with 30 references
Assessment 2:
Individual Coursework
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from GROUP TO INDIVIDUAL COURSEWORK
Remember that the individual coursework builds on the group one.
While completing the group coursework, you developed your knowledge on how organisational strategic decision-making processes work (e.g. what the steps may be and what factors managers may consider)
You can now use this knowledge to analyse and explain how companies reach specific strategic decisions.
2000-word individual analytical case study
Worth 70% of your final mark
Focus: A specific strategic decision by a particular organisation
Key tasks: Describe, explain, and evaluate the decision
Assessment Overview
Describe the strategic decision
Explain why the organisation made it
Evaluate the ethics of the decision and suggest alternatives
Assignment Objectives
Your task in this assignment is to compose an analytical case study about a specific strategic decision made by a particular organisation. Your specific objectives are to:
Describe the decision.
Explain why the organisation made it.
Evaluate the ethics of the decision and suggest what the organisation could have done differently.
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Conduct thorough research into the organisation and its environment
Apply theoretical perspectives from class
Provide references to all sources used
Task Specific Guidance
Task specific guidance:
To achieve the assignment objectives, you must:
Conduct careful research into organisation’s activities and the internal and external environmental factors that may have shaped its decision.
Apply the theoretical perspectives we discussed in class to develop a critical understanding of your organisation’s decision and reflect on its ethical implications.
Provide references to all your sources.
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Choose an organisation with publicly available information
Can be commercial, public sector, or NGO
Focus on a specific decision made at a specific time
Examples: product launch, market entry, alliance, divestment, etc.
Selecting Organisation and Decision
Selecting the organisation and the strategic decision
You are expected to provide a detailed analysis of an organisation’s strategic decision-making process. Therefore, you should select an organisation with sufficient information about its activities available to the public. The most natural choice is a large multinational or a major domestic organisation. The organisation does not have to be a commercial one. You can also select a public sector or a civil society organisation such as a government agency, educational institution, or an NGO.
You must also focus your report on a specific strategic decision made by this organisation. This should be a decision made at a specific point in time.
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Launching a new product/service
Entering a new market
Forming a strategic alliance
Selling part of operations
Starting a sustainability program
Ethical/unethical decisions (e.g. emissions scandal)
Examples of Strategic Decisions
Examples of possible decisions include but are not limited to:
A decision to launch a particular product/service line.
A decision to move into a particular new market.
A decision to form a strategic alliance with another organisation.
A decision to sell off part of operations.
A decision to initiate a specific sustainability programme.
A decision to allow/supress labour union activity.
A decision that involved unethical activity (e.g. ignoring product safety defects, disregarding the wellbeing of specific stakeholders, etc.).
The decision you write about must be specific. For example, writing about ‘Volkswagen deciding to cheat on emissions tests’ is appropriately specific. Writing about ‘Volkswagen’s Corporate Social Responsibility policy’ is not as it is too general.
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Elements to be addressed
| An Introduction | Briefly explain what your selected organisation does (e.g. nature of activities, location, ownership structure). Briefly describe the decision you will analyse. What did your organisation decide to do? Did the decision ultimately benefit the organisation? Outline the structure of your case study. |
| An explanation of why your selected organisation made its decision | Every student will structure this section differently. Below are some suggestions of what you can write about. You are not expected to write about ALL these things. Instead, make a judicious selection of arguments that will allow you to develop a concise but effective explanation. Explore the decision-making process: who were the key people involved, when did it happen, where was it a planned and deliberate move or was it emergent/reactive? If you are writing about a commercial context: did the decision involve defensive or offensive strategy? Identify key specific factors and/or social actors in internal and/or external environment of the organisation influenced or forced the decision. Reflect on the power structures and relations within which the decision was made. These could include broad ideological constructs, internal and external institutional and value systems, resources and/or influential stakeholders. This may be particularly important for the discussion in the next section. |
| A reflection on the ethics of the decision and discussion of alternative courses of action. |
Base your discussion here on the results of your analysis from the previous section and your learning in such areas as stakeholder theory, innovation, business models, inter-organisational collaboration, alternative organisational forms, and ideological underpinnings of organisational practice. Was the decision ethical? E.g. how did it affect organisational stakeholders? What kind of values did it promote in the society? How did it impact the natural environment? You can consider both short-term and long-term implications. If you were a manager making this decision, would you make a different one? Could using a different decision-making process help you make a more ethical decision? |
| Conclusion |
Clearly summarise your key findings and recommendations from the previous two sections. |
Narrative form with clear introduction and conclusion
Logical flow and interlinked ideas
Use of sections, figures, tables, and graphs
Clear writing: one idea per paragraph, proper grammar and style
Structure and Formatting
The case study must have an identifiable introduction and conclusion sections.
