MNG4801/201/0/2020

Tutorial Letter 201/0/2020

Strategic Management

MNG4801

Year Module
Department of Business Management

IMPORTANT INFORMATION
This tutorial letter contains information relating to
Assignment 01

Open Rubric
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Table of Contents

1. INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................................................... 3
2. ASSIGNMENT 01 ................................................................................................................................................... 3
3. ASSIGNMENT INTRODUCTION AND CONCLUSION ............................................................................................... 4
4. QUESTION 1 – DEFINITION OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT…………....................................................................... 4
5. QUESTION 2 – THE STRATEGIC MAKING APPROACHES…...................................................................................... 5
6. QUESTION 3 – COLLABORATIVE ADVANTAGES AND CHALLENGES……................................................................ 6
7. QUESTION 4 – CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY…………………………….......................................................................... 6
8. GENERAL COMMENTS .......................................................................................................................................... .7
9. CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................................................... .. 8
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1. INTRODUCTION

Dear MNG4801 Student

This Tutorial Letter 201 (Tut 201) provides details on what was expected of you in Assignment 01 for the purposes of
guiding you through your learning journey. By now, most of you should have received your marked assignment, with
the marker’s comments. Now you can compare your performance in the assignment with your prescribed material and
the evaluation sheet (rubric) in annexure A of this Tut 201. It is important to note that it remains your responsibility
to ensure that your correct MNG4801 assignment is submitted on time and in the correct format. In Tut 201 we discuss
Assignment 1 (in general) and then each section of the assignment will be discussed in further detail. The purpose of
sharing the information contained in Tut 201 is to offer commentary on the assignment to help you learn about what
was expected of you, with the intention that you improve in the next assignment. Even though Tut 201 includes some
theory and discusses the answers broadly, the content is not exhaustive. Tut 201 should NOT be considered the full
memorandum and therefore should NOT be used to ‘re-mark’ your own assignment to get more marks.

2. ASSIGNMENT 01

We trust that you found the assignment challenging as much as it was rewarding and that it gave you an opportunity
to progress to a higher level in your academic career. As a postgraduate student, you are expected to blend theory
and practice through application of theory in practical situations. Merely accumulating facts and information from
prescribed material and other sources is insufficient. At postgraduate level, you need to demonstrate your
understanding of the course concepts and be able to present information from various sources in an integrated
manner. Meaningful discussions with referenced academic sources are important in postgraduate studies. Also, as
a postgraduate student you are expected to supplement the information in your prescribed material with additional
information from other sources such as academic articles. Poor academic sources such as “Wikipedia”, “Quick MBA”
and “free management books” are unsatisfactory. At Honours level we expect you to substantiate facts using strong
academic sources such as research articles, your prescribed textbook and the study guide.

For this assignment, you were required to consult your prescribed book, the lessons and the five listed articles. As
indicated in Tutorial Letter 101, assessment at postgraduate level incorporates several critical cross-field outcomes.
The purpose of assessments, both formative and summative, is to test your understanding and mastery of the course
content in order to achieve expected outcomes. This implies that you will be assessed on the theory and on your
ability to apply such theory in the correct context.

Assignment 01 was an essay-type assignment. The annexed assignment evaluation sheet (rubric) demonstrates the
expectations for a good assignment. For your preparation of this assignment, you were given the criteria for the
technical aspects of the assignment in your Tutorial Letter 101. Further guidelines on getting the academic articles
was provided on myUnisa. It is important that you learn how to navigate through the sources and published academic
articles in the Unisa library. Please refer to the referencing guidelines on myUnisa.

You would have been penalized for not adhering to the assignment instructions, guidelines and poor referencing. Late
submissions were not accepted and received a mark of zero. We also expected you to answer each question by
following the given instructions. Those who provided related but not relevant information in answering the questions
did not get full marks.

