Assessment Overview
This Assessment Booklet provides you with information and your assessment tasks for this unit. A requirement of your qualification, from which the unit of competence is taken, is the application of the concepts you have been learning.The assessment activities are an important part of your course as they provide an opportunity to apply what you have been learning and they give both you and your trainer feedback on your progress.
Please read this section carefully before commencing the assessment tasks.
Recognition of Prior Learning
If you can demonstrate that you have the skills and knowledge within this unit, you should speak to a trainer/assessor about this and apply for recognition of prior learning.
Prior to Assessment
You must be advised of your rights before and after the assessments including the right to appeal.Assessors must provide you with all relevant information relating to the assessments prior to commencement and of the appeals procedure that can be utilised if you wish to appeal against the assessment outcome or make a complaint.
Submitting Assessments
Each part of this assessment booklet needs to be carefully completed and you are required to attain a ‘satisfactory’ mark for each of the assessment activities. Full details of what is required have been detailed in instructions before each assessment task.
You must submit assessment tasks with the cover sheet provided at the end of this Booklet. You must attach one cover sheet per assessment upon submission, ticking the relevant assessment box. Ensure you sign the form after completion.
Assessments should be submitted on or before their due date. Extensions for individual assessment tasks may be negotiated in specific circumstances. Consultation on this must occur prior to the due date and extensions due to illness will require a medical certificate. Extensions will be confirmed to you in writing.
Plagiarism and Referencing
You are reminded that plagiarism will not be tolerated. Information, ideas etc. quoted or paraphrased from another source, must be acknowledged with “quotation marks” around the relevant words/sentences or ideas and cited at the end of the document. Sources of information, ideas etc. must be provided in alphabetical order by author’s surname (including author’s full name, name of document/ book/internet etc. and year and place of publishing) or may be included in brackets in the text.
Assessment Outcomes
The evidence you submit will be assessed and you will be given written feedback. Each assessment task will be marked as either Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory and once all assessments have been marked you will be given an outcome of Competent or Not Competent for the unit of competence. Upon demonstrating competence, you will be awarded this unit. If you are assessed as Not Competent, you will be given some suggestions for improvement and asked to redo your assessment.
Assessment Tasks
Re-assessment
In the event you are deemed Unsatisfactory, you will be allowed two (2) further attempts at an assessment within the timeframe of this course.
As part of the assessment process, you must abide by any relevant assessment policies as provided to you. If you feel you are not yet ready to be assessed or this assessment is unfair, you should be offered the opportunity to discuss all options that are available to you to complete the assessment.
Reasonable Adjustment
RTOs and Trainers/Assessors are obliged by law to make reasonable adjustment to ensure maximum participation of students with disability in teaching, learning and assessment activities. This includes:
- ensuring that course activities are sufficiently flexible;
- providing additional support where necessary; and
- offering a reasonable substitute within the context of the course where a student cannot participate.
Reasonable adjustment is defined in section 4(1) of the Employment and the Disability Discrimination Act as ‘an adjustment to be made by a person is a reasonable adjustment unless making the adjustment would impose an unjustifiable hardship on the person’. Reasonable adjustment as it applies to participation in learning and assessment activities may include:
- customising resources or activities within a training package or accredited course;
- modifying a presentation medium;
- providing additional support;
- providing assistive or adaptive technologies;
- making additional information accessible both before enrolment and during the course; and
- monitoring these adjustments to ensure that the student’s needs continue to be met.
An individual’s access to the assessment process should not be adversely affected by restrictions placed on the location or context of assessment beyond the requirements specified in the training package. Reasonable adjustments can be made to ensure equity in assessment for people with disabilities. Adjustments include any changes to the assessment process or context that meet the individual needs of the person with a disability, but do not change competency outcomes.
The assessment process must:
- Provide for valid, reliable, flexible and fair assessment
- Provide for judgement to be made on the basis of sufficient evidence
- Offer valid, authentic and current evidence.
Within this qualification are units of competency that form the basis of your assessments. These can be located in your Unit Outline Booklet.