The case study must be written in a narrative form. You should tell the story of why an organisation made a particular decision. Writing narratives/stories is a complex skill, so be prepared to go through several drafts of your work before you make a final submission.
Ensure that your writing is clear and logical. Your ideas should be interlinked, with points and arguments arranged in a logical order. You may consider splitting your case study into sections. You are also encouraged to use figures, tables and graphs to illustrate your arguments.
Remember basic rules of good writing, such as:
Each paragraph should contain just one specific idea or point.
Sentences should not be too long.
Check your grammar, style, spelling and punctuation.
All tables and illustrations should be clearly formatted.
Do NOT use “Main body” as a section title.
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Thorough theoretical and empirical research
No use of AI tools
All sources must be referenced
Research Expectations
Required research
Your case study must be based on thorough theoretical and empirical research.
The use of AI is not permitted.
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Ground arguments in theories
Select relevant perspectives
Demonstrate academic reading and integration
Avoid relying solely on basic models (PESTLE, SWOT, Porter’s)
Use of Theory
Use of theory:
Every argument you make in your case study must be grounded in one of the theoretical perspectives we discussed in class. You do not need to use all the perspectives we covered. Instead, you should select perspectives most helpful in the context of your case study.
Your use of theory should be creative, demonstrate wider academic reading and show understanding of how different perspectives are linked.
Please note that limiting your theory choice to the most basic strategy models such as PESTLE, SWOT and Porter’s models you will only gain you a basic pass mark (40% – 45%) at best.
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Assessment criteria
The criteria used to mark this coursework will be similar to the ones used for group coursework.
Markers will consider the following broad aspects:
Case study content
Case study structure
Evidence and referencing
All the information given on the criteria below is also available in the Assessment section on Brightspace in one Word document.
| Your case study answers the questions set out in the assignment brief. | The assignment asks you to explain why a particular organisation made a particular strategic decision AND evaluate the decision-making process and suggest alternatives to the decision. Simply describing the decision, providing an external and/or internal analysis of the organisation, or evaluating the quality of the decision will not answer the assignment question. |
| The discussion in the case study is informed by relevant theory. | Your explanations of why your chosen organisation made the decision must be grounded in theory. When searching for explanations, you must consider factors set out in the various theoretical perspectives we discussed in this module. You are expected to use a minimum of three or four different theoretical perspectives. Please avoid exclusively relying on basic planning models such as PESTLE, VRIO and Ansoff. Please do NOT use SWOT. Using basic planning models only will result in a basic pass mark at best. |
| Your writing demonstrates a solid understanding of the theoretical perspectives you are using. | Please make sure that you understand the theoretical perspectives and models you use very well – e.g. what they are intended for, how they work and how they are related to other perspectives. You are not required to explain in your case study the theoretical perspectives you use. However, the way you use concepts and ideas from those perspectives will provide an indication of your understanding. |
Case study content – 1
| Your case study is based on thorough research of your organisation’s decision, the organisation itself and the situation within which the decision was made. | You are expected to use a variety of sources to obtain information about your chosen organisation, about the decision that you are analysing and about any relevant circumstantial factors (e.g. various aspects of the external and internal environment, important stakeholders, organisational processes, etc.). Relying on just one or two sources will most likely not be enough. Please also be aware of potential biases – e.g. your organisation’s own accounts of how the decision was made may not be objective. |
| Your case study should address the power dimension of organisational decision-making. | In your analysis, you should consider how the various forces both in the internal and external environment of the organisation forced or encouraged the organisation to make the decision. These forces may have exerted a direct coercive impact on the organisation (e.g. stakeholder demands), facilitated the decision (e.g. existence of particular resource sets), or set out the boundaries for organisational imagination (e.g. organisational culture and structure). You should also consider the relationships between the various forces. |
Case study content – 2
| Your case study has a clear introduction. | The introduction should provide a brief overview of the organisation that you chose and the decision that you will be explaining. It should contain a phrase such as “In this case study, I will explain how an organisation X reached the decision Y”. You can also provide a brief list of the theoretical perspectives you will use. |
| Your case study is a coherent narrative. You present your points/arguments in a logical sequence. | The structure of the main body of the case study should support a clear communication of the results of your analysis. As this is a fairly long case study, you should split it into several sections. Each section should deal with a specific topic – e.g. background information, the description of the decision-making process, a particular influencing factor, or the discussion of the relationship between particular influencing factors. Please do not title the main body of your case study “Main body”. The words “main body” are simply used to denote the main substantive section of a piece of writing. They are not an appropriate section title. |
