ASSESSMENT TASK 1: KNOWLEDGE QUESTIONS Questions:  Business ethics. Why is it important for a leader to demonstrate ethics in business? Write your answer in 70-100 words.  Identify any four (4) strategies to promote ethical conduct in a work area.  Explain the term “business ethics”? Answer in 100-150 words. Daniel Goleman theory states there are six (6) leadership styles. Outline each of these leadership styles in 50-70 words each.

ASSESSMENT TASK 1: KNOWLEDGE QUESTIONS

Questions: 

1. Business ethics.
   • Why is it important for a leader to demonstrate ethics in business? Write your answer in 70-100 words.
   • Identify any four (4) strategies to promote ethical conduct in a work area.
2. Explain the term “business ethics”? Answer in 100-150 words.
3. Daniel Goleman theory states there are six (6) leadership styles. Outline each of these leadership styles in 50-70 words each.
4. How can a leadership style support an organisation’s mission, objectives and values?  Write your answer in 100-150 words.
5. How can legislation impact on the leadership in an organisation? Answer in 100-150 words.
6. Explain the role of mission, vision and value statements in managing an organisation. Answer in 200-250 words.
7. What are the key considerations in identifying and communicating organisational mission and goals according to organisation’s strategic direction? Write your answer in 70-100 words.
8. Explain any five (5) methods that can be used to effectively communicate vision, mission and objectives of an organisation.  Write your answer in 200-250 words
9. Explain the relationship between a company’s objective, strategies and action plans, in 150-200 words.
10. Explain what organisational change processes are in 100-150 words.
11. Identify and explain six (6) strategies that can be used to build trust and confidence in team members through positive role modelling. Write your answer in 200-250 words
12. Identify and explain any four (4) considerations in effectively implementing changes, in order to improve organisational and workplace cultures.  Write your answer in 100-150 words
13. Why is it important to have an understanding of the global environment and new technology in work activities? Write your answer in 100-150 words.
14. Why is it important to demonstrate flexibility and adaptability in change management? Write your answer in 70-100 words.
15. Identify and explain five (5) levels of participation for decision making in an organisation.  Write your answer in 100-150 words
16. Why is it important to consider stakeholder’s expectations while making decisions? Write your answer in 70-100 words.
17. Discuss the process of risk management when making decisions in an organisation. Write your answer in 100-150 words.
18. Discuss the five (5) strategies that can be used to present a positive image of your organisation in media and the community. Write your answer in 100-150 words.

ASSESSMENT TASK 2 – UNIT PROJECT (UP)

Assessment task instructions:

This is the second (2) unit assessment task which is a project based task that you have to successfully complete to be deemed competent in this unit of competency.

This assessment task consists of the following three (3) parts:

Part A- Role/play presentation on communicating organisational mission and goals, and influence stakeholders.

Part B- Decision making considering stakeholder’s needs and expectations.

Part C- Creating media brief.

Purpose of the assessment task:

This assessment task is designed to evaluate student’s knowledge essential to providing effective leadership in organisation in a range of contexts and industry settings & Knowledge regarding to the following:

Skills to clarify organisation’s objectives, values and standards, and establish its relationship with responsibilities of associated stakeholders, appropriate media and language to state clear expectations from stakeholders and encourages their commitment to the organisation, investigate incidents and communicate the results to the relevant stakeholders, influence groups and individuals to build trust and respect in diverse groups and implement improvements to organisational culture, about new technologies and demonstrating flexibility and adaptability to the changes, take decisions with stakeholder involvement and risk considerations, to assign accountabilities and responsibilities to team members and empowering them with required resources and support for initiatives, to demonstrate ethical conduct, adapt interpersonal and leadership styles, set personal objectives and improve self-professional competence.

Assessment conditions and resources:

Assessment will be conducted in a safe classroom environment where evidence gathered demonstrates consistent performance of typical activities experienced in the management and leadership field of work and include access to, relevant legislation, regulation, standards and codes, relevant workplace documentation and resources, case studies and, where possible, real situations, interaction with others.

Company history

Construct International Limited (CIL) is a privately-owned manufacturing and construction company operating in the state of Victoria. The organisation provides services across the state and has gained the reputation as one of the safest and most reputable businesses in the industry.

Currently, CIL employs 85 floor staff who work around the clock manufacturing the pressure vessels and some civil construction projects. There are 15 site supervisors that are placed in charge of each team and work on-site throughout various projects. In the head office, there are 12 permanent staff members including the two partners who act as company directors, a personal assistant to the directors, a human resources manager, an operations manager, three planners, a designer, an administration officer, a business development manager and an accounts/payroll officer.