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3. ASSIGNMENT INTRODUCTION AND CONCLUSION

For this assignment, you needed to begin with a brief introduction to the central topic. The introduction lays the
foundation for what you are going to discuss. Marks were awarded for a good introduction as detailed under the
“technical requirements.” Your introduction should have been clear and stated the purpose of the essay.

Your introduction should have introduced the topics (your answers to the questions) of the assignment, not the
broader subject of strategic management.

Your conclusion should have been a summary of your assignment, where every answer had to be briefly reiterated.
In short, your introduction should have created expectations for the reader, and then your conclusion should have
confirmed that these expectations were met.

4. QUESTION 1 – DEFINITION OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

Question 1: Your first task is to coach a new Growthpoint employee, freshly promoted to middle management and
with no in-depth knowledge about strategic management. You need to explain the key concepts of strategic
management to this employee by: Unpacking and exploring a good definition of strategic management. Support your
explanation with theory and by using examples from the case study [10 Marks].

The framing of this question was broader with the view of testing your ability to identify relevant theory and then apply
such theory to practical situations. The question also required you to read both your prescribed material and other
academic content and to critically define strategic management as well as use practical examples from the case
study to show deep understanding of the concept. Your point of departure should have included a good definition
introducing the concept of strategic management. Consider the following:

A good definition of strategic management explores elements such as strategic planning, strategy implementation
and strategy sustainability. Broadly speaking, strategic management is concerned with the overall effectiveness and
choices of direction in a dynamic, complex and ambiguous environment. More specifically, strategic management has
to do with setting strategic direction for the entire organisation and ensuring that a strategy is implemented. Strategic
management refers to the management process that define the organisation’s goals for value creation (Louw and
Venter, 2013:22). Lastly, good strategic management should also involve the integration of sustainability into the
strategies.

Another point of departure could have been from the nature and role of strategy, considering the five Ps of strategy:
Strategy as a plan, Strategy as a position, Strategy as a perspective, Strategy as a ploy, Strategy as a pattern (Louw
and Venter, 2013:17).

In the question you were required to integrate the article “Nag, R, Hambrick, D.C. & Chen, M. 2007. What is Strategic
Management Really? Inductive Derivation of a Consensus Definition of the Field, Strategic Management Journal, 28:
935–955” into your answer. If you did not integrate this article, marks were deducted under “incorporating the 5 listed
articles” (see rubric, annexure A).

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General remarks on question 1: Generally, students gave a good theoretical discussion of strategic management, this
is a good sign that students have read up on the theory. Unfortunately, in most cases students did not support the
theoretical discussion with practical examples from the case study. Students need to be able to integrate the theory
with the practical situation in the case to show a better understanding of the course content. Listing examples from
the case study without synthesizing and integrating them into the discussion is not enough. When including a practical
analysis one should interrogate the reason for including the example and how the example helps strengthen the
theory. Why are these examples provided and how do these examples explain how Growthpoint engages in strategic
management?

In terms of the technical requirements, many students did not apply the correct Harvard referencing style when
completing the assignment and some students did not reference at all. Students need to become familiar with the
Business Management Harvard referencing style and use this referencing style appropriately in the assignment.

5. QUESTION 2 – THE STRATEGY MAKING APPROACHES

Question 2: The board members ask you to provide an unbiased evaluation of Growthpoint’s strategy making. The
board see this as an opportunity to obtain your expert input. You are asked to: Critically evaluate the strategy making
approaches of Growthpoint’s top management from an Intended, Emergent and Deliberate perspective. Support
your evaluation with theory and examples from the case study [10 Marks]

When answering question 2 you were expected to introduce the strategic making approaches by providing a
definition of the concept “strategic making”. In your answer, you were expected to name and give a comprehensive
definition of the three strategy making approaches: intended strategies, deliberate strategies and emergent
strategies (Louw and Venter, 2013:18).

Subsequently, from your theoretical analysis of the strategy making approaches, you were required to practically
analyze the strategy making approach that is implemented by Growthpoint. You were required to support your
analysis with evidence from the case study. The case study supports intended strategy as Growthpoint’s strategy
making approach. Throughout this question, you were expected to critically discuss the theory and make a
convincing practical analysis by referring to the case study and applying the theory to the case study (practical).

