Briefing:

Having undertaken the MEGA business simulation in a team from early October 2013 up to
the end of December 2013, you are now required to write an individual report (NOT AN
ESSAY) based on reflective analysis. This should contain the following in 2000words (+/-
10%)

1. An introductory discussion on how reflective practice techniques can be useful to
analysing your MEGA team experience.
2. Use of relevant academic theories and concepts applied to the context of your
reflective analysis.
3. An outline of critical incidents (positive and negative) that affected your team and
you as an individual
4. Elaboration on the consequences of these incidents
5. A concluding chapter on how the areas discussed previously have:
(i) Developed transferable skills (or not)
(ii) The influences that your learning experiences will have in any future
organisational and team roles that you undertake.
(iii) You are encouraged to use relevant academic theories in your conclusions as
well.
6. You MUST include in the appendices the log-book/diary of your MEGA team
meetings. Do not worry about the fact this part of the assignment would be the same
for every team member. We are aware of this. (log book = diary, and it is the team
one - not essential to attach an individual one)

NOTE: YOY CAN SUBMIT (ON TURN-IT-IN) ONLY ONE FILE - SO PREPARE ONE
WORD FILE TO BE SUBMITTED ONCE - NO SECOND CHANCE OF RESUBMISSION OR
ADDITIONAL FILES :-)

Assessment Criteria for assessment 2

Use and detail of critical incidents: 30%
Application of academic theories & concepts: 30%
Conclusions (Quality of critical insight or else Critical Evaluation /Transferable Skills
developed): 30%
Structure, clarity & presentation of work: 10%



Proposed Structure:

Front Cover (excluded from the word count)

Ex. Summary (excluded from the word count):
Describing max one page what is this assignment on, key concepts, key incidents and mostly
the learning outcomes on your transferable skills)

Table of contents (excluded from the word count)

Introduction:
Short - one/two paragraphs ideally describing briefly reflective techniques and their value.
Here you mention the key theories on reflection that you will use (or not) and why. For
example theories from authors suchs as Kolbs, Gibbs, Schon, etc. A smart way to get points
is not just to mention and reference the ones that you use but also the ones that you will not
use and why (and of course reference them).

Critical Incidents analysis:
Over here you can write from 2 to 4 critical incidents either positive or negative from your
experience in MEGA simulation. Avoid writing only one or more than 4 (since then you
either overanalyse or analyse too thinly). Ideally 3 would be just fine depending on your
writing style (extensive or not). Within those critical incidents (for every one): you need to
analyse what happened shortly and not write a narrative/personal story or self justification.
You need to identify both your view and the other members views looking at things in a
reflective manner. You can also write in the 1
st
person if you need to.
It is for you to reflect on the most memorable (important for you)
moments/processes/feelings and then go on the next level to analyse them through the
relevant theoretical concepts - up to now this is the ''Use and detail of critical incidents:
30%'' interwoven of course with the next part!

Reflecting, you need to mostly explain through the use of theories why this/these happened.
For example, in the beginning/first week of your teamwork for the simulation you might
experienced issues on getting together as team members and take the appropriate decisions.
This can be viewed though the ''team formation'' theories (i.e.norming, storming, performing),
through communication theories, through leadership, through power, through culture, through
team working/group dynamics concepts and or course through strategy concepts when talking
of the appropriate strategy. These concepts (and many more similar) should be used for you
to analyse your experience (providing the referencing) and talking about the implications to
you and your team. (This is the ''Application of academic theories & concepts: 30%'')

In the end of every incident OR after the incidents, you need to say clearly how this
experience helped you develop your skills (which skills and why) and these can be used in
the future to your professional life. That is why we call them transferable skills. For example
how did you develop more your interpersonal, organisational, communication, planning (and
many more) skills and their value since using them in the future professional life. This is the
''Quality of critical insights: 30%'' and part of the conclusions.

The conclusions can be either part of every incident or a final part of the report. In
any case, please make them clear for us by making them either separate sub-chapters in every
incident or a different chapter in the end of the report. Over here you need - as said before -
you need to explain clearly the transferable skills developed

Sources/ References (excluded from the word count):
Make sure you list all the theories, concepts that you mention inside the text and also the ones
that you read to write the text (even if they are not mentioned in it!). Use of course, the
Harvard Ref Style.

Appendices (excluded from the word count):
Make sure to include the log-book/diary of your team (it is the same thing) and not any
personal one. The second one - if you have one - is up to you to include it or not. Don't
worry, we know about the similarity percentage that will come out from the turn-it-in, we
will not calculate it as plagiarism. All team members should have the same log-book. Still, if
no log-book is included then 5% is deducted from the overall mark of this assignment!


NOTE:
Theories and Concepts that can be used in your critical incidents analysis and reflection (you
don't need to use all of them but we are sure that you can if you want to):
Reflection theories and techniques
Communication,
Culture,
Decision Making
Group Dynamics
Strategy concepts (e.g. cost leadership or differentiation approach from M. Porter)
Leadership
Team formation and co-working

AND anything more that you think relevant and you can reference it properly!

ALL THE ABOVE THEORETICAL CONCEPTS TO USE AND ITS REFERENCES
EXIST (MOSTLY) ON ZORICAS SIDE SLIDES AND MATERIAL.

Finally, wherever theory is mentioned we do mean to use the theoretical concepts (as the
bullet points above) and reference them properly.

That's all folks!

Ioannis, Zori and the Team!