Leadership, Engagement and Motivation: Case Report

Coursework, comprising a consultancy report of a case study word guideline 3,000 words (In order to demonstrate good academic writing practise this should be within +/- 10%).

CW	Details	Deadline
Coursework  (3,000 words)	A Consultancy report of case study

Please note that this module is part of the course accredited by the Association for Business

Psychology ABP. To gain ABP accreditation your overall grades for the course must be above 50%.

Brief

You are a Business Psychologist working for a small consultancy. You have received a request to tender for a project working with a local printing firm which is struggling in the economic downturn and wants advice and guidance on how to achieve the organisational change necessary to achieve business growth. You have had an initial meeting with the Managing Director (MD) of the firm, who gave you some background information (below) to assist you in writing a proposal for the work.  Your proposal should address (in depth) approximately 3 – 5 issues (although this is not limited) that you identify from the case analysis that directly relates to the company’s current problems. These should be supported by theory and the interventions that you recommend resolving these problems.

Your task 

The MD has sought the advice of a business psychology consultant to advise and guide them and their workforce on how to resolve their problems.  Your task, as a business psychology consultant, is to write a proposal on how you would work with them and their staff.  You should use the headings below (and according to the marking guidelines) to guide the structure of your proposal and feel free to use additional headings or subheadings if this helps. You are not expected to provide costs for the work, but you are recommended to use a SWOT analysis, or any other similar models for the case analysis section that will help you develop your proposal (this should be included as an appendix and will not contribute towards the word count).

Points to consider:

• Recognition of psychologically relevant issues that affects the company and employees. 
• What improvements to the current leadership/management structure needs to be implemented, (none/one/both)? 
• Include relevant theories relating to leadership and management focused towards the case study.
• Include relevant theories relating to further processes affected by the issues arising within the case.
• Present a business report demonstrating appropriate writing skills. 
• Demonstrate evidence of your understanding of ethical considerations in an organisational setting.

The Company 

Innovative Clothing Designs (ICD) is a small business employing 18 people.  Established in 1995 by the current Managing Director (MD), the majority of the work includes the regular production of catering clothing for the local council run catering outlets (schools, council care facilities) and some bespoke catering clothing for small independent catering/restaurant businesses in the Warwickshire area. The company enjoyed success until recently and relied upon their reputation for good quality products, regular orders from the council-run services, word of mouth and localised advertising.

The Structure 

The company is led by the managing director (MD) who makes most of the decisions in terms of what the business should offer and any business strategies.  The MD has always taken care of all aspects of the business including the recruitment of staff and until recently has looked after the marketing, advertising and sales. There is a production manager (PM) who has been with the firm since its start-up, they deal with the operational side of the business (e.g. ensuring completion of garment production on time, ordering supplies, maintaining equipment). The production team comprises 14 machinists, one pattern maker and an embroiderer all report directly to the PM, several of the employees are related to the MD.  A Sales and Marketing Manager (SMM) is the MD’s oldest child, taken on by the MD last year on completion of their MSc in Marketing.  Their role is to address failing sales and to take over the handling of all marketing advertising and is responsible for customer contact and sales.

The Culture 

The organisational culture within Innovative Clothing Design (ICD) has been very traditional, as the MD believes the success of the business is due to them maintaining contact with clients. Until recently they were responsible for sales and marketing and had personal contacts within the local council.  The PM also believes in traditional methods of garment production and is resistant to changes in technology and operations. The PM believes that the success of the production side of the business is to push staff to complete orders on time, procedures and product quality.  Employees appear content to follow current practices and carry out their work as directed.  There is currently no opportunity for development or promotion, however, retention is fairly high.  The MD believes that they encourage loyalty by paying their staff 3% above industry standard and gives an annual holiday bonus.  However, the workforce mainly lives close to the factory, some are relations and employees face little opportunity of work elsewhere in this industry.

The New SSM was recruited to address the steady downturn in sales due to the highly competitive online market, the economic downturn and changing customer needs, e.g. the council now outsource their catering.  Having gained their degree, the MD also wanted to make a place in the business for their child with a view to them taking over in the coming years.  The SMM has worked for one large organisation previously, which was a placement year in a company providing hospitality services. However, the new SMM has not worked in the clothing industry.  They do have an excellent report and references for designing new and innovative marketing and sales strategies.

The Problems

The economic downturn, the change in council-run services and the advance in online ordering offering cheaper alternatives has seen ICD’s sales decline dramatically.  The MD has realised that changes need to be made to ensure the business’s survival.  The SMM’s ideas for investing new technology and sales and marketing strategies are costly and the risks high.