You were required to integrate “Mintzberg, H. & Waters, JA. 1985. Of strategies, deliberate and emergent. Strategic
Management Journal 6(3): 257–272.” And/or “Pretorius, M. & Maritz, R. 2011. Strategy making: the approach matters.
Journal of Business Strategy. 32(4):25-31.” If you did not integrate this article, marks were deducted under
“incorporating the 5 listed articles” (see rubric, annexure A).

General remarks on question 2: Overall, this question was not well answered. Many students interpreted question 2
incorrectly and thought that all three types of strategies needed to be identified in the case study. Students could not
state that Growthpoint had all 3 strategies. The question asks students to critically evaluate Growthpoint’s strategy
making approaches, and therefore all three approaches should be critically discussed and the necessary theory
integrated explaining each type. However, when it came to stating which strategy Growthpoint is exercising, marks
were only given to examples for intended strategy in the process of being realized (Deliberate) as this was the correct
answer. Students could have discussed emergent strategy,
5 for example, and indicate that Growthpoint was not
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exercising this strategy but they also needed to argue why and justify in their explanation why they came to this
conclusion. Students thus received marks for critical evaluation and appropriate examples provided in their evaluation.
In many cases where students did indicate other approaches, there were no convincing arguments for the choice
given.

6. QUESTION 3 – COLLABORATIVE ADVANTAGES AND CHALLENGES

Question 3: The partnership, according to Norbert Sasse, made the new initiative a “compelling proposition.”
You are asked to provide management with expert input and feedback by; considering the above statement and
critically discussing Growthpoint’s collaborative advantages and challenges associated with their recent
partnerships. Support your discussion with theory and examples from the case study [10 Marks].

For question 3 you were required to critically discuss Growthpoint’s collaborative advantages and challenges
associated with their recent partnerships according to the case study. Partnerships exist on different scales and take
different forms, but they have in common the expectation that the participants can achieve their objectives more
efficiently and effectively by making strategic alliances with others rather than acting independently, this is called
collaborative advantage (Louw and Venter, 2013:91). You were expected to link the theory and the case study by
making a practical analysis of the collaborative advantage in the case of Growthpoint.

You were also expected to critically discuss the challenges of partnerships. Some challenges of partnerships
include inadequate understanding by the potential partners’ representatives of what the parties could offer each
other, unwillingness to modify or compromise, differences between cultures/methods/objectives, challenges in
communication (Louw and Venter, 2013:92). Consequent to making a theoretical analysis, you were required to
make a practical analysis of the challenges of partnering in the case of Growthpoint.

General remarks on question 3: Generally, students provided good discussions on Growthpoint's collaborative
advantages, however many students discussions on challenges was lacking. Some students mentioned general
challenges the company was facing, instead of providing a discussion on the challenges associated with their recent
partnership. Some students did not address the challenges of a partnership at all.

7. QUESTION 4 – CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY

Question 4: You are asked to share your expertise with the board by preparing a short presentation on
Growthpoint titled: Growthpoint: a sustainable organisation. The content of your ‘presentation’ (answer that is
written out) should:
 Offer your audience (the board members) some background by describing a sustainable organisation.
 Discuss how Growthpoint’s leadership are contributing to sustainability/sustainable development and
operating as a sustainable organisation.
 Make recommendations on how Growthpoint’s leadership can further embed sustainability into their
strategy.
 Be supported by theory and examples from the case study. [15 Marks]

In question 4 you were instructed to make a short ‘presentation’ on corporate sustainability. You were first
expected to give an in-depth definition of a sustainable organisation. A sustainable organisation is an umbrella term
for proactive efforts to design and implement financially viable business models that simultaneously solve complex

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social and environmental problems (Louw and Venter, 2013:50). You were then expected to discuss how
Growthpoint’s leadership are contributing towards sustainability/sustainable development and operating as a
sustainable organisation by critically discussing the role of leadership. Leadership in the context of sustainable
organisation needs to be responsible and willing to implement a comprehensive model for sustainable development
(Louw and Venter, 2013:80). Strategic leaders are those that seek to instill behaviours, practices and systems that
create enduring value for all stakeholders of the organisation (le Roux and Pretorius, 2016:3). You were then
expected to make a practical analysis of the role of leadership in a sustainable organisation from the Growthpoint
case study.

