Understanding the Organization

Fifteen percent of the grade for this class will come from a report that displays your understanding of the organization structure and culture

Task

We often do not realize what we have learned until after due deliberation. Writing a module report provides you an opportunity to reflect on the readings and lectures, and reading the reports you write provides me a chance to assess to what extent you have met the learning objectives.

Discuss the organizational culture of an organization you are familiar with, in terms of this section's readings and discussions

1. Describe the organization and the culture that is embedded in the organization. Some of you may not feel that you know an organization well enough to do this, but at least one member of your team will have some experience and can educate you on the organization they know.
2. Pay attention to the rituals and symbols. Include in your report one or more images of items that inform the viewer of the organizational culture. It can be attire, symbols, logos, architecture, ... anything.

Condition

This task should be done by your group and your group should turn in a single product that reflects the agreed position of your group.

Include your answer in a class blog posting roughly equivalent to a 2-5 page paper.

You may go beyond the blog if you wish to accomplish this task (a document; a PowerPoint presentation; a Prezi presentation; anything)

If you choose not to do it as a blog posting, do be sure to use the blog to point the instructor to the where the deliverable may be found (if appropriate, place the deliverable in your Sakai dropbox and tell the instructor when it may be retrieved from the dropbox)

Grade	What it means	What I will be looking for
A	Mastery in understanding the organizational perspective in terms of culture, structure, and leadership at the highest level of attainment that can reasonably be expected	Well written with no grammatical errors, well-articulated discussion of the topic; it shows evidence of your having absorbed all of the key points of the organizational module, and that you described them in such quality that one could expect you to teach the module
A-	A totally acceptable performance demonstrating an adequate level of understanding the organization in these three contexts	An insightful discussion of the topic, with no grammatical errors. It is extremely good, but leaves the reader feeling that your understanding of the issues is perhaps a bit less than professionally sophisticated, in terms of depth of analysis.
B+		Really good, but perhaps a bit shallower in terms of your understanding one or more of the contexts; you may have a few grammatical issues in your writing; you may not have used relevant examples to explain your points; you may not have fully addressed all the elements requested
B		Good, but perhaps a bit shallower in terms of your understanding several variants of the three contexts; you may have several grammatical issues in your writing; you may not have used relevant examples to explain your points; you may not have fully addressed all the elements requested; you did not use terminology that we discussed in the module sessions
B-		Good, but not as good as it could have been; you may not have fully addressed all the elements requested
C+	A marginal performance.	OK, in terms of grasping the essentials, but not good in terms of articulating your understanding in a manner that is easy to read and appreciate
C		You seem to understand the essential points of the module, but you did not articulate your understanding well enough to do more than the minimum
C-		It's time to start wondering if you missed something important, if you misunderstood the task, if you did not understand the key elements
D+		This is a warning that you are not currently on the right path; you might need to have a discussion with the instructor about this performance
D		There are indications that you were present and that you sort of grasped what we had discussed, but missed the key points to such a degree that you really need to re-group and catch up
F	For whatever reasons, an unacceptable performance	If it's unacceptable, it is unacceptable; it should be as obvious to you as it is to the instructor