Reference no: EM13846475 , Length:
Individual Assignment: Leadership Resources
Effective leaders stay up to date on leadership research and theory while taking a critical eye to new ideas that emerge from research. This unit's resources only scratch the surface of the broad issue of leadership in complex, diverse environments. This assignment will provide an opportunity to investigate these issues in more depth, practice finding and evaluating scholarly resources, and receive feedback from your Faculty Member on your writing and thinking skills. The assignment will also help you to prepare for one element of your Final Project, a critique of leadership concepts and models.
(Question)
Imagine you have been asked to contribute to planning a staff development session on leadership, collaboration and teamwork in a culturally diverse workplace for your organization. The leaders of this session are keen to incorporate the latest thinking and research on these issues.
To complete this Individual Assignment:
- Review the How to...study guide provided in the Readings, focusing on techniques for evaluating the reputability and credibility of sources, reading and thinking critically, and referencing
- Select two of the articles located in this unit's required resources on leadership topics that interest you.
- Search the Internet for a third article that presents scholarly research, models or theories on topics related to the issues addressed in this unit. Two useful sites to help you start your search include the following:
o Google Scholar, which enables you to search for scholarly journal articles and in many cases access the full-text article online
o Google Books, which provides full-text or preview access to electronic books on a range of topics
- For each article, prepare three bullet points summarising key ideas of the article and a brief paragraph describing the relevance of the article to leadership practice. Avoid simply restating the article's abstract if it has one. You should aim to provide a critical summary of what you read, demonstrating your understanding of the articles. For example, you might do the following in your summary:
o Identify the author's purpose in writing the article
o Discuss whether you find the article's main ideas useful in understanding your own experience, and how
o Connect the article's main ideas to ideas in the other articles you read, including whether they are consistent with or divergent from other ideas
The information you provide should represent what the staff development session leaders could use to evaluate the articles and determine if they should be included in the session materials.
(B) Final Project Preparation: Reflective Journal
In Unit 1, your first Individual Assignment was an entry in a Reflective Journal. You read about and discussed the purpose and value of reflection and reflective thinking for leaders. As you progress through your programme, you will find it valuable to continue this process of reflection, formalizing your thoughts in a document such as a reflective journal.
Part of your Final Project in this module is a Reflective Portfolio, composed of your reflections on your learning and thinking throughout this module. In this Unit, prepare for this element of your Final Project by writing a second Reflective Journal entry.
For this unit's Reflective Journal entry, write 2-3 paragraphs that address the following questions:
- What might be the value of strengths-based feedback to you as a leader and manager?
- What skills in giving and receiving feedback do you need to develop further?
- What aspects of your ability to work effectively in a multi-cultural environment do you need to develop further?