Strategic Vision of FIL

The strategic vision of Construct International Limited is to be a leading provider of manufacturing and construction services across Australia. The company is committed to Safety, Quality, On-time delivery, Innovation and fulfilling the objectives of key Stakeholders.

CIL’s strategic goals include:

• To be an industry leader in manufacturing and custom services.
• Maintain excellence in work health and safety standards.
• Enhance the human resource capability by fostering an environment of innovation, trainings and rewards.
• Achieve best quality by focusing on doing things first time right.
• Achieve maximum customer satisfaction through on-time delivery and providing excellent after sales service.

Strategic Mission of CIL

Construct International Limited has identified the potential for growth within the Road construction industry in Australia in the coming years. The company aims to increase its market share in the southern states by 30% over the next two financial years.

To achieve this goal and measure its operational performance, five key performance indicators have been established for the company:

• To increase the number of new construction contracts by 20% over the next two financial years.
• To secure at-least 90% client retention rate for ongoing contracts through 100% on time delivery.
• Decrease operating expenses by 5% per year through innovation and minimizing rework.
• To expand company’s services by opening offices in at least two new states over the next two financial years.
• To increase safety performance to less than 1?cident rate per financial year.

Background

The strategic and operational programme were developed as a result of vigorous market research in manufacturing and construction industry. This research has identified wide-scatter opportunities and future growth in the construction industry.

Construct International Limited target to expand their operations and take advantage of the current state of the marketplace in their existing segment and expand into other states. They intent to secure new contracts from government agencies and privately-owned organisations to develop key client relationships and secure ongoing contracts using a personal, warm, friendly and transparent approach to manufacturing and construction services.

As part of this strategy, Construct International Limited will be looking at reducing staff attrition, expanding its workforce and reducing spending in many aspects of its operations, including administrative and leasing expenses associated with facilities and plant.

Exit interviews have indicated dissatisfaction with employment conditions including wages and inconsistent rosters. Staff view the company as being too orthodox and rigid in managing people.

As the demand for reliable and competent manufacturing and construction workmen is quite high, Construct International Limited is aware that they must address the compensation and shift work issues so as to pull in and hold quality staff and guarantee that their HR system reflects and advances the objectives and destinations of the association.

Organisational Chart

Summary of key employee roles

Manufacturing and construction Workmen

• Responsible for performing all manufacturing and construction activities at site as per required quality standards, communicating with each other, and ensuring the safety of all stakeholders.
• Working conditions are according to the Building and Construction General On-site Award 2010.
• 50% of the workmen are employed on a casual basis, 25% are part-time and 25% are full-time.
• A large proportion of the workers are from overseas including people from China, India, Pakistan and middle-east, who are looking for a temporary job.
• Floor staff have little opportunity to participate in health and safety consultation and focus groups due to rotating shifts.
• There have been a large number of fatigue related issues due to prolonged periods of working at sites and manually handling heavy equipment.
• There has been a lower level of employee engagement due to lack of support, training and recognition from site supervisors and the Operations Manager.
• The company is facing a high attrition rate of 50% per year and thus have a lot of vacant roles that the Human Resources Manager is failing to fill due to a lack of quality candidates.

Site Supervisors

• Responsible for coordinating and supervising the manufacturing and construction work to the required safety and quality standards, performance management, team spirit and coordinating the staff development.
• Site supervisors are covered under individual contracts and are paid well above the award rate.
• Supervisors a high level of participation in various cross-functional teams, improvement groups and committees, which enhanced their skills.
• They experience high levels of personal engagement due to positive working relationships with schedulers and their superiors.
• Site supervisors do complain about the lack of enthusiasm, reliability and commitment of floor staff to their job, and are regularly required to oversee clashes inside groups and resolve staff grievances over working conditions.

Planners

• Planners are responsible for preparing plans and deploy workmen and site supervisors to various sites to meet agreed deadlines and client requirements.
• They are also required to manage performance of site supervisors, resolve conflicts and mediate between floor staff and site supervisors.
• Planners are covered under individual contracts and are required to be available 24/7 to schedule and source staff for manufacturing and construction contracts.
• Due to huge workload, they have little time to participate in professional and personal development activities and focus groups because this impacts their ability to meet their deadlines.
• They are frequently required to work 12-14 hours per day, sometimes work from home in the evenings and weekends, in must make and receive calls throughout the day.
• Planners encounter a high number of stress-related problems due to the nature of the job role and the consequences of failing to meet scheduling requirements.
• They are generally not happy with the way in which they are being treated, this has led to an increase number of conflicts and disputes.

Human Resources Manager

• He has been in the role for more than 1 year after completing a human resources qualification two years ago.
• He is responsible for general well-being and worker relations matter such as recruitment and separation, employee engagement, policy development, staff training and grievances.
• He spends majority of time in recruitment processes, managing staff grievances and working with supervisors to improve management skills.
• He has not spent enough time on employee engagement due to other HR commitments.

