Assessment Item : Individual Reflective Essay

Weighting: 40%
Length or Duration: 1000 Words (10 per cent over or under is acceptable)

Assessing unit learning objectives:
2. Demonstrate competence in communicating effectively through academic writing
3. Demonstrate skills in collaborative working and an appreciation of indigenous and intercultural perspectives

Purpose
The purpose of the assessment is to develop knowledge of some of the key concepts addressed in this unit and to demonstrate reflexive practice, intercultural sensitivity and writing skills. The practical focus for the essay Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesishas been devised to develop the attributes identified as most important by Australian Business Leaders (according to the Australian Institute of Management, 2008). These include Continuous Professional Development (the ability to reflect, learn and grow from experience); Communication Skills and Values and Ethics.

This is an individual assessment although you will need to draw upon your records of group activities and discussions during the Virtual Business Design Project. The essay is testing your ability to reflect upon and learn from your experience of group working. This means that it does not matter whether you were in a group that worked well together and achieved a high mark, or a group that worked badly together and failed the group assessment. The key is to demonstrate that you have learned from the experience and have a clear understanding of the requirements for effective group working.

Source Material
You need to draw on wider reading to support your analysis and reflection. As a starting point you should familiarise yourself with the theory and models in Bartol et al. 2008, in particular, Chapter 15 Managing Groups and Teams; Chapter 13 Leadership; Chapter 14 Managerial Communication and Chapter 18 International Management. In addition to reading the core textbook you should also make use of the library databases to find relevant Journal articles, and other books, to add weight to your discussion in the essay.

Task
You need to review critical incidents during the Virtual Business Design Project exercise, drawing on relevant theory to analyse the impact of diversity in all its forms on collaborative practice. Your essay will address 3 main areas: Communication; Group Development and Culture and Diversity and must Conclude by reflecting on what you have learned from the process.

Communication
• According to Bartol et al. 2006, 519 the key influences on individual communication and interpersonal人際 processes are:
o Perceptual Processes
o Attribution Processes
o Semantics
Select ONE of these THREE influences and reflect on it in terms of通過 your experience of collaborative working on the Virtual Business Design Project. You should explain the concepts and then analyse the extent 范圍,范圍,程度 to which they influenced communication within your group

Group Development#p#分頁標題#e#
• Bartol et al. 2006, 558 cites Tuckman, 1965 as identifying 5 key stages that groups move through as they develop:
o Forming
o Storming
o Norming
o Performing
o Adjourning
Select TWO of these stages and reflect on how effectively your group developed during the Virtual Business Design Project. You must explain the theory before relating it to your experience

Culture and Diversity 差異,多樣性
• Intercultural不同文化間的Communication may be said to occur when people of different cultural backgrounds interact相互作用,相互影響 c(Martin and Nakayama 2008, 27). Diversity is defined by Bartol et al. 2008, 415 as “The visible and invisible characteristics of an individual that distinguish them as individuals”.
• Reflect upon the impact of culture and diversity in your group. To what extent was your group a diverse one? How did culture influence communication and collaboration? You should draw on wider reading to support your answer.

Submission Requirements

You need to submit a 1000 word essayDissertation is provide by Custom Thesis(the word count is excluding the references list at the end and the cover sheet) via Assignment Minder. The essay must be submitted by close of business on Tuesday 20 May 2008. You MAY be required to submit an electronic copy of your essay to a plagiarism detection service, your tutor will advise you if this is the case.

The essay must be word processed.

You are required to submit an essay and NOT a report. You should include an introduction, body and conclusion but should avoid report style conventions such as the excessive use of sub-headings, numbering, bullet points and diagrams. Further guidance on essay writing is available from your tutor, your lecturer, the e-tutor, the Information Services Cite/Write guides and the excellent “Write that Essay” booklet by Ian Hunter (2008) that was packaged with the core textbook.

You must include references in the text and a references list at the end of your essay. You will be expected to use the QUT Harvard Style to format the references and should seek guidance on this from your tutor and from the Information Services web site (see QUT Cite).

