The learning outcomes assessed in the Project assessment are:
Knowledge
Demonstrate an understanding of the academic theory relevant to the project
Appreciate the complexity and relevance of ethical issues when researching and managing a project
Thinking skills
Evaluate findings, draw appropriate conclusions from analysis of the data and make recommendations and/or develop solutions for problems identified
Subject-based practical skills
Develop professional employability skills to meet the needs of the project and career aspirations
Reflect on skills developed in undertaking a report which may include commercial awareness, problem-solving and analytical skills, planning and organisation skills, meeting deadlines, research and information literacy skills, use of IT and academic writing skills
Frame a project topic that takes due account of students’ resources, capabilities and interests
Identify, evaluate and discuss the limitations of research methods and other barriers to completion of a satisfactory project
Skills for life and work (general skills)
Demonstrate the capacity to collect, analyse and interpret a range of data
Communicate in a clear and structured manner
Thinking skills
Evaluate findings, draw appropriate conclusions from analysis of the data and make recommendations and/or develop solutions for problems identified
The OD project
The Directed Project is a project organized and directed by the project leader. In the HRM area it is a 5000 word consultancy project. You will act as an Organisational Development (OD) consultant charged with the responsibility of bridging the performance gap at Papa John’s, the Pizza chain, based on secondary research, and a 1000 word reflection on skills developed in undertaking the project. The tasks involved in acting as an OD consultant will be as follows:
Identify the need for change at Papa John’s based on a scan of the external environment and the company’s internal environment
Discuss and evaluate client/practitioner relations in your role as OD consultant
Discuss and evaluate appropriate diagnostic tools for uncovering solutions to the performance gap at Papa John’s
Determine an action plan for bridging the performance gap at Papa John’s which integrates behavioural, structural and technological aspects of change
Determine how you, as an OD consultant, would evaluate the effectiveness of the action plan implemented
You will be provided guidance and support on how to undertake this OD consultancy project in Term 1 and 2. More specifically, you will be guided on the values of OD and how to apply Brown’s five stage model of OD to Papa Jone’s Pizza to bridge the company’s performance gap. Please see Brown’s model below:
Brown’s Five Stage OD Model
Source: Brown (2011:35)
Key project Question:
Applying Brown’s five stages of OD to bridge the performance gap at Papa John’s
Project 3 smart Objectives
You objectives will be:
1. To facilitate client understanding of the need for change at Papa John’s to bridge the performance gap created by an ineffective internal environment and a competitive external one.
2. To establish effective client-practitioner relations and diagnostic tools to determine the cause of the performance gap identified at Papa John’s
3. To develop an action plan for bridging the performance gap at Papa John’s, and an evaluation tool to assess the effectiveness of the action plan
Characteristic of Organizational Development (OD)
Change – A planned strategy with specific objectives based on a diagnosis of the issues
2. Collaborative – Requires involvement and participation of employees affected by change (use of action research)
3. Performance – Emphasis on improvement of performance and quality
4. Humanistic – Looking for opportunities to allow for the growth of an individual’s potential
5. Systems – Recognizes the importance of the interrelationship and interdependent nature of sub systems across the different levels of an organization. from organizational, to departmental, team and individual levels.
6. Scientific – Based on theory and research in the social sciences, and assumes practices are observable and measurable (Brown 2011).
7. Holistic – Action plan will involve a consideration of the whole system and links between the external environment, strategy, leadership, culture, innovation/creativity, motivation and teamwork.
The Directed ( Papa John’s ) Project structure
If you choose the Directed (Papa John’s) project you should follow the structure below:
Title Page :
The Title of the project: This should reflect the specific focus of the Papa John’s project.
Student number(s): your NAME(S) must NOT appear in the project;
Course name and year of submission.
Executive summary: maximum 300 words (not included in the words count) – a summary of the project aim, approach, and results.
Table of Content Page
This page lists the main parts of the project together with their page numbers.
Introduction (Chapter 1 – 500 words) – In this section you will frame your OD consultancy project. You will set out the main reasons why the Papa John’s OD project is worth researching. You will start with the key project question and 3 SMART objectives. You will then justify this project focus – i.e. the contribution to Papa John’s strategic goals (bridging the performance gap). This should be followed by a brief description of what the upcoming chapters will be about, and your key conclusion.
Also, briefly introduce what is an OD, briefly introduce Papa John’s, and outline what are the aspect you gonna cover.
OD consultancy method of inquiry (Chapter 2 -1000 words) briefly describe the 5 stages, but be more critical, put the model in the text – You will provide a brief outline of the OD Model applied to Papa John’s (Brown’s 5 stages of OD), including a discussion of the humanistic values and ethics involved in OD practice. You should also outline your secondary research strategy and the limitations of using secondary data, and evaluate the OD method of inquiry from the perspective of other change management models.
Application of Brown’s 5 stages model ( chapter 3 – 3000 words ) – Here, you will apply Brown’s 5 stages to the case of Papa John’s. This will include:
Why is there a need for change at Papa John’s? Discuss the performance gap created by the mismatch between the external environment and the internal in terms of key organisational features. You should then evaluate differing approaches to both the client/practitioner relationship and diagnostic stages and justify and explain your approach at Papa John’s. You should then design an action plan and strategy basedon secondary research of Papa John’s , which integrates the structural, technological and behavioural aspects of change. You should complete Brown’s five stages by discussing differing approaches to evaluating and monitoring planned change, fully justifying your approach, as an OD consultant, at Papa John’s.
