Submission deadline: 26th January 2026, 12 Noon

Electronic submission only through Blackboard

You can submit your assignment multiple times to the submission link on the module Blackboard site. Each time you submit you will receive a Similarity Report. You can check this and improve your referencing before the final deadline.

After 3 submissions you will need to wait 24hrs before you receive a new report.

Please note: each new submission replaces any previous submission. It is not possible to retrieve a previous submission.

Your final submission must be made before the deadline to avoid late penalties.

You should note that the time of submission is taken from once the document has been successfully uploaded and confirmed – this may take more than five minutes during busy periods. Late penalties will be applied to any work submitted from 12.01pm on Monday 27th January, 2025 onwards. Details of how to calculate a late penalty can be found in your programme handbook. It is your responsibility to ensure the correct document/file has uploaded successfully.

When submitting students must:

1. Include a completed cover sheet (available from Blackboard (MOLE))
2. Use ‘Student Number, MGT310-2’ (e.g. 190011001, MGT310-2) as the document’s file name and also as the Assignment Title in Turnitin.

Students who fail to follow this submission requirement will incur a penalty of 5 marks.

Unless otherwise specified, the word count is for the main body of the text and ignores the reference list and appendices.  If you exceed the word length you will be penalised.  For details see the Management School Handbooks.

Please note that SUMS does not have a word count tolerance – it is a stated maximum as outlined above.

Throughout the MGT310 module, we used the Conclave film as a case to practice our understanding and application of the four sociological paradigms to the analysis of social and organisational realities. For your final coursework, you are asked to select a film of your choice and analyse it using all four sociological paradigms. The film can be produced in any country and in any language, but it must be a full-feature work of fiction or a fictionalised account or real-life events (NOT a documentary!). It does not have to focus specifically on work, organisations and management, but you must be able to use it to explore the themes of working, managing and organising.

While using each of the paradigms to analyse the film, you can ask similar questions to those in your first coursework for this module. For example, how does looking at the film from the perspective of each paradigm helps you to:

·         Ask different questions about the events and characters in the film

·         Reveal and understand different aspects of the events presented in the film and how they are presented

·         Explain why things happened in the film the way they did

·         Point how things could have been done differently

·         Identify specific representations of work, organisational and management realities in the film

·         Critique the above representations

The word count for this coursework is 3500 words. This is the approximate structure:

1.      Introduction – provide a summary of the film plot and significant details (500 words)

2.      Application of the Functionalist paradigm (500 words)

3.      Application of the Interpretivist paradigm (500 words)

4.      Application of the Radical Humanist paradigm (500 words)

5.      Application of the Radical Structuralist paradigm (500 words)

6.      Reflection on the application of the four paradigms. Which one did you find most insightful? Which analysis was most relevant to understanding your own experiences of work, organisations and management? Which was most helpful in making decisions about your future career?

7.      Remaining 500 words – please use as you wish (e.g. to increase the size of some of the sections above).

The use of any form of generative AI is not permitted for this essay. Please see further details in the “Other matters” section below.

You are reminded of the University’s Regulations on the Use of Unfair Means and academic integrity which are outlined in the School’s Handbooks.  If there is a suspicion that your work is not your own and that you have used unfair means or there is suspicion of a breach of academic integrity in writing this assessment then you may be referred to our unfair means officers to consider your work. Therefore, you are advised to ensure that you undertake the relevant guidance on the module site or programme level sites that you have access too. If you cannot access these, please contact the Student Experience Office.

Use the standard Management School cover sheet

●       Have the word count given on the cover sheet

●       Be presented with 2.5cm margins all round

●       Use Times New Roman or Arial, 11 or 12 point for the main body text

●       Use 1.5 line spacing

●       Have all pages numbered except the first

●       Be properly spell checked

●       Be made attractive with suitable use of headings, paragraphs and sections

●       Be properly referenced to the Management School version of Harvard referencing

Students will be provided (on the resit assignment tab on the MGT Blackboard page) with two different articles to analyse as per the requirements set out above and which will be assessed using the criteria above. Both students who failed and students who submit the assignment for the first time (but during the resit period) should draw on guidance received during the module.

Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI)

·         Developing content: Gen AI (e.g. Bard/Gemini, Chat-GPT, Grammarly, Quillbot, Jasper, Bing Chat, Microsoft CoPilot, etc.) must not be used to develop assignment content for the MGT310.

·         Referencing: You must not use Gen AI tools as sources in your assignment and you should not cite anything from a Gen AI tool. This is because General Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) tools may not consistently provide accurate information and citations. Using imprecise or unrelated references from Gen AI might result in unintentional unfair means (plagiarism), adversely affecting the grading of your work.

·         Improvement of English grammar, vocabulary or spelling: If you have used an AI tool for this, you should acknowledge it through including a completed Acknowledge / Describe / Evidence template document. This template is available as an attachment via the Assessment section on the MGT310 Blackboard site. To use the template, download it, fill it out and then include it after the coversheet page of your essay. If you include this template you should also include the draft (pre-AI) version of your assignment as an appendix (e.g. Appendix A).

In general, however, Microsoft Word spelling and grammar checker will be sufficient for your work. Also please note that marks will NOT be deducted for poor spelling and grammar as long as the text you submit is reasonably professional and its meaning is easy to understand. So you should not feel the pressure to use AI in your writing.