Master of Business Administration

AWARDED BY NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY, UK

Managing Information & Knowledge Strategically Assignment

July 2011

Assignment

(100 marks)

Completed assignments must be submitted by the student through email to mbaassignments@wecouncil.com on or before the given deadline. Late assignments will not be accepted.

Awarded by Nottingham Trent University, UK

MODULE DATE ISSUED : : Managing Information & Knowledge Strategically WEEK 1 July 4, 2011

Assignment

SUBMISSION DATE

WEEK 6 August 14th, 2011 [Before 12.00 midnight Malaysia Singapore time]

LENGTH

3000 TO 3500 WORDS

Assignment Question

It is said that knowledge is the lifeline of organizations, without which organizations will not be able to compete effectively and survive. For this reason, computerized and stored knowledge is now a strategic resource for which organizations are constantly trying to develop the right knowledge management system (KMS).

One approach is to focus on intellectual capital in your knowledge program. Intellectual capital can generally be categorised as: (i) human capital (the know-how, experience and competences of knowledge workers); (ii) (iii) structural capital (the policies, procedures, and the applications that it owns); customer or relationship capital (the value of customer relationships and loyalty that has been built over the years).

The key is that the intellectual capital focuses the firms knowledge effort to enhance its business value and ties it to its business strategy. Being intangible, intellectual capital has always been difficult to measure, codify and manage. For example, taking full advantage of the tacit knowledge that resides in employees is more difficult than exploiting the value of a machine to its maximum.

You are required to produce a strong report to the management to convince them to approve the implementation of a suitable knowledge management system (KMS) for harnessing the above three categories of intellectual capital of your chosen organization.

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Awarded by Nottingham Trent University, UK

Assignment

Note: The chosen organization can either be a real or an imaginary organization. Your report must include ALL above three categories of intellectual capital. Guide for Assignment Preparation

Structure your report within the following framework: Executive Summary: It must communicate the basics of your entire report concisely. Give this page (not more than 300 words). Introduction: Address the report to management, focusing on the purpose of the report. Background of the Company: Build the background of your company based on the above intellectual capital requirements. You can include the companys vision and mission statements. Main Body: Depend on the issues you will be assessing. The more issues you raised and assessed critically and subjectively from a variety of sources, the more marks you will get. Recommendation: Use it effectively to gain buy-in from senior management. References: Cite and list your references correctly using the Harvard referencing method.

Important notes:
1. Proper referencing is essential. Your grades will be adversely affected if there is no / poor referencing. You are strongly advised to carefully read the Nottingham Trent University Referencing Guide and Harvard Referencing Ferret available and at ensure

http://www.ntu.ac.uk/llr/developing_skills/referencing_plagiarism/index.html

proper referencing following the Harvard Referencing Style. List of references in an alphabetical order must be presented at the end of your assignment.

2. You are strictly not allowed to use the general internet references e.g.
www.google.com, www.yahoo.com etc and Wikipedia. All references should be from

the credible sources e.g. books, newspapers, articles, journals, magazines etc.

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Awarded by Nottingham Trent University, UK

Instructions 1. 2.

Assignment

The assignment MUST be submitted on-line on or before the due date. Assignment has to be submitted on or before August 14th, 2011 before 12.00 midnight Malaysia & Singapore Time Zone. 3. Assignments should be word processed. 4. Your assignment should be organized under suitable headings. An analytical piece of work is required. The use of cut and paste approach will be penalized. It must be presented in a structured manner, with appropriate cover page, content page, abstract page, introduction, body (with appropriate heading / sub-headings), conclusion, references and any required appendices. 5. The assignments shall contain a minimum of 3000 to a maximum 3500 words, presented in text of font size 12 with 1.5 line spacing. 6. Your assignment shall reflect the depth and breadth of your original analyses in a clear and coherent manner. Due credit shall be given for excellent illustration of points using diagrammatic mode. 7. Any reference to authors and other writers shall be quoted with due acknowledgement in your assignment report using the Harvard Referencing System or APA. 8. The cover page should be attached with the assignment and uploaded through SERF online. Name of the student, The Programme, Module Title, Assignment Title and the selected Topic along with on-line Signature of student and number of words must be reflected on the cover sheet. 9. All assignments must be adhered strictly to the deadlines specified by WEC. Failure to hand in the assignment for any reason and without prior approval of the Course Leader will result in the participants work being penalized in accordance with the Academic & Assessment Regulations governing the conduct of the Master of Business Administration programme as follows: Five days late - the assessed mark will be reduced by five percentage points Ten days late - the assessed mark will be reduced by ten percentage points Over 10 days late - the module assessor can refuse to mark the piece of work and will record a zero mark. 10. Unacknowledged use of work of others (plagiarism) is regarded as a dishonest practice and will be dealt with severely as follows: 11. In a case of suspected plagiarism it is the right and duty of the Board of Examiners to: a) receive all information pertinent to the case in written form or verbal evidence including the submitted work itself;

b) seek further advice where appropriate; confirm or reject the accusation of plagiarism; determine its recommendation where it confirms the case according to the circumstances and severity of the case. It may recommend that a) the case constitutes plagiarism and that the participant fails with or without the right of resubmission; c)

12.

b) the submitted work fail. It will then be the responsibility of the Board of Examiners to determine whether or not this failure in assessment can be compensated for in the light of the participant's overall performance or whether or not the participant will be required to retake part or all of the elements for progression towards or the conferment of the award; the participant be penalized by a reduction in the mark for this assessment and/or classification of the award. The Board of Examiners shall then agree a mark and/or classification; d) the participant be issued with a formal reprimand in writing and a copy of this lodged in the participants file. c)

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Awarded by Nottingham Trent University, UK

MARKS ALLOCATION BREAKDOWN

Assignment

Part 1: Technical component 1.1 Setting the scene /introduction/problem statement/background analysis 1.2 Structure and presentation 1.2.1 1.2.2 1.2.3 1.2.4 Logic sequence with section well linked and well organized Good flow and clarity of presentation Balance between text and use of charts, diagrams, headings Use of appropriate terminology and style for professional and technical writing 1.2.5 1.2.6 Proper referencing method Compliance word count Subtotal Part 2: Understanding of existing body of knowledge 2.1 Use of wide range of information from a variety of sources, with appropriate referencing and own style of presentation to address the issue/Literature review 2.2 Using appropriate example, case study, data and sample to clarify and support exposition 2.3 Completeness, relevancy, accuracy and correctness of material use to support exposition Subtotal Part 3: Application of the knowledge learned 3.1 Contextualize the learning to the work place by providing and discussing real-world situation where the concepts can be applied. 3.2 Making quality recommendations and conclusions with supporting ideas of why the conclusions and recommendations are relevant and important to the situation, and how the recommendations can improve the current situation. Recommendations should also include possible implementation obstacles and problems. 3.3 Balanced discussion of issues where pros and cons, costs and benefits, strength and weaknesses are well considered. 3.4 Originality and creativity: proposing new and innovative ideas, creative use of existing approach to new area of applications, critical analysis of existing ideas and approaches, new insights into existing problems, improvement of existing methods, Subtotal TOTAL MARKS FOR 100%

Level

7.5 %

7.5 %

15.0 %

10.0 %

10.0 % 10.0 % 30.0 %

15.0 % 15.0 %

15.0 %

10.0 %

55.0 %

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