Choice of Subject Company:
Choose one - and only one - of the following high profile,
(i.e. widely covered in the media, financial press and daily newspapers)
Canadian companies.
Hudsons Bay Company Limited
Research in Motion
Westjet
Inco
Dofasco
Report Topic:
You must describe and analyse a recent (i.e. within
the past 2-3 years) development or initiative which the company has
undertaken, or which has occurred to the company, and which has affected
or is intended to affect, or is likely to affect one of the following:
The way it manages, motivates, or compensates its human resources;
The business’ productivity;
The quality of the business’ products or services;
Any ethical issues facing management;
The business’ financial strength or stability;
The business’ revenues or sales;
The business’ profitability.
REPORT SPECIFICATIONS
Binding: Do not
bind your report in any plastic, cardboard or solid cover. Binding
only adds weight and bulk to your report and makes it more cumbersome
to mark. We want to be able to see your cover page.
Please secure your cover page with 2 staples in the top left hand
corner
Cover Page: The cover page must clearly show, in
reasonably large (e.g. size 16 or 18) font:
Your name,
Your student number,
An e-mail address where you can be reached
The topic/title of your assignment.
Place this information in the top quarter of your
cover page (so it’s readily visible in a pile).
Length - The body of the report
must be 1,700 - 2,000 words more or less (roughly 8 pages of double
spaced text), in length. In format, it must be typewritten and double
spaced, for ease of marking. The margins of each page of the paper
must be 1.25 ins. wide, to allow space for the marker to make comments.
The type font must not be less than 12 points or more than 14 points.
Include any tables and graphs, if appropriate, in the body
of the report – not as appendices.
Bibliography and Information Harvesting
We want you not just to report on
events and developments but to interpret and analyse
what you have read.
We expect you to scan newspapers and
business magazines for recent press items about the company. Gather
information from any authoritative source that is available to you.
Obviously, begin with the Company's web-site and Annual Reports. However,
these have been written by Management, in order to paint themselves
in the best possible light. Therefore, be cautious
and objectively critical of these. Try the TSX 300 listing for the name
and type of company. Or, “Google” the name of the chosen
company. Wikipedia is NOT considered a credible and
accurate resource.
If you use only the Company's web-site and/or Annual
Report you will be doing the MINIMUM necessary background
reading, and will receive appropriate (i.e minimum) credit.
Where you quote from a newspaper, journal or magazine
article, or from a web-site, you must cite your source.
Please cite your source in the form of a footnote (i.e.
the complete citation at the bottom of the page) so that the reader
does not have to flip to the back of your paper or guess where you obtained
your information or data.
Cutting and pasting large swathes of information -
from any source, no matter how authoritative - is considered to be plagiarism.
Your source must be for background information, your assignemtn
must show original critical trhinking.
Add your bibliography to the end of the paper.
Note Regarding Specifications
Any material deviation from the above specifications
regarding: binding, layout of cover page, placement of tables or graphs,
and use of footnotes; will result in the paper being penalised.
We expect that 1700 - 2000 words should be adequate
to cover the requirements of the assignment. Ensure that your assignment
is long enough to be good, but short enough to be interesting.
Report Requirements
The report must address, at the least, the following:
Introduction: You must provide a background
overview of the business, identifying it by name, location, industry
and product line. As well you should provide some contextual information
relating to the size and scale of its operations (e.g. number of employees,
$ volume of sales, $ volume of profits).
Background and Overview: Provide a
history or a summary of the events, developments or trends about which
you are reporting. What has happened that is having an impact on the
company? When did it happen? Where? If the event or development was
initiated by the company, why is it happening? If the event or development
has occurred to the company as a result of outside forces (politics,
global economics, the actions of customers, suppliers or competitors)
describe these.
Analysis: Use empirical information
(drop in sales, increase in profits, loss of market share, change in
share price, layoff of employees, increase in employee productivity)
to answer the following questions: Which stakeholder groups (employees,
suppliers, customers, competitors, shareholders) were most affected
by these developments? Is the development you are describing good or
bad for the company or its employees in the short and long runs? What
are the financial costs or benefits, if any, involved? What other costs
or benefits are intended/expected to occur?