| The case study must have a clear conclusion, summarising the findings of your analysis. | In your conclusion, you should provide a clear outline the key reasons why your organisation made the decision, why the organisation did or did not follow a good decision-making process, and whether this decision should have been different. |
Case study structure
| All arguments you make must be supported by evidence, either theoretical or empirical. | Your arguments and explanations should be based on thorough research and careful consideration of relevant evidence. Avoid making arguments without supporting them with relevant evidence. |
| All non-common-knowledge facts and arguments are referenced. | You should provide a clear indication of the sources of your evidence by thoroughly referencing your writing. Please use either an APA or Harvard referencing style. Make sure that you have both in-text citations and a reference list. |
| The sources used are up-to-date and appropriate for an academic work | Avoid using blogs, social media, ‘yellow press’ newspapers and consultancy websites as your sources. Reputable national and regional newspapers and magazines, websites of reputable non-governmental organisations and commercial and non-profit organisations, government sources and academic journals and books are acceptable. |
| The references are formatted correctly both in the text and the references pages. | Please use either an APA or Harvard referencing style and make sure that you use correct formatting (e.g. the sources should be listed in the reference page in an alphabetical order). |
Evidence and referencing
What not to do – 1
Please remember that this is NOT a standard Strategy assignment where you are asked to select a few standard strategy models (such as PESTLE and Porter) and apply them to the analysis of an organisation’s present strategy or generate recommendations about the future strategy.
This assignment is different.
The aim is to EXPLAIN WHY an organisation made a specific strategic decision. Please remember this and focus your thinking and writing on this question:
You need to select a specific organizational decision to analyse.
In your conclusions, you must provide a clear explanation of why your organisation made the decision you examined and also an evaluation of the decision-making process.
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What not do to – 2
Please avoid a mechanical application of standard strategy models.
Your analysis should not be structured around a few widely-used models.
Please avoid structures where your coursework consists of a few sections based on application of specific models, such as:
Section 1 – PESTLE analysis,
Section 2 – VRIO analysis,
Section 3 – SWOT.
Such submissions will not receive high marks.
What to do instead
Try to imagine yourself as a detective or an investigative journalist.
You are trying to find out why somebody did something, not apply models in mechanical manner.
Your thinking should involve interplay between your practical research about the organisation and its decision and your knowledge of the theoretical perspectives we discussed in class.
How to do it: Suggested steps
Find out as much as you can from newspapers, magazines, company websites, etc. about your organisation’s decision and the circumstances that surrounded it.
Write it up in a loose ‘story’ draft. Don’t worry about word limit, structure, grammar, etc. at this point. You will not be submitting this story for assessment. You will use it as raw material for your case study.
Look at your ‘story’ and see if you can identify in it any theoretical themes that we discussed in class. For example, you may be able to say that your organisation was influenced by powerful institutions within its industry if your story mentions government activity or the cultural preferences of the customers.
How to do it: Suggested steps
Consider what aspects of your analysis need further exploration. For example, if your ‘story’ draft contains some evidence that organisational structure played an important role in the decision, research this matter further, get more details and clarity. Also take another look at the module materials. Is there perhaps a perspective that you so far ignored but that could be interesting to explore?
Note down the results of your analysis of your ‘story’. E.g. can you see some clear influencing factors/forces emerging? Can you see links between them?
Consider the structure of your final story. It has to have sections in it. Consider devoting each section to an important theme you identified in your previous analysis.
Make sure you answer the ‘why’ question and summarise your evaluation of the decision-making process in your conclusion.
Reflecting on the ethics of the decision
Your reflection should be based on your findings about why your organisation made its decision.
E.g. reflect on whether your organisation made its decision for the right reasons
Are there any important factors that the managers did not take into account?
Did it use the best process to make the decision?
You can consider multiple ethical issues we discussed in class. For example:
Stakeholder interests
Not including stakeholders into the decision-making process
Excessive focus on preserving the internal organisational order
Particular theoretical perspectives framing our understanding in unproductive ways (e.g. “strategy as war”, defining “value” merely as profit
conclusion
Please be creative in your choice of theoretical perspectives.
Don’t just rely on basic models (PESTLE, Ansoff, Porter, VRIO)
Consider drawing on Institutional Theory and Stakeholder Theory instead of PESTLE and what you know about the impact of organisational structure and culture instead of or in addition to VRIO.
If you do use Porter’s 5 Forces, please pay close attention to the nuances of how and why different industry actors acquire power as opposed to just making general statements about the power of buyers, suppliers, etc.
Please do NOT use SWOT.
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