There are three (3) forms of assessment or evidence gathering methods for this unit of competency. You are required to complete and submit all the assessments.
Assessment 1. Activities
This assessment consists of ten (10) activities to assess your knowledge of this unit. You must answer all questions. Most questions require short answers although some questions require a more detailed response. You should provide typed responses. You may use various sources of information including: text books, learning workbooks, other documents and the internet and must list your sources.
Assessment 2. Skills & Knowledge Activity
This assessment provides the student with an opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge of the foundation skills, knowledge evidence and performance evidence of this unit. The student will be required to respond to seven (7) questions/tasks relating to strategic planning. Students must record their answers in a separate A4 document and submit by attaching to their cover page.
Instructions for Students
Assessment 3. Major Activity
This assessment is a major activity which consists of eleven (11) short answer questions to assess the student’s knowledge of this unit.
Assessment 1: Activities
This assessment consists of ten (10) activities to assess the student’s knowledge of this unit.
Instructions for Students
Students must answer all questions. Most questions require short answers although some questions require a more detailed response. Students may use various sources of information including: text books, learning workbooks, other documents and the internet and they must list their sources.
Activity |
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1A |
Ensure you have completed Table A. Table A
Then complete the following:
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2A |
Look at a selection of these examples from your own workplace, research or commissioned functions, and provide examples of what was undertaken and needed to identify sufficient information.
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2B |
What workplace examples can you provide to describe the importance of exploring issues with a global context, rather than domestic?
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2C |
Using a workplace example, detail your comments on the following:
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2D |
At the discretion of the instructor, complete an example of a SWOT and/or PEST analysis using the templates provided in the notes and examples from your workplace, or others provided by the instructor.
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2E |
In groups, or as directed by the instructor, complete a checklist of the areas suggested and, if relevant, make comments from a workplace experience on each.
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2F |
In groups, or as directed by the instructor, complete an exercise by checking the results of an analysis and findings of both internal and external environments Ø Use an example from your workplace Ø If no example from your workplace is available, use an example provided by the instructor Ø Use the examples of what to address and the format in the templates provided in the notes
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3A |
In groups or as directed by the instructor, detail your experiences on developing a strategic plan and list your comments, in respect to the notes and your personal findings from a workplace example. If you do not have a workplace example, detail your understandings of each of the suggested processes, using an example provided by the instructor.
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1) Workplace Experience |
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Activities
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The Audience
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Resources
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Time Frames
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They communicate the strategic plan to all the employees through newspaper, fliers, or company magazine.
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All employees in the company
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It includes a summary of the overall strategic plan for the organization.
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It is in the fourth quarter of the year.
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Celebrate success
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It involves the person who takes those responsibilities.
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It includes the compensation and remuneration to reward success.
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It is in the fourth quarter of the year.
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It develops the Strategic plan and M measure the communication efforts.
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The persons, which are involved, are CFO, Store general managers, CEO, board of directors, marketing general manager, COO, HR general managers, and FARM.
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Develop a strategic plan and concentrate on competitor analysis.
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It is in the early next year.
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Implement the strategic plan
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The persons, which are involved, are COO, FARM, CEO, and board of directors.
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It measures and track implementation plan.
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It is in the first quarter of preceding year.
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Evaluate and review the strategic plan
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It includes HR general manager, marketing manager, and CFO.
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It reviews the strategic plan and gain new opportunities against strategic plan.
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It is in the second quarter of following year.
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4A |
Ø In groups, or as directed by the instructor, detail using a workplace example the process used for implementing a strategic plan. Ø In particular, the example used in the activity should show communications, performance indicators and objectives at agreed milestones.
Detail in particular detail implementingObjective 1-The main objective is to service Australian hardware products in each situation in the subsequent five years. · Strategy (a) -They sign the agreement and build the strategic partnership with YYY.
· Strategy (b) –They should maintain an Australian hardware warehouse.
Strategy (c) – They should set agents and maintenance contracts in other states.