Conclusion (Chapter 4 – 500 words). You should summarise your findings and provide recommendations for bridging the performance gap at Papa John’s based on your secondary research. You should also explain the limitations of your research
The Appendix
Bibliography / Reference list : Referenced publications are listed in the bibliography alphabetically by author’s surname using the Harvard System.
Diagrams, figures and graphs which are too large for the text should be provided in this section.
Extra Info note
Step1: “need for change” to bridge the performance gap.
What and where are the main issues in papa john’s pizza?
Step2: “client practitioner relationship” application of Brown’s stages talk about stage 1 and 4 more.
Emphasise OD humanistic values, openness, trust and shared values.
Psychological contract (expectation and obligation)
Practitioners-client relationship
Step3: diagnostic/data gathering
Really uncover in detail what are the issues to look at to bridge the performance gap and why there is performance gap?
How you diagnose? What are the strengths and weakness of this data gathering techniques used? (Lewin’s Fied Theory), external-internal, driving forces/restring forces
Last things Action research in diagnostics, which one to use and which whom and why and justify it critically.
Professional Employability Skills 1000 words
In both the individual and directed project you will be required to reflect on your development in professional employability skills over the duration of this module. Your skills as a business professional will improve through doing a management project, but also through other experiences on other modules and activities at university, and outside in terms of part-time employment. In this assessment there will be a particular focus on commercial awareness, problem-solving and analytical skills, planning and organisation skills, meeting deadlines, research and information literacy skills, use of IT and academic writing skills. Your development in professional employability skills will be assessed by a 1000 word reflective statement which should be submitted with your project on turnitin.
The structure of this reflective statement should be organized as follows:
Introduction
Initial assessment of professional employability skills and targets set
Developments in professional employability skills during 2018/19
Conclusion, and targets for further development
Suggested structure of 1000 words reflection on your Professional competency skills:
Introduction (including a brief description of reflective practice adopted) – 100 words
Main body – Discussion of initial strengths and weaknesses and how you have developed in your employability skills over the duration of the project – 800 words
Conclusion and areas of development – 100 words
Action Plan in the Appendix
Please discuss these two area for my professional and career development:
Problem solving and analytical skills (in University)
Team work (at work, I work in retail business as customer attendant and university in groups works)
Assessment Criteria for the Directed Project:
| Dissertation and Project |
| Problem Identification and critical thinking – 20% Specific, meaningful, and original business oriented aim and objectives. Effective framing of the OD project Clear strategic justification for the use of OD in an organisation Critical-thinking, based on wider reading |
| Research design/method of inquiry – 25% Discussion of secondary research methods used and strengths and weaknesses in terms of reliability and validity A consideration of the complexity of ethical issues in researching and managing a project Project planning through a Gantt chart. The OD philosophy and Brown’s five stages is explained and evaluated . |
| Analysis of data and conclusions/recommendations – 35% Analysis and interpretation of data, presented in a clear and structured manner. Findings should be meaningful and address the business problem, research question and objectives, leading to relevant conclusions/recommendation |
| Writing Skills and referencing 10% Structure and presentation, and referencing must be in the Harvard style – see cite them Right |
| Reflection on Professional competency skills – 10% (see below) |
Assessment criteria for the 1000 word reflection on employability skills
7 +: Overall the 1000 word reflection will be highly evaluative and critical, be substantiated, and lead to significant targets for future development.
6: Reflection will be mostly analytical and evaluative, with only a minority of a descriptive nature. There will be very few unreflective or unsubstantiated aspects
5: Although several reflections will be analytical and evaluative some will be of a more descriptive nature. There will be some unreflective or unsubstantiated aspects.
4: Reflections will be descriptive rather than analytical and evaluative. Overall, the 1000 word reflection will be descriptive rather than evaluative.
< 4:=””>Aspects of tasks will be inadequate – showing little or no engagement with the assignment. Will show little understanding or evidence of undertaking assessment to develop in terms of career management skills.
General Grading Criteria Used To Assess Work
| Grade | Level 3 |
| First (70% or above) | Critical work evidencing excellent synthesis and application of ideas. Work is exceptionally well constructed and presented. |
| Upper Second (60-69%) | Ideas are critically applied and coherently presented. Evidence of wide reading and some originality. Well referenced |
| Lower Second (50-59%) | Clear grasp of concepts and some critical application. Appropriately referenced and relevant argument. Reasonable structure and syntax. Well presented |
| Third (40-49%) | Evidence of good understanding of issues, but crudely applied. Work indicates some critical thinking, but tends towards description. Argument may be unbalanced. Poor structure and presentation |
| Fail (below 40%) | Poorly referenced and suggests inadequate exploration of relevant literature. Chaotic structure and generally badly written. |
General Presentation
The project must be word processed, double spaced with 25mm margins. The font and font size must be such that the project is easily readable e.g. a font size of 12 (excluding headings). Use widely-used fonts such as Ariel, not those that might be considered informal or unusual. Pages must be sequentially numbered. Chapters, sections and sub-sections must be clearly identified and sequentially numbered or lettered with separate chapters beginning on a new page. Diagrams, graphs, figures, tables, pictures and charts must be incorporated into the project, and they should be clearly labelled and referenced.
References must be accurately provided in the text using the Harvard System (see the Module handbook for guidance). All quotations must be acknowledged and correctly presented within the text i.e. other than very short ones, quotations should be indented and in single spacing.
Number of words should be mentioned at the end of the dissertation and before the bibliography