Conclusion: Provide a firm conclusion
as to whether you believe that this is a good or bad development from
the point of view of key stakeholder groups. Do you think that management
has coped/is coping badly or well? How will the situation ultimately
resolve itself? Support any conclusions you draw by referring to empirical
evidence, or the well-informed opinions of knowledgeable or well-placed
observers. To receive better than an average mark, you must demonstrate
that you understand the business, its environment, and that you are
developing an informed view as to what is happening to it.
Submission Date: Your completed Assignment
is due in class, at the beginning of class on Monday,
10 July, 2006.
Late submissions will not be accepted
and students will be awarded a mark of zero for this
paper.
Value of the Assignment and Marking Criteria
This Assignment is worth 10% of the final grade of
this course.
| Quality of Reading list and research |
20% |
| Analysis of quantitative information |
20% |
| Discussion and analysis |
20% |
| Overall impression |
20% |
| Spelling, syntax, grammar, style |
20% |
| TOTAL |
100% |
Assignment Grading
The Assignment will be marked by the MGTA02 Teaching Assistant(s).
This should take approximately 2 weeks. We will attempt to return your
essay to you in class on Monday, 24 July. If you happen to miss the
Monday class, we will also return them to you on Wednesday, 26 July.
Please do not e-mail your Professor asking when the essays will be
returned. We do our best to turn them around as quickly as we reasonably
can.
Assignment Regrading Policy and Procedures
Your Essays have been marked by the
MGTA02 course Teaching Assistants, using marking guidelines devised
by the course Professors. We discuss our expectations, as well as the
likely range, mean and median of marks, with the TAs.
MGTA02 Teaching Assistants are fellow
UTSC Management Students, each of whom has 1 – 3 years experience
marking essays, assignments, tests and exams. They are trusted and reliable
employees of the Department of Management. In order for a student to
become Teaching Assistant for MGTA02, a student must have received a
minimum grade of 90% on each of MGTA03 and MGTA04, and will have a minimum
cumulative Grade Point Average of 3.5. They are knowledgeable, bright
and well-informed about business.
Once the Assignments are marked, they
are returned to me. I then review a sample, including those papers which
occupy the extreme ends of the range.
Re-grading Policy and Procedures
If, after looking over the written comments
of the marker, and the marks you have received, you feel that your work
deserves re-consideration, you must observe the following
procedures:
Place your re-grading requests with
Professor Bovaird by handing it to him, in class, during
the week which of Monday, 31 July. You may submit it to Professor Bovaird
during either the Monday or Wednesday,
Augist 2nd class.
No re-grading requests will
be considered either before or after that time. Requests for
re-consideration prior to that time suggests you have not taken the
time to read or reflect upon the marker’s comments. Requests for
re-grading after that time suggests you really don’t care, and
are merely “trying it on".
Create a typed note
containing the following: (i) Your name, (ii) Your Student Number, (iii)
Your preferred e-mail address, (iv) The criteria against which you believe
you have been graded incorrectly, and (v) An explanation of why the
marker has overlooked or misunderstood your essay's merits, or has re-acted
too severely to your essay' shortcomings.
Hand written submissions will not
be considered, it shows a lack of serious intent.
Re-grading will be based only on what
you submit in writing, not what you might tell me in
person.
The entire written
material will be re-graded.. Re-grading means that your essay will be
re-evaluated and a new grade may be assigned. This means that it
is possible to lose marks as well as to gain marks through re-grading.
Please do not submit
your materials for re-grading unless you are confident that a grading
error occurred. Keep in mind that the re-grade is meant for mistakes
in grading.
Statements to the effect that you devoted
“a lot of time” or “a great deal of effort”
to the essay are irrelevant. It is expected
that you put a lot of time and effort into the essay. However, intensive
input does not necessarily guarantee satisfactory output.
Statements about your grades on other courses or your
grades in high school are irrelevant.
Statement about the grade you were "expecting",
"hoped to get", or "need to get" are irrelevant.
Finally, you are firmly advised that:
Any suggestion of incompetence, or lack of effort on the part
of the Teaching Assistant will not be tolerated.
Your re-graded essay should be available
to you at the final exam - in mid to late August.
C H Bovaird
May, 2006