Assignment Task
The title of the essay question is: “Making specific reference to relevant concepts
covered on this module, critically assess the strategies of FareShare, the Trussell
Trust, or FoodCycle. You can either discuss one of these cases in depth or compare and
contrast 2 or 3 of these organizations. Draw on material covered in the module so far,
including your own reading.”
Please also see further specifications below:
Food poverty has become an increasing problem in the UK over recent years. This has
resulted in the emergence of a large number of civil society food poverty
organizations. These organizations all take different approaches to addressing this
problem. The UK now has three national organizations in this field: 1) FareShare, the
UK’s largest surplus food redistribution charity. Food that is nearing its use-by or bestby date is donated by food companies to FareShare’s 22 regional centres which are
operated by other charities as franchises. These franchises redistribute this food to
community kitchens providing cooked meals to hungry people; 2) Trussell Trust, the
UK’s largest network of foodbanks with 1,200 centres. Food is purchased by
supermarket customers and donated to the Trussell Trust which provides this in parcels
for hungry people to cook at home; 3) FoodCycle is the only national network of
community kitchens, with 48 branches. FoodCycle collects small donations of surplus
food from supermarkets and use community kitchen spaces to produce meals for hungry
people. FareShare, Trussell Trust, and FoodCycle have all grown considerably in size
since they were founded and continue to do so. However, alongside these three
organizations the UK now has thousands of small independent food poverty
organizations which compete with these national players for resources such as food,
MODULE CODE: BE431-5-SP
MODULE TITLE: Business Strategy
DESCRIPTION OF ASSESSMENT: Coursework
% OF MODULE 40%
WORD COUNT: 2000 (excluding References list)
MODULE LEADER: Jayne Jennett
DEADLINE:
10:00 (10am) on Friday 06.03.20 (Week 23) on
FASER
funding, and volunteers. These smaller organizations are growing in number as the
numbers of people in the UK continues to rise. In short, this has become a competitive
sector.
In preparing the assignment, you will need to carry out your own research in order to
find out more about the organisations, their strategies and the external environment
within which they operate.
Assignment requirements
Your assignment should include:
• Briefly detail the organizations’ strategies. • Use one or more of the models/concepts/approaches discussed in the first four
lectures of the module (chapters 1-5 of the core Clegg et al. text) to analyse
the strategies of your chosen organizations. • Critically discuss the strategies chosen
• Formulate recommendations going forward for how this organization(s) can
increase access to their key resources (for example, food, etc…). If you were a
member of the Board of trustees to your chosen organizations, what would you
see as important for the organizations’ strategies?
Additional guidelines
• In your analysis and discussion of the case, you must make reference to specific
topics studied in lectures 1-4 of this module (e.g. the macro/micro environment
analysis, resources, competences, innovation strategies).
• Remember that your work needs to be grounded in relevant academic literature.
• Try to ensure that you include some discussion of the organizations’ strategies in
your evaluation of your chosen models/concepts/approaches. • You should draw on the materials across the lectures within the first four weeks of
the module. Each of these lectures can contribute to answering the question, but
you also need to be selective in the materials you choose to use. • You are expected to draw on additional resources (both those available on Moodle
and from your own research).
• Your essay should contain a title page which should include your registration
number but not your name.
• It should be clearly written in an academic style, following guidelines on essay
writing
• Your assignment should be a maximum of 2,000 words long. Do not exceed this
word limit. Writing concisely is an important academic skill.
• Please leave adequate margins in your work and use minimum 1.5 line-spacing.
Indicative answers
Basic assignments will show a very rudimentary understanding of the case. Any
models, concepts or approaches used will have been applied rather superficially. As
such the assignments will lack analytical depth. Recommendations might be either
missing or not very clear. The piece of work might be somewhat unstructured and the
assignments hard to follow.
Better answers will show a detailed understanding of the case and show a good
understanding of the approach or model chosen to analyse the case. It will be clear
that appropriate choices on what to present have been made as a result of an
effective analysis. These assignments will be very coherent and well- presented and
make clear well thought out recommendations.
The best answers will additionally show very deep engagement with the concept,
model, or approach and show significant research into the case chosen.