Marking Process

We aim to mark the essay and return the marks and feedback to you within TWO WEEKS of submission. Essays are randomly distributed to the teaching team for marking; this means that your tutor is unlikely to mark the work of students in their tutorial groups. There is a rigorous moderation process in place and the Unit Coordinator remarks and moderates a sample of work from each tutor. Work will be returned to you via the Assignment Minder system and you will be notified when it is ready for you to collect. Final marks will be posted on Blackboard but you are STRONGLY advised to collect the assignment itself so that you can learn from the feedback that the tutor will provide.

BSB115 – Criteria Referenced Assessment for Individual Essay (Weighting = 40%)#p#分頁標題#e#

Task- Specific Criteria
GRADE 7
GRADE 6
GRADE 5
GRADE 4
LESS THAN 4

Graduate Attribute: Discipline Knowledge and Skills pertinent to the discipline area
• Depth and range of knowledge of the key influences on collaborative working evident in the essay.
• Degree to which the description of your group experience was informed by group development stages and the Tuckman Framework.
Demonstrate an extensive knowledge of relevant theory and how it relates to the group process Demonstrate a broad knowledge of the theory and how it relates to the group process Demonstrate an understanding of most of the theory and how it relates to the group process Demonstrate knowledge of core theory and how it relates to the group process. Minor omissions. Described some of the theory with significant omissions and a lack of clarity in places
Graduate Attribute: Effective Communication in a variety of contexts and modes
• Logically and succinctly structured content using essay style writing conventions (see Guide by Hunter)
• Clarity of academic language used and grammatical conventions followed
• Accurate and consistent use of the QUT Harvard Referencing system as outlined in QUT Cite
• The degree to Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesiswhich wider reading of a range of relevant high quality sources (including Journal articles) has informed the essay.
Logically and succinctly structured the content Used clear, academic language and consistently adhered to grammatical conventions. Accurate and consistent use of the Harvard referencing conventions, both in the text and the references list. Strong evidence of wider reading of a range of relevant high quality sources. Logically structured the content to create a coherent and cohesive piece of work. Used clear language and mainly adhered to grammatical conventions. Harvard referencing conventions followed in the text and the references list but with a few minor errors. Good evidence of wider reading and use of source materials Logically structured the content to create a comprehensible piece of work. Mainly adhered to grammatical conventions with minor mistakes. Harvard referencing conventions followed most of the time in the text and the references list but with some errors. Evidence of wider reading and use of sources Content structured to create loosely-linked simple paragraphs, a mainly descriptive piece of work. Some informal language and grammatical errors. Followed the Harvard referencing conventions in places but not consistently and with some errors. Limited evidence of wider reading Poorly structured the content so that the writing does not flow and paragraphs do not logically follow on from each other. Used informal Language and made a large number of grammatical errors. Only occasionally referenced and acknowledged sources of information with significant errors. No real evidence of wider reading or very poor quality sources used.
Graduate Attribute: Social and Ethical Responsibility and an understanding of indigenous and international perspectives #p#分頁標題#e#
• Clarity of identification of the potential and/or actual cultural differences within the group
• A thoughtful approach to the recognition of cultural diversity and its impact on the communication process
Strong evidence of an understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity and its impact on communication processes.
Evidence of an understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity and its impact on communication processes.
Some evidence of an understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity and its impact on communication processes.
Limited evidence of an understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity and its impact on communication processes.
No real evidence of an understanding or appreciation of cultural diversity and alternate perspectives and the impact of these on communication processes
Graduate Attribute: Ability to work independently and collaboratively
• Quality of the reflection on your own strengths and weaknesses in your description of the group project.
• Ability to engage with alternate perspectives evident in your essay.
• Degree to which the conclusion of your essay explains what you have learned from the group project.
Strong evidence of self-awareness, a capacity to work collaboratively, recognise difference, reflect on and learn from alternate perspectives.
Evidence of Dissertation is provide by Custom Thesis
self-awareness and an ability to cooperate, work with, reflect upon and learn from others Some evidence of self awareness and reflection on the skills required to be a cooperative and productive team member Limited self awareness and reflection on the skills required to be a cooperative and productive team member No real personal reflection. Some knowledge of the main concepts but overly descriptive and limited or no evidence of engagement with or learning from the group experience.
Feedback Student Name: Tutor Name:

Less penalty Final Mark (%))
- for late submission, 10% of total mark for the assessment per calendar day or part thereof. For exceeding the word limit, 10% of total marks