MGMT7250
ONLINE
Assessment Brief:
TASK: 6. Critically Appraised Topic (CAT) Report – FOR APPROVED INDIVIDUAL TOPIC
SEMESTER: 2, 2020
DUE DATE: Friday Week 9, at 23:59pm
SIZE LIMIT: 1500 words
SUBMISSION: Via Turnitin on Wattle
COLLABORATION: Nil. This individual submission must be entirely your own work.
WEIGHT: 25%
LEARNING OUTCOMES: 2,3,4,5
PURPOSE: The form of this report is intended, like business reports in general, to inform
managerial decision-making.
DESCRIPTION: A business report that assess the trustworthiness of scientific evidence
gathered to address a complex management problem.
RETURN OF FEEDBACK: Up to 10 working days after submission, excluding semester breaks
SPECIAL NOTES Only use this Brief if you have an approved individual topic (you are not using a
supplied case study)
REQUIREMENTS:
Preparation: It is expected that the topic of this report will be the problem or issue approved for your
Problem Definition Report. If you propose any change from your previously approved topic, please discuss it
with your lecturer or tutor and get their approval for your topic.
Prepare a report: For the approved problem or issue, acquire scientific evidence from academic sources and
appraise it to test its trustworthiness. Keep the organisation anonymous.
2
STRUCTURE AND CONTENTS:
There is no set structure for this Report, but the following content is to be covered and the structure you
select should meet the purpose of communicating with senior management.
ITEM
Problem definition
CAT Question
Selection criteria
Search strategy
Study Selection
COVERAGE
Define the problem including brief background and context for the problem.
Justify the report using at least one of the four forms of evidence used in
Evidence-Based Management.
Specify one or more question/s to be researched in the scientific literature
in order to address the problem.
Proposed question/s must be answerable in principle.
Explain the criteria proposed for including and excluding studies.
Data extraction
Critical appraisal
Results
Identify the data sources searched.
Specify the search terms.
Describe how the search was conducted.
Explain how studies were selected or screened to meet the selection
criteria.
Consider tabular presentation to clarify how many were screened out at
each stage.
Present the information extracted from each study.
Include citations.
Consider tabular presentation for ease of reading.
Critically appraise each study individually
Include a summary appraisal for each in the information summary.
Summarise the evidence that you have obtained.
Describe the degree of consistency or inconsistency between the studies.
For each key concept (variable or outcome) draw together the definition/s
used in the studies.
Summarise the causal mechanism/s that are used in the literature to explain
how the observed effects occur.
What relationships have been found, including the impact of mediators
and/or moderators
Concise summary of the effect of the main findings on answering the CAT
question.
Identify any considerations that could impact the reliability or validity of the
findings or conclusions..
Identify implications
List specific recommendations in respect of the problem.
Conclusion
Limitations
Practical
Implications and
recommendations
References
A reference list of all materials cited in the report is required.
Note: When presenting evidence:
Consider graphical presentation of quantitative data.
Consider selection of quotations from qualitative data
Consider tabular presentation of qualitative or quantitative data
References from scientific literature situate the problem in a broader context.
WEIGHTING
5%
10%
10%
10%
10%
10%
10%
15%
5%
10%
5%
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3
Evidence that you have generated from professional, stakeholder, or organisational sources may
be separately consolidated in individual appendices for each source. This is a convenient way of
packaging the data so that it is accessible to the reader, and allows you to cite it by referring to the
relevant appendix.
For more detailed guidance on each section of the CAT report, refer to guidelines from the Center for
Evidence-based Management for doing Critically Appraised Topics:
Barends, E., Rousseau, D.M. & Briner, R.B. (Eds). (2017). CEBMa Guideline for Critically
Appraised Topics Evidence in Management and Organizations, Version 1.1. CEBMA, Amsterdam
SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS:
Please apply the following requirements:
You must correctly reference all information that you have used. You should use Harvard or APA intext referencing. Guidance on referencing can be found on the ANU library’s website at:
http://www.anu.edu.au/students/academic-skills/academic-integrity/referencing
The text of your work should be in an unadorned black font sized 12pt with 1.5 line spacing (except
for any Executive Summary, which should be single spaced).
Include page numbers on every page (except on a covering or title page if used).
Do not embed tables or graphs as an image.
You are encouraged to use sub-headings where appropriate.
Submit a single file containing the entire submission in MS-Word.
Name your submission in accordance with the following format:
MGMT7250-CAT-u####### , where ####### is your own ANU ID.
The following items, if included, do not contribute to the word-count: title page; tables of contents,
figures, or tables; abstract or executive summary; figures; tables; list of references; appendices.
