1 Southern Water discharging sewage

Assessment Brief 

The Task

Your assessment will take the form of a 3,000 word (you are allowed to go over by 10% making it a maximum of 3,300 words) submission consisting of three parts in total.

You will be expected to show that you understand the importance of individual and organisational ethical thinking and practice and that you can apply ethical decision making. You will also need to show that you can think critically about the role of business in society. Further, you will need to show that you have understand the way in which theory can underpin how ethical issues are viewed, but also that you understand that theory offers a guide but not necessarily the answer to practice. The assessment also requires you to show that you have reflected on what makes an ethical leader and manager and what that means in the context of organisational culture.

An extensive rubric is provided which will show you how the work is marked and what is required to achieve high marks.

Your assessment into two parts with part 1 being further split into two. Read the requirements below and attempt all three parts. You will submit all three parts together in the same submission.

You should look at the following cases of businesses that have attracted attention due to some aspect of practice – each will be outlined in a separate case brief on Moodle. You should choose the ONE of these that interests you and complete the following:

Part 1

a)     You are required to write a brief report for senior managers at the case of your choosing. This report is written from the perspective of a manager tasked to outline the ethical nature of the case. You will need to explore a number of factors including - Why should this be explored as an ethical question? How might the company want to think about the role of business in society? You will also need to outline who the key stakeholders are and in what way they are affected. You should include research into examples of how ethical choices impact on other companies (e.g where is there research that shows good choices benefit companies and bad choices have a negative impact?). Finally you should conclude with some recommendations for what the company should do

This part of your assessment should be written as a report, but should be referenced in the normal academic way using Harvard citations and referencing.

b)     For this part you should again use your chosen case study – but this time choose TWO ethical theories and demonstrate that you can apply these to the case to show how your chosen theories lead you to a view on the ethics of the case. You should choose theories we have explored in class, but if you have chosen to research a different ethical tradition, for example Islamic ethics, you may use that; it would be useful if you confirm with your tutor if you wish to use an idea not fully covered in class.

Your choices for cases are:

1. Southern Water discharging sewage
2. The hotel industry and how it deals with forms of exploitation
3. Ocado underpaying delivery drivers
4. British Gas firing and rehiring

Each of these is on moodle and is linked to an article and background material related to the story.

Part 2

Part 2 is NOT related to the case study. This section requires you to discuss what makes an ethical leader and how you would, as an ethical manager, manage your business and/or others to a high ethical standard.

You will need to think about personal ethics, about the conditions that bring about unethical organisations and practices, about organisational values and methods of compliance. This part can be written in a more reflective style

Submission via Moodle

Resit assignment details

Resit submission date: TBC

For students who are offered a resit you are required to improve and resubmit your original work as well as adding a further reflective commentary discussing what you have learned from the process. You must resubmit your work using the specific resit Turnitin link on Moodle.

You should:

1. Review your previously submitted work and read carefully the feedback given by the marker.

2. Use this feedback to help you revisit and rewrite your work, improving it in the areas identified as weak in the original marking process

3. Include with your resubmission an additional reflective piece (500 words) on what you understand was weak, how you set about addressing this and what you have learned from this that may help you with further assignments. You should address the following specifically:

i) Identify tutor feedback points on your original work and identify where/how the resit work has changed (give page number) in response to feedback

ii) Identify the lessons you have learnt from doing the resit

iii) Reflect on how your feedback and this process will help you improve future assignments

If you did not submit work at the first opportunity you cannot reflect on your feedback. However, you are still required to submit a reflective piece in which you identify your reasons for non-submission, the implications of non-submission for your future success and how you propose to address this in the future.

If you were deferred at the first assessment opportunity you do not need to include the reflective piece as this is a first submission at a later date, not a resit.

The original marking criteria will still apply (see marking grid provided above*) except that the 10% weighting for presentation will be awarded instead to your reflective piece.

*this refers to your marking grid included in your assessment brief

How will we support you with your assessment?

• Assessment briefing Week 1 (lecture).
• Assessment guidance document and detailed rubric provided
• Dedicated seminar session to making sure the brief is clear and on your formative assessment in Week 4.
• In Week 6, feedback session on your formative assessment in the seminar session to support the development of your summative assessment.
• Tutorial session to support the completion of your summative assessment in Week 11.
• Each of your seminar turs has office/academic guidance hours advertised on their email sigh off and at their office door – you can make use of these office hours to talk through your ideas and progress as you develop your work.

How will your work be assessed?

Your work will be assessed by a subject expert who will use the marking grid provided in this assessment brief.  When you access your marked work it is important that you reflect on the feedback so that you can use it to improve future assignments.

Referencing

You MUST use the Harvard System.  The Harvard system is very easy to use once you become familiar with it.

Assignment submissions

The Business School requires a digital version of all assignment submissions.  These must be submitted via Turnitin on the module’s Moodle site.  They must be submitted as a Word file (not as a pdf) and must not include scanned in text or text boxes.  They must be submitted by 2pm on the given date.  For further general details on coursework preparation refer to the online information via StudentZone http://studentzone.roehampton.ac.uk/howtostudy/index.html. 

Mitigating circumstances/what to do if you cannot submit a piece of work or attend your presentation

The University Mitigating Circumstances Policy can be found on the University website - Mitigating  Circumstances Policy.

Marking and feedback process

Between you handing in your work and then receiving your feedback and marks within 20 days, there are a number of quality assurance processes that we go through to ensure that students receive marks which reflects their work. A brief summary is provided below.

• Step One – The module and marking team meet to agree standards, expectations and how feedback will be provided.
• Step Two – A subject expert will mark your work using the criteria provided in the assessment brief.
• Step Three – A moderation meeting takes place where all members of the teaching and marking team will review the marking of others to confirm whether they agree with the mark and feedback.
• Step Four – Work at Levels 5 and 6 then goes to an external examiner who will review a sample of work to confirm that the marking between different staff is consistent and fair.
• Step Five – Your mark and feedback is processed by the Office and made available to you.