Details:

This is an individual research essay about Strategic fit in organisations.

The Chopra et al text book states “Strategic fit requires that both the competitive and supply chain strategies of a company have aligned goals. It refers to consistency between the customer priorities that the competitive strategy hopes to satisfy and the supply chain capabilities that the supply chain strategy aims to build” (Chopra & Meindl, 2013, p.33)*.

*[Reference: Chopra, S & Meindl, P 2013, Supply chain management: strategy, planning and operation, Pearson Education, Edinburgh Gate, Harlow, England.]

Research Question: Analyse how a strategic fit could be achieved in business organisations and justify the importance of achieving strategic fit in business organisations.

Writing the essay

This question should be answered in an essay format and therefore should include an introduction, body and conclusion.

The expected length of this essay is approximately 1,200 to 1,500 words (excluding the reference list). Essays which are significantly longer or shorter than this will be marked accordingly. The marker is not expected to read substantially beyond the expected word length.

The essay is designed to assess your ability to:

Conduct independent research on material relevant to the assignment topic
Develop an argument in your essay and justify your answer with examples
Define and explain key terms if necessary
Plan a systematic and critical analysis of relevant academic publications and other research
Present a logical, clearly expressed and accurately referenced written essay.
To be able to illustrate critically thinking through a critique.
This is a research essay and your research may include reference to textbooks, journals, newspapers or other articles. Your opinions and comments are welcome as long as you can justify them with examples and evidence.

Learning Outcomes:

Topic learning outcomes relevant to this assessment are as follows:

Explain the importance of operations and supply chain management to the strategic management of an organisation that operates on a global scale
Explain the relationship between business strategies and functional strategies and the concept of strategic alignment
Illustrate how operations and supply chain management are creating customer value
Clearly identify the importance of quality management
Apply operations and supply chain concepts to actual business scenarios
Presentation Guidelines and lodgement

At least eight references should be included in your report, and no more than three of these may be website references, that is, references to information written directly on web pages (Note: electronic journals, reports accessed electronically in pdf format, etc. are not considered to be website references).
The essay needs to be approximately 1,200 to 1,500 words (excluding the reference list).
Please ensure that your name and Student ID are on the assignment
Grammar and spelling are important in terms of impact – essays that are careless in spelling, grammar and presentation will be penalised.
You must acknowledge all reference sources using the Harvard referencing style (i.e. Author/Date). You must also provide a reference list. If the Harvard style of referencing is not used and/or no reference list is included, marks will be deducted. If NO in-text referencing is used at all, the assignment will score a FAIL – less than 50%. (Note: although a reference list is required, a Bibliography is not).
Your essay should be Double Spaced, use 12 Pitch, Arial Font, 2cm Margins. Please lodge your assignment via the Assignment dropbox provided in Week 6 on the FLO site. The document should be in PDF format.
Penalties may be applied for exceeding the maximum word limit by 10%.
Allocation of Marks

Relevance (15%): Relevance to the topic, all parts of the topic addressed, use of business examples
Argument (40%): Well developed, logical planning and sequence, supporting evidence for arguments, conclusion and recommendations well structured.
Wider Reading (20%): Comprehensive coverage reflecting research based on text(s), journals etc.
Presentation (10%): Overall presentation including grammar, spelling and punctuation, use of inclusive language, clarity of expression.
Referencing (15%): Use of Harvard referencing style, adequate and correct in-text referencing

Please ensure that you are aware of the University’s Academic integrity policy.