STR week 6
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This is for Week 6 we need to take care. Please read carefully.
posted by DAVID GEERINCK
Jul 15, 2014, 7:46 PM
Hi All!
Let me repost my reply to a Private Message (with permission) about reusing earlier papers in the final week 6 paper in hopes that it will help:
You raise a great question, and it deserves a straight answer: yes and no...;-). As for reusing portions of the earlier papers and reply posts, I know that is tempting but I largely advise against it (this is the "no" part of my answer...;-). As you can tell, I've worked with the course designer's outline to try to make our course as "additive" as possible, so that much of your work, either in classroom replies or individual papers, is focused directly on the *thought processes* that will be needed in the final strategic plan paper. That being said, I tend to discourage students from trying to meld together a compilation of their previous classroom replies and papers. First of all, I hope that we all continue to learn and increase the quality and depth of our critical and strategic thinking throughout the course. Second, I hope that your strategic thinking might change during the course of our, well, course. I live for those learning moments where a student's strategic thinking "light bulb" goes off and some creative (if perhaps unconventional) strategy comes to mind for their firm. Hopefully you'll have more than a few of these moments (and do share in class when you do!). In any case, this makes it difficult to construct a paper from piecing together parts of prior papers and classroom replies, since they hopefully will represent different stages of your own evolving strategic thinking. And lastly, trying to string together previous papers and replies almost always makes for awkward reading since they weren't written to be used together as such. The time it will take to edit them into a readable whole is far better spent writing these sections from scratch, using your earlier thoughts were appropriate, and building upon and expanding them wherever possible.
This all being said, if you find that you have used a uniquely well crafted turn of phrase in a previous paper or classroom post, you may certainly use it again in your final paper (the "yes" portion of my reply). Just work to avoid trying to construct a "cut-n-paste" final paper, for all of the aforementioned reasons. Of course, when you reuse your own words from our own course, there is no need to show them as quotes or to cite/reference them.
Hope this helps!
David
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Week 1
STR/581 Assignment Rubric
Week 1 – Ethics Reflection Paper
Facilitator: David Geerinck
Content (70%):
Learning Objective |
Feedback Comments |
The paper explains the role of ethics and social responsibility in developing a strategic plan, considering stakeholder needs.
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This section touches upon a number of thoughtful points, although it would benefit from more fully applying concepts and lessons learned from chapters 2 & 3 in Pearce/Robinson to help drive this to a deeper level of assessment. In particular, this might help to further your thinking about CSR and ways to best address stakeholder needs as part of your strategic planning and management processes.
85%
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The paper explains how the student’s ethical perspective has evolved throughout the program.
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This section touches upon a number of thoughtful points, although it would benefit from more fully applying concepts and lessons learned from chapters 2 & 3 in Pearce/Robinson to help drive this to a deeper level of assessment. In particular, this might help to further your thinking about CSR and ways to best address stakeholder needs as part of your strategic planning and management processes.
85%
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Construction (30%):
In terms of construction, the paper would benefit from a stronger focus on both organization and editing. In terms of organization, the paper would benefit from a stronger focus on crafting more organized and focused paragraphs, and from working to ensure that each section of the paper relates to the assignment rubric (the use of section headings would also be helpful to provide a more clear guide to the paper, both to help draft the paper and to later help the reader). The use of an outline, combined with a closer eye towards the assignment rubric, is strongly recommended to help address this in future papers (see this excellent guide from Purdue ). Also see the handouts on paragraph construction available at the Purdue Online Writing Lab (clink on this for a direct link ). Also note that the paper ends rather abruptly and needs a conclusion (see the UOPX Essay Development Manual posted in the UOPX CWE). In terms of editing and proofreading, work to avoid awkward sentences, which often stem from overly complex sentence structures and/or missing words and word endings. All of these tend to distract the reader, and detract from your key points. Perhaps one of the best ways to address most all of these points is to read the paper aloud during the editing and proofreading process – a well crafted paper will most often *sound* like a well delivered presentation.
While the paper touches upon a number of potentially sound points, it would benefit from a stronger focus on more fully applying your learnings from the readings to help drive your own critical thinking to a deeper level - you’re clearly ready for it! Do keep pushing!