The PM had opposed the recruitment of the SMM from the start, believing that offering the position to someone young and inexperienced was a mistake.  There is currently some conflict between the PM and the SMM and the MD feels he has to constantly arbitrate between them. The main conflict lies in the PM’s resistance to any changes being made within the business.  The PM also believes that the employees’ reluctance to voice an opinion is a sign of their support for his beliefs to continue with their current production procedures.

The new SMM has innovative ideas for the survival of the business, such as to compete and expand through investing in new equipment, offering online ordering and bespoke services to high end customers.  The MD is in a dilemma; they recognise that something has to change in order for the business to survive, but marketing initiatives and new technology will be costly for the business and they realise that the SMM has no track record of real success. The business will fail if the strategies do not work. 

Structure Guidelines

Title

A brief but descriptive title of about 10 to 15 words.  

Executive Summary

Between 150 and 200 words.   

Includes coverage of all the issues in the report in a brief and lucid way. The appropriate use of language and inclusiveness of the summary and ensuring all areas are given approximately equal weighting in the coverage should also be taken into account in this section.

Case Analysis

Between 800 and 1000 words.  

Psychologically relevant and important points relating to the case and comments on why they are deemed to be important and what effects they may be having within the organization. The coherence of your analysis and the step-by-step nature of the argument will attract marks as will explicit reference to particular details inherent in the case. Provide a brief and concise summary of the analysis of the case.  The case analysis should also provide links to the theory detailed in the contextual theory section in explaining why issues may arise.  

Contextual Theory

Between 900 and 1000 words.  

This section provides a sound theoretical basis for analysis and recommendations and should avoid ‘off the top of the head’ arguments about how to effect change. Marks will be awarded for the selective provision of reference to psychological theories that are strictly relevant to the case study. A strong contextual theory section shows how the theory can help to explain the issues under consideration while also helping with the analysis of the case and the eventual recommendations. For very high marks to be awarded there ought to be reference to particular pieces of research (these may include both historical developments of theory and more recent theoretical developments) that helped you, rather than more general theories and research relating to the case.

Supportive Information

Mainly data but 350 and 400 words 

This section is intended to examine your ability to think about the real-world context of undertaking psychological research and allows/encourages you to undertake individual investigations into important issues about employment. Marks should be awarded for the utility of the material provided for illuminating the analysis of the case, for the accuracy of information provided, the reference that the data make to other aspects of the report such as the contextual theory and the presentation of the section such as the numbering of tables and headings. (N.B. extra information can be placed in the appendix).

Proposed Interventions

Between 700 and 900 words.  

There must be a clear and detailed set of interventions and the interventions should be provided in sufficient detail that the reader can appreciate the reason that they are suggested and what is involved in the intervention in practice. The proposals for intervention and possible change are very evidently and explicitly based on the actual analysis undertaken earlier in the report. There should be a clear link between the background theory to the case, the analysis undertaken and the proposed interventions.  There should also be the presentation of ethical considerations in the recommendation of the interventions.  There must be a clear and detailed set of interventions for good marks to be awarded. 

Recommendations

Between 150 and 200 words.  

This section should be inclusive and it should have the ability to inform the reader of the overall nature of what should be implemented, when it should be implemented and why that may be. 

This section should be succinct and sell the argument to the reader. The persuasiveness of the section is its keynote and marks will be awarded for your ability to be ‘convincing’ and offer ‘viable’ and ‘appropriate’ solutions to the issues you had previously recognised in the case analysis. 

Summary

Between 50 and 100 words.  

A summary that refers to all the key issues that were identified consistently in each of the previous sections, in an orderly and clear way so that the reader can appreciate the overall nature of the case without having read the whole study.

References

Provide a list of references included in the report in APA Referencing style. 

Presentation of your submission

Your submission should be presented in a formal script e.g. Arial, or Times New Roman, size 11.  Your writing must be 1.5. line spacing. there should be a line space between each paragraph. 

Heading and sub-headings should be in an emphasised font (bold or underlined and larger size).

 Margins should be at least 2cm, preferably ‘normal’ 2.54cm top, bottom, left and right. Pages should be numbered.

Reference List

Following the APA (7^th edition) all citations should be double line spaced and have a hanging indent in a Reference List. A “hanging indent” means that each subsequent line after the first line of your citation should be indented by 0.5 inches.