3CO01 BUSINESS, CULTURE AND CHANGE IN CONTEXT

Introduction to 3CO01 New Assessment Brief

The first unit in the Level 3 Foundation Certificate in People Practice is 3CO01. The new brief investigates the internal influences that shape the business and the culture in which it operates. The unit investigates the behaviours of people professionals in managing change. The new brief asks students to answer the following questions in an estimated 2500 words. Students base their responses on their organization or a familiar organization. I’ll use McDonald’s as an example in this guideline.

Assessment questions

1.1 An examination of the key external influences impacting or likely to impact the organisation’s activities

The guideline

Students will explain three external factors and their impact on the organization (positive or negative). Students can use the PESTLE analysis tool to identify and discuss the factors (political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental) that affect McDonald’s business operations. As an example:

• Political factor: Brexit.
• Economic factor: Covid-19 pandemic
• Legal Factor: Changing employment regulations laws

Students will explain how the factors listed above help them understand the business market environment.

1.2 A discussion of the organisation’s business goals and why organisations need to plan for how they will achieve these

The guideline

A business goal is a target that the company intends to achieve within a certain time frame. McDonald’s business goal is to provide a welcoming environment for customers as well as nutritious food. Students detail the other organizational goals as well as the objectives that support business within the external environment.

Students will then discuss why professionals must plan how they will achieve business objectives. The reasons should be thoroughly discussed to ensure that HR is aligned with the organization’s goals and objectives.

1.3 A discussion of the organisation’s products and/or services and main customers

The guideline

The students will describe the core products, the actual products, and the augmented products.

Students will also explain the customer characteristics and demographics, as well as the efforts made by the company to ensure that customers’ needs are met.

McDonald’s main products are fast food, beverages, and desserts. Among the services offered are improved dining experiences and a strong emphasis on customer service.

McDonald’s caters to low and middle-income customers, the majority of whom are students, employees, and parents with young children.

1.4 A short review of different technologies available to people professionals and how these can be, or are, used to improve working practices and collaboration. You might consider, for example, technologies relating to communications, information sharing, record keeping, learning, well-being, productivity, or security

The guideline

Students provide three examples of workplace technology used by professionals. Here are some examples:

• Social media technology
• Artificial intelligence
• Cloud automation

Students go on to describe how each technology improves work practices and collaboration. Social media technology, for example, improves communication, artificial intelligence improves service, learning, and productivity, and automation improves the automation of manual processes to speed up functions, particularly record-keeping.

Finally, students explain the benefits and drawbacks of the technologies discussed. 

2.1 What is meant by organisational culture and why it is important to foster an appropriate and effective workplace culture

The guideline

Students define workplace culture as the concept that describes how things are done in the organization. The underlying beliefs, values, patterns, and principles that comprise an organization’s work system are referred to as its culture.

Students can refer to Charles Handy’s model of organizational culture, which describes the following elements:

• Power
• Task culture
• Person culture
• Role culture

Students explain why it is critical to cultivating a positive culture. Some of the reasons are as follows:

• Increase employee involvement
• Accept diversity and inclusion.
• Improve internal consistency

Finally, students will provide one example of positive workplace culture and one example of negative workplace culture. Here are some examples:

• A culture that encourages employee learning to improve growth and career development.
• Employee competition that is unhealthy and harms the employees

 

2.2 How organisations are whole systems, in which different areas and aspects such as structure, systems and culture, are all inter-related, and how people professionals work and actions could impact elsewhere in the organisation

The guideline

Students describe various organizational structures, such as the flat or tail structure. Students may also include an organizational chart to demonstrate the roles of various professionals in various fields of work.

Students explain how various areas of the organization interact with one another to achieve holistic systems. For instance, a discussion about how the innovative development sector connects with the government and the international market to form a holistic organization.

Finally, students give one example of a good people practice, such as providing employees with safe and healthy working conditions, and one example of a bad people practice, such as failing to comply with employment laws.

3.1 Why it is important that organisational change is planned, and effectively managed

The guideline

Organizations must adapt to change. Change should be planned and managed by people professionals to have a positive impact on the organization. Change agents at work include:

• Change in structure
• Technology advancement
• Introduction of new educational programs
• Chaos
• Organizational Process Change

By referencing project planning, students further explain why it is important to plan and manage change. To achieve project goals and objectives, explain the role and purpose of planning.

PESTLE and SWOT tools are used to predict change in organizations.

 

3.2 The nature and importance of different roles that can be played by people practice professionals, concerning change agendas. You might consider roles such as gatekeeper, champion, facilitator, critical friend or record-keeper

The guideline

For instance, people professionals advocate for employee rights by following change agendas.

When implementing change agendas, students explain the support that people professionals provide. 

3.3 How organisational change can impact people in different ways, such as changing their role or status or financial situation, and the different ways people may respond to change

The guideline

Examples of change:

• An upgrade, regrade, or downgrade in the financial sector
• Loss of employment
• Changes in the family
• Competitor relationships

In this lesson, students examine how people respond to change using a model or theory. Here are some examples:

• Kubler-Ross model
• Fisher curve

Reference

1. BATTISTA, M. (2021) PESTLE Analysis. Available at https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/strategy/organisational-development/pestle-analysis-factsheet
2. GEORGE, S. (2021) Change Management. Available at https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/strategy/change/management-factsheet
3. MOHDZAINI, H. (2021) Technology and the future of work. Available at https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/work/technology/emerging-future-work-factsheet
4. YOUNG, J. (2020) Organisational culture and cultural change. Available at https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/culture/working-environment/organisation-culture-change-factsheet

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