ASSIGNMENT BRIEF

Course Title : Bachelor (Honors) Business Administration

Module Title : Contemporary Management Practice

Module Number : F106108UN

Module Tutor : Mr. Hakam Singh (Lead)

Submission Place : Unity College International, Malaysia

ASSIGNMENT SUMMARY

Type of Requirement Marks Allocated Submission Due

Assessments (%) Date
Individual Case 2,500 words 40 % 19 December 2009
Study
Individual Reflection 300 words 10% 19 December 2009
Examination 2 hours examination 50 % 09 January 2010

1
Assignment Title: Management Fundamentals And
Principles In Practice: Task Description
“As a manager”, undertake an analysis of the case provided.

The Task: The task is designed to develop your awareness of:

• The complexity of the management fundamentals & principles

• The reliance of a manager on other people both inside and outside the
organization

• The importance of planning, organizing, controlling, staffing and

communication.

Further, it is designed to develop and test your capacity to :

• Reconstruct the organizationally prescribed view of managerial work and

its context

• Conceptualize the systematic nature of managerial work

• Comprehend, interpret and execute a specific task description(or 'project

brief')

Criteria for Assessment

The assignment will be assessed on the following criteria:

• The structure and clarity of the piece of work - 10%
• An analysis of the current issues under investigation – 20%
• The subsequent choice of innovative strategies and justification – 30%
• The explicit synthesis of the above leading to tactical recommendations – 30%
• The appropriate use of examples of good practice and illustrations of successful
implementation of strategies by others to support your report - 10%

2
REFERENCING
It is very important that the sources of material used in your assignments (and
Management Reports/Projects, Dissertations etc) are appropriately referenced. The
system of referencing adopted by UWCN is known as the Harvard system. Please note
below the standard formats that must be adopted in your work.

Reference to a book:
Author [or editor] [surname in capitals], Initials. Date. Title in Italics. Edition [unless 1st
edition]. Place of Publication: Publisher
MAY, J.1994. Reference Wales.2nd edn. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.

Reference to a contribution in a journal:

Author, Initial. Year. Title of Article. Title of Journal in Italics, Volume and Page Numbers.
PROPPER, C. 1993. Incentives in the new UK health-care market. The Economic Review.
10(3), pp. 15-18.

Reference to a Web citation:

Author, Initial. Title of Document URL Date Accessed.
Mainster, L. APA Publication Manual Crib Sheet
< http://www.gasou.edu/psychweb/tipsheet/apacrib.htm>undated (accessed 27th Jan
1999)

Titles of books and journals if hand written should be underlined, otherwise they should
be as stated above and be in italics.

Short quotations [under 4 lines] should be placed in the body of the text and enclosed in
quotation marks. Longer quotations should be preceded by a colon, set off from the text
and indented by at least 2.5 cm, quotation marks should not be used

Please note that inappropriate or absence of referencing in your work may affect your
final score for the work.

3
CASE STUDY-MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS AND PRINCIPLES
IN PRACTICE

The project manager of a construction company wanted to make sure that nothing went
wrong on the company’s new project. It has just signed its biggest contract to erect a
30,000-sq ft warehouse for a large import-export firm.

The project manager called together his site foreman and workers. “This is one job
where we can’t afford any mistakes, he said, we were the lowest bidder. Our costs will
be very tight, and there is no room for error in what we do. I want every job to start on
time and to finish on time. I don’t want to see any workers loafing on the job. I want all
equipment fully utilized.”

The manager looked at his foremen and workers, is that clear?, he asked. The foremen
and workers nodded. “Ok, said the manager, I know I can depend upon you all to get
the job done within our contract specifications.”

The job did get started on time and it finished on time. The export-import firm was
pleased with its new warehouse. The workers were proud of what they had
accomplished. The Construction Company Managing Director however was displeased.
When all the costs were finally accounted for, he discovered to his dismay that they
exceeded the contract price by RM200,000. The Construction Company would have to
take a loss on this job.

The Managing Director called the project manager into his office. “How did you let the
costs on the warehouse job get so far out of control?” he said.

“We stand to lose a great amount of money on this contract. Your workers worked
overtime nearly everyday at 1 1/2 times rate of pay. In doing so they burned out the
equipment, as a result our equipment leasing costs were excessive.

What happened?

“I don’t really know, said the project manager. “I told our foreman and workers as
plainly as I could that this job had to be done within a tight cost budget. They should
have known that this meant no overtime, and that they should keep our equipment
leasing cost in line.”

When the Construction Company Managing Director spoke to workers to query them,
they told a different story. Our understanding, they said, “was that there we were to
get the job finished on time and done right. We did everything we could to follow the
specification(s).”

4
That’s true, said the Managing Director “You followed all the specifications to the letter,
except the one that had to do with our allowable costs. We are well over our cost
estimate by RM200,00. How did this happen?

We really don’t know, said the foremen and workers. The project manager never really
made that clear to us. He mentioned costs, but we thought that they were Head
Quarters (HQ) problem, not ours. All the emphasis was on getting the job started and
finished on time, and we did that. If costs were that important, the project manager
should have said so.”

1) What is the situation (Analysis of the situation)?

2) What is your understanding of the problem areas?

3) What recommendations would you make to ensure the problem

will not reoccur again?