Organisational Best Practice

Subject Title  : Organisational Best Practice

Subject Code : MGMT6014

Assessment    : Benchmarking Exercise


 context:

Benchmarking is the process by which organisations measure themselves against their competitors. There are different types and forms of benchmarking, different purposes, different measures and different outcomes. This assessment asks you to demonstrate your understanding of benchmarking by providing a benchmarking analysis of an organisation of your choice against its competitors or lead competitor in the field (depending on the form of benchmarking you choose to undertake).

Instructions:

Select an organisation and undertake a benchmarking exercise to conclude as to the positioning of the organisation against its competitors in its industry. Your report should outline the following elements:

1.     Criteria and justification for selection of benchmarks.

2.     The benchmark measures themselves and interpretation of the results.

3.     Recommendations for action stemming from the benchmarking data.

Output/deliverables and parameters of the assessment:

You should submit a report for the attention of the CEO/Managing Director of the organisation of your choice, which should be no more than 12 pages in length, including references and appendices, and should include a minimum of 4 benchmark measures in the discussion.

Marking Criteria

•         Selection of appropriate benchmarks, measures and data for the organisation and its strategic goals and competitor positioning.

•         Appropriate analysis of benchmarking data supporting the conclusions being drawn.

•         Critical reasoning skills, including ethical and moral consideration.

•         Presentation of the report including referencing and use of appendices, and use of academic conventions.

•         Effective communication of the benefits of benchmarking to the organisation through the presentation of recommendations for future action.

Learning Outcomes

•         Examine the role of best practice and its relationship to organisational competitiveness and develop an effective plan for benchmarking best practice which can practically be applied to an organisation.

•         Evaluate organisational performance against best practice benchmarks and apply these benchmarks to establish organisational improvements.

•         Critically analyse the role of qualitative and quantitative tools which support the improvement of key processes in an organisation.

•         Critically evaluate organisational culture, team structures and the effective management of human resources and how these can contribute to the achievement of organisational best practices.

Learning Rubrics

	Assessment			Fail (Unacceptable)			Pass	Credit	Distinction	High Distinction
	Attributes						(Functional)	(Proficient)	(Advanced)	(Exceptional)
Grade Description				Evidence of unsatisfactory			Evidence of	Evidence of a good	Evidence of a high	Evidence of an
(Grading Scheme)				achievement of one or more of the			satisfactory	level of	level of	exceptional level of
				learning objectives of the course,			achievement of	understanding,	achievement of	achievement of
				insufficient understanding of the			course learning	knowledge and skill	the learning	learning objectives
				course content and/or unsatisfactory			objectives, the	development in	objectives of the	across the entire
				level of skill development.			development of	relation to the	course	content of the
							relevant skills to a	content of the course	demonstrated in	course
							competent level, and	or work of a superior	such areas as	demonstrated in
							adequate	quality on the	interpretation	such areas as
							interpretation and	majority of the	and critical	interpretation and
							critical analysis skills.	learning objectives of	analysis, logical	critical analysis,
								the course.	argument, use of	logical argument,
								Demonstration of a	methodology and	creativity, originality,
								high level of	communication	use of methodology
								interpretation and	skills.	and communication
								critical analysis skills.		skills.
Selection of				Does not meet minimum standard			Meets minimum	Moves beyond	Exceeds minimum	Exceeds minimum
appropriate							standard	minimum standard	standard	standard and
benchmarks,				Demonstrates no awareness of						exhibits high levels
measures and data				context and/or purpose of the			Demonstrates limited	Demonstrates	Demonstrates an	of independence
for the organisation				assignment.			awareness of context	consistent awareness	advanced and
and its strategic							and/or purpose of the	of context and/or	integrated	Consistently
goals and							assignment	purpose of the	understanding of	demonstrates a
competitor								assignment.	context and/or	systematic and
positioning.									purpose of the	critical
									assignment.	understanding of
25%										context and purpose
										of the assignment.

Appropriate analysis	Limited understanding of required	Knowledge or	Thorough knowledge	Highly developed	A sophisticated
of benchmarking	concepts and knowledge	understanding of the	or understanding of	understanding of	understanding of the
data supporting the		field or discipline.	the field or	the field or	field or discipline/s.
conclusions being	Key components of the assignment		discipline/s. Supports	discipline/s.
drawn.	are not addressed.	Resembles a recall or summary off key ideas.	personal opinion and		Systematically and
			information	Discriminates	critically
			substantiated by	between	discriminates
25%		Often	evidence from the	assertion of	between assertion of
		conflates/confuses	research/course	personal opinion	personal opinion and
		assertion of personal	materials.	and information	information
		opinion with		substantiated by	substantiated by
		information	Demonstrates a	robust evidence	robust evidence
		substantiated by	capacity to explain	from the	from the
		evidence from the	and apply relevant	research/course	research/course
		research/course	concepts.	materials and	materials and
		materials.		extended reading.	extended reading.
				Well	Mastery of concepts
				demonstrated	and application to
				capacity to	new
				explain and apply	situations/further
				relevant	learning.
				concepts.
Critical reasoning	Specific position (perspective or	Specific position	Specific position	Specific position	Specific position
skills, including	argument) fails to take into account	(perspective or	(perspective or	(perspective or	(perspective or
ethical and moral	the complexities of the issue(s) or	argument) begins to	argument) takes into	argument) is	argument) is
consideration.	scope of the assignment.	take into account the	account the	expertly	presented expertly,
		Issue (s) or scope of	complexities of the	presented and	authoritatively and

