VALID THRU: 04-May-2025

Assignment Briefs 03-29-2025

Examine and investigate the strategic and operational importance of change for EDL

MG630 Change Management and Organisational Development

Module code and title:	MG630 Change Management and Organisational Development	Module leader:
Assignment No. and type:	PR1: 10-Minute (Individual or Paired) Presentation + 5 minutes for questions	Assessment weighting:	40%
Submission time and date:	Sunday 04th May 2025 before 2.00 pm.	Target feedback time and date:	3 weeks after submission deadline

Note: In case of paired presentations:

Both group members’ names and BNU IDs must be provided on the cover page.
Each member of the group must submit the same document from their own LSST Connect account.
Grade and feedback will not be allocated for any non-submissions from the group members. LO 1: Understand the strategic and operational importance of change in organisations
The final slide of your presentation includes a brief groupwork log detailing specific member responsibilities, activities and participation.

Assignment task 8

CONTEXT

Elegant Delights Ltd. (EDL) is a small regional chain of artisanal dessert shops with its headquarters in Chester. EDL was originally set up by Olivia Green. Its shares are now owned by family and friends of Thomas Green, the current Managing Director. Five other directors manage the company alongside Thomas.

Over a three-year period, EDL has expanded by taking over independent dessert and specialty kitchenware shops in local towns in the North West of England. EDL now has 6 shops including the flagship store in Chester and is aiming to expand to 10 shops.

As part of their ongoing expansion plans, EDL also wants to introduce an online ordering service using a new online software package. This would offer a nationwide delivery service to customers’ homes. This service would initially run from EDL’s headquarters in Chester but with plans to expand into a new manufacturing unit.

The expansion through acquisitions and the introduction of the online dessert ordering service will result in restructuring changes within EDL. These would include:

The introduction of one regional manager based in the Chester shop.
A reduction in the number of shop manager roles.
A reduction in the number of shop assistant roles.
An increase in the number of pastry chefs as well as a unit manager for the new manufacturing unit.
An increase in the number of delivery driver roles.
The introduction of an e-commerce team to manage online business.

Each of the other 5 shops now has one shop manager. However, EDL would like to introduce one regional shop manager and have a pastry chef in each store. The Chester shop would continue to have a shop manager. In the smaller shops, the pastry chef will also act as the shop manager and manage any shop assistants.

The proposed restructuring is not popular with the current employees. They feel that the reasons for the change, the need for the reorganisation of staff, and the final staffing structure have been poorly communicated to them.

Thomas Green and his two fellow directors thought that the letters sent to staff and the notices on the staff noticeboards in each shop clearly communicated the reasons for the reorganisation and the new structure that was to be put in place.

However, the restructuring process is causing uncertainty among staff. The staff have also experienced a loss of motivation and a loss of trust in Thomas Green and his fellow directors. There is an increase in voluntary staff turnover including the loss of managers. EDL will also have additional costs associated with the online business expansion which will include:

Recruitment of the e-commerce team and associated IT software.
Training costs for pastry chefs to become shop managers.
Training costs for delivery driver roles.

A number of the staff in current job roles had originally been employed in the shops before the takeover by EDL. Some of these staff are not very flexible and are resistant to any change in their job roles.

Thomas Green is keen to continue to expand and develop the company and has recently refitted part of the Chester shop with a section selling party supplies. This has proven to be a success and Thomas now wants to introduce similar sections into the other shops. This development will impact current job roles and will involve some restructuring.

Thomas is aware of the problems associated with planning change and restructuring and so he has contracted your management consultancy to help with the planning of this change.

This assignment has been designed to provide you with an opportunity to demonstrate your achievement of the following module learning outcomes:

LO 1: Understand the strategic and operational importance of change in organisations.

LO 2: Critically evaluate change management theory, strategies and tactical options including organisation development.