What markers are looking for
Quality of interpretation and evaluation
Quality of appraisal and interpretation of data and academic materials, including
the appropriate use of relevant course concepts
Breadth and depth of issues analysed
Logical reasoning, analysis and debate
Originality and use of initiative
Use of academic concepts and theories
The extent to which the required academic materials (incl. relevant course
concepts) have been incorporated
Depth of reading and application (esp. in terms of further reading)
Relevance of the content
Structure and clarity of presentation
The logic and rationale for the adopted structure
The clarity of the points made
Correct use of referencing style
Appropriate presentation of the work (e.g. the inclusion of page numbers, subheadings etc.)
Some sources that may be useful to get you started
The following sources are provided in order to help you. These either provide
background on the organisations included in this case study or parts of them may be
directly useful for your assignment. You do not have to use them. Choose according to
what your analysis is focusing on and feel welcome to use sources that you find though
your own desk research and you believe are useful. Selecting the suitable information
from a range of sources is part of your skill development.
You will also need to use academic journal articles and books in order to discuss the
models/concepts/approaches you have chosen to use. Some of the sources listed on
Moodle may also be useful for this.
Case study organizations:
FareShare: https://fareshare.org.uk/
FoodCycle: https://www.foodcycle.org.uk/
Trussell Trust: https://www.trusselltrust.org/
Alexander, C. & Smaje, C. (2008) Surplus retail food redistribution: An analysis of a
third sector model. Resources. Conservation and Recycling, 52:11, 1290-1298.
Lambie-Mumford, H. (2013) ‘Every town should have one’: emergency food banking in
the UK. Journal of Social Policy, 42(1), pp.73-89.
Whilst most of these articles apply to different organizations to those included in
the case study, this reading has been chosen to give you an idea of how some of
these organizational models work:
Baglioni, S., De Pieri, B. & Tallarico, T. (2016) Surplus food recovery and food aid: The
pivotal role of non-profit organisations. Insights from Italy and Germany, Voluntas:
International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 28:5, 2032-2052.
Caraher, M. & Furey, S. (2017) Is it Appropriate to Use Surplus Food to Feed People in
Hunger? Short-term band-aid to more deep-rooted problems of poverty. London: Food
Research Collaboration.
Eisinger, P. (2002) Organizational capacity and organizational effectiveness among
street-level food assistance programs. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 31:1,
115-130.
Elmes, M.B., Mendoza-Abarca, K. and Hersh, R., 2016. Food banking, ethical
sensemaking, and social innovation in an era of growing hunger in the United States.
Journal of Management Inquiry, 25(2), pp.122-138.
Fyall, R. & Levine, D. J. (2018) Pantries and policy implementation: Using nonprofit
priorities to understand variation in emergency food assistance. Nonprofit and
Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 47:4, 11S-33S.
Lafrati, S. (2016) The sustainability of food bank provision: What happens when
demand outstrips supply? Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, 23:4, 307–310.
Lindberg, R., Lawrence, M., Gold, L. & Friel, S. (2014) Food rescue: An Australian
example. British Food Journal, 116:9, 1478-1489.
Loopstra, R. & Tarasuk, V., 2012. The relationship between food banks and household
food insecurity among low-income Toronto families. Canadian Public Policy, 38(4), pp.
497-514.
Lorenz, S. (2012) Socio-ecological consequences of charitable food assistance in the
affluent society: the German Tafel. International Journal of Sociology and Social
Policy, 32:7/8, 386-400.
Midgley, J. L. (2014) The logics of surplus food redistribution. Journal of
Environmental Planning and Management, 57:12, 1872-1892.
Mohan, S., Gopalakrishnan, M. & Mizzi. P. J. (2013) Improving the efficiency of a nonprofit supply chain for the food insecure. International Journal of Production
Economics, 143:2, 248-255.
Tarasuk, V. & Eakin, J. M. (2005) Food Assistance through “surplus” food: Insights from
an ethnographic study of food bank work. Agriculture and Human Values. 22:2, 177–
186.
White, M.D., Fisher, C., Hadfield, K., Saunders, J. and Williams, L., 2005. Measuring
organizational capacity among agencies serving the poor: implications for achieving
organizational effectiveness. Justice Policy Journal, 2(2), pp.1-39.