(Mt) – Technology Management A1 (Tony 13/03/2023)

Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Computing COMP3780: Technology Management Semester 1, 2023 Assignment 1: Current Management Trends Lecturer: Email: Dr. Shan Chen shan.chen@mq.edu.au COMP3780 Assignment One Semester 1, 2023 Due Date: 11:55pm on Friday, 31st March 2023 Submit through iLearn as a single PDF documentMaximum 1,500 words (not including references & table of contents) Note: The Marker will not continue reading past this 1,500 words limit. You need to be succinct, and not duplicate material across sections. The Task For this assignment you are to research available material on ‘current management trends’ to provide comprehensive answers to the following topic.1 Ensure that you use in-text referencing. Remember, this is a Turnitin assignment. Do not just copy and paste. If you are quoting a reference, ensure you use quotation marks (“…..”) and acknowledge the source (see appendix 2). Where possible simply cite material – use quotes sparingly (see appendix 2). Ensure you provide your list of references/bibliography. 2 For web based references, provide the full URL and date accessed (see appendix 2 to get an idea). The Topic Consider the principles discussed in our textbook (Robbins, Bergman and Coulter, 2017). Reflect on the evolution of management practices (chapter 2), particularly with regard to contemporary management trends. Consider the article in appendix 1 (and other literature you find). Choose either one of the concepts covered in the article, or choose a current management trend you are familiar with or interested in. Perhaps the workplace you are in, manages people in a certain way? Using the available literature, discuss your chosen current management approach. – Explain how the approach evolved. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the management approach. Explain why the approach may or may not work in your workplace, or a workplace you read about. Higher grades (H/D) will typically make use of ‘scholarly’ literature to support their arguments! 1 2 If you are not familiar with finding papers to help with your research, why not talk to a librarian? A list of references includes just those specific references you cited and/or quoted from, whereas a bibliography includes the references as well as any other texts (electronic or paper) you may have used in producing the assignment (e.g. you may have looked up a word in a dictionary). Page 2 COMP3780 Assignment One Semester 1, 2023 Submission – Soft copy only – Submit one pdf file on iLearn only. Your submission time will be time-stamped by iLearn. Late submissions will be accepted but will incur a penalty unless there is an approved Special Consideration request. A 12-hour grace period will be given after which the following deductions will be applied to the awarded assessment mark: 12 to 24 hours late = 10% deduction; for each day thereafter, an additional 10% per day or part thereof will be applied until five days beyond the due date. After this time, a mark of zero (0) will be given. For example, an assessment worth 20% is due 5 pm on 1 January. Student A submits the assessment at 1 pm, 3 January. The assessment received a mark of 15/20. A 20% deduction is then applied to the mark of 15, resulting in the loss of three (3) marks. Student A is then awarded a final mark of 12/20. This assignment will contribute a maximum of 20% to the final assessment grade. Remember it is worthwhile to have a go at each assessment, as you stand the chance of gaining some marks, rather than none at all for not doing anything – every mark ultimately counts! Note this is a Turnitin assignment, meaning the software will detect if you have copied and pasted inappropriately (i.e. not used “…” quote marks where you have simply copied and pasted). Marking Criteria You will be marked according to the following criteria, these criteria will be applied to each of the four sections: Page 3 COMP3780 Assignment One Semester 1, 2023 Appendix 1  5 Trends That Should Be On Your Radar By MBA News November 2, 2022 Business owners and executives who were hoping to ease into 2023 can thank the aftereffects of the global pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, economic challenges, as well as an ever-faster development of technologies for keeping them on their toes instead. These lingering events from 2022 mean that there are 5 key trends that every business should prepare for in the new year as suggested by futurist Bernard Marr. 1. Accelerated digital transformation In 2023, we see the continuation of innovations and developments in transformative technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT), virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), cloud computing, blockchain, and super-fast network protocols like 5G. What’s more, these transformational digital technologies do not exist in isolation from each other, and we will see the boundaries between them blurring. New solutions for augmented working, hybrid and remote working, business decisionmaking, and automation of manual, routine, and creative workloads combine these technologies in ways that enable them to enhance each other. This brings us closer than ever to the point where we are able to create “intelligent enterprises” where systems and processes support each other to complete menial and mundane tasks in the most efficient way possible. To prepare for this, businesses must ensure they embed the right technology throughout their processes and in every area of operations. At this point, there is really very little excuse for being in business and not having an understanding of how AI and the other technologies mentioned above will impact your business and industry. More effective sales and marketing, better customer service, more efficient supply chains, products and services that are more aligned with customer needs, and streamlined manufacturing processes are all on the table, and in 2023, the barriers to accessing them will be lower than ever. Many of these technologies, such as AI and blockchain, are now available in ‘asa-service’ models via the cloud, and new interfaces and apps give businesses access to them via no-code environments. 