Objective 2- The main objective is to increase profit margin by 5% in the next five years by setting a benchmark. · Strategy (d) – They should activate bulk buying to decrease supplier price.
Strategy (e) –They should maintain all departments at sustainability and optimum level of capacity.
Objective 3 –The main objective is to maintain the brand recognition of the Australian hardware and 87% of people react positively. · Strategy (f) –They should develop internet and social networking.
Strategy (g) –They should connect with YYY in café banners.
Objective 4 – The main objective is to reduce the energy-use by 10% in the following years. It has been seen decrease in 8% than financial year benchmark. · Strategy (h) –They should implement reward programs for reducing energy waste.
Strategy (i) – They should execute and implement campaign of energy conservation.
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4B |
Draft a strategic plan. In groups, draft a strategic plan using the following headings as an example.
Organisational structure
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Assessment 2: Skills and Knowledge Activity
Student Instructions:
Complete the following individually and attach your completed work to your workbook.The answers to the following questions will enable you to demonstrate your knowledge of:
- Reading
- Writing
- Oral Communication
- Numeracy
- Navigate the world of work
- Interact with others
- Get the work done
- Outline the legislation, regulations and codes of practice relevant to the organisation’s strategic plan
- Give examples of risks and risk management strategies relevant to strategic planning including:
- intellectual property rights and responsibilities
- other risks
- Outline strategic planning methodologies including political, economic, social and technological (PEST) analysis and strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis (SWOT)
- Identify internal and external sources of information relevant to the organisation’s market, competitors, customer base, vision, values and capabilities
- Outline techniques for developing organisational values
Answer each of the seven (7) questions in as much detail as possible, considering your organisational requirements for each one.How can your analytical skills be used when developing and implementing strategic plans?
Ans1. Analytical skills are utilized to analyse the organization and noted to set apart from competitors. They should analyse the environment to deliver the possible opportunities and stakeholders to pursue their preferences. They should also analyse competitors to compete in an effective and efficient way. The analytical skills can be developed to execute the strategic plan of the company (Wamba et al., 2015).
- What financial implications exist when proposing new strategies?
Ans2. Pro forma statements can maintain the financial impact of the various course of action such as income statements, cash flow statements, budgets, and balance sheet. It is to be considered to develop a strategic plan for the company and to propose strategies for measuring profitability and success. It can produce benefits and helpful to the company (Musacchio, Lazzarini and Aguilera, 2015).
- Why is it important that research is accurate and up-to-date?
Ans3. They should update the database, which helps in complying with the rules and regulations, but also provides benefits by avoiding energy waste resources. They can also screen customer data across a range of files, which involves register of the deceased person and national change of address file. It helps in finding and identifying research to be accurate (Ary et al., 2018).
- How can the requirement of due diligence be assessed?
Ans4. It involves the requirements to be assessed and evaluated-
- Compliance- They should assess and evaluate that regulations and industry requirements are met.
- Information Systems- They should maintain information security, assessment of organization, and software lifecycles.
- Finance- This includes financial trends, internal audit, cash flow, in place financial system, accounting, accounts receivable and financial organization (Lindholm and Ballantyne, 2016).
- What relevant legislation does your organisation adhere to that could affect strategic planning?
Ans5. The legislations in the organization, which follow and affect the strategic plan-
- Practice issues
- Governance
- Human resources
- Other commitments
These are legislations, which are beneficial and profitable for the company and enhance success in the organization (Welford, 2016).
- What is the purpose of a SWOT and PEST analysis?
Ans6. The purpose of SWOT analysis is to generate lists of all of the intrinsic and extrinsic strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats to maintain and make better strategic planning decisions. Their main objective is that it determines if the projects are probably succeeded or not.
Recognition of Prior Learning
The purpose of PESTEL analysis is to recognize all of the several external political, economic, social, technological, ecological, and legal factors that might impacts the success and profitability of the company (Mauree and Geneletti, 2017).
- Why is it important to have knowledge of the competitors?
Ans7. It is significant to have knowledge of competitors because-
- It can help to set the prices to react to promote marketing campaigns.
