Management and leadership
Summative Assessment Brief:
You will construct a portfolio of tasks as per the instructions below. This portfolio will seek to apply your knowledge and learning of management and leadership theory to real-life leaders. You will consider multiple perspectives that will enable you to effectively reflect in the final task on how this learning may impact on your personal approaches to management and leadership.
Ensure that you follow specific instructions for individual tasks, as a variety of assessment methods are applied. Crucially, the completion of formative assessments is essential to develop deep analysis in certain areas.
After consulting with your seminar tutor, choose a female Business leader to analyse for the following tasks:
An example of a successful female leader would be, Mary Barra of General Motors, Safra Catz of Oracle or Ginni Rometty of IBM.
You can pick an example from any country but we would recommend choosing
someone who started as an outsider, such as from a low social and/or educational background or has been marginalised due to the race, religion or sexual preference.
Task 1: Mainstream theory analysis (750 words approx.)
Conduct a mainstream theoretical analysis of your chosen leader management and leadership approach.
To do this, you should construct a table with three columns:
Column 1 will contain the name of the theory and/or theorist.
Column 2 will contain a brief statement of how your leader fits with the theory stated in column 1 (there is no need to define the theory; your application should incorporate detail of what the theory is).
Column 3 will provide evidence supporting the statement in column 2, e.g. examples of practice (whether from case studies, interviews or other further research.
Theories from weeks 1-5 should provide enough depth here. However,recognition will be given for applying other mainstream concepts and theories found within additional reading. You should be applying 5-7 theories in this section.
Task 2: Multi-stream theory analysis (1350 words approx.)
Essay title: ‘To what extent is your chosen leader an ethical and/or responsible leader?’
To answer this question, you need to provide a theoretical discussion, in essay format, using concepts and theories from week 6 onwards. In addition, you will be expected to make direct comparisons to the leader (or leaders) used within your second formative assessment.
This task will require a short introduction (50 words maximum) as well as concluding thoughts addressing the overarching question (50-100 words approx.).
Task 3: Reflective thoughts (400 words approx.)
Title of task: ‘The personal impact of your chosen leader’
Using findings from the first formative assessment, make comparisons between your potential management and leadership style and that of your chosen leader.
Address the following questions:
1. What similarities and differences potentially exist between yours and your chosen leader’s management and leadership style?
2. What aspects of your chosen leader’s approaches would you like to assimilate, or possibly avoid, within your future management and leadership style?
3. In terms of ethical and responsible leadership, what have you gained from this module that you would like to take forward within a management career?