After giving some background by describing a sustainable organisation and discussing the role of Growthpoint’s
leadership, you were expected to make recommendations on how Growthpoint’s leadership can further embed
sustainability into their strategy. These recommendations can come from interpreting the case, the prescribed book
and the articles.

Throughout this question you were expected to refer to the following articles:

 Thakhathi, A, Le Roux, C & Davis, A. 2019. Sustainability Leaders’ Influencing Strategies for Institutionalising
Organisational Change towards Corporate Sustainability: A Strategy-as-Practice Perspective, Journal of Change
Management. 19(4):246-265.
 Le Roux, C & Pretorius, M. 2016. Conceptualizing the limiting issues inhibiting sustainability embeddedness.
Sustainability, 8(4):364. Special issue: Sustainable Leadership.
 Le Roux, C & Pretorius, M. 2016. Navigating sustainability embeddedness in management decision-making.
Sustainability, 8(5):444. Special issue: How Better Decision-Making Helps to Improve Sustainability

If you did not integrate this article, marks were deducted under “incorporating the 5 listed articles” (see rubric,
annexure A).

General remarks on question 4: Generally, students gave good descriptions of what constitutes a sustainable
organisation from the theory although some students did not cover the role of leadership in the context. In many
cases, students did provide good examples from the case study to justify that Growthpoint’s leadership contributes
to sustainability, however, did not integrate the examples appropriately with the theory and lost marks for not
incorporating the appropriate theory.

9. GENERAL COMMENTS

The use of bullet points and figures is discouraged in assignments and in examinations. If one makes use of a table
or a figure, it should be referenced if it is not your own work, but it is generally discouraged because it takes up
space and then still needs to be explained in detail to get full marks.

At postgraduate level, we expect to receive neat assignments that adhere to the following technical requirements:

Font name Arial or Times New Roman

Font size 11 or 12
Line spacing 1.5 cm
Text alignment Justified
Margins 2 cm on both sides of the page
Referencing method Harvard style (guidelines available on myUnisa)

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It is important that a full list of references correspond to all in-text citations. There are penalties for poor
referencing.

TUT101 states that late submission will not be marked and will receive a mark of zero. Obtaining a postgraduate
degree is a demonstration that you can submit work of a high academic standard on time. Technical requirements
include your language, spelling, grammar, writing style, page numbering, and a table of contents. It is required that
your paragraphs are justified. This means the right-hand side of paragraphs end in a straight line – as demonstrated
in this Tut 201.

Plagiarism has been an issue of great concern. Plagiarism is when you present another person’s ideas as your own,
without properly acknowledging the source of those ideas. It is regarded as an offence of which the consequences
can be very serious for those found guilty. When detected, full marks can be deducted, and cases of plagiarism will
be forwarded to the Student Disciplinary Committee.

Please note that most of the marking is done online, and that your marks will be released in real-time, not in batches.
You might find that some of your fellow students receive their marks within a couple of days of submission, and
others wait a couple of weeks.

10. CONCLUSION

This Tutorial Letter provided details on what was expected from you as a student in answering Assignment 01. The
importance and purpose of the introduction and conclusion were discussed, followed by question-specific
information that detailed how you should have attempted each question. Lastly, general comments were provided.
It is important to take markers’ comments seriously and to take them into account once you have received your
assignment and in preparation for the next assignment.

ALL THE BEST WITH YOUR STUDIES!