Current employee relations climate

Existing employee relations strategies and policies

• There is no formal employee relations policy or plans exist for Construct International Limited.
• There is no formal grievance policy or procedures in place. Issues are currently handled by the Human Resources Manager.
• Current training and performance management programs are conflicting and are neglecting to achieve performance requirements and support strategic plans.
• Inductions are conducted on-site and are rarely documented.

Feedback from management regarding existing employee relations strategies and policies

• Excessive time and resources are wasted on focusing on issues instead of developing ways to improve the competencies and engagement levels of staff.
• Good staff are leaving because too much time is spent focusing on poor performers and managing conflicts.
• Manufacturing and construction teams do not work together as cohesive unit.
• There needs to be formal processes in place and better communication between all levels of the business.

Feedback from front line employees regarding existing employee relations strategies and policies

• Favoured treatment of staff especially towards full-time staff.
• Vague and varied terms and conditions of employment especially across lower hierarchy levels due to absence of any formal enterprise agreement.
• There is no system of providing any feedback about the workplace due to time restrictions and lack of contact with management.
• Lack of opportunities to discuss employment issues with management. and it is perceived that information is not passed on or followed up with management.
• Some floor workers believe that supervisors are not supportive and don’t want to work on improving employment conditions.
• Limited communication and team work across the business between office and front-line staff.

Regulatory responsibilities

Construct International Limited acknowledges its role as a responsible company in the community. The organisation’s prosperity will come about not just by fulfilling particular needs of customers in the manufacturing and construction industry, but from conducting its business with the highest levels of integrity and meeting all legislative, regulatory and ethical standards. It is company policy to comply with all respects with relevant local/state legislation and federal government legislation.

These laws include:

• Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986
• Age Discrimination Act 2004
• Disability Discrimination Act 1992
• Racial Discrimination Act 1975
• Sex Discrimination Act 1984
• The Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act) and Australian Privacy Principles (APPs)
• Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 – Applicable in Victoria
• Work Health and Safety Act 2011

Construct International Limited’s policy of compliance with legislation requires every worker to comprehend the enactment applicable to their position keeping in mind the end goal to stay away from infringement, and to look for a clarification from the Human Resources Manager if there is any worry or instability with regards to the person’s obligations. Relevant legislation is available for reference through the Human Resources Manager or via access to the internet.

Managers and employees of Construct International Limited are relied upon to lead their operations in a way steady with all pertinent enactment at all circumstances.

Key considerations

Construct International Limited (CIL) must consider the following important employee relations issues:

• High rate of manpower attrition which is much more than their counterparts in the industry.
• Less salary packages when compared with existing industry standards.
• The top management is aware of the need to increase pay packages in order to attract and retain quality employees and has committed funds to implement employee relations strategies.
• No formal enterprise agreement exists and employees are hired on a verbal agreement.
• Highly unionised workforce particularly in the manufacturing and construction department.

Employee relations improvement options

Possible employee relations strategies that have been discussed by management in the past have included:

• Team building training programs across all levels to improve cohesion among staff and workmen.
• Comprehensive induction training for all workmen, including stress management and conflict management.
• Professional development of employees through identification of skills and providing the required support and training.
• Negotiation of a new collective agreement for workmen, including paying above the industry median, staff bonuses and flexible working rosters.
• Hiring an additional planner to balance the present load on the planners.

Assessment Task:

Part A:

You are working as one of the Directors of the Construct International Limited (CIL). Considering the long-term growth plans, it is extremely important to motivate, build and support teams. You are therefore required to hold a meeting with all staff, apprise them of the latest development in the company and motivate them to achieve individual and team objectives. For the role play, you must get help from your trainer/assessor to divide your classmates into the role of staff members from four (4) different departments- Planning, Design, Operations and HR.

Trainer/assessor will play the role of an external advisor whom the CIL has hired for improving the work culture of the company.

You must prepare and deliver a PowerPoint presentation consisting of 15-20 slides in order to cover the major points to be discussed, during the meeting. The presentation must be made professionally and must cover the following criteria:

1. Choose any two (2) groups of the employees from the following:

2. Reiterate the company’s long-term and short- term objectives, the values that the company wants to establish, and standards required to be followed to meet the organisation’s strategic direction.

• Operations
• Designers
• Planners
• Human Resource

Identify the importance of these groups and their associated responsibilities in meeting the organisation’s objectives, values and standards.

3. Clearly define the expectations from these two (2) groups and convey in a positive manner in order to motivate them and build commitment to the organisation.

4. Take any two (2) grievances that happened in the past six (6) months. Discuss the root cause of the problems, the corrective actions taken by the company and preventive actions (may be policy change) planned to be implemented.

