Reference no: EM131468791

Essay instructions

The meaning of effectiveness

Consider this question - which university is more effective - Melbourne or Sydney?

On the face of it, this question cannot be answered in a meaningful way - the answer depends on the criteria you use to evaluate effectiveness. And, the choice of criteria places boundaries around the concept of effectiveness and gives it specific meaning.
For this assignment, we would like you to think about an organisation that you have a significant interaction with. It may be your workplace, the University, a hospital or other service provider. Provide a response to the following questions:
- What is the purpose of the organisation? What is the scope of its operations?
- From your perspective, what criteria would use to evaluate the effectiveness of this organisation? Justify your selection of the criteria.
- Now consider the criteria that two other stakeholder groups of the organisation might use of evaluate its effectiveness. Stakeholder groups may include the owners, employees, customers, creditors, community, suppliers or the Government.
- What do you conclude from this this analysis of effectiveness from the perspective of different stakeholders? What are the implications for the development of a coherent approach to organisational effectiveness?
Detailed instructions
A reflective piece should be a personal response to new information, which is shaped by your own experiences. Reflective thinking involves the processing of information, where thinking and learning takes place. It involves considering how and why you think the way you do, and an examination of your beliefs, values, attitudes and assumptions that form the foundations of your understanding. In your reflective essay, you can discuss:
- your perceptions of the term 'effectiveness'
- experiences, ideas and observations that you have had in response to the ideas explored in the subject
- what you found confusing, interesting, difficult or inspiring, and why
- unanswered questions
- comparisons and connections between what you are learning and your experiences or preconceptions
- how new ideas challenge what you already know
- your speculations or hypotheses.
In this essay, the reflective component will be mostly subjective. You can comment based on your experiences, rather than limiting your discussions to academic evidence. A reflective essay allows you to use different modes of writing and language, including:
- descriptive (outlining what something is or how it is done)
- explanatory (explaining the why or how)
- expressive (I think or I believe)

Where you discuss the work of others, sources should be referenced.

You may find this resource on Essay Writing helpful.

Make sure you cite and correctly reference your sources, using the Academy of Management referencing style. To site discussion forum posts from fellow students, use format detailed below.

Citing discussion forum posts
In text:

Use the Academy of Management style, for example: "As stated by McNeil (2016a), a good suggestion would be to always cite where original ideas came from."