School of Management

UCLan Coursework Assessment Brief

In this assignment, you will write a critical review of the academic literature relating to one of the business and management topics listed below.

You must choose ONE of the following topics to undertake your literature review:

• What has been the impact of Covid 19 on global supply chains?
• How does employee engagement improve organizational performance?
• How has social media changed how companies market their business?

A critical literature review is a “detailed overview of the significant literature available about your chosen topic, providing a discussion and critical evaluation, and using clear argument to contextualise and justify your research” (Saunders et al., 2018:33).

In this task, you will present how you have developed and structured your literature review by explaining how you have gathered your academic sources and how you have critically evaluated the way in which these sources support your literature review.

The assessment will consist of a synthesis matrix of 3000 words and a literature review of 1000 words.

The synthesis matrix will consist of information in tabular form where you will describe the source used, how you located the source (for example, which internet search engine you used to find the material, the main themes that you hoped to explore in the literature review, and a brief summary of how each academic article supports your argument). You should use around 30 academic sources with each source supported by 100 words of text.

In the literature review, you will provide a critical evaluation of the sources demonstrating how different perspectives exist within the area of business and management research. The literature review will be fully referenced within the text and in the Reference List using the Harvard system. The literature review must use robust and reputable academic sources. We expect you to use the University catalogue for your sources utilising academic textbooks and academic journals.

Please note: for this assignment, the sources that you use in the Synthesis Matrix should be the same ones which you will use writing the 1000 word literature review.

You only need one Reference List to cover both the Matrix and the Reference List.

You will find an example of a synthesis matrix on Blackboard:

https://portal.uclan.ac.uk/ultra/courses/_130492_1/cl/outline

The assessment criteria for this assignment are:

• Critically research and select appropriate and relevant academic material on which to base your literature review
• Create a synthesis matrix demonstrating and justifying your choice of academic material
• Write a literature review using the material from the matrix to critically evaluate the arguments found within the academic literature
• Reference the assignment accurately and comprehensively using the Harvard system of referencing

This assignment is designed to test the following learning outcomes:

• Critically evaluate current issues in business and management
• Critically assess academic literature in the areas of business and management research 

As part of the teaching programme, we will arrange assessment sessions organised by the International Support Tutor on writing the assessment. We will support the sessions in class with on-line support sessions running throughout February and March 2022.

You will have opportunity to submit a single short extract of your synthesis as a piece of formative assessment to support the assessment. However, your tutors will be unable to read full drafts of work. If you wish support and advice on the assessment, we can arrange a meeting where you can provide a verbal outline of the work you intend to present as a summative assessment.

At this level, you are expected to make full use of the academic sources provided on-line by the University. You need to make full use of the Reading List found at:

https://uclan.alma.exlibrisgroup.com/leganto/readinglist/searchlists/5403767320003821

Please remember that the Reading List is a starting point, and you should make use of the Internet search engines provided by the university. We do not recommend reliance on Google or Google Scholar – these engines will not provide full access to the academic material that you need for this assessment.

Assessment Release date: Monday 31 January 2022

Assessment Deadline Date and time: Friday 6 May 2022 23:59 UK time

Please note that this is the final time you can submit – not the time to submit!

Your feedback/feed forward and mark for this assessment will be provided by May 27 2022.

Please note that where work is submitted late, there may be a delay in providing feedback/feed forward and a mark.

You will submit your assignment in one document. The synthesis matrix will consist of 3000 words and the literature review will consist of 1000 words (excluding the Reference List). The total word count should be 4000 words and the word count should not exceed or be less than 10% of the total. You must use the Harvard referencing system

You will submit the assignment into Turnitin by the deadline date and time. Please note any work submitted after the deadline will be treated as late unless you have been given an extension. Late work will be subject to a penalty – work submitted up to 5 days late will be capped at 40%, while work submitted after 5 days will be given a mark of 0%. You will access your feedback and grade from Turnitin. Please note that all grades are provisional pending a decision by a University Assessment Board.

• We will run teaching and support sessions dedicated to the assessment, both during the block delivery and during the period February to April 2022 on-line. After the feedback is returned, we will run an on-line session to provide group feedback. Individual feedback will also be available if that is needed.
• You will find information links to all our Library resources in the Library area of the Student Hub. For support with using these resources, please contact your subject librarian at SubjectLibrarians@uclan.ac.uk.
• You can get support with your academic skills (academic writing, critical thinking and referencing) through WISER. For details of the WISER support services go to the Study Skills section of the Student Hub.
• Lynne Gornall (Lgornall@uclan.ac.uk) is the International Support Tutor and will be working closely with the other members of the teaching team supporting our international students
• If you have not yet made the university aware of any disability, specific learning difficulty, long-term health or mental health condition, please complete a Disclosure Form. The Inclusive Support team will then contact you to discuss reasonable adjustments and support relating to any disability.  For more information, visit the Inclusive Support page of the Student Hub.
• To access mental health and wellbeing support, please complete our online referral form. Alternatively, you can email wellbeing@uclan.ac.uk, call 01772 893020, attend a drop-in, or visit our UCLan Wellbeing Service pages for more information.
• If you have any other query or require further support you can contact Student Support via studentsupport@uclan.ac.uk.  Speak with us for advice on accessing all the University services as well as the Library services. Whatever your query, our expert staff will be able to help and support you. For more information please visit the Student Hub.
• If you have any valid mitigating circumstances that mean you cannot meet an assessment submission deadline and you wish to request an extension, you will need to apply online prior to the deadline.