Task requirements

You have been hired by EDL to do some work around how the company has been affected by the VUCA environment in which they operate in. Before EDL commissions a report from you (CW1), they wish for you to offer them some insight as to how change management might help them, and what strategies/tactical options are available to see them through this difficult time.

As an Individual or in a Pair, you are to:

Examine and investigate the strategic and operational importance of change for EDL.
Identify, apply and evaluate an appropriate change management model that you would advise EDL to use.
Identify the role that Organisational Development will play in the future success of the business.

Please see Tasks requirements below for further instructions.

Individual or paired presentation (pair: 2 students).
The presentations schedule will be agreed with the lecturer based on the timetable and presentations will be held in class in w. c. TBC
Time allocation: 10 minutes maximum presentation time, 5 minutes allowed for questions.
In the case of paired presentations, both members of the group should participate in the preparation of the presentation and participate on the day of the presentation (non-attendance will be considered as ‘non-submission’). Both members should be familiar with the full contents of the presentation and be ready to answer questions.
Use PowerPoint for your presentation - slides to be uploaded on LSST Connect by each member of the team/group (Slide 1 to include names and student IDs of both group members).
The final slide of your presentation includes a brief groupwork log detailing specific member responsibilities, activities and participation.
It is fine to bring along any notes or further information you might want to refer to support question handling but try to maintain eye contact during the presentation itself.

All presentations must be recorded for moderation purposes. Presentations must be uploaded on your LSST One Drive and the link shared with your Lecturer.

Referencing and research requirements

Please reference your work according to the Harvard style as defined in Cite Them Right Online (http://www.citethemrightonline.com ). This information is also available in book form: Pears, R. and

Shields, G. (2019) Cite them right: the essential reference guide. 11^th ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Copies are available via the University library.

Minimum requirements:

10 references
Mixed academically credible sources for example: Core Textbooks, Journals, News Articles,

Professional Bodies, Professional and Credible Videos, Professional and Credible Podcasts References older than 10 years must be supported by a more recent reference.

How your work will be assessed

Your work will be assessed against the assessment criteria which have been provided at the end of this brief. As this is a group presentation, a record of individual contribution must be submitted as part of the assignment for all members of the group which details the role played in the creation of the assignment and includes a record of all communications engaged with.

These criteria have been designed specifically for this assignment and are intended to measure the extent to which you have demonstrated your achievement of its associated learning outcomes (see above). They have been aligned with the institutional grade descriptor appropriate for your level.

The assessment criteria provide a basis for fair and consistent marking and indicate what is expected of you in this assignment. It is strongly recommended that you engage with them while you are working on the assignment and use them in combination with any feedback you receive once your work has been marked to help you plan for future learning and development.

Submission details
Your presentation will take place at the time and class agreed with your lecturer. Please be sure to check this information carefully, as missing your scheduled time will be considered a non- submission. You are also required to submit your presentation file electronically. Please use the relevant submission point in the Upload My Assignment area on LSST Connect before the time and date specified above. Please ensure that your work has been saved in an appropriate file format. PowerPoint is expected and both individuals (if presenting as a pair) must submit a copy of the file. You can submit your work as many times as you like before the submission date. If you do submit your work more than once, your earlier submission will be replaced by the most recent version. Once you have submitted your work, you will receive a digital receipt as proof of submission, which will be sent to your LSST e-mail address. Please keep this receipt for future reference, along with the original electronic copy of your assignment.
•	You are reminded of the University’s regulations on academic misconduct, which can be viewed on the University website: https://www.bucks.ac.uk/current -students/registry -helpdesk -and -academic -advice/academic -integrity -and -misconduct . In submitting your assignment, you are acknowledging that you have read and understood these regulations.
•	Please also note that work that is submitted up to 10 working days beyond the submission date will be considered a late submission. Late submissions will be marked and the actual mark recorded, but will be capped at the pass mark (typically 40%), provided that the work is of a passing standard. Work submitted after this period will not be marked and will be treated as a non-submission.

