8605-419 Understanding Work in Contemporary Society

Unit Overview

8605-419 Understanding Work in Contemporary Society is a unit within ILM model that helps to build a sense of context on the position of the organisation to ensure the learners are able to understand the role they should play in boosting the success of the organisation in their managerial roles. Organisations must ensure that they suit themselves effectively within the society to ensure that they embrace the norms and values that are developed within the society.

This involves building a perception of work that is consistent with contemporary society and ensuring that change is put in place to ensure the organisation adapts to the external environment hence improving its performance within the industry levels of the organisation. The unit further helps to evaluate the external environment and understand the impacts that it could have on the performance of the employees and the ability of the organisation to achieve the desired goals and objectives.

This unit is critical for different stakeholders in improving their ability to influence the external environment and ensure that it suits the needs of the organisation. The main purpose and aim of this unit is to ensure that the learners gain an understanding of the context of working within the contemporary society setting. This involves understanding the changes within the external environment of the organisation and the impact that this could have on the productivity and performance of the organisation. The unit is covered in 8 hours of guided learning and contributes 3 credit values to the completion of the ILM Level 4 module.

Suitability of the Unit

Managers within the organisation must get an understanding of the context of the organisation within the society. This involves understanding the specific setting of the organisation and identify the impact that this setting could have on the performance of the organisation. As such, they should evaluate the organisation and contextualise its purpose and nature within the contemporary society.

8605-419 Understanding Work in Contemporary Society is a unit that focuses on building this ability among the leaders. The unit is significantly suitable, therefore, for managers and organisational leaders. It is designed to build the capabilities of the middle managers who play a tactical role in ensuring the organisation adapts to the immediate environment. They are responsible for creating plans to adapt to the external environment in their areas of responsibility. However, this unit is versatile, and its content is significantly applicable to executive managers in improving their understanding of the context and setting of the business to ensure that their strategic decisions are aligned with the changes in the external environment that could impact the organisation.

Other stakeholders, including first-level managers, team leaders, and employees, can pursue the unit to build their professional capacity and prepare them for leadership opportunities. External consultants have a critical role to play in ensuring that organisations are aligned with contemporary society. They also should pursue this unit to help them build an understanding of the context of work within contemporary society.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the unit, the learners should be able to:

• Understand the nature and purpose of the organisation that they work for

• Identify the strengths and weaknesses of the organisation type and structure in aligning it to the immediate external environment and achieving its goals and objectives

• Understand the impact that changes in the external environment may have on the organisation and the different effects on operation that this change causes

• Make recommendations for adaptive changes that could be implemented within the organisation to respond to the changes in external environment and factors hence sustaining organisational productivity and operation.

Key Learning Areas

8605-419 Understanding Work in Contemporary Society focuses on building an understanding of the organisation in the context of the external environment. It helps contextualise the organisations hence build the abilities of the learners to understand factors that may affect work within the organisation. Some of the key learner areas that are covered within the unit include:

Understanding the Organization

This area of learning helps to build the ability of the learner to critically evaluate the organisation and its setting. This involves understanding the nature and purpose of the organisations and the impact that the organisational models, structures, and format have on influencing the performance of the organisation in achieving its goals and objectives.

In the process, the learners are introduced to different organisational structures/ models and organisational types that can influence the performance in accomplishing its goals and objectives. Additionally, the learners understand the advantages and disadvantages of each organisational type which is critical lain, building knowledge on how these types help to adapt the company to the external environment and facilitate success in accomplishing the tasks and responsibilities of the organisation.

Impact of Environmental Factors on Organisation Success

This area of learning focuses on understanding the changes within the external environment and the impacts that this could have on the organisation. The areas covered in this area include the technological aspects, competitive and social development within the external environment that could impact an organisation's operation and performance.

The learners are also guided in understanding different methods of acquiring and utilising information in the form of secondary and primary data that is effective in building their ability to create adaptation techniques that suit the organisation to this environment. In this area of learning, the learners are also helped to understand different factors causing the change and the need for learning organisation in creating adaptation to this change.

Evaluation

Upon completion of the unit, the learners are required to complete an assessment to evaluate their performance. The assessment includes a written assessment where the learner is provided with a template where they have to respond to show understanding of the theoretical information learned in a classroom or virtual learning experiences. They are also required to complete supervised practice that ensures they can implement the learner principles within organisational settings