Learning outcomes
This TMA is intended to assess:your knowledge and understanding of relevant module concepts, including negotiation approaches and skills, building legitimacy, networks and networking, and financing new venturesyour capacity to reflect critically on the negotiation activity, drawing on personal experiences and interactions with tutors and other studentsyour ability to apply relevant module concepts when reflecting critically on negotiations and approaches to developing entrepreneurial opportunitiesyour ability to discuss issues related to innovation and entrepreneurship through active participation in learning activities, including TGF discussionsgood academic practice in citing sources of information appropriately.Part 1: Reflections about negotiations and negotiating (50 marks)Write a report for your tutor on what you have learned about negotiations, the process of negotiating, and about yourself as a negotiator, through undertaking the NEO role-play negotiations. The word limit is 1200 words.Your report should include the following:Introduction: set out the background to the negotiations and your role as a negotiator, summarise the exchanges that took place, and describe the outcomes (20 marks).Reflection and analysis: reflect on your personal experience, and those of your negotiating partners, highlighting any insights you have gained into the practice of negotiating (20 marks).Conclusions: identify three lessons from NEO and briefly explain how you might apply them in a future enterprise and innovation negotiation (10 marks).Guidance to studentsYou need to complete at least one of the two role-plays and the associated tasks in order to complete this TMA. Your participation in the role-plays will provide you with much of the material you need in order to write your report and to satisfy the marking criteria. If you are unable to complete the role-plays for any reason, contact your tutor as soon as possible.In addition to drawing on your own personal experiences and discussions with other students, your report should demonstrate that you can select and apply relevant material (e.g. theories, concepts, evidence) from the module. The most obvious of these are ideas about negotiation, including those outlined in Reading 2.1 ‘Approaches and skills for negotiators’ in the B205 Reader. However, other ideas from Blocks 1 and 2 may also be used where relevant.Your report should comprise three sections, covering the following points:Introduction: set out the background to your negotiations, including: the scenarios that you completed, the role you were playing, what happened during the negotiation (e.g. you might identify distinct phases), what kind of outcome was achieved (i.e. whether you reached a ‘deal’ or not), and whether you succeeded in what you were trying to do.Reflection and Analysis: use concepts on approaches to negotiations to evaluate your own performance and that of your negotiating partner(s). Do the same for the transcripts and final online forms. As you do so, make notes on why things happened the way they did and try to identify the factors that contributed to a ‘better’ or ‘poorer’ outcome (and for whom). Remember to include reflections on your personal feelings or emotional reactions as well as those covering the more ‘logical’ aspects of the process. You could use the following questions as a starting-point to help you think these issues through:How did you feel about your approach to negotiation? (e.g. were you surprised, pleased, dismayed, amused?)How might the outcomes have been different if you had approached the negotiation differently?Do you think that your approach to negotiation was successful or unsuccessful?Why was this the case?Use these notes to write your analysis and reflections, drawing on module concepts where appropriate.Conclusion: use the information you have assembled in the first two sections, TGF discussions with other students about negotiations and negotiating, and any further reading, to identify three lessons from your NEO experience, highlighting their relevance for innovation and entrepreneurship. These lessons could take a variety of forms. For example, they could be related to particular approaches to negotiation or different ways to measure success. However, your answer must focus on how these lessons could be applied within the fields of innovation and entrepreneurship.Part 2: Developing opportunities (40 marks)You are part of a small team that is developing an innovative product or service. It is a great opportunity but first you have to address the following barriers in order to make this a reality: (a) limited financial resources, (b) few contacts in the industry, (c) no established reputation and public profile. Prepare a short report, outlining three actions you would take to address these issues. Your report should demonstrate that you can select and apply relevant material (e.g. theories, concepts, evidence) from the module. The word limit is 800 words.Your report should include the following sections:Introduction: begin with a very brief outline of your innovative product or service, to provide a background for the rest of the report. This should be no more than one paragraph, which could be illustrated with a suitable image (e.g. a drawing of the kind of product or service you are seeking to develop) (10 marks).Three action points: explain how you would begin to address the three barriers identified in the question (i.e. limited financial resources, few contacts in the industry, no established reputation and public profile) (30 marks).Guidance to studentsThe aim of this question is to demonstrate that you can select and apply relevant material (e.g. theories, concepts, evidence) from the module to help you develop an entrepreneurial opportunity. Your tutor will not be assessing your innovative product or service. This means that it is not necessary to spend a lot of time identifying the ‘best possible’ product or service. You can use an example from your own imagination or base it on an innovative idea that you have found online. Just make sure that it is an innovative product or service that you can describe in a few sentences – perhaps supported by an illustration – as a starting point for your report.Your action points must address the three barriers identified in the question. You will find suitable material in the three Block 2 readings below, (which can be found in the B205 Reader) and in the associated learning activities:Reading 2.3 ‘Building legitimacy in a new venture’Reading 2.4 ‘Network perspectives’Reading 2.5 ‘The financing challenge’You can also incorporate ideas from other parts of Blocks 1 and 2 where you think these are particularly relevant to your answer.You must include in-text citations and a full list of references to indicate your sources of evidence. Ensure that you use the OU Harvard referencing system. You will find information on how to reference in the OU Harvard guide to citing references. The references list is not included in the word count. It should be positioned at the end of your report.TUTOR FEEDBACK FROM LAST TMA:This is a positive TMA. You have produced an interesting visual essay.Your mark would be improved through greater participation on the TGF and OpenStudio.Remember, when completing a TMA always consider: where your argument lies, apply module concepts and support your points where possible with practical examples.Your referencing is an area for development. In future TMA’s you should be looking at both in-text and full referencing.Using the OU Harvard guide to citing references will support your referencing. http://www.open.ac.uk/libraryservices/documents/Harvard_citati on_hlp.pdfIn this TMA, you should have referenced all your images on both the audio visual and script, plus you must always state when you access websites.ALSO I WILL SEND YOU THE PICTURE FROM MY BOOKS TO HELP YOU SHORTLY