Before you submit

Please use the provided checklist below to make sure you are ‘fit to submit’ your work.
We recommend you use this checklist as soon as you get this assignment brief to help you plan your work.

Fit to Submit - Assignment Checklist

This brief assignment checklist is designed to help you avoid some of the most common mistakes students make in their coursework.

Have you read the assignment brief? If not, do so now!

In it you will find details of the assessment task, word count, the assessment criteria your work is marked against, and the learning outcomes – the basis for the assessment strategy in each module.

Students often lose marks by forgetting some of the more straightforward elements of their assignments. We recommend that you “tick off” each of the points below as you prepare your work for submission. If you need any help, ask your tutor and/or visit https://bucks.ac.uk/students/academicadvice/assessment -and -examination

Have you read and understood the assessment criteria?

Have you met the learning outcomes? You will lose marks and your work may even be failed if you have not.

Have you demonstrated you can think and write critically in the completed work? This means you have supported your arguments/explanations appropriately e.g. using relevant academic sources and you have offered discussion points which extends your own or others’ viewpoints to make reasoned conclusions/judgements.

Have you maintained an appropriate tone throughout your work? Is your work formal, focused, developed and clear?

Have you checked that thereferencingin your assignment is in line with your programme requirements?

Have you proof-read your work and used spellcheck software to check your spelling and grammar?

Have you checked the presentation of your work is as specified by your tutor, for example, are font size, colour, style, line spacing and margins as the tutor specified?

Have you kept to the word count (or equivalent)? If you are not sure, check with your tutor

Can you confirm that the work submitted is your own and maintains academic integrity ?

	Fail	Fail	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass
	0-34 (F) – Fail	35-39 E – Marginal fail	40-49 (D)	50-59 (C)	60-69 (B)	70-79 (A)	80-100 (A+)
	Not successful	Below required standard	Satisfactory	Good	Very Good	Excellent	Outstanding
Knowledge and	The work	The work	The work	The work	The work	The work	The work
understanding	demonstrates a	demonstrates	demonstrates a basic	demonstrates a sound	demonstrates a	demonstrates a highly	demonstrates an
30%	limited and/or	insufficient	yet systematic	breadth and depth of	sophisticated and	accomplished	exceptional systematic
	substantially	understanding of key	understanding of key	systematic	critical systematic	systematic	understanding of key
	inaccurate or no	aspects of a VUCA	aspects of a VUCA	understanding of a	understanding of a	understanding of a	aspects of a VUCA
	understanding of key	environment and how	environment and how	VUCA environment and	VUCA environment and	VUCA environment and	environment and how
	aspects of what	and where EDL sits	and where EDL sits	how and where EDL sits	how and where EDL sits	how and where EDL sits	and EDL sits within it.
	constitutes a VUCA	within it. Some	within it. Some	within it. There is some	within it. There are	within it. Excellent	Outstanding
	environment and how	coherent and detailed	coherent and detailed	coherent and detailed	coherent and detailed	identification of change	identification of change
	and where EDL sits	knowledge around	knowledge around	links with change and	links with change and	and organisational	and organisational
	within it.	change and	change and	organisational	organisational	development, and	development, and its
	Examples of coherent	organisational	organisational	development, as well as	development. The	demonstration of its	impact on corporate
	and detailed	development. Passing	development with links	the impact these have	impact on corporate	impact on corporate	strategy and/or tactical
	knowledge around	consideration given to	to the importance of	on corporate strategy	strategy and/or tactical	strategy and/or tactical	options available to
	change and	the importance of	corporate strategy	and/or tactical options	options available to EDL	options available to	EDL. The work is
	organisational	corporate strategy	and/or tactical options	available to EDL. There	well documented and	EDL, beyond what has	coherent and detailed,
	development is missing.	and/or tactical options	available to EDL. There	is good engagement	supported overall by	been taught. The	demonstrating
	No consideration given	available to EDL.	is limited engagement	with recent research	very good engagement	supported overall by	knowledge
	to the importance of	Recent research is	with recent research to	from a limited range of	with recent research	very good engagement	well beyond what has
	corporate strategy	limited to support work.	support work.	sources to support	from a good range of	knowledge is supported	been taught, all of
	and/or tactical options			work.	sources to support	by recent research from	which is informed by
	available to EDL.				work.	an excellent range of	recent research from an
	Recent research is					sources to support	excellent range of
	missing to support					work.	sources to support
	work.						work.