5. Discuss any three (3) improvements which the managements plan to implement, to improve the organisational workplace culture. The actions must demonstrate company’s flexibility and adaptability to change.

You must also discuss the following for each of the three (3) improvements:

• Resources required to embrace the improvements
• Steps in implementing the improvements
• Major risks in taking decisions/ actions for these improvements and the associated risk management plan
• Industry best practices and latest developments in work activities

6. Discuss with the audience and explain them how these improvements will meet their needs and expectations and take any feedbacks for refining the improvement action plan. You must write the stakeholder’s feedback in Template-1.

Part B:

Based on the discussion with stakeholders, make changes in the improvement action plan. Write down the decisions to be taken, considering the risks associated with changes and the corresponding risk mitigation plans and the appropriate timeframes. You must follow the Template-2 to write your responses.

Part C:

Create a media brief for the improvements done in the organisation. The media brief must emphasise on the positive effects of the improvement actions and how it would be beneficial in achieving organisation’s mission and vision. You must write the media brief in Template-3.

ASSESSMENT TASK 3 – ROLE PLAY (RP)

Activities

Read the scenario below and complete the following activities.

Scenario: 

The aggressive marketing from CIL combined with their efforts to improve the organisational workplace culture paid dividends and the company is able to secure a project for constructing a residential block consisting of 24 apartments.

Successful completion of this project would mean establishing itself in the northern suburbs of the city which is going through a major expansion. CIL expects to achieve many more projects in this region and want to execute this project perfectly and within designated timelines and quality requirements.

However, in order to secure the project, CIL committed an eight (8) months contractual delivery date against the normal ten (10) months expected to finish such a project. This will require additional manpower and more resources along with innovative methods to perform tasks, in order to achieve the target.

The planner has worked out the different milestones and their curtailed timelines to achieve the target. The details are in the table below:

The Director of the company wants to leave no stone unturned to achieve the project objectives. Therefore, he called a meeting with stakeholders to build teams, set accountabilities and assign responsibilities.

Role Play Task:

You are the Director and call a meeting with the Operations Manager, Designer, Planner and Human Resource Manager. Your Trainer/assessor along with three (3) other students must take these roles. You need to involve the stakeholders and build a team in order to achieve the project objectives. You must discuss and finalise the following:

1. Establish the accountabilities and reiterate the responsibilities of the team members consisting with people from different departments. These accountabilities and responsibilities must be aligned with the targeted milestone durations.
2. Discuss and finalise the resources required by different departments in order to achieve their individual targets in meeting the contractual delivery date.
3. Discuss and identify at least one (1) innovative approach in performing the work in areas of each of the stakeholders available in the meeting. Also understand what kind of support they require to implement the innovation.
4. Capture the points discussed, prepare a report and circulate it to your team (trainer/assessor and other participants).  Write your report in 800-1000 words using the template 4 as provided below.

ASSESSMENT TASK 4 – UNIT PROJECT (UP) – DEMONSTRATE PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE

Part A:

Scenario: 

The focussed project execution and flawless teamwork resulted in achieving milestones. The project is in execution phase and is expected to finish as per the set targets. However, while laying down the tiles, the site inspector found that the tiles are brittle and break on slight application of the pressure. The inspector informs the site supervisor who is under pressure due to tight schedule. The site supervisor refuses to take any action as he is only concerned of meeting the deadline. Also, he believes that he is using the material supplied to him and it is not his responsibility to bother about the quality of raw material.

The site inspector then calls the Operations Manager and apprises him of the situation. The Operations Manager immediately called the site supervisor and the site inspector for a meeting.

Role Play Task:

You are playing the role of the Operations Manager and call a meeting with the site supervisor and the site inspector. You must relate the issues in the scenario to the CIL’s objectives, vision, mission and the work ethics, and involve your team on the ethical conduct and business ethics. Your trainer/assessor will take on the role of the site supervisor and another student will take on the role of the site inspector.

Your role-play must cover the following points:

1. Involve the team members on the ethical conduct, company’s vision and individual role in achieving the long-term company objectives. Discuss on the business ethics requirement and create an understanding for future instances. You must write the points discussed in Template-5.

Part B:

The important aspect of leadership is identifying your goals, determine the path to achieve those goals and continuous professional development through knowledge.

1. Identify any five (5) objectives which you feel you will need to achieve in order to succeed as a leader in your organisation. You must also mention the steps you will follow to achieve those objectives. Write your responses in 300-500 words using the below Template-6.
2. Identify and join any one (1) professional development activity for example an online course, short-term course, professional memberships, blogs etc. Participate in these activities regularly and provide evidence of your participation to your trainer/assessor. For example, you may include LinkedIn groups, workshops, blogs, educational fairs, webinars.