2. Inflation and supply chain security The economic outlook for most of the world doesn’t look great in 2023. We are told by experts to expect ongoing inflation and subdued economic growth. Many industries are still plagued by supply chain issues that emerged during the global shutdowns caused by Covid-19 and have only got worse due to the war in Ukraine. To combat this and stay afloat, companies need to improve their resilience in any way that they can. This means reducing exposure to volatile market pricing of commodities, as well as building protective measures into supply chains to deal with shortages and rising logistical costs. It is important that companies map out their entire supply chains and identify any exposure to supply and inflation risks. That way, they can explore ways to mitigate that risk, such as alternative suppliers and becoming more self-reliant. I have recently worked with a number of companies that decided to insource parts of their manufacturing after they identified a risk of relying on Chinese manufacturing that is still plagued by a zero-Covid policy and subsequent shutdowns. 3. Sustainability The world is increasingly waking up to the fact that the climate disaster will pose a much bigger challenge than anything we have experienced in recent decades and will dwarf the challenges faced by Page 4 COMP3780 Assignment One Semester 1, 2023 the Covid pandemic. That means investors and consumers prefer businesses with the right environmental and social credentials, and buying trends are increasingly being driven by conscious consumers – those among us who prioritise factors such as ecological impact and sustainability when choosing who to buy from or do business with. In 2023, companies need to make sure that their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) processes are moved to the center of their strategy. This should start with measuring the impact any business is having on society and the environment and then move to increasing transparency, reporting, and accountability. Every business needs a plan with clear goals and timeframes of how to reduce any negative impacts, and then the plan needs to be underpinned by solid action plans. The assessment and plans should also go beyond the company walls and cover the entire supply chain and the ESG credentials of suppliers. For example, it is easy to forget the environmental impact of cloud service providers and the impact of data centers on the environment. 4. Immersive customer experience In 2023, customers crave experience above all else. That doesn’t necessarily mean that price point and quality take a back seat, though. Both play a part, to some extent, in the way we experience the process of choosing, purchasing, and enjoying the goods and services we spend our money on. The role that technology plays here, traditionally, has been to streamline processes and remove hassle from the life of the consumer. Think recommendation engines that help us choose what to buy or online customer service portals that deal with problems and after-sales support. These will still play a key role in 2023, but the game has evolved, with this year’s keywords being immersion and interactivity. The metaverse – something of a catch-all term used by futurists to describe the “next level” of the internet, where we interact with brands and fellow consumers through immersive technology, including 3D environments and VR – is the stage where this will play out. Think of online shops where we can browse and “try on” virtual representations of clothes, jewellery, and accessories. We might use virtual dressing rooms to dress up avatars of ourselves – as pioneered already by the likes of Hugo Boss – or it could involve AR, as used by Walmart, to see how clothes will fit on our actual bodies. These trends will impact both online and offline retail. The trend towards experience is so strong that brands like Adobe and Adweek are appointing chief experience officers (CXO) to ensure that it is made a foundational element of business strategy. As well as customer experience, businesses increasingly need to think about employee experience as competition for the most talented and skilled workers grows more intense. 5. The talent challenge Over the past year, we have seen huge movements of talented people, referred to as the great resignation and quiet quitting, as workers reassessed the impact of work and what they want to get out of their lives. This has put pressure on employers to ensure they are providing attractive careers, the flexibility of hybrid work, and an enticing work environment and company culture. Offering people fulfilling work, ongoing opportunities to grow and learn, flexibility and diverse, value-oriented workplaces will all be essential in 2023. On top of that, the accelerated digital transformation (trend one above) leads to more workplace automation that will augment pretty much every single job in the world. Humans will increasingly share their work with intelligent machines and smart robots, and that has huge implications for the skills and talent companies require in the future. This will mean reskilling and up-skilling huge sways of people in our businesses as well as recruiting new people that have the skills needed