To what extent are the major global issues of the current time, related to one another in the context of organisations?
To what extent are the major global issues of the current time, related to one another in the context of organisations?
CONTEMPORARY GLOBAL MANAGEMENT ISSUES = 3000 WORDS (+/- 10%)
Assessment Brief:
Required task 3,000-word essay addressing the following question:
To what extent are the major global issues of the current time, related to one another in the context of organisations?
This question can be addressed by considering any issues you wish, the only stipulation is that they are arguably of global significance. Here is a list of possible issues, but do not feel constrained by this. If you want to draw attention to other issues that is fine as long as they are issues that face many parts of the world and you can discuss the extent to which they are related in some way, (or you may argue they are not related, but you must argue it).
Globalisation
National culture
Gender inequality in the workplace
Climate change
Corporate power and corporate social responsibility
Business ethics
Leadership
Digitalisation / Technology
Marking Criteria – PLEASE AIM FOR A FIRST
PLEASE CITE AND RFERENCE IN HARVARD FORMAT
Key Notes To Consider:
- Do not need definitions – the issues of it. For Example: outline why it is an issue.
- Support why it is an issue e.g. statistics, articles, etc.
- Conclusion – why my points are important
- Intro and conclusion are both equally as important as middle sections.
Possible Interconnections:
- Climate change – paris agreement (only 20% of countries who signed are on track) is this a leadership issue?
- Gender – is this a cultural issue?
- Religion – does this impact on diversity and gender issue?
Possible Discussions:
- Innovation – can technology / digitalisation solve management issues?
- Should we be talking about leadership and not the leader
It can be helpful to think of an essay as comprising:
- the introduction -introduce and show understanding of issues,
- the thesis (the argument that you are putting forward)
- the anti-thesis (the arguments against the one you favour)
- the synthesis (the conclusion)
A good introduction is absolutely essential for a good essay. Here you will explain why the topic is important, briefly outline the argument that you will present in your essay, and what you will discuss in order to effectively argue this. Use this section to explain any definitions of the central concepts that you are using.
Similarly, a good conclusion is also essential to a good essay. Avoid the temptation (particularly if time is running short) to skimp on a conclusion, or simply to restate your argument. In this section, you must say whether and how the evidence that you have presented has supported your argument, and how, if at all, it falls short. When you have worked for a long time on an essay question – reading, note-taking and writing – all of this can seem as if it is self-evident in what you have written. However, often it is not, and an essay needs a good conclusion to bring it all together. You should spend as much time on the introduction and conclusion as you do on the rest of the essay
It is worth noting that: “If you cannot write a final paragraph that both summarises the material and answers the question, then you have probably wandered off the point somewhere” (King, 2002).
In order to plan your essay structure, you will need to:
- Think very carefully about the question that you have chosen. Think about what it is that the question is asking you to do: ‘Discuss’, ‘Analyse’, ‘Consider’, ‘Compare’ and so on, highlight the key words and make sure you do what the question asks. If you are asked, for example, to ‘compare three areas of law…’ make sure that you do use three areas of law, not two or four, and that you actually draw comparisons between these areas, and that you do not just describe each in turn. It cannot be repeated enough that it is crucial that you answer the question properly.
- Think about your overall ‘argument’ – what it is that you will try to say with this essay. You need to have a specific ‘argument’, rather than just describing everything that you know about a topic. The argument is the backbone of the essay and is what helps make your essay critical. You need to have strong supporting evidence for your argument, and to refer to it in your introduction, main body of the essay, and in the conclusion.
- Decide on the ‘core issues’ of the argument, which will have emerged from your lectures and your reading on the subject. These will include those issues which do not necessarily agree with your argument, but which need to be discussed and assessed. Write a sentence outlining each issue on a piece of paper.
- These issues will become sections of your essay.
- Underneath these section headings, write the points that you wish to make about them.
- Underneath these points, note a couple of words to indicate what the content of each of these points will be.
- When you have decided on all of the sections and what they will contain, you can allocate approximately how many words you can use for each section. If you have settled on discussing 6 key issues for example, with the introduction and conclusion, you will have 8 sections. If each issue is equally important, in a 3,000 word essay you will have about 375 words for each.
- You can now approach writing each section of your essay as a separate section, but take care when bringing your essay together that you have a logical order to these sections, and that you have linked them up. You can of course change the order of the sections as you go if a better order suggests itself as you work.