Kind regards

Lebogang Mametja
Nadine De Metz
Mohure Mamabolo

11. REFERENCES

Brundtland Commission. 1987. The United Nations. World Commission on Environment and Development: Our
Common Future. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Le Roux, C and Pretorius, M. 2016. Navigating Sustainability Embeddedness in Management Decision-Making.

Sustainability, 8(5): 444.

Louw, L and Venter, P. 2013. Strategic management: winning in the Southern African workplace. 3rd edition. Cape
Town: Oxford University Press.

University of South Africa. Department of Business Management. 2019. Strategic Management MNG4801 Study
Guide. Pretoria.
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Annexure A

MNG4801 2020
MARKING RUBRIC: ASSIGNMENT 1
FAIL PASS DISTINCTION
0-49% 50-74% 75+%
1 Question 1: Definition of Strategic Management [10]

Student vaguely explored Student provided a good Student gave an excellent

a good definition of definition of strategic exploration of a good definition
strategic management. management. Their of strategic management. The
There was limited or explanation was partially student explained the key
absent support from theory supported by theory and concepts of strategic
with few or no applicable there were some applicable management in a convincing
examples from the case examples from the case way. The student provided
study. study. comprehensive support from
the theory and by using
examples from the case study.

0-4 5-7 8 - 10

2 Question 2: Strategy Making [10]

Student vaguely evaluated Student provided a good Student offered an excellent

the strategy making evaluation of the strategy critical evaluation of the
approaches of making approaches of strategy making approaches of
Growthpoint’s top Growthpoint’s top Growthpoint’s top management
management from an management from an from an Intended, Emergent
Intended, Emergent and Intended, Emergent and and Deliberate perspective. The
Deliberate perspective. Deliberate perspective. Their student included
There was limited or evaluation was partially comprehensive support from
absent support from theory supported by theory and the theory and used applicable
with few or no applicable there were some applicable examples from the case study.
examples from the case examples from the case
study study.

0-4 5-7 8 - 10

3 Question 3: Collaborative Advantages and Challenges [10]

Student vaguely discussed Student gave a good Student offered an excellent

Growthpoint’s discussion of Growthpoint’s critical discussion on
collaborative advantages collaborative advantages Growthpoint’s collaborative
and challenges associated and challenges associated advantages and challenges
with their recent with their recent associated with their recent
partnerships. There was partnerships. There was partnerships. The student
few to no support using partial support from the included comprehensive
theory and examples from theory and by using support from the theory and
the case study. examples from the case used applicable examples from
study. the case study.

0-4 5-7 8 - 10

4 Question 4: Growthpoint Presentation [15]

Student vaguely Student gave a good Student gave an excellent

described a sustainable description of a sustainable description of and background
organisation. The student organisation. The student to= a sustainable organisation.
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Annexure A
discussed how gave a good discussion on The student included a
Growthpoint’s leadership how Growthpoint’s convincing discussion on how
is contributing to leadership is contributing to Growthpoint’s leadership are
sustainability/sustainable sustainability/sustainable contributing to
development and development and operating sustainability/sustainable
operating as a as a sustainable development and operating as
sustainable organisation organisation. The student a sustainable organisation. The
but it was not convincing. made some student made sufficient,
The student made few or recommendations on how academically sound
no recommendations on Growthpoint’s leadership recommendations on how
how Growthpoint’s can further embed Growthpoint’s leadership can
leadership can further sustainability into their further embed sustainability into
embed sustainability into strategy. There was partial their strategy. The student
their strategy. There was support from the theory and included comprehensive
very limited or absent limited or absent examples support from the theory used
support from theory and from the case study. applicable examples from the
few or no examples from case study.
the case study.

0–7 `8 - 11 12 - 15

Technical Language, spelling, grammar, writing style

requirements [5]
Technical specifications

Reflection
template [5]

Reflection template completed

Incorporating the
5 listed articles
[5] The 5 listed articles were adequately incorporated

FINAL MARK FOR

ASSIGNMENT 01

out of a maximum
of 60 marks

10
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