Assignment 1: Argumentative Essay Length: 1500 words Assessment Details You will learn

Assignment 1: Argumentative Essay

Length: 1500 words

Assessment Details

You will learn from this 12-module course that the management of innovation is a multi-faceted endeavor that occurs at all levels within the organization. Demonstration of that learning will require you to apply critical thinking as you argue to show understanding of the many, often competing, viewpoints.

One such viewpoint is expressed by Tidd, Bessant, and Pavitt (2005, p. 571), who asserts that  “innovation is complex, uncertain, and almost impossible to manage” This assessment requires that you focus on the challenges (and remedies?) associated with management of innovation expressed above. Your task is to write an argumentative essay in which you critically argue in favor of, or against, Tidd et al.’s statement.

Critical thinking requires you to make arguments rather than describe the materials covered in this course. Therefore, please refrain from simply reproducing the concepts, models, and theories.  Instead, use arguments to make your points. In those arguments, draw on specific examples of your learnings from each of the first four Modules of this course.

To be clear, arguments must be balanced across all four modules, and this should be clear from the marking rubric. Select specific concepts, models, theories, frameworks, or tools that you found particularly useful to support those arguments.  As you argue, apply relevant specialist terminology and demonstrate relevance to contemporary creativity and innovation practices. Where possible and appropriate, support your arguments with real-world industry examples.  Critical thinkers knowingly apply their examples to support or oppose Tidd et al.’s point of view,  especially in the context of specific sub-sets of innovation management. 

Reference: Tidd, J., Bessant, J., & Pavitt, K. (2005). Managing innovation – integrating technological, market and organizational change (3rd ed.). Australia: John Wiley and Sons. 

Important requirements

Your chosen examples (concepts, models, theories, frameworks, or tools) must originate from the materials presented in the first four modules (Factors affecting creativity in individuals and teams ; Creativity in organizations; Innovation Typologies) in this course. Do not include examples from elsewhere.

Factors that facilitate creativity in employees

The Componential Theory of Individual Creativity (Amabile 1997)

Expertise: Memory for factual knowledge, technical proficiency and special talents in a specific domain

Creative thinking skills: The ability to take on new perspectives on a given problem

Intrinsic task motivation: Motivation driven by deep interest and involvement in the work, by curiosity and/or a personal sense of challenge

Factors that promote creativity within organizations (Amabile 1997)

1. Organizational encouragement – the existence of an organizational culture

that encourages and promotes creativity

2. Supervisory encouragement – a supervisor who acts as a good role model,

supports the team and shows confidence in the team

3. Work group support – a diversely skilled team that supports each other, communicates effectively and is open to new ideas

4. Sufficient resources – access to appropriate resources (funds, materials, facilities etc)

5. Challenging work – a sense of having to work hard on challenging tasks and important projects

6. Freedom – freedom to decide on what work to do or how to do it

Factors that impede creativity inorganizations

Organizational impediments – the existence of an organizational

culture that impedes creativity by creating internal conflict and

political problems, harsh criticism of new ideas etc

Workload pressure – extreme time pressure and unrealistic workload expectations etc

The degree of innovation present in firms

Incremental innovation, Substantial innovation, Radical innovation

There is no upper limit to the number of examples you may wish to select from each module.

You should include at least two examples of theories and two examples of tools among your examples across the four modules.

Please be guided by the marking rubric when writing your essay. The four Canvas modules that you must cover each carry heavy weight (20%) in the assessment criteria.

Assessment criteria (100 marks equate to 30% of the overall course assessment)

This assessment will measure your ability  based on the following criteria;

Introduce the context, background, scope, and purpose of your essay (5 marks)

Critically argue the factors related to the nexus among creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship in the context of innovation management (20 marks)

Critically argue the factors related to creativity and innovation at the individual and team level in the context of innovation management (20 marks)

Critically argue the factors related to creativity and innovation at the organizational level in the context of innovation management (20 marks)

Critically argue the factors related to innovation typologies in the context of innovation management (20 marks)

Synthesize and conclude your arguments and relate it back to the broader knowledge of the innovation management field (5 marks)

Written expression (10 marks)

Structure of the argumentative academic essay

Your argumentative academic essay must include the following components:

Cover page (compulsory)

Please include the following detail on your cover page: Your full name and student number; Course title, Tutor name; Assignment 1: Argumentative essay; Tutorial #; Word count.

1. Introduction: must include

A general statement to provide context and background information.

A purpose statement that outlines the scope and structure of the essay.

A statement (argument) that identifies the topic and your position.

2. Argument

Your argumentative academic essay can include any number of paragraphs. Give each set of paragraphs that portray a specific topic a descriptive sub-heading and make it clear which sections relate to which course modules. 

Each paragraph should:

describe one main idea only, supported by information and evidence from your research

follow the TEEL strategyLinks to an external site. to ensure all elements of a good paragraph are included

relate back to the argument you posed in your introduction

In the paragraphs, you must include in-text citations of all scholarly work (i.e., journals,  academic textbooks, e-books, etc.) and of non-scholarly work (i.e., company websites,  newspaper articles, company videos, etc.) used. Non-scholarly work must be cited when real-world corporate examples are used to support your arguments.

3. Conclusion:

Your conclusion should:

restate your position (for completeness’ sake)

summarise how the most important evidence supports this

show how your position is related to the broader body of knowledge of this field/topic

4. References:

List all scholarly and non-scholarly work you have cited in the body of the essay in a Reference List.

The reference list is not included in the word count.

References should be in RMIT Harvard style (or Harvard style if using Endnote).

The list should be in alphabetical order by family name.

The list should not be listed by numbers or bullet points.

A minimum of 5 references must be from scholarly work, the remainder can be non-scholarly work where re al-world corporate examples are used. 

Referencing guidelines

Use Harvard referencing style for this assessment. You must acknowledge all the courses of information you have used in your assessment.

A minimum of 5 references must be from scholarly work, the remainder can be non-scholarly work where real-world corporate examples are used.

Critical thinking:

What is critical thinking? by RMIT’s Learning LabLinks to an external site.

What is an argumentative academic essay?

An argumentative academic essay is a piece of writing that examines and interprets a given ‘claim’  or ‘statement’ and defends or refutes it with the use of theoretical and practical evidence. In such an essay, you are essentially building up and presenting your own argument(s) on the statement while using scholarly (i.e., journal articles, textbooks, theories, etc.) and practical evidence (e.g., corporate stories, news items relating to companies, etc.) to support your arguments. Hence, you are not simply describing or summarizing what others have said about a given statement but introducing and developing your own arguments on it. Your arguments must be backed by evidence if they are to be valid.

In summary, in writing an argumentative academic essay, you are using your critical thinking skills.