BUS 205 Assignments

A. Group Assignments
1. Consulting Presentation (15%)
Objectives:

To work effectively as a group to complete a complex, multi-stage project;

To gain a rudimentary understanding of the management consulting industry;
To make a set of formal recommendations in a professional setting;
To understand visual presentation of data.

Task:
Group members identify an organization that has disappointed its customers and other
stakeholders in a significant way. You and your group members make up a highly paid
consulting firm specializing in communication crises. Your group will act as the members of the
consulting team, moving in to regain the trust of disappointed customers and stakeholders.
Group Assignment Deliverables:
a. Group Presentation
You are given 10 minutes to deliver a well-rehearsed powerpoint presentation to the board of
directors (or senior management team) of the organization. Your presentation will tell you
clients:

The precise nature of the problem faced by the organization;

Three parallel, plausible alternatives available to organization to regain the trust of
stakeholders;
Chosen alternative and specific steps to implementation.

Students will choose a slot to present on the last two days of class.
b. Powerpoint Slide Deck
Slide deck will be composed in Microsoft Powerpoint and should be perfectly formatted and free
of spelling and grammatical errors. Deck employs standalone headings along with
grammatical and conceptual parallelism in lists and arrays of information. Slide deck
should contain at least one visual (to be discussed in class). Please see page 174 in textbook for
an example slide deck.
c. References
Groups submit a list of references for the project. References should be formatted in APA style
and contain at least 10 sources which demonstrate your broad knowledge of the problem and
1

provide credibility for your document. References should be a combination of government

documents, industry reports, academic articles, case studies, law cases, reputable web sites, and
authoritative news content.
d. Meeting Minutes
Student groups regularly upload meeting minutes to a wiki so that instructor can monitor group
progress. On the day of presentation, students also submit a fully-formatted Word doc version of
the complete set of meeting minutes. Please see the scan below for formatting and content
suggestions.

2. Case Assignment (5%)

Objectives:

To work effectively as a group to complete a time-sensitive project;

To perform basic problem-solution analysis in organizational setting;
To gain a rudimentary understanding of the case study format;
To develop a problem-solving template to be applied to the group project.

Case Study Format:

Instructor chooses a case study from one of the five featured in our textbook, Topics in
Management Communication. Students will be informed which case to discuss on the day of the
case assignment. An assignment sheet will be distributed during class.
Task:
Group members will answer several general questions about the business/organization featured
in the case study. Students will then provide the following:
Concise problem statement;
Three parallel, plausible alternatives available to organization to solve problem;
Recommendations and specific steps to implementation.

B. Individual Assignments
1. Memo (10%)
Objectives:

To understand the difference between internal and external communication

To effectively communicate with superiors in an organizational setting
To effectively use headings in professional writing

Task:
You work in an organization where the misbehaviour of other employees is threatening (or
potentially threatening) the well-being of the organization. You approach your superior to 1) tell
her the exact nature of the problem and 2) make some recommendations about how she can
bring the employees back into line.
When you search for an organization with misbehaving employees, please restrict your search to
the last 24 months. If you feel strongly about an older topic, please approach instructor.
Memo should address the following central questions:
1. What is the problem with the misbehaving employees and why is this problem
urgent?
2. What recommendations are you going to make to your superior to ensure that
problem is properly handled?
3. What are the immediate next steps to solving the problem?
Memo Assignment Deliverables:
a. Memo

Memo should be 400-600 words (not including headings) and employ standalone headings.
Memo should follow problem-solution structure introduced in class. Memo assignment is
uploaded to URCourses. Memo should be:

Composed in Microsoft Word;

Uploaded to URCourses;
Checked for spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors.

b. References
References should be listed on a separate page. Remember, good references include diverse
materials such as government documents, industry reports, academic articles, case studies, law
cases, reputable web sites, and authoritative news content. The references are required to help
you start your research for your business report (below).

2. Business Report (20%)

Objectives:
To effectively use the library database;
To thoroughly understand research report format and layout;
To make a set of formal recommendations in a professional setting.
Your memo (see Assignment B.1) has been so effective that manager decides to hire a consultant
to come in and clean up the problem. For the Business Report assignment you become the
consultant. You are going to carefully analyse the problem and craft a research report
approximately 1400-1800 words in length (main content of the document not including Letter
of Transmittal, Title Page, References) which is going to tell the senior management what went
wrong with the misbehaving employees, and how organization should remedy the situation.
Report will included at least one effectively titled visual. Effective headings are essential.
Feel free to use headings and content from your memo.

Report Assignment Deliverables:

a. Report
Report Components
Title Page
Forward (Letter of
Transmittal)
Table of Contents

Executive Summary
Report Body (Main
Content)
References

Report should be 1400-1800 words in length (main content in the body of your document, not
including tables and references) and should employ standalone headings. Memo should
follow problem-solution structure introduced in class. Memo assignment is uploaded to
URCourses. Memo should be:

Composed in Microsoft Word;

Uploaded to URCourses;
Checked for spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors.

b. Visual
Report should contain at least one visual as discussed in class. Visuals which contain data
should be formatted by you and not simply copied from other sources. Remember that you have
to draw the readers attention to the visual in the text. Remember that your visual also needs a
caption. Source of your visual should be included in references. See Visual powerpoint or p.
345 in textbook for more details.
c. References
Please include at least 10 references. Remember, good references include diverse materials such
as government documents, industry reports, academic articles, case studies, law cases, reputable

web sites, and authoritative news content. The references are required to help you start your
research for your business report (below).

Marking rubric for all assignments:

Communication Contents
Clear problem statement
Background to problem
Recommendations
Visual
Organization and Layout
Organization and logical flow of ideas
Completeness of explanation
Effective use of references
Writing Skills
Word choice, fluency
Grammar, punctuation mastery

40%

30%

30%