must follow the Harvard Referencing System.

For this assignment we are asking for a reference list and not a bibliography of material, which may have been formative.
All references should both be quoted in the text (surname, year) and appear on the reference list. To avoid plagiarism, refer to the templates included in this hand out.
Journal references are preferred as the most reliable academic source.
You can access these through your library account both on and off campus. Limit website references and research the original source of lecture or newspaper reports.