BUSI 1323 Leadership in Organisations

Summative Assignment Brief: Leadership Report

For the summative assignment, you will work individually and write a 3000-words
leadership report about the leader in your portrait from your formative assignment.

Submission Deadline:
 8 April 22 (11.30pm): Leadership Report submission in Turnitin (Moodle)
 22 April 22 (11.30pm): EC Report submission in Turnitin (Moodle)

Report structure (3000-words excluding references):

 Report title: Leader’s name, Leadership function and the company

 1) Case Description (recommended 500 words):

Describe the practical case about the leader of your leadership portrait.

Leader’s background information (recommended 200 words)

Describe the background of the leader your group has portrayed in the
formative assignment. This should include just enough facts to better
understand why this person leads the way he/she/they does in the
leadership challenge which you would like to analyse in Section 2.

Leadership challenge (recommended 300 words)

Outline a challenge the leader had to manage. For example, this can be
leading in times of an organisational scandal or other crisis, managing an
organisational change, or developing the company form a small start-up to
an established company. Describe what the leader has done to manage the
challenge and how he/she/they behaved or communicated to influence and
mobilise his/her/their followers during this challenge.

 2) Analysis and Evaluation of Case (recommended 1500 words)

Apply one or two leadership concepts to analyse and evaluate leadership
effectiveness or endorsement in the practical case study.

Leadership approach/concept (recommended 500 words)

Chose and draw on one or two theoretical concepts covered in the module,
which speaks to the leaders’ behaviour or communication described in
Section 1. Provide a definition of this leadership concept and state what are
the key assumptions or propositions of this leadership concept.

Evaluation of leadership effectiveness/endorsement (recommended 1000

words)
State whether your leader was effective in mastering his/her/their leadership
challenge described above. Use the above outlined leadership concept to
analyse and explain why this leader was effective/endorsed or less so in
mastering the challenge. Here, you need to go beyond a descriptive level.
BUSI 1323 Leadership in Organisations

Also discuss whether the fact that this leader is female and/or from an ethnic
minority background in the respective context implied obstacles or maybe
benefits for being effective or endorsed as a leader. Base your
argumentation on the key assumptions or proposition of the chosen
leadership concept.

3) Conclusion and Recommendation (recommended 750 words):

Conclude about the usefulness of the applied leadership concept(s) for
understanding the case and make recommendations for leaders facing such
challenges in the future.

Conclusion (recommended 250 words)

After your application of the theoretical concept(s) to the practical case in
Section 2, critically discuss whether or not the applied leadership concept
was useful as a theoretical framework for understanding why the leader was
effective/endorsed or not in the particular case. Was the business leader’s
leadership style the best way to lead during the challenge or would another
leadership style have been more effective, and why? Here you can
demonstrate your critical thinking, for example by providing a critique or
limitation on the used theoretical concept(s) (e.g., was there something what
the leadership theory would not have predicted or can explain in how the
case turned out?).

Recommendations (recommended 500 words)

Based on your analysis and evaluation in Section 2, you derive
recommendations by making connections from the case to further actions.
For instance, you could offer an action plan about how the leader could
move forward or overcome the challenge you identified. What should be
done differently or repeated as effective leadership practice in the future? If
the leadership in your described case was effective, how can others learn
and benefit from it. If the leadership was not effective, what lessons can be
learned to improve matters on similar cases in the future? Here you can
show what practical implications follow from your leadership evaluation.

 4) Self-Reflection Using Rolfe’s Reflective Model (recommended 250

words):
Provide a self-reflection on your group work using Rolfe et al.’s (2001)
reflective model.

Rolfe et al.’s (2001) reflective model is based upon three simple questions:
What? So what? Now what?
Below is a list of questions that you may choose to answer in response to
the three elements.

What?
… is the problem/difficulty/ reason for being stuck/reason for feeling
bad/reason we don’t get on with working together as a group?
… was my role in the situation - follower or leader in the group?
BUSI 1323 Leadership in Organisations

… was I in this role trying to achieve?

… actions did I take in this role?
… was the response of others?
… were the consequences for the group? Myself? Others?

So what?
… does this tell me/teach me/imply/mean about me/my group/others/our
relationship and the leadership in our group?
… was going through my mind as I acted in the respective role?
… did I base my actions on?
… could/should I have done to make it better?
… is my new understanding of the situation?
… broader issues arise from the situation?

Now what?
… do I need to do in order to make working in groups better in the future?
… action could I take in order to facilitate leadership in student group work?
… broader issues need to be considered if this action is to be successful?
… might be the consequences of this action?

This guide has been adapted from: Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., Jasper, M. (2001) Critical
reflection in nursing and the helping professions: a user’s guide. Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan.

 References

Include at least 10 references of academic peer-reviewed literature in your

report. The literature you draw on should relate directly to the content of this
particular course and should reflect a balance between readings from the
reading list of this module and additional readings you have identified in an
independent literature search.

You should adopt the Harvard system of referencing, all detailed on the
university websites: https://www.gre.ac.uk/articles/ils/referencing or on the
Moodle:
Generally, be careful of making too many unreