Managing Across Organizational & Cultural Boundaries B325

Faculty of Business Studies
Arab Open University


Managing Across Organizational & Cultural Boundaries B325


Tutor Monitoring Assignment
Fall 2016





This TMA has one summative question. Read through the attached article: “”Todeva, E. and Knoke, D. (2005). Strategic Alliances and Models of Collaboration. Management Decision; Volume 43 (1); 1-22” to answer it.

You are supposed to answer your TMA in 2500 words. Only a 10% deviation from the word count limit is acceptable. Critical discussion and link between theoretical frameworks and the article should be clearly highlighted. You are also expected to refer to external references to provide more evidence to your discussion. The questions in this assignment are about different concepts of collaboration that might help to achieve collaborative advantage or collaborative inertia.

QUESTION

With globalization, increased competition and customers being more needy and picky, collaboration has become an essential tool of success for many organizations that are struggling on their own to enlarge their market share and achieve positive outcomes. The article in your hand explains and discusses, on one hand, how the formation, implementation, and consequences of strategic alliances take place; and on the other hand, it analyses the implementation processes and problems encountered in managing alliances considering various primordial elements for collaboration such as trust, partner selection, social capital, knowledge transfer, etc.

Based on B325 course material and the article in hand, you are to discuss, in an essay format, various forms of collaboration, the importance of trust, social capital, and knowledge in building collaboration. You have to keep in mind that your discussion has to be based on critical analysis and valid link between course material and the article (2500 words).







GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR STUDENTS

Cut-off date: Week 11 (3-8 December 2016). If you feel that you are unable to meet the cut-off date of the TMA because of unusual circumstances, please contact your tutor as soon as possible to discuss a possible extension to the cut-off date.
TMA weight: 20% of total course grade.
Course material:
- Chapter 9: Coping with Trust; from “Managing to Collaborate” book.
- Chapter 16: The importance of social capital to the management of multinational enterprises; from “Organizational Collaboration Themes and Issues” book.

Format: You are expected to write your answers in an essay format. However, you may use bulleted paragraphs, diagrams, tables, or any graphs to support your arguments. Failing to do so could result in grade deduction from presentation marks up to 5 marks.
Plagiarism: It’s imperative that you write your answers using your own words. Plagiarism will be penalized depending on its severity and according to AOU plagiarism policy (Enclosed after these instructions you will find the Arab Open University rules of cheating and plagiarism).
Word count: your answers are expected to be within the specified word count. A 10% deviation from word count limit is acceptable. Not adhering to specified word count could result in grade deduction from word count marks up to 5 marks.
Referencing: You are expected to use the Harvard referencing style for in-text referencing and list of reference at the end. Failing to do so could result grade deduction of referencing marks up to 5 marks. In addition, although text books assigned in the course may be used freely as references, you are required to use a minimum of 2 external sources. It is recommended that you use scholarly studies found in the E-library link at the LMS. Failing to do so could result in grade deduction of referencing marks up to 5 marks.






The Arab Open University Rules about Plagiarism

The Arab Open University Definitions of cheating and plagiarism
According to the Arab Open University By-laws, “The following acts represent studies of cheating and plagiarism:
• Verbatim copying of printed material and submitting them as part of TMAs without proper academic acknowledgement and documentation.
• Verbatim copying of material from the Internet, including tables and graphics.
• Copying other students’ notes or reports.
• Using paid or unpaid material prepared for the student by individuals or firms.
• Utilization of, or proceeding to utilize, contraband materials or devices in examinations.”

Examples of Plagiarism
Copying from a single or multiple sources, this is where the student uses one or more of the following as the basis for the whole, or a good part, of the assignment:
1. Published or unpublished books, studies or reports
2. The Internet
3. The media (e.g.TV programmes, radio programmes or newspaper studies)
4. An essay from an essay bank
5. A piece of work previously submitted by another student
6. Copying from a text which is about to be submitted for the same assignment