3CO01 Business Culture and Change in Context

Learner Assessment Brief

3CO01 Business Culture and Change in Context

This unit assignment considers the impact of external influences and how the digital and commercial environment shapes businesses and the culture within which they operate. It considers the importance of people’s behaviour on organisational culture and its ability to manage change effectively.

CIPD’s insight

Organisational culture is an important concept for the people profession. The work of HR, L&D and OD influences and is influenced by organisational culture because every organisation is made up of human relationships and human interactions. Culture is therefore central to the role of the profession and must be managed and developed accordingly. Application of an analysis tool (such as PESTLE) to examine the key external forces impacting or likely to impact an organisation’s activities.

This factsheet explores the importance of creating an organisational culture that supports policies and practices aimed at making positive change. It outlines some common measures used to describe organisational culture, before highlighting why it’s a topic of significant interest to the wider business community and associated professions. Finally, the factsheet considers cultural change and its challenges.

One of HR’s fundamental roles is organising and coordinating the workforce to deliver value and success. HR systems and processes are part of this, but on their own are not enough for an organisation to make real progress. Taking diversity and inclusion as an example, research indicates that an organisation which fails to value difference, or enables some groups but not others to progress, is unlikely to see positive chan.ge, despite having policies in place. Workplace norms, values and behaviours, traditions, perspectives, and beliefs of individuals are also crucial. It is these shared characteristics among people within the same organisation that create its organisational culture.

https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/culture/working-environment/organisation-culture-change-factsheet

PESTLE and SWOT Analysis tools

Discover what PESTLE and SWOT mean and use our analysis templates and examples to understand the external influences on your organisation. 1.1 Examine the key external influences that impact on business environments.

https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/strategy/organisational-development/pestle-analysis-factsheet#8000

https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/strategy/organisational-development/swot-analysis-factsheet

Case study

You work in the HR Team of a medium sized organisation and are studying for your people practice qualification. In a recent discussion with your manager, you expressed how important you thought it was for employees to understand the organisation’s business environment. You feel this is especially important for people practice professionals as their roles impact on the policies, processes and values of the organisation, which in turn impact on all the people within the organisation.

Inspired by this discussion, your manager has asked you to help prepare for the team’s next development day. A team-based learning needs analysis has shown that as well as more knowledge about the business environment, the team would benefit from a deeper understanding of organisational culture and how humans behave in organisations. The team would also like to build their knowledge and skills in relation to change management.

Preparation for the Tasks:

• Spend time planning your answer. You should attend the Assessment Q&A session if you have any questions about the assessment tasks.
• Refer to the indicative content in the unit to guide and support your evidence.
• Pay attention to how your evidence is presented, remember you are working in the People Practice Team.
• Ensure that the evidence generated for this assessment remains your own work.

You will also benefit from:

• Reflecting on your own experiences of learning opportunities and continuing professional development.
• Reading the CIPD Insight, Fact Sheets and related online materials on these topics.

Don’t forget to:

• Complete the front cover sheet and place at the front of your assessment.
• Use the bullet points below each task as headings and sub-headings so your marker can see where your answer begins

Task One – Slide Deck for Team Day - 3CO01 Business Culture and Change in Context

Your manager has asked you to prepare a presentation (slide deck and brief presenter notes) in readiness for delivery to the HR Team at the next Team day. The aim of the presentation, entitled ‘The Business Environment’ is for team members to gain a general understanding of their organisation’s business environment and the key issues that can affect this.

Your presentation (which you are not required to deliver) can be based on your own organisation or one(s) that you are familiar with, and should include the following:

• Application of an analysis tool (such as PESTLE) to examine the key external forces impacting or likely to impact an organisation’s activities. (AC 1.1)
• An explanation of an organisation’s business goals and why it is important for organisations to plan for how they will achieve these. Your explanation should include examples of planning, such as how a business has been structured or specific policies introduced or people practices followed, in order for business goals to be achieved. (AC 1.2)
• An explanation of an organisation’s products and/or services and main customers. (AC 1.3)
• A short review of different technologies available to people professionals and how these can be used to improve working practices and collaboration. You might consider for example, technologies relating to communications, information sharing, record keeping, learning, wellbeing, productivity or security. (AC 1.4)

Task Two – Guidance Leaflet

In line with the team’s learning need analysis and knowing that they will be required to support a number of change initiatives soon, your manager has also asked you to prepare a guidance leaflet for the team. The guidance leaflet should cover two main themes and include examples to ‘bring the information to life’. The two themes are:

1) information about organisational culture and how people behave in organisations

2) guidance about the impact of change and how organisational change can most effectively be managed.

Your guidance leaflet should explain:

• What is meant by workplace (organisation) culture (AC 2.1)
• Why it is important to foster an appropriate and effective workplace culture. (AC 2.1)
• How organisations are whole systems in which different areas and aspects such as structure, systems and culture, are all inter-related. (AC 2.2)
• An example of how good people practice, and an example of how bad people practice can impact other parts of the organisation or beyond the organisation (for example through developing new and better ways of doing things or through poor practice stimulating new legislation). (AC 2.2)
• How individuals may learn and develop in different ways in organisations and how this might be accommodated in assessing and developing skills and capabilities. (AC 2.3)
• Why it is important for an organisation’s business that change is predicted, planned and effectively managed. (AC 3.1)
• The nature and importance of different roles that can be played by people practice professionals, in relation to change agendas. You might consider roles such as: gatekeeper, champion, facilitator, critical friend or record-keeper. (AC 3.2)
• How change can impact people in organisations, such as changing their role or status or financial situation, and the different ways people may respond to change. (AC 3.3)

Assessment Criteria Evidence Checklist

Use the following as checklists to make sure that you have included the required evidence to meet each task.

Assessment Grading - 3CO01 Business Culture and Change in Context

The grid below shows the range of results you could achieve based on total number of marks awarded across all assessment criteria.

To pass the unit assessment you must achieve a 2 (Low Pass) or above for each of the assessment criteria.

The overall result achieved will dictate the outcome you receive for the unit, provided

NONE of the assessment criteria have been failed or referred.