Summary: Content (70% weight) = 85%
Construction (30% weight) = 82%
Total = 85% x 4 points = 3.4 points
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Week 3
STR/581 Assignment Rubric
Week 3 – Individual External & Internal Environmental Assessment Paper
Facilitator: David Geerinck
Content (70%):
Learning Objective |
Feedback Comments |
External and Internal Environmental Analysis
Write a summary of no more than 1,400 words that does the following:
• Identifies and analyzes the most important external environmental factor in the remote, industry, and external operating environments.
• Identifies and analyzes the most important internal strengths and weaknesses of your organization: include an assessment of the organization's resources.
• Assesses the organization's competitive position and possibilities.
• Analyzes the structure of the organization and how this affects organizational performance.
Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines. |
The external assessment presents generally sound points. Work to strengthen this by refocusing this on the 3 parts of the external environment discussed in chapter 4. Consider strengthening this further by making fuller use of authoritative research, in particular using sources from the UOPX Library to help further your own critical and strategic thinking here. 92%
The internal assessment presents generally sound points regarding strengths and weaknesses, although some of these need to be more fully discussed and supported here. Consider strengthening this by working to apply one or more of the other internal assessment models from chapter 6 in order to “dig deeper” here (I would recommend the RBV). 92%
Unfortunately, the paper does not specifically assess the firm’s competitive position, although points are presented in earlier sections that can be applied here. Consider working to apply the “3 Circle’s” assessment from chapter 6 to craft a fuller, more specific assessment of the firm’s competitive position. 75%
This section touches upon sound points, but would benefit from a deeper and fuller assessment. As a part of this, work to more fully apply your learnings from chapter 11 here. As a part of this, work to more fully assess the strengths and weaknesses of this specific org structure. 85%
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Construction (30%):
In terms of construction, the paper shows distinct improvement in the quality of writing – do keep this up! The paper would benefit most from a stronger focus on organization. The discussion of the external environment seems to drift somewhat, and the use of the 3-part external environment framework from our text would have helped provide some much needed structure here. Note, too, that the paper is significantly weakened by a missing section. The use of an outline, combined with a closer eye on the assignment description is strongly recommended to help address this going forward. These aside, the paper shows you to be a strong writer, so do keep pushing!
In all, the paper touches upon a number of sound points. Do work to more fully apply your learnings from our own course readings to help drive your critical thinking to the next deeper level – you’re clearly ready for it!
Summary: Content (70% weight) = 86%
Construction (30% weight) = 92%
Total = 88% x 6 points = 5.3 points
In looking over the assignment description for our week 6 paper, I note how it is so clearly intended to follow the outline of the strategic management model used throughout our Pearce/Robinson text (see the first page of any chapter). In thinking about the first "box" of this model, "company mission", while the text describes a perfectly adequate description of "mission", based upon my own leadership experience I find the Collins/Porras model of "vision" to be far more powerful (note - you can choose to use either framework - it's up to you, and, as always, "your mileage may vary"...;-). In thinking about "core values", do work to make sure that these represent the "essential and enduring tenets of an organization" (Collins & Porras, 1996, p. 66), and that they further present what Ralph Larsen, former CEO of J&J, describes as those values that "we have... because they define for us what we stand for, and we would hold them even if they became a competitive disadvantage in certain situations" (p. 67).
In my own experience in both teaching and on my day job, it is more difficult to get a firm to come to terms with its true "core purpose". I often advise that people use the "5 why's" techniques discussed in Collins/Porras (p. 70). However, in a recent rereading of this article, I have come to appreciate what Collins/Porras unfortunately describes as the "Random Corporate Killer Game". In other words, if an anonymous buyer offered to buy your firm for a price that offered your shareholders a healthy price premium, and offered your employees continued employment at their current location/salary level (but at an as yet undisclosed business), but was determined to then close down the firm and all its products and services, then what would you, as CEO, do? In short, does your firm exist to serve some other purpose than just being another firm in the "XYZ" business. In the final analysis, why should your firm survive and matter? Does the world really need another "XYZ" provider - and if so, then why?
OK, enough from me! What think all?