- It can help in generate marketing approaches to gain advantage of competitor’s weakness and enhances business performance.
- It helps in delivering best possible products and services to customers, which can do things in an innovative manner (UN and Asakawa, 2015).Major Activity
This assessment is a major activity which consists of eleven (11) short answer questions to assess the student’s knowledge of this unit.
Instructions for Students
Students must answer all questions. Most questions require short answers although some questions require a more detailed response. Students may use various sources of information including: text books, learning workbooks, other documents and the internet and they must list their sources.
Completed answers should be attached to the workbook.
- How can you check the vision and mission of the organisation is supported and why is this useful?
Ans1. They should review the strategic plan and evaluating activities, which move towards mission and vision of the company. It is helpful as it allows the suppliers, shareholders, and customers to choose that if they want to do business with the company or not (Khan and Naeem, 2018).
- How can you gain support from stakeholders for strategic planning?
Ans2. The support can be gained from stakeholders-
- They can communicate about sharing data and information in a consistent and purposeful way.
- They can engage employees to build ownership in the organization (Jarzabkowski and Kaplan, 2015).
- What is the importance of using experts when strategically planning?
Ans3. Outside experts will be helpful for the company as it can leads to greater results. CEO in a company can build partnership and alliances with other companies to generate success in the future. They have the effective abilities and competencies to manage the team (Wolf and Floyd, 2017).
- How would you analyse the following:
- Internal environment
- External environment
- Competitors
Ans4. Internal Environment- It describes SWOT analysis.
External Environment- It describes PEST analysis
Competitors-
- Rate the competitors.
- Describe the customers.
- Evaluate the competitors (Kuratko, Hornsby and Covin, 2014).
- Why is due diligence required when strategically planning?
Ans5. Due diligence is required because-
- Employees-This factor of take over a business is been an issue when seller has few expectations of the personnel.
- Government- They should check any permit requirements and license from the government (Li and Liu, 2014).
- How is research regarding strategic planning documented within your organisation?
Ans6. Every member of management and board member should get a copy of the plan and support the mission and vision statements to the main office. They should convey their plan to every person in the organization (LeCounte, Prieto and Phipps, 2017).
- Why is it important to record strategic changes for the future?
Ans7. It is significant because without records there can be no law and regulations. It provides client service, measurable outcomes, quality performance, which plays an important role in maintaining statuary regulations (Ginter, Duncan and Swayne, 2018).
- How is information regarding strategic plans circulated within your organisation?
Ans8. They should keep the message in a precise manner and make the necessary investment. They build the behaviour based upon customer and market insights & maintain the responsibility and discipline of the framework (Bourne, Bourne and Ferguson, 2017).
- Why is it important to communicate details of the plan and why is this useful?
Ans9. Employees should understand the big and clear picture and they can be more productive for the company. Organization must gain advantage of good communication and accomplish trust and credibility. They should create and generate a workplace that promotes success and growth (Miller and Rose, 2017).
- What performance indicators could be used to assess the success of a strategic plan?
Prior to Assessment
Ans10. The KPIs can be used to assess and evaluate the success of strategic plan are-
- People Metrics- Employee Satisfaction and Employee Turnover Rate (ETR).
- Process Metrics- It involves LOB efficiency measure, Customer Support Tickets, and percentage of products defects.
- Customer Metrics- It includes Customer Satisfaction & Retention, Customer acquisition Cost, and Number of customers (Main et al., 2015).
- What is the purpose of reviewing a strategic plan at agreed milestones and after implementation?
Ans11. It meets the needs of the agents and working within the policy framework and statutory regulations (Rosemann and vom, 2015).
References
Ary, D., Jacobs, L.C., Irvine, C.K.S. and Walker, D. (2018) Introduction to research in education. Australia: Cengage Learning book.
Bourne, M., Bourne, P. and Ferguson, D. (2017) Strategic business performance for sustainability. In Cranfield on Corporate Sustainability. London: Routledge.