20%	Makes assertions that are not	the assignment.	issue(s) or scope of	accurately takes	imaginatively,
	justified.		the assignment.	into account the	accurately taking
		Justifies any	Others’ points of view	complexities of	into account the
	Difficulty in formulating own opinion	conclusions reached	are acknowledged.	the issue(s) and	complexities of the
	and lack of recognition of ethical	with arguments not		scope of the	issue(s) and scope of
	principles and competing interests.	merely assertion.	Justifies any	assignment.	the assignment.
			conclusions reached		Limits of position are
	Does not clearly demonstrate moral-	Difficulty in justifying	with well-formed	Justifies any	acknowledged.
	ethical reasoning.	conclusions based on	arguments not merely	conclusions
		moral-ethical	assertion.	reached with	Justifies any
		principles but		well-developed	conclusions reached
		recognises different	Conclusions are	arguments.	with sophisticated
		Viewpoints.	justified based on	Formulates and	arguments.
			moral-ethical
			principles.	justifies	Uses ethical
				conclusions based	principles to identify
				on moral-ethical	competing interests
				principles.	and views.
				Can recognise the	Sophisticated
				competing	understanding of the
				interests in	ethical and moral
				arguments and	positions.
				identify ethical
				issues embodied	Well-articulated
				in them.	viewpoint based on
					moral-ethical
					reasoning.
Presentation of the	Poorly written with errors in spelling,	Is     written according to	Is well-written and	Is very well-	Expertly written and
report including	grammar.	academic genre (e.g.	adheres to the	written and	adheres to the
referencing and use		with introduction,	academic genre (e.g.	adheres to the	academic genre.
of appendices, and	Demonstrates inconsistent use of	conclusion or	with introduction,	Academic genre.

use of academic	good quality, credible and relevant	summary) and has	conclusion or		Demonstrates expert
conventions.	research sources to support and	accurate spelling,	summary).	Consistently	use of high-quality,
	develop ideas.	grammar, sentence		demonstrates	credible and relevant
		and paragraph	Demonstrates	expert use of	research sources to
10%	There are mistakes in using the APA	construction.	consistent use of high	good quality,	support and develop
	style.		quality, credible and	credible and	arguments and
		Demonstrates	relevant research	relevant research	position statements.
		consistent use of	sources to support	sources to	Shows extensive
		credible and relevant	and develop ideas.	support and	evidence of reading
		research sources to		develop	beyond the key
		support and develop	There are no mistakes	appropriate	reading
		ideas, but these are	in using the APA style.	arguments and
		not always explicit or		statements.	There are no
		well developed.		Shows evidence	mistakes in using the
				of reading beyond	APA Style.
		There are no mistakes		the key reading
		in using the APA style.		There are no
				mistakes in using
				the APA style.
Effective	Difficult to understand for audience,	Information,	Information,	Information,	Expertly presented;
communication of	no logical/clear structure, poor flow	arguments and	arguments and	arguments and	the presentation is
the benefits of	of ideas, argument lacks supporting	evidence are	evidence are well	evidence are very	logical, persuasive,
benchmarking to the	evidence.	presented in a way	presented, mostly	well presented,	and well supported
organisation through		that is not always	clear flow of ideas	the presentation	by evidence,
the presentation of	No effort is made to keep audience	clear and logical.	and arguments.	is logical, clear	demonstrating a
recommendations	engaged, audience cannot follow the			and well	clear flow of ideas
for future action.	line of reasoning.	Attempts are made to	The audience is	supported by	and arguments.
		keep the audience	mostly engaged, line	evidence.
20%	Little use of presentation aids, or the	engaged, but not	of reasoning is easy to		Engages and sustains
	presentation aids and material used	always successful.	follow.	Engages the	audience’s interest
	are irrelevant.	Line of reasoning is		audience,	in the topic,

		often difficult to	Effective use of	demonstrates	demonstrates high
		follow.	presentation aids.	cultural	levels of cultural
		Presentation aids are		sensitivity.	sensitivity
		used more for effect		Carefully and well	Effective use of
		than relevance.		prepared	diverse presentation
				presentations aids	aids, including
				are used.	graphics and multi-
					media.