Analysis and criticality

30%

The work demonstrates a limited or no ability of analysis and enquiry. Conceptual understanding of change management is limited thus the work does not:

• devise and sustain arguments how corporate strategy and/or tactical options available to EDL are affected by the current VUCA environment. • describe and comment upon aspects of current research and scholarship, with little or no appreciation of the uncertainty, ambiguity, and limits of knowledge; • use relevant and appropriate sources resulting in few if any scholarly reviews. Examine and investigate the strategic and operational importance of change for EDL

The work demonstrates an insufficient ability of analysis and enquiry. Conceptual understanding of change management is evident and enables the work to partially demonstrate: • use of theory and corporate models to devise and sustain arguments, and solve problems around how corporate strategy and/or tactical options available to EDL are affected by the current VUCA environment.

• the ability to describe and comment upon aspects of current research and scholarship, albeit with only a developing appreciation of the uncertainty, ambiguity, and limits of knowledge;

There is a limited range of independently selected relevant and appropriate scholarly sources.

The work demonstrates a sufficient analysis and enquiry.

A basic yet sufficient Conceptual understanding of change management is evident that enables the work to demonstrate:

use of theory and corporate models to devise and sustain arguments and solve problems in relation to how corporate strategy and/or tactical options available to are affected by the current VUCA environment.
the ability to describe and comment upon aspects of current research and scholarship, with a sufficient appreciation of the uncertainty, ambiguity, and limits of knowledge;
use a sufficient range of independently selected relevant and appropriate scholarly sources.

The work

demonstrates a sound ability of analysis and enquiry.

A sound conceptual understanding of change management is evident that enables the work to demonstrate:

use of theory and corporate models to devise and sustain arguments and solve problems, in relation to how corporate strategy and/or tactical options available to EDL are affected by the current VUCA environment.
the ability to describe and comment upon aspects of current research and scholarship, with a sound appreciation of the uncertainty, ambiguity, and limits of knowledge;
use of a sound range of independently selected relevant and appropriate scholarly sources.

The work demonstrates a sophisticated ability of analysis. A sophisticated conceptual understanding of change management is evident that enables the work to demonstrate:

use of theory and corporate models to devise

and sustain arguments and solve problems, in relation to how corporate strategy and/or tactical options available to EDL are affected by the current VUCA environment.

the ability to describe, synthesise and critique aspects of current research and scholarship, with a sophisticated appreciation of the uncertainty, ambiguity, and limits of knowledge
use of a sophisticated range of independently selected relevant and appropriate scholarly sources.

The work demonstrates a highly accomplished ability of analysis and enquiry.

A highly accomplished conceptual understanding of change management is evident that enables the work to demonstrate:

use of theory and corporate models to devise and sustain arguments and solve problems, in relation to how corporate strategy and/or tactical options available to EDL are affected by the current VUCA environment, and how this has influenced business approaches to planned and unplanned change
the ability to describe, synthesise and critique all relevant aspects of current research and scholarship, with a nuanced appreciation of the uncertainty, ambiguity, and limits of knowledge;
use of a highly accomplished range of independently selected relevant and appropriate scholarly sources.

