- Leadership Identity Essay (2-3 pages, single-spaced = 150 points):
As discussed throughout this term, knowledge of ones personality and leadership style is critical to navigating the complex system of any organization. In this 2-3 page essay, describe your leadership style as if you were writing a letter of interest for employment. You can choose the company or organization that you are applying to as well as the position that you desire. Drawing on all that you have learned in this course, including the personal inventories, and drawing insights from Brene Browns Book Dare to Lead, what are the strengths that will make you an asset to the company? Consider issues of diversity and power, privilege and inequity. How do you see yourself? How do you manage groups and conflict? Please reference at least two of the personal inventories that we took in class as well as Browns book Dare to Lead and Robbins & Judge text Essentials of Organizational Behavior. You do not need to use any outside sources for this essay.
- Organizational Change Essay (2-3 pages, single-spaced = 150 points):
As organizations grow, particularly in the global space, change is inevitable. As businesses take on a more global facing model, management must be ready to facilitate the changes that ensue. This means creating plans for introducing and managing change. Lewin’s 3-Stage Model of Change and Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model are widely used to help overcome barriers to change in organizations.
CHOOSE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING PROMPTS: Drawing on what you’ve learned in this course, please choose one of the following prompts and write a 2-3 page (minimum) report to address it. You are expected to use at least 2 outside reputable sources in your essay. Please cite them using APA format.
Prompt 1
You are in upper management for a mid-sized manufacturing company. Recent economic changes forced upper management to move much of the manufacturing to a foreign country. As a result, many of the state-side employees will be forced to work directly with foreign counterparts. There is great concern that the existing employees may not embrace the change, and you’ve been tasked with creating a plan to minimize the fallout.
Develop a plan that will facilitate as smooth of a transition as possible, optimizing employee buy-in, satisfaction, and productivity. Write a report that explains the details of your plan, and be sure to integrate concrete examples and supportive reasoning for how to implement this plan following each step of Lewin’s 3-Stage Model of Change and/or Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model (refer to EOB pg. 190).
Prompt 2
You are an executive-level manager for a large marketing firm. Up until recently, your marketing executives enjoyed a myriad of perks including travel to meet with clients, laptop computers, free gym memberships, and company cars. However, after your firm lost a high producing account, marketing executives will lose some of the important benefits to which they’ve grown accustomed. It is your job to get the executives to buy into the changes. These changes include: restricted use of personal vehicles, limited travel benefits, elimination of tele-commuting and return of smartphones and tablets. You know this will not be easy.
Integrating Lewin’s 3-Stage Model of Change and/or Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model (refer to EOB pg. 190) create a change management plan that will convince the soon-to-be disgruntled executives to buy into the change. Write up your plan as a report that you will give to the CEO for approval before you implement it. Within the report, explain and justify specific steps you will take and your methods of communication with the employees about the changes.
The book that is referenced is Essentials of Organizational Behavior
ISBN 10: 0-13-452385-7
ISBN 13: 978-0-13-452385-9
