TMA 02
Submit this assignment to the eTMA system no later than the date shown on the course calendar. You should read again the general guidance in Sections 5 and 6. Then read the specific guidance for TMA 02 in Section 4.3 before writing this TMA.
In Part 1 you must provide:
. A report of 1,400 words on one of four topics.
. A 600-word ?Statement on practice? on some of the activity outputs included in Part 2.
In Part 2 for full marks you must provide:
. All the outputs from at 4.1 TMA 02 ? Part 1
Choose ONE of the four options below and provide:
. A report on managing a motivation problem.
OR
. A report on a group or team problem.
OR
. A report on a problem of poor or declining performance.
OR
. A report on training and development provision and support.
This report should not exceed 1,400 words.
As in TMA 01, this report carries a maximum mark of 50% for this
assignment. These marks are allocated to four components:
1 Identification and description of the problem (10 marks)
2 Analysis of the problem and conclusion to the analysis (20 marks)
3 Recommendations, advantages, disadvantages and implications (15 marks)
4 Presentation (5 marks)
The marking criteria are explained in more detail in Section 5.
AND
. Write a Statement on practice: how your practices have changed or will change, and how you have developed personally and professionally, that is, changed your management knowledge, skills, personal attitudes and professional practices in two areas of management. These two areas will be based on two areas of management which, for each, you have completed at least one course activity and have included the output(s) of this activity in Part 2 of the TMA.
This statement accounts for 20% of the marks for this assignment. These are allocated to four components:
1 Understanding/analysis of the changes in practice that have or will occur; and of changes in knowledge and attitudes that led or will lead to changes in practice and skills (5 marks)
2 Understanding and application of relevant course concepts and, where appropriate, course themes (5 marks)
3 Creativity of analysis, personal insights, and where relevant,
implementation of the changes (5 marks)
4 Effective communication including: clarity; the use of management vocabulary; the structure of the statement; use of relevant diagrams where appropriate; the use of full academic referencing. (5 marks)
The overall length of Part 1 (the report and the Statement on practice) should be no more than 2,000 words. This excludes the cover, contents page, summary, references, appendices and any diagrams in the report or Statement on practice. The word count includes any tables containing text.
The maximum mark for Part 1 is 70%.
 
4.2 TMA 02 ? Part 2
Part 2 of TMA 02 will consist of the outputs of activities you have already completed as part of your studies in Weeks 6?14. The maximum mark for Part 2 is 30%. To gain full marks you should provide the outputs of at least 75% of the activities in Weeks 6 ?14 of the course, that is, the outputs of at least 16 course activities in these weeks.
All the activities in Weeks 6?14 count towards the total with the following exceptions:
1 If you have chosen a motivational problem for your TMA report, do not include the output from Week 7 Activity 2 (Table 7.1 or Table 7.2). This is because you will use some of the content of this activity in your TMA report.
2 If you have chosen a group or team problem for your TMA report, do not include the output from Week 9 Activity 4 (Table 9.4). This is because you will use some of the content of this activity in your TMA report.
3 If you have chosen a problem about poor or declining performance for your TMA report, do not include the output from Week 12 Activity 3 (Table 12.3). This is because you will use some of the content of this activity in your TMA report.
4 If you have chosen a problem about poor or declining performance for your TMA report, do not include the output from Week 14 Activity 2 (Table 14.2). This is because you will use some of the content of this activity in your TMA report.
The following activity outputs should not be included because they will not be complete:
. The single output from Week 10, Activity 3 Options A or B (Table 10.5 or 10.6). This is because, whichever activity option you chose, the table will not be complete.
. The output from Week 11, Activity 1 Options A or B (Table 11.1 or
Table 11.2). This is one of two outputs for this activity. If you include
the remaining output for this activity, it will count as one activity.
The tick-box list in Assessment on the course website indicates which
activities are countable and how many outputs each activity has. All outputs from a single activity must be included to count.
You should include the outputs of more than 16 activities because an output may not be acceptable to the marker, for example, if the output is incomplete in some way. There are no extra marks for submitting the outputs of more than 16 activities, however.
There is no word limit for Part 2 of the assignment. The outputs in part 2 are checked for completeness and usually no specific feedback is given on 13
B628/BZX628 Assessment
them. Marks are awarded on a sliding scale, according to how many
activities you include. Here is the table converting the number of valid activities you submit, into marks earned. Activity outputs from Weeks 1?5 are not valid for TMA 02.
Table 4.1 Activities and marks (TMA 02)
Number of activity outputs submitted Marks
16 or more 30
14 ? 15 25
12 ? 13 20
10 ? 11 15
7 ?9 10
5 ?6 5
4 or fewer 0
4.3 TMA 02 guidance
In the TMA you will need to explicitly demonstrate that you can apply
course concepts. Provided you use concepts from the management area defined by any particular option, you can introduce and apply other relevant ones from the parts of the course you have studied so far.
The motivation option
This requires you to use mainly concepts from Chapter 6 of Managing and managing people. The criticisms of Maslow?s and Herzberg?s theories mean that it may not be easy for you to analyse a motivation problem with them. Expectancy Theory and the Psychological Contract are approaches to individual motivation, so you need to recognise the challenge of analysing more than one person?s motivation in the assignment.
Activity 2 (Option 1)
in Week 7 which required you to analyse and plan to resolve an individual?s current motivation problem may be useful if you choose this option, but you would need to draw in other concepts that might be factors in the motivational problem ? for example, lack of training or problems with working in a team ? to cover sufficient course concepts required for this TMA option.
The group or team option
This requires you to use mainly concepts from Chapter 8 in Managing and managing people. These include whether a team or group is really needed, the size of a team and membership, the open systems model of team work and team processes, team roles, the life cycle, managing conflict, managing modern forms of teams. Activity 4 in Week 9 in which you analysed and planned to resolve a team problem will be useful, but you are likely to need to extend your use and application of course concepts to meet the requirements of the TMA.
Assessment Booklet 14
The poor or declining performance option This requires you to use mainly the concepts in Chapter 10 of Managing and managing people. These include supervision and monitoring, giving
feedback, and appraisal. You may find Week 12, Activity 3 useful if you choose this option. Again, however, you are likely to need to use and apply
more course concepts for the TMA than you did in the course activity.
The training and development option This requires you to use mainly concepts in Chapter 11 of Managing and managing people. Potentially, this is the most flexible of the four options.
Almost any training and development issue can be analysed well using these concepts. They include the learning organisation, adults as learners, experiential learning, identifying learning needs, learning and development activities, and evaluation. Week 14, Activity 2 required you to carry out a training and development needs analysis for your work group or staff you are responsible, consider whether the needs could be met and then make recommendations to meet some of these needs. However, your may not have made use of the range of concepts available and which would earn good marks in the TMA.
Additional advice on the TMA 02 report
. You will be able to use a wider range of management vocabulary in the report, having studied more of the course.
. Make use of your tutor?s feedback on TMA 01 when you write TMA 02.
Guidance on the Statement of practice
Read the general guidance in Section 6 of this booklet. The Statement on practice in TMA 02 should be based on management areas covered activities by activities in Weeks 6?14. Management approaches in topics from Weeks
1?5 are not valid for TMA 02.
More information
You should read the general guidance in Sections 5 and 7 of this booklet before writing your TMA. They contain information on the correspondence between the steps in problem-solving and the sections of a report, a sample report, the Statement on practice and sample, and information about Part 2. Further practical information is contained in Section 9 on a range of topics from dealing with assumptions to submission of your work.