How to Succeed in Assignment #1 #1: Follow all of the instructions! #2: It’s okay to quote the mission/ vision/ purpose of the organization, but it is important to connect those statements with the organization’s goals. #3: Similar to hint #2, it’s okay to quote the values of the organization, but they should be connected in some way to the purpose of the organization. #4: If you choose not to adopt one or more of the organization’s values, explain why you wouldn’t adopt them. 1stperson okay for this item only, but keep it professional –your audience is employees as well as funders. #5: The balanced scorecard section should be more than statistics and figures, there should be some explanation of what the numbers mean. The objective of this assignment is to emphasize the importance of an organization’s culture – its mission, vision and values – while learning how these are translated into organizational actions. Choose an organization that you are interested in for this assignment. It may be your current employer, an organization that you admire, an organization that you would like to work for – it doesn’t matter why you choose the organization, EXCEPT THE ORGANIZATION MUST NOT BE ON THE “DO NOT USE” LIST AT THE END OF THIS ASSIGNMENT. For your chosen organization: • Briefly summarize the organization’s mission/vision/purpose. What is the organization attempting to do?
• Briefly summarize the organization’s values. What principles guide the organization in how its mission is accomplished? • Give two examples of how the organization has demonstrated its values. • Suppose you are the founder of a small technology company. Which of the organization’s values would you adopt? Why? If you would not adopt any of them, why not? Be sure to address all of the organization’s values. • Kaplan and Norton (required reading assignment) propose that a balance scorecard consists of four perspectives: Financial, Internal, Customer, and Innovation & Learning. For your organization, identify one performance measure from each perspective. You may need to speculate on measures based on management actions. Good sources of information would be Annual Reports, quarterly investor updates, any facts, figures or financial reports. Be sure to cite the source for the measure. Additional requirements for IEE541: • For your chosen organization: Review recent news reports and identify a new product or service, a technology development or innovation, a new customer or market (best source: organization web site “News” “Press Releases” or similar). How does this new “item” align with the organization’s mission, vision and/or values? Is there confirmation or contradiction? Does it appear to enhance a core competency, build on a strategic advantage or address a strategic challenge?
• Identify a competitor of your chosen organization. “Competitor” means another organization in the same industry or line of work, not another organization in the table. You cannot use another organization on the “do not use” list. Briefly summarize the competitor’s mission/vision/purpose and values. Discuss the similarities and/or differences in the mission/vision/purpose and values of both organizations. Potential sources of information: Find the organization’s web site and look for: “About us,” “Shareholder or Investor Information,” “Who we are,” “Corporate responsibility,” “Corporate citizenship,” “Sustainability,” “Ethics, Corporate culture” or similar. Be sure to use cite information sources and to include those sources on a list of references. You will submit your completed assignment via a Canvas assignment, which checks submissions for plagiarism potential. You cannot re-use work that was submitted for another class. DO NOT USE AN ORGANIZATION ON THE LIST AT THE END OF THIS ASSIGNMENT FOR EITHER YOUR CHOSEN ORGANIZATION OR COMPETITOR ORGANIZATION (IEE541 only). If you use an organization on the list, 50 points will be deducted, and the remaining requirements will be graded at 50%. • Use appropriate grammar, spelling, and punctuation. • Utilize a writing style that is appropriate for a technical paper. No first person narratives! It is also not sufficient to simply provide a bulleted list of answers to the requirements. • Write in your own words; do not simply “copy & paste” from your references. This is the #1 area for deducted points because of lack of original thought, not plagiarism. It is not sufficient to simply copy information from a web site – you must provide context and interpretation. • You must cite your sources of information in an appropriate format. This is the #2 area for deducted points due to plagiarism – and this is also an Academic Integrity violation.
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