BHS0035 Strategy in Context FHEQ Level 6 Assessment Brief Term 1, 2024-25 | UoH

BHS0035 Assessment Task 

Assessment: 2000-word researched and referenced individual analytical case study 

This assessment is worth 70% of your final mark. 

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: 

1. Describe the decision. 
2. Explain why the organisation made it. 
3. Evaluate the ethics of the decision and suggest what the organisation could have done differently. 

Task Specific Guidance: 

To achieve the assignment objectives, you must: 

• Conduct careful research into the 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.

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. 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 the operations. 
• A decision to initiate a specific sustainability programme.
• A decision to allow/suppress labour union activity.
• A decision that involved unethical activity (e.g. ignoring product safety defects, disregarding the well-being 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. 

Elements to be Addressed 

The following table outlines the elements you are required to include in your case study.

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 formatted. 
• Do NOT use "Main body" as a section title.

Required Research 

Your case study must be based on thorough theoretical and empirical research. The use of AI is not permitted. 

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 a basic pass mark (40% - 45%) at best. 

Organisation/decision research: 

Your case study should also be based on thorough and detailed empirical research of the activities of your organisation. 

Your final case study may not present all of the research that you conducted. You only need use the evidence most relevant to supporting your arguments. For instance, you may conduct extensive research into the external environmental factors and find that only one or two of them played an important role. In this case, you should only write about these relevant factors and exclude other less relevant information.

Your sources of information about the organisation and its environment can include the following: 

• Organisation's website and press releases, annual reports, CSR/sustainability reports, organisational structure charts, mission statements, etc. available on it.
• Reputable newspapers and magazines.
• Business history journals such as Business History, Business History Reviewand Enterprise and Society.
• Books written about the organisation.
• Government and international organisation websites - e.g. OECD, UNCTAD (The World Investment Report in particular), WTO, WHO, relevant NGO websites, etc. 

Your sources must be trustworthy and reputable (avoid tabloids, 'yellow press', consulting company websites and papers written by other students). 

It is not appropriate to use Wikipedia as a source at your level of study. If you find yourself reading Wikipedia articles, please go to the reference list and the end and explore the sources instead. 

Word count 

The maximum word count for this assignment is 2000 words. You are allowed to be 10% under or over the world count. 

Tables, figures, the list of references and appendices are not included in the word count. Be judicious with the use of tables and appendices. They should not be used to circumvent the word count. This means that tables should not be overly long or detailed, and appendices should only be used to provide brief supplementary information. Any information central to your argument should be put in the main body of your case study and not in the appendices. 

Do not exceed the word count by more than 10%! A mark penalty of 5% will be applied to submissions that exceed the word count. 

How to Obtain Help with Your Assignment 

If you have questions about your assignment or have difficulty completing it, please post it on the assessment discussion board on the module Brightspace site. If you send your question by e-mail to any of the module staff, it will be answered on the discussion board. Only questions of confidential and personal nature will be answered through e-mail. 

Module staff will answer your questions within 48 working hours (staff will not be available during evenings after 5 pm and weekends). 

Please note that tutorial leaders and the module leader will not be able to read case study drafts before their submission. However, you can obtain help with your.

These criteria will be used to mark your work and will be used to support the electronic feedback you receive on your marked assignment. Before submission, check that you have tried to meet the requirements of the higher-grade bands to the best of your ability. Please note that the marking process involves academic judgement and interpretation within the marking criteria. 

The Learning Innovation Development Centre can help you to understand and use the assessment criteria. To book an appointment, either visit them on The Street in the Charles Sikes Building or email them at busstudenthub@hud.ac.uk 

BHS0035 Learning Outcomes 

This section is for information only. 

The assessment task outlined above has been designed to address specific validated learning outcomes for this module. It is useful to keep in mind that these are the things you need to show in this piece of work. 

On completion of this module, students will need to demonstrate an ability to: 

2. Reflect on the complexity and uncertainty inherent in strategy-making in organisations. 

4. Identify, describe and critically evaluate strategies and strategy-making processes in specific organisations using relevant theoretical tools. 

5. Produce recommendations on the development of strategy-making and strategic directions in specific organisations. 

Please note that these learning outcomes are not additional questions.