Faculty of Business & Law

School of Marketing and Management

Coursework Brief
The intended learning outcomes for 310 HRM will be assessed by one piece of coursework
which will not normally exceed a total of 5000 words (excluding appendices). The
coursework is as follows (word limits are indicative only). After reading the paper you are
required to write a 5000 word essay which addresses the following:
Task 1 (CW 2500 words)
Provide an analytical review of the paper outlining the main themes and issues discussed
and implications of these for managing organizational change and innovation.
Task 2 (CW2 2500 words)
Drawing on other journal papers and academic materials critically evaluate the extent to
which organisations can develop and maintain a culture of Change and innovation.
Provide some conclusions and recommendations which address the implications you have
identified within both tasks. Your answer should present a balanced mixture of theory and
practice and refer to practical organisational examples. The assignments should be (2500)
words in length, plus any appendices, references and bibliography.
This summative assessment will be covering the learning outcomes from topic 1 to 8:
Coursework 1 assesses Learning Outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8.
Coursework 2 assesses Learning Outcomes 2, 3, 4, and 5.
Learning Outcomes
1. Evaluate the reasons for change within organizations
2. Understand, analyse and critique the main theories of change management
3. Critically analyse the characteristics of successful and unsuccessful change and apply
effective change management strategies
4. Understand what organizational culture is, how it influences organizational success and
performance and explore the debates around the possibility of
changing organizational culture as well as the strategies for changing organizational culture.
5. Critically evaluate how people can facilitate or resist change and develop an ability to
manage human resources in the context of change
6. Identify an opportunity for innovation and improvement in workplace organizations and
explain the rationale for this choice in the context of organizational objectives
7. Develop an understanding of the concepts of creativity and innovation and the conditions
required to encourage them.
8. Critically evaluate principles and practices associated with managing creativity and
innovation;
Students will be required to:

1. Identify the issues within the context of the question (10%)

Submission:
This assignment must be submitted via the module web (TURNITIN) by deadlines will be
announced soon.
Please note:
1. All work submitted after the submission deadline without an approved valid
reason (see below) will be given a mark of zero. (This is not the same as a non-submission,
as a late submission counts as an attempt and a mark of zero may allow you to re-sit the
coursework.).
2. Short deferrals (extensions) of up to three calendar weeks can only be given for genuine
"force majeure" and medical reasons, not for bad planning of your time.
3. Please note that theft, loss, or failure to keep a back-up file, are not valid reasons. The
short deferral must be applied for on or before the submission date. You can apply for a
short deferral by submitting an Examination/ Coursework Deferral Application Form.
Application Forms along with the supporting evidence should go to Reception (WM). For a
longer delay in submission a student may apply for a (long) deferral.
3. Students MUST keep a copy and/or an electronic file of their assignment.
Coursework Submission
4. Unless instructed otherwise by your module leader, assessed coursework must be
submitted by the deadline via the module web (Turnitin).
5. Students are required to attempt all assessed aspects of their course at the first
opportunity. If you don't, and you do not have a valid deferral, you will not be allowed
a re-sit. Please see the 'Make your Mark' page on Coventry University's Student Portal and
Section C of the ‘Essential information for all students’ insert for further
information.
6. Any student who submits a first piece of work late, without an authorised extension (or
deferral) will receive a mark of 0%. There is no longer any sliding scale of late
penalties. However, if you miss a deadline it is still worth submitting a piece of coursework
late for a zero mark so that you do not automatically lose any re-sit
opportunity.
7. Please see the ‘Make the Date’ page on Coventry University’s Student Portal and Section
C of the ‘Essential information for all students’ insert for further
information.
8. The electronic version of your assignment may be used to enable checks to be made using
anti-plagiarism software and approved plagiarism checking websites.
Return of Marked Work
Provisional marks will be available by 2 academic weeks after the submission deadline.
PLAGIARISM WARNING! – Assignments should not be copied in part or in whole from any
other source, except for any marked up quotations, that clearly distinguish what has been
quoted from your own work. All references used must be given, and the specific page
number used should also be given for any direct quotations, which should be in inverted
commas. Students found copying from the internet or other sources will get zero marks and
may be excluded from the university.

