Individual home assignment (50%)
Critically analyse one of the three statements below. You may want to consider the questions listed in your
answer; but you are encouraged to make your own argument and go beyond these initial questions. You
should not simply answer these questions one by one.
1. Money makes the world go round.
What is motivation and why is it important? What is the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic
motivation? How can money fit into the content and process theories of motivation? Is money the
best way to motivate people? Why?
2. Leaders have the most power in organisations.
What is the relation of leadership and power? What are the sources and forms of organisational
power? Does effective leadership require power? Why? Do stakeholders with power become
leaders? Why?
3. Diversity of workforce is the golden way to high performance.
What does diversity mean? In what ways can workforce be diverse? In what ways can diversity boost
performance? Are heterogenous or homogenous groups better? Why? Shall every organisation
welcome diversity? Why?
You must engage with, and properly reference, at least five academic sources (min. one of which must be
from the module presentation schedule) in your paper. The textbook, module slides as well as various blogs,
Wikipedia etc. are not academic sources but they are good starting points as they may list journal articles and
books that you can use for the assignment. You are encouraged to investigate arguments for and against the
statement, make your own argumentative response using the literature, and find practical examples from
corporate life (news, interviews, biographies, statistics, etc.) to support your claims.
The assignment should be 2,000 words long (A4 sheet, 2cm margins, 12pt font size). Papers shorter than
1,800 and longer than 2,200 words lose 10 points; papers shorter than 1,600 words fail automatically. Sources
must be referred to using the Harvard-style. Assignments must be uploaded on Moodle.
Marking criteria: the assignment will be assessed based on the following criteria (see the grid on Moodle):
• Understanding of Organizational Behaviour material (20%)
• Analysis (40%)
• Source use (literature, statistics, 5 academic articles, etc.) (20%)
• Structure (10%)
• Language and mechanics, referencing (10%)
Academic Conduct
Harvard-style referencing needs to be used consistently throughout presentations and home assignments.
Incomplete referencing shall result in reporting the case to the Academic Conduct Officer, who keeps a record
of such violations. First offenders may resubmit their papers and may receive 40% at most. Repeated
violations of academic standards shall be sanctioned in line with the plagiarism regulations as detailed in the
Student Handbook.
The rules of Harvard-style referencing and the regulations for academic (mis)conduct can be found on the
Moodle-page of the module. In addition, you must log on to Word with your own IBS username and
password for writing the essay.
Where the Academic Conduct Officer has reason to suspect that a piece of work submitted by a student was
wholly or in part written by someone other than the student who submitted it, and this has not been
disclosed by the student, they may call for the student to defend the work in a viva or a written
comprehension test. The burden of proof in such a viva or test will be upon the student to demonstrate to
the examination panel’s satisfaction his/her full comprehension of the work s/he has submitted. Failure to
appear without satisfactory explanation will result in immediate failure of that assessment, with
consequences of academic misconduct and application of sanctions.
