You are required to investigate and examine aspects of planning and organisational structure for a 'real-life' organisation. This assessment enables you to relate the theories and concepts from the module directly to the operation of organisations in reality.

Your choice of organisation will be critical in completing your project and so will an early start! Greater credit will be given to submissions that focus on an indigenous Irish organisation due to the greater difficulty in getting these examples.

Your information will have been gained from somewhere and you should identify your sources of information in a Bibliography. Marks will be given to the identification of your sources, and more marks will be given where academic referencing skills are used correctly.

Marks will also be awarded for the visual presentation of your submission and the correct use of language. Specifically you are required to complete the following tasks:

1.   The Organisational Mission

• Identify the Mission of your chosen organisation.
• State the criteria for an effective organisational mission and assess whether the organisational mission satisfies each criterion.
  

2.   Environmental Analysis

• Complete a PEST analysis for your organisation
• Complete a SWOT analysis for your organisation
• For both the SWOT and the PEST you should attempt to identify between THREE and FIVE of the most important issues for each heading.
• The SWOT and PEST will identify the most important points, but not explain them. After completing the SWOT and PEST documents you should BRIEFLY explain why the points listed are the most important.

3.   Organisational Strategy

• Identify and explain the strategy that the organisation is pursuing.
• Give an example(s) of the organisation following this strategy.
• Explain the benefits of following this strategy.
• Explain the potential problems of the organisation following this strategy.
• Identify and explain the strategy that the organisation's competitors are following.
• Give an example(s) of the organisation's competitors following this strategy.

4.   Organisational Structure

• Illustrate the structure of the organisation with an Organisational Chart / Diagram
• Describe the features of the organisation's structure.
• Explain the benefits of the organisation being structured in this way.
• Explain the potential problems and issues of the organisation being structured in this way.