Butler, M., Holloway, L., Marriott, K. and Goncu, C. (2017) Understanding the graphical challenges faced by vision-impaired students in Australian universities. Higher Education Research & Development, 36(1), pp.59-72.
Ginter, P.M., Duncan, W.J. and Swayne, L.E. (2018) The strategic management of health care organizations. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Jarzabkowski, P. and Kaplan, S. (2015) Strategy tools?in?use: A framework for understanding “technologies of rationality” in practice. Strategic Management Journal, 36(4), pp.537-558.
Khan, B.A. and Naeem, H. (2018) Measuring the impact of soft and hard quality practices on service innovation and organisational performance. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 29(11), pp.1402-1426.
Kuratko, D.F., Hornsby, J.S. and Covin, J.G. (2014) Diagnosing a firm’s internal environment for corporate entrepreneurship. Business Horizons, 57(1), pp.37-47.
Landaeta Olivo, J.F., García Guzmán, J., Colomo-Palacios, R. and Stantchev, V. (2016) IT innovation strategy: managing the implementation communication and its generated knowledge through the use of an ICT tool. Journal of Knowledge Management, 20(3), pp.512-533.
LeCounte, J.F., Prieto, L.C. and Phipps, S.T. (2017) CEO Succession Planning and Organizational Performance: A Human Capital Theory Approach. Journal of Leadership, Accountability, and Ethics, 14(1), pp.46-57.
Li, D.Y. and Liu, J. (2014) Dynamic capabilities, environmental dynamism, and competitive advantage: Evidence from China. Journal of Business Research, 67(1), pp.2793-2799.
Lindholm, M. and Ballantyne, E.E. (2016) Introducing elements of due diligence in sustainable urban freight transport planning. Transportation Research, 12, pp.66-78.
Main, E.K., Goffman, D., Scavone, B.M., Low, L.K., Bingham, D., Fontaine, P.L., Gorlin, J.B., Lagrew, D.C. and Levy, B.S. (2015) National partnership for maternal safety: consensus bundle on obstetric hemorrhage. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing, 44(4), pp.462-470.
Mauree, P.P. and Geneletti, D. (2017) Assessing barriers to effective spatial planning in Mauritius. A combination of SWOT and gap surveys. Journal of environmental planning and management, 60(8), pp.1324-1346.
Miller, P. and Rose, N., 2017. Political power beyond the state: Problematics of government. In Foucault and Law. London: Routledge.
Musacchio, A., Lazzarini, S.G. and Aguilera, R.V. (2015) New varieties of state capitalism: Strategic and governance implications. Academy of Management Perspectives, 29(1), pp.115-131.
Patel, B.S., Booker, L.D., Ramos, H.M. and Bart, C. (2015) Mission statements and performance in non-profit organisations. Corporate Governance, 15(5), pp.759-774.
Riemer, K., Gal, U., Brunk, J., Gilchriest, B., Ord, R. and Tong, J.A. (2014) Australian hardware. Australian Digital Commerce: Now is the time for Australian Retailers to Address the Customer Engagement Gap, 23(2), 34-67.
Rosemann, M. and vom Brocke, J. (2015) The six core elements of business process management. In Handbook on business process management. UK: Springer.
Soosay, C., Nunes, B., Bennett, D.J., Sohal, A., Jabar, J. and Winroth, M. (2016) Strategies for sustaining manufacturing competitiveness: Comparative case studies in Australia and Sweden. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 27(1), pp.6-37.
Un, C.A. and Asakawa, K. (2015) Types of R&D collaborations and process innovation: The benefit of collaborating upstream in the knowledge chain. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 32(1), pp.138-153.
Wamba, S.F., Akter, S., Edwards, A., Chopin, G. and Gnanzou, D. (2015) How ‘big data’can make big impact: Findings from a systematic review and a longitudinal case study. International Journal of Production Economics, 165, pp.234-246.
Welford, R. (2016) Corporate environmental management 1: systems and strategies. London: Routledge.
Wolf, C. and Floyd, S.W. (2017) Strategic planning research: Toward a theory-driven agenda. Journal of Management, 43(6), pp.1754-1788.