BUS101 – Business Analytics

Task 2 – Report (30%)

This is an individual assessment

Task Overview and Instructions

Purpose:

The purpose of this report is to solve a business problem using a theoretical framework informed by empirical academic studies. Using academic literature, you will provide information regarding the business problems and offer potential explanations for the business issues. Using what you have learned in the lectures, tutorials, the text-book and other sources you will analyse the transcripts provided to identify the source of the business problems. You will then make recommendations based on your findings and the literature to the CEO of the company.

DISCLAIMER:

This is a work of fiction. The materials and information for this assignment are used for educational purposes only and are not a critique of any company or any affiliated companies. The opinions and views expressed in this document are a work of fiction and do not represent the University of the Sunshine Coast’s policy or opinion. All characters and data are fictional.

The Report Structure must be:

• Cover page/Title Page – Name, student number, tutor name/day/time, word count
• Executive summary (no longer than one page) – overview the purpose, type of analysis/methods, most important findings in summary, most important conclusions and recommendations. Look at how journal articles write an abstract this is similar.
• Table of contents (should also include a list of figures / diagrams / tables if used)
• Introduction (estimated 150 words):
  • Overview of the business problems
    • Introduce the company and what it does
    • Provide a statement of the business problems from the symptoms
  • Overview of literature on the topic (Estimated 800 words):
    • Write a literature review that overviews what previous empirical work (journal articles) has found regarding your chosen topic
    • Overview the theory you will use to investigate the business problems
      • Overview the theory and explain the concepts and elements of the theory
      • Justify why this theory helps to explain the business problems
      • Write a managerial decision statement and corresponding research objectives and research questions based on the theory and literature regarding the business issues.
    • Methods and Results (Estimated 500 words):
      • Introduce what qualitative analysis is (describe in one paragraph). Remember the audience may not have any knowledge of what a qualitative analysis is.
      • Report what the method was and how the interview data was collected. Write in enough detail that someone else can understand exactly what was done and how. Report on the internal/external validity.
      • Present the findings of the analysis in a table AND graph, ensure you reflect on the findings and summarise (do not just show a table/graph with no explanation). Refer to the course materials to help.
    • Recommendations and Conclusions (Estimated 500 words):
      • Based on the findings give the CEO some recommendations about how to improve the business problems. This should link to the academic literature and theory from the introduction.
    • List of references – either APA or Harvard (choose one and be consistent)
    • Appendices – if needed

Report format:

Font size 12, Times New roman, double spacing, and word count 2,000 (+/- 10% 1,800-2,200). Note. The word count does not include the executive summary, headings, tables, graphs/figures, the reference list or appendices.

Topic One information: Work flexibility and incentives (Management)

You are creating a business report for the CEO of a consultant company, called Thrive consultancy. It must be professional in presentation and contain insightful content for the company to make business decisions.

Thrive consultancy has approximately 50 staff members and has been operating for about fifteen years. It is a consultancy company that offers three main services: Human Resource consulting, Strategic planning, and Advertising/Marketing consulting. There are ten staff in HR, one in strategic planning and five in Advertising/marketing, the CEO and three administrative staff. The company advises other companies on human resource consulting practices such as: HR solutions, policy renewal and development, KPI development, training, career and leadership development, employee relations and communications, and so on. They also offer strategic planning workshops to help companies adapt to changes in globalisation, technology, and markets. Lastly, they offer advertising/marketing consultancy regarding how a company is perceived by clients, branding, marketing, advertising, and social media presence.

The company has been struggling as the workers morale and performance is very low which is resulting in a lot of staff absences. The CEO thinks this might be because of resistance to a new policy they implemented and funding cuts. The new policy introduced changes to the employees working hours. The CEO believes having everyone at work strictly Monday to Friday from 9-5pm would increase productivity and collaboration between staff members. So staff members can no longer work from home or have flexible hours. There have also been funding cuts and the office kitchen no longer has free coffee, tea, biscuits or milk. The CEO wants to know if performance and morale are low due to this or something else.

You have already conducted in-depth interviews with five staff members and have the transcripts available in a file labelled “BUS101 Topic One_ anonymous transcripts”. The interviews lasted approximately 20 minutes each and you followed a semi-structured interview style with an interview protocol. The interviews were conducted onsite in a quiet meeting room.

You need to code the transcripts for the common themes and create a business report for the CEO.

You need to code the transcripts for common themes, creating a table and graph as shown in lecture 7 and tutorial week 7.

Do not not use quasi-qual methods and show a table of counted items. You must present themes in a table with example quotes and a figure of the themes.

Theory: Job demand Resources theory (JD-R)

Reading to start:

1. Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2017). Job demands–resources theory: Taking stock and looking forward. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 22(3), 273.

You must locate multiple readings regarding the topic and the theory a minimum of eight articles must be cited.

See the Marking Criteria sheet on the next page