for the future. On the one hand side, businesses must deal with the vast skills gap that exists in areas such as data science, AI, and other technology areas, ensuring they are creating the data and tech-savvy workforce needed to succeed in the future. And on the other side, as human jobs get augmented by technology, businesses must re-train staff with skills needed to work alongside smart machines and to grow their Page 5 COMP3780 Assignment One Semester 1, 2023 uniquely human skills that currently can’t be automated. In 2023, it will include skills such as creativity, critical thinking, interpersonal communication, leadership, and applying “humane” qualities like caring and compassion. With only 8 weeks before the new year, business still have time to make plans on how they will navigate these predicted business trends for 2023. Page 6 COMP3780 Assignment One Semester 1, 2023 Appendix 2 Writing at university level means academic writing. Academic writing is not like writing a novel. Informal writing styles are not encouraged. You are required to substantiate what you write/say in your academic and professional lives. It is only in rare instances where you will be permitted to write works of fiction at university, it is also for similar reasons that the first person singular (I feel, I think, I did, My feeling is …), is generally to be avoided in writing university assignments (there are some exceptions to this rule, for example law faculties often adopt the first-person-singular in their writing style). As insulting as this may seem, as a student you are not considered to be an expert at anything (that usually comes with the title Dr. and then later Professor). The point is you need to state the source of your information in assignments. Furthermore it is generally considered politically-correct to avoid gender-specific writing styles; in other words don’t refer to authors/people/whoever as he, unless they actually are male – examine the following link. 3 For the purposes of this assignment, we will use the Harvard referencing style, although if you are comfortable with footnoting, please do so. Citing vs. quoting 1. Where an idea is ‘adopted/adapted’ from an author but restated in your words one uses citing as a means of establishing where the information was derived from. For example …… Smith (1990) was inclined to believe that … blah blah blah, … (where blah blah blah are your words, but the author’s ideas). No page number needs to be included for citing authors (but you must include the author’s surname, and date of publication of the reference where you have derived the information from). No, you cannot cite your friends (or lecture/tutorial/practical material). 2. Where the words have simply been lifted/copied directly by you, is referred to as quoting someone. For example ….. it was felt that “of all the database schemas, the object relational approach is …..” (Zhang, 1990 p. 53). In this case quotation marks are used as well as a page number stating where the information directly came from. Where you have quote that is longer than say 20 words, you indent these as a separate paragraph from the main body of your text and you single space the block quote, like so When faced with a small problem domain, system development can be all about modeling of user functional requirements. However, when faced with a large problem domain, such as with an enterprise information system, system development must recognize the demands placed on it by the non-functional system qualities. The quality of interest in this paper is supportability (Maciaszek and Liong, 2003; Maciaszek et al., 2004). Supportability is really the combination of three qualities – understandability, maintainability and scalability. An unsupportable system is a legacy system (Maciaszek, 2005 p. 17). …. Note, no quote marks are necessary, but you still include author surname, year of publication and page number. You do not need to italicise block quotes (or normal quotes for that matter). Lecture notes/course notes DO NOT count as references. These are not to be referred to in written assignments/reports (this is considered amateur-ish). 3 opportunity/discrimination-and-harassment#inclusive Page 7 COMP3780 Assignment One Semester 1, 2023 Report structure The word processed report will include – table of contents – sub-titles – list of references OR bibliography4 The assignment should be space and a half or double-spaced. The reference list or bibliography should be single-spaced. Your paragraphs may either be left-aligned or justified. Bibliography/Reference list The minimum level of detail for each book/journal reference used in either a list of references or bibliography is as follows. For a book: Busch, P., (2008) Tacit Knowledge in Organizational Learning IGI-Global Hershey Pennsylvania U.S.A. For a journal article/conference paper: Venkitachalam, K., Busch, P., (2012) “Tacit Knowledge: Review and Possible Research Directions” Journal of Knowledge Management 16(2) pp: 357-372. For electronic publications (e.g. ones you’ve pulled off the internet): Busch, P., (2006) “Organisation Design and Tacit Knowledge Transferal: An Examination of Three IT Firms” Journal of Knowledge Management Practice 7(2) URL:At the end of your assignment, you simply place all types of references together in alphabetical order of author surname. You do not list them separately by book, conference paper and electronic publication. 4 Again a list of references includes just those specific references you cited and/or quoted from, whereas a bibliography includes the references as well as any other texts (electronic or paper) you may have used in producing the assignment (e.g. you may have looked up a word in a dictionary). Page 8