The work demonstrates an exceptional ability of analysis and enquiry. A superior conceptual understanding of change management is evident that enables the work to demonstrate:

use of ideas and techniques to devise and sustain arguments and/or solve problems, in relation to how corporate strategy and/or tactical options available to EDL are affected by the current VUCA environment, and how this has influenced business approaches to planned and unplanned change
the ability to describe, synthesise and critique all relevant aspects of current research and scholarship, with a highly nuanced appreciation of the uncertainty, ambiguity, and limits of knowledge;
use of a superior range of independently selected relevant and appropriate scholarly sources.

Application and

Practice

20%

Work demonstrates a limited or no ability to select appropriate change management theories and corporate models to develop and apply knowledge and understanding in the

Work demonstrates an insufficient ability to select and apply appropriate change management theories and corporate models to develop and apply knowledge and understanding in the

Work demonstrates a

sufficient ability to select and apply appropriate change management theories and corporate models to develop and apply knowledge and understanding in the

Work demonstrates an ability to select and apply in a consistent and informed manner appropriate change management theories and corporate models to develop and apply knowledge and

Work demonstrates an ability to select and apply in a capable and effective manner appropriate change management theories and corporate models to develop and apply knowledge and

Work demonstrates an ability to select and

apply in a highly accomplished manner appropriate change management theories and corporate models to develop and apply knowledge and

Work demonstrates an ability to select and

apply in a highly accomplished and innovative manner appropriate change management theories and corporate models to develop and apply

context of EDL’s operational situation. Presentation of research and findings is not clear or effective, or interpretation of information (i.e.

statistics) ineffective and/or incomplete.

Recommendations are missing.

context of EDL’s operational situation. Presentation of research and findings is often not clear or effective, or only in a limited range of formats, and gathering, processing and interpretation of data ineffective and/or inefficient.

Recommendations are inappropriate for EDL. LO 1: Understand the strategic and operational importance of change in organisations

context of EDL’s operational situation. Presents research and findings in several formats, and gathers, processes and interpret data efficiently.

Recommendations have been made that are somewhat appropriate but unfocused, not taking into consideration key areas of note identified within the presentation.

understanding in the context of EDL’s operational situation. Consistently presents research and findings effectively and appropriately, in many formats, and gathers, process and

interpret data efficiently and effectively, making good use of the appendices. Recommendations have been made that are appropriate but gives limited consideration to the key areas of note identified within the presentation and no consideration given to the possible implementation challenges of these.

understanding in the context of EDL’s operational situation. Consistently presents thorough research and findings perceptively and appropriately, in a wide range of formats, and gathers, process and interpret a wide range of complex data efficiently and effectively, making very good use of the appendices. Recommendations have been made that are appropriate, take into consideration key areas of note identified within the presentation, and give good consideration to the possible implementation challenges of these.

understanding in the context of EDL’s operational situation. Consistently presents thorough research and findings perceptively, convincingly, and appropriately, in wide range of formats, and gathers, processes and

interpret a wide range of complex data efficiently and effectively, making excellent use of the appendices. Recommendations have been made that are appropriate, take into consideration key areas of note identified within the presentation, and give excellent consideration to the possible implementation challenges of these. Minimal costing considerations have been provided.

knowledge and understanding in the context of EDL’s operational situation. Consistently presents thorough research and findings perceptively authoritatively, and appropriately, in wide range of formats, and gather, process and interpret a wide range of complex data efficiently and effectively, making outstanding use of the appendices. Recommendations have been made that are appropriate, take into consideration key areas of note identified within the presentation, and give excellent consideration to the possible implementation challenges of these. Detailed costing considerations have been provided.

Transferable skills

20%

This should include evidence of:

Question handling
Clarity of slides and attention to detail
Written

(PowerPoint), verbal and electronic communication

Personal (Group)

motivation, organisation, and time-management

Not able to respond to questions, not able to consult any supporting

information Overall sloppy presentation on slides, lacking careful spell and grammar checks. Work demonstrates

limited or no ability to:

-communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions accurately and reliably utilising