COURSEWORK GUIDANCE

Task 1: Guidance
Task 1 of the 310HRM assignment asks you to Provide an analytical review of the paper
outlining the main themes and issues discussed and the implications of these for managing
organisational change and innovation.
Providing an analytical review means critically analysing the article and challenging the key
points and claims the author makes and his credentials for making these claims. You need to
find lots of other journal articles that challenges or supports views and present a critically
analytical debate.
Think about the other claims or views the authors’ expresses. To guide you these included
the
following:
• Innovation is change and change is innovation
• Innovators are change agents
• Organizations defensive routines keep them from embracing transformational change
• People will do everything they can to maintain status quo
• Organizations don’t have a coherent approach to change
• Some model of change from your lectures should be used and is useful for innovation
• The importance of shared understanding at project level
• The change agent is a catalyst for increasing the speed of innovation in a company
• Innovation Leaders need to broaden their roles as innovators and learn some of the
disciplines of change management
You need to pick four or five of these and using other journal articles present a critically
analytical discussion about these views.
You also need to think about the journal and the author. Are they coming from a
practitioner’s point of view, expressing opinion or are they presenting a research informed
and evidence-based peer reviewed journal? How much validity and reliability does the
journal and author have to make the claims he does?
Don’t forget you must include conclusions and recommendations.

TASK 2: Guidance
Task 2 of the Coursework is asking you to debate and discuss the extent to which you can
develop and maintain a culture of innovation and change. It is asking you to ensure that you
draw on other journal articles and literature to support your discussion. So, evidence of
wider reading and referencing is important.
This question can be broken down in to two parts
1. Can you develop, manage, influence and manipulate culture
2. How do you influence a culture of change and innovation
The first part of the question is asking you to define culture and then have a critically
analytical debate about culture and if it can be influenced, managed and changed. For this
debate you need to think about the 3 key arguments about culture and change. These are: -
1. The symbolic view of culture argues that culture is something an organisation “is” which
suggests culture cannot be changed. It is the very personality of the organization and cannot
be manipulated and changed.
2. The functionalist view suggests that culture is something an organization “has” and it can
be influenced, managed and changed
3. A realist view of culture suggests and acknowledges that some aspects of culture, can be
changed but some can’t. You need to provide evidence that you understand these critical
ideas and come to some conclusion about them.
4. The second part of the essay is asking you how you can develop a culture of change and
innovation. Here you may want to define innovation, creativity and change. You may also
consider exploring ideas about the Learning Organization; Single and Double loop learning,
Individual and Collective learning in organizations and changing “Theories in use” and
“Espoused Theories”. There are lecture materials on all these topics on Moodle.
5. Do not forget your work must be referenced. The more referenced your work is the more
likely you will get a good mark. Try not to be too descriptive in your writing - you need to be
critically analytical in your discussion and you must have a clear conclusion and
recommendations section. 15% of marks are allocated for conclusions and
recommendations.
6. Throughout both tasks try and show your research and knowledge of the subject area,
your understanding and application. Exploring theory can do this and applying theory to real
life examples to illustrate the point you are making will also help. You will only get a merit
and distinction if your work is critically analytical and evidences a comprehensive critically
analytical understanding of the subject.
Reading a Research Paper
Task
• Spend a minute individually considering the question “Why read a research paper?”
Share your ideas with those sitting close to you.
• Now focus your attention on the research article linked to coursework one and work
through the following questions: -
1. What sort of journal is it from?
2. Who is the intended reader? E.g. general practitioner, academic etc.
3. Who are the authors? – Where are they from?
4. What does the title tell you about the article?
5. Does the abstract describe the findings or the methodology?
6. How is the paper organised? i.e. Is it divided into sections?
What sections are they?
7. Does it have a systematic literature review?
8. What is its research question or aim? Is this clear?
9. What is its claim?
10. What is it trying to do? E.g. build a theory, test a theory, extend a theory, extend
practice/knowledge.
11. What research methods and strategies have been used?
12. What are the main findings of the research?
13. Are there significant controversies?
14. Are there inconsistent findings?
15. What are the unanswered research questions in this area?
16. What do the authors conclude?