ACADEMIC STANDARDS:
The ANU Rules and Code of Practice for Student Academic Honesty form part of the rules for this
assignment. Any incidence of plagiarism, 'ghost-writing', or other practices that undermine academic
standards of honesty may result in penalties for academic misconduct. The ANU Code of Practice for Student
Academic Honesty is available at http://academichonesty.anu.edu.au/
While you must use your own words and ideas, you will source ideas from the readings and other areas,
such as journal articles or the Internet. Be sure that the sources you quote or paraphrase are clearly and
correctly cited and then referenced in a reference list.
The Class Summary includes further guidance on ANU's expectations of students in maintaining academic
standards.
MARKING:
The Marking Criteria provided in this Brief will be used to assess submitted work against the Learning
Outcomes.
MARKING CRITERIA – REPORT
Give some thought to what you think would constitute a 'good' Report. Masters‐level work is not just about doing something to meet a specification or a template.
It is also about tackling problems independently and about developing your capacity to determine what is 'good' in a specific situation.
WEIGHT
GRADE
HD
STRUCTURE & COHERENCE
30%
Submission is clearly structured around relevant course concepts to
address the purpose of the report
Models developed from course concepts and conclusions drawn from
them are integrated into the discussion
Submission is narrated coherently and unfolds logically, credibly, and
convincingly
Submission is professionally written with no grammatical, spelling or other
presentation errors; all figures and tables captioned and referred to in text
Submission is succinct, and condensed and clarified by tables, graphs, or
diagrams, or other supplementary material
Referencing and citation standards are met
D
C
ANALYSIS & REFLECTION
30%
Concepts are drawn
purpose of the report
Models developed from course concepts and conclusions drawn from
them are integrated into the discussion
Submission is narrated coherently and unfolds logically and credibly
Submission is professionally written with no grammatical, spelling or other
presentation errors; all figures and tables captioned and referred to in text
Submission is condensed and clarified by tables, graphs, or diagrams, or
other supplementary material
Referencing and citation standards are met
from course
materials, academic
reading, or other
appropriate sources
Submission evaluates
a range of concepts
relevant to the
question
Submission identifies
weakness or gaps in
the concepts or in
their application
Concepts are drawn
from course materials
and relevant
academic reading
Submission analyses
a range of course
concepts relevant to
the question
Submission identifies
weakness or gaps in
the concepts
Submission is coherent and rational, and structured around relevant
Concepts are drawn
course concepts to address the purpose of the report
Models developed from course concepts and conclusions drawn from
them are integrated into the discussion
Submission is clearly written with no grammatical, spelling or other
presentation errors; all figures and tables captioned and referred to in text
Referencing and citation standards are met
from course materials
and relevant
academic reading
Submission discusses
one or more course
concepts relevant to
the question
One or more relevant
concepts drawn from
course materials are
identified
Submission is structured around relevant course concepts to address the
P
Submission is coherent and rational, and addresses the purpose of the
F
report
Models developed from course concepts are integrated into the
discussion
Submission is clearly written with few grammatical, spelling or other
presentation errors; all figures and tables captioned and referred to in text.
Referencing and citation standards are generally met
Short, irrelevant, or confusing submission, with ambiguous or redundant
elements
Submission does not demonstrate professional writing standards;
includes spelling or grammatical errors; figures and tables are not
captioned or referred to in text
Referencing and citation standards inadequate
Submission does not
identify or address key
concepts
Submission does not
provide adequate
academic referencing
or other evidence
SYNTHESIS & INTEGRATION
30%
Submission considers and
integrates concepts from
across the course materials,
builds on and extends them,
and justifies relevant
innovative concepts and
evidence from other
disciplines or sources
Submission identifies
reliable complementary
evidence or integrates
concepts to address
weaknesses or gaps
Submission considers and
integrates concepts from
across the course materials,
and justifies innovative
concepts and evidence from
other sources
Submission identifies
reliable complementary
evidence to address
weaknesses or gaps
Submission considers and
integrates concepts from
across the course materials
Submission considers and
integrates concepts from
across the course materials
4
CONTEXTUAL AWARENESS
10%
Submission provides a clear overview of the case, enabling the
reader to easily grasp the impact
Submission identifies and considers social and ethical
implications of the case, and proposes options to resolve them
Submission recognises the stakeholders in the case and roles
that they could have in the future
Submission identifies the broader context of the case (eg:
technological standards; international trade agreements;
consumer law; industry regulation) and addresses these
constraints
Submission is appropriate in form and content for communicating
with its audience and addressing the needs of that audience
Submission provides a clear overview of the case, enabling the
reader to easily grasp the impact
Submission identifies and considers social and ethical
implications of the case, and suggests a way of addressing them
Submission recognises the stakeholders in the case
Submission identifies the broader context of the case (eg:
technological standards; international trade agreements;
consumer law; industry regulation) and addresses these
constraints
Submission is appropriate in form and content for communicating
with its audience and addressing the needs of that audience
Submission provides a clear overview of the case, enabling the
reader to easily grasp the impact
Submission identifies some of the broad social, ethical, or
industry context of the case and addresses them.
Submission is appropriate in form and content for communicating
with its audience and addressing the needs of that audience
Submission identifies one or more s aspect of the broad social,
ethical, or industry context of the case.
Submission is appropriate in form and content for communicating
with its audience
Submission does not
incorporate insights from
other disciplines or sources;
nor does it integrate
concepts from across the
course
Unclear submission that is difficult to read and understand
Submission does not identify the broad social, ethical, or industry
context of the case.
Problem Definition
The Covid-19 global pandemic has absolute impact to the humanity and society. It is
increasingly possible this pandemic will be lasting for a longer period of time, and impacts that
Covid-19 brought will lock every nation on the earth into a strict restriction of movements. It
will bring unmeasurable uncertainty to our economy and actual impact to businesses, especially
small businesses. The World Bank (2020) indicates that the pandemic is expected to plunge most
countries into recession in 2020, with per capita income contacting in the largest fraction of
counties globally since 1870. Advanced economies are projected to shrink 7 percent. Dua, Jain,
Mahajan and Velasco (2020) states that the challenge is especially acute for small businesses
(those with 500 or fewer employees), which account for a disproportionate share of the
vulnerable jobs.2 Before COVID-19, they provided nearly half of all US private-sector jobs, yet
they account for 54 percent (30 million) of the jobs most vulnerable during COVID-19.
In this case, this firm is a profitable light manufacturing business with stable work force in
three cities, and it generate incremental solid returns over time by running conservatively in the
past. Due to the global pandemic of Covid-19, this firm is facing great challenges. First of all, the
Table 1. (Blue bar represents the workers in 2019;
Gray bar represents the available workers in 2021 )
unstable work force. Staffs in this firms were
required stay home for months and most their
skills were deteriorated for manufacturing
work. Also, available workers in 2021 has
decreased by 16.902 percent compared to
2019 in general, which the production
workers decreased the most around 11.8
percent. Table 1 will clearly show the
difference in 2019 and available workers in 2021. Secondly, the possible malfunction of
production and distribution facilities since these facilities has been mothballed for months.
Thirdly, it is possible that this the cashflow is interrupted and it carries excess inventory.
In this firm, it is reasonable to believe that the productivity of this firm will be compromised
by the unstable labor force, and the interrupted cashflow will also bring some difficulties to the
operation of this firm, which are the biggest concerns if they decide to restart their business.
Cash flow is the reflection of the enterprise income of the company, and it indicates the
company’s business activities, investment activity and financing.
PICOC is also useful for analyzing the difficulties this firm is facing.
Population: the employees and owner of this firm will be impacted due to the interrupted
cashflow and unstable workers.
Intervention: the effect is possibly harming the business operation & production, and also the
development business in the future.
Comparison: cashflow and labor force are vital in light manufacturing business than others.
Outcome: improving productivity of this firm, and resolve the existing issues in this firm.
Context: In the light manufacturing firm.
There are couple steps that could help this firm to resolve these problems. First of all, to
release the financial burden in this firm, one of the options is to announce closure of one of
factories in one of the cities. It will effectively lower the cost of employees’ salaries, utility and
maintenance. Close the one of worst performed factory will circulate the cash to investment to
other two factories. In this way also can bring more cash flow and help other two factories to
keep running the business. Secondly, setting up a plan to invest on automatic system. It will
effectively improve the productivity of this firm. By fully utilizing the system, production could
be higher than it was. In the consideration of the market condition due to the impact, it is
possible that the market demand could be impacted also. The rest of staffs will have different
options, for example, reducing the staffs, job cut, downsizing, lower payment and take working
days off. If the producing machine is the same size, and too many employees will cause the
company to spend more money on labors but still have the same efficiency. The last step should
be training workers, and hiring the skillful workers, with the new automatic machine production,
the company don’t need too many labor forces, but the well-trained ones to improve the
productivity.
Table 1. (Blue bar represents the workers in 2019; Gray bar represents the available workers in 2021)
Reference:
The World Bank (2020). The Global Economic Outlook During COVID_19 Pandemic: A
changed world. Retrieved from: https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2020/06/08/theglobal-economic-outlook-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-a-changed-world
Andre.D,. Neha.J, Deepa. M., Yohann.V. (2020). COVID-19’s effect on jobs at small businesses
in the United States. Retrieved from:
https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Industries/Public%20and%20Social%20Sector/
Our%20Insights/COVID%2019s%20effect%20on%20jobs%20at%20small%20businesses%20in
%20the%20United%20States/COVID-19s-effect-on-jobs-at-small-businesses-in-the-UnitedStates.pdf
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