Chartered Institute of Personnel Management Sri Lanka (Inc.

)
Professional Qualification in Human Resource Management
Pillar Batch Level
7. Entrepreneurial
PQHRM-19-CL-302 Strategic Level - 01
Leadership

Subject SL –I S1-12 (P7) Skills Development Part III

Assessment mode Individual Assignment
Handing over date 10th July 2021
Submission Date 29th August 2021
Word Count 2000 words

Leadership Development: Case for Analysis

Young Leaders Council
Gehan Rasinghe was thrilled to be appointed to the Young Leaders Council at Wermer
& Burns, a large consulting and financial management firm located in Boston. When Rasinghe
had first joined the firm, he’d had a hard time fitting in, with his accented English and quiet
manner. However, through hard work and persistence, he had overcome many obstacles, made
many friends, and worked his way up in the organisation. He had been in a leadership position
as an Account Manager for two years, and he particularly loved working with new employees
and helping them find their niches in the company and develop greater skills and confidence.
His employee evaluations by both superiors and subordinates had been exceptional, and
Rasinghe himself was pleased with his success as a leader.
Now, this! The purpose of the Young Leaders Council was to provide a training ground
for young executives at Werner & Burns and help them continue to improve their leadership
skills. In addition, to executives and the board used the Council as a way to evaluate the
potential of young managers for higher-level positions. Everyone knew that a good showing
on the Council Often resulted in a promotion. Typically, an appointment to the Council was

Page 1 of 3
for a one-year period, with new members added every six months on a rotating basis.
Occasionally, some members would stay an additional six month, based on the results of an
appraisal process personally introduced by the CEO. The process involved each member of the
Council being rated by each of the other members on four criteria:
(1) General intelligence and knowledge of the business:
(2) Creativity and innovativeness:
(3) Cooperation and team spirit:
(4) Adherence to company values.
Rasinghe was attending his fifth monthly meeting when several members of the Council
raised a concern about the rating system. They felt that it was being forced on the group, was
controlled by top management, and was not used as a fair and accurate rating of each member’s
abilities but just as a way “to pay your buddies on the back” as his colleague Cathy Patton put
it. Most of the other members seemed to agree with their arguments, at least to some degree.
Rasinghe agreed that the system was flawed, but he was surprised by their suggestion for a
solution. One member made an informal motion that in the next appraisal every member of the
Council should simply give every other member the highest rating in each category.
Rasinghe quickly considered what to do as the chairman called for a show of hands
from those in favour of the motion. His gut feeling is that such a “solution” to the problem of
the rating system would be dishonest and unethical, but he remembers what it felt like to be an
outsider, “and he doesn’t want to be there again.

Questions
1. What personal and organizational factors might influence Rasinghe’s Decision?
2. Analyze both votings against and voting in a favor from the perspective of teleological
approaches in terms of its impact on the members of a young leader’s council.
The answer should be elaborated based on the slide attached herewith.

Page 2 of 3
 3. What do you think about the current rating system? If you were in Rasinghe’s position,
what would you do? Discuss.

Guidelines for the Case study /assignment

CIPM is happy to inform the students that we have made arrangements to upload soft copies
of the assignments into the LMS of CIPM. Therefore, in the future, it is not necessary to submit
hard copies of the assignments/Case studies. All students are required to upload the finalized
assignments/case study as per the guidelines given below:
For successful completion of the relevant assignment/case study, students are required to:
 Do this as an individual assignment in the form of a ‘soft copy.
 Font Size should be 12 (Times New Roman and Lind Space should be 1.5)
 Margins - Left 1.5’ Right 1’ Top and Bottom 1’
 Your assignment/case study must be converted to PDF before uploading it. We do not
accept any other file formats.
 The maximum size of the assignment/case study should be less than 1 MB.
 You are allowed to make assumptions to fill the gap of any required information.
 You are also required to search for additional information as needed.
 Keep a copy of the assignment with you.
 Indicate the Index Number clearly on the cover page.
 Prepare the cover page by using the model cover page issued by CIPM. A soft copy of
the cover page could be downloaded from the CIPM LMS platform.
 Entirely refer to the source (s) of all material, even if you have re-expressed the ideas,
facts, or descriptions; acknowledge all direct quotations, and not submit work that has
been researched and written by another person.
 Maintain a very high standard of the assignment.
 Duly accomplish case study/assignment should be uploaded to LMS. The relevant case
study is sent herewith.
 Distinctions and merits will not be awarded for late submissions.
 Marks allocation for each question/case study is indicated against the question/ case
study.
 Rename your case study/assignment by entering your index number.

Page 3 of 3