VCE Business Management 2024

Question 4 (10 marks): Managing employees and business objectives

Based on Section A Question 4 (10 marks). Analyse how the way a business manages its employees affects whether it achieves its objectives. Use strategies for managing employees and at least one contemporary business case study.

Model answer (plan and key paragraphs). Pick a case study where the objectives and the employee strategies are both clear. The report's example used a supermarket's introduction of AI-monitored self-service checkouts; any real business from the past four years works if you can name its objectives. The structure below uses that kind of example.

1. Set up the case and the objectives. A large supermarket chain adds AI detection to its self-service checkouts. Name the specific objectives: reduce the value of stock lost to theft, and through that increase net profit. Naming the objectives up front lets every later paragraph link back to them.
2. Strategy 1: training. Staff receive on-the-job training on the new system, including what to do when an exit gate stays closed, which may mean theft or may mean a scanning error. Trained staff respond correctly and quickly, so more theft is stopped and fewer honest customers are upset. Effect on objective: lower inventory losses reduce expenses, which lifts net profit.
3. Strategy 2: motivation. With scanning now done by customers, staff roles shift to helping customers and watching for problems. A motivation strategy such as performance-related pay for staff who help a set number of customers each shift keeps them alert and engaged. Effect on objective: attentive staff catch more losses and improve service, supporting both the loss objective and customer satisfaction. Identifying keen staff through this process also helps target future training spending.
4. Strategy 3: performance management. Managers observe staff at the checkouts to check they are acting on the AI alerts. Where they are not, feedback and retraining follow. Effect on objective: the business can see whether the change is actually cutting losses and correct problems before they erode profit.
5. Analyse, not just list. Show the chain in each paragraph: strategy, what changes in employee behaviour, which objective moves and why. Where relevant, note a limit (for example, training costs money up front, so it only helps net profit if losses fall by more than the training costs).

Marker's note: The report wanted several strategies for managing employees, a clear explanation of how each affects a named objective, and real application to a contemporary case study. Answers lost marks for using management styles, management skills or motivation theories in place of strategies, for automation or AI strategies with no employee angle, for saying "objectives" without naming them, and for writing a change management answer instead of an employee management one.

Question 2d (6 marks): Senge's Learning Organisation at Surf 'n Stuff

Based on Section A Question 2d (6 marks). Explain how the surfwear manufacturer could use two of Senge's Learning Organisation principles to build a culture that is positive towards change.

Model answer

(a) Personal mastery

Personal mastery is each employee committing to continually develop their own skills and understanding. Surf 'n Stuff could fund training so production staff build expertise in wetsuit and swimwear construction, and let them set personal development goals. Employees who feel skilled and confident see change (such as new processes to cut defective swimwear by 20%) as something they can handle rather than a threat, so they are more willing to accept it. That openness is a positive culture for change.

(b) Shared vision

Shared vision means everyone in the business is committed to a common picture of where it is heading. Sandy Waters could involve staff in shaping the 2024 objectives, for example by holding team sessions on why reducing defects and absenteeism matters for the business's future. When employees own the vision, they support the changes needed to reach it instead of resisting them, so change is welcomed rather than imposed.

Marker's note

Any two of team learning, personal mastery, shared vision, mental models and systems thinking were accepted. Full marks needed each principle explained, applied to Surf 'n Stuff with more than its name or the CEO's name, and linked to a culture that is positive towards change, not just a positive culture in general.

Question 3a (3 marks): Corporate social responsibility at Allygant Attire

Based on Section A Question 3a (3 marks). Describe one way the formal-wear hire business could improve corporate social responsibility within its operations management system.

Model answer. Allygant Attire's key inputs are the garments it buys to hire out. It could improve its corporate social responsibility by sourcing that formal wear only from suppliers that use environmentally sustainable materials and ethical labour practices. In practice it would set sourcing standards, check or audit its suppliers against them, and switch suppliers that fall short. This reduces the environmental and social harm caused by its operations, beyond what the law requires, while still giving customers quality garments to hire.

Marker's note: This was the lowest-scoring short-answer part of the paper for its marks (average 1.3 of 3; only Question 4 scored lower as a share of its marks). The strategy had to sit within operations and fit a hire business. The report said many answers wrote about supporting staff who lose their jobs when stores close (a human resources matter), treated the business as a manufacturer, or gave a long definition of CSR without applying it. No definition of CSR was required.

Question 3c (3 marks): Justifying Lewin's Three-step Change Model

Based on Section A Question 3c (3 marks). Justify the use of Lewin's Three-step Change Model when Allygant Attire implements its change (closing six stores and moving to online services).

Model answer.

• It gives managers a clear structure for a big change. The model sets out three stages, unfreeze, change and refreeze, so managers know what to do and in what order. For example, in the unfreeze stage they would explain to staff why the stores are closing and why online services matter for the business's future, which lowers resistance before the change starts. That clarity makes a large change more likely to succeed.
• It makes the change last. The refreeze stage embeds the new way of working in the business's policies, routines and culture, for example making website service targets part of normal operations. This stops Allygant Attire drifting back to a store-based focus once the six stores have closed, so the money spent on online advertising and the website pays off in the long term.

Marker's note: "Justify" means give reasons the model is a good choice. The report said most students only described the three steps and did not state any benefit, which capped their mark. It also noted that refreeze means embedding the change, not evaluating it.

Question B2 (3 marks): Website hits and market share

Based on Section B Question 2 (3 marks). Interpret the relationship between Soaring Rox's number of website hits and its market share, using the graph in the case study.

Model answer.

1. Use the data. Website hits were about 8 200 in July 2023, dipped to about 7 500 in August, then climbed to a peak of about 9 300 in December 2023. They then fell sharply to about 6 000 in January 2024 and kept falling to under 3 000 (about 2 800) by June 2024. Market share held at about 12% from July 2023 to January 2024, then fell steadily to 9% by April, held at 9% in May and dropped to about 8% by June 2024.
2. State the relationship. The two KPIs move in the same direction, but website hits started falling first (straight after December) and market share followed from January, about a month later.
3. Explain the cause. The drop in website visits came straight after the three negative reviews in December 2023, as fewer potential customers chose to look at the centre online. With fewer people visiting the site to find booking or contact details, fewer climbing sessions were booked, so Soaring Rox's sales fell relative to other climbing centres in the city and its market share declined.

Final answer: A direct relationship: falling website hits (following the December reviews) led to fewer bookings and so a lower share of the city's rock-climbing sales, from about 12% to about 8%.

Marker's note: Most students said the two lines fell together but did not explain how one affected the other. Full marks needed graph data, case study information and a cause-and-effect explanation. The report also accepted the reverse direction (lower market share meaning fewer people visit the website) if it was explained.

Question B4 (6 marks): Evaluating Mia Tarian's management style

Based on Section B Question 4 (6 marks). Evaluate how appropriate Mia's management style is as she introduces the changes at Soaring Rox.

Model answer

Identify the style from the evidence

Mia is using an autocratic style: she made the decisions (compulsory Sunday training, replacing the staffroom with a first-aid room, changing suppliers) without consulting staff, and simply told them at a meeting.

(a) Advantage: speed in a crisis

With centralised decision making Mia can act at once. Soaring Rox's reputation for safety is under attack and market share has fallen from about 12% to about 8%, so fast action on training and first aid addresses the reviews' complaints before more customers are lost.

(b) Advantage: clear direction

One-way communication makes it clear exactly what is expected, for example that every employee must attend the three training sessions. This means the safety changes happen as intended.

(c) Disadvantage: lower morale

Staff had no say in losing their staffroom or giving up three Sundays. Feeling ignored can reduce morale and raise staff turnover, which adds recruitment and training costs, a real problem for a business already relying on inexperienced staff.

(d) Disadvantage: lost ideas

Employees on the climbing floor may know where a first-aid room or first-aid provider would be most useful, or which equipment customers actually use, but those ideas are never heard.

Judgement

The autocratic style is appropriate in the short term because the safety problems are urgent and the reputation damage is costing sales, and changes such as equipment training are not optional. However, it risks losing the goodwill of the very staff Mia needs to deliver safer, high-quality experiences, so it suits the immediate crisis better than the longer rebuilding of the business's reputation.

Marker's note

Most students correctly identified the autocratic style. High-scoring answers weighed advantages and disadvantages using case study evidence and ended with an evidence-based judgement. A bare opinion ("I think it is appropriate") or a generic line ("the advantages outweigh the disadvantages") did not count as evaluation, and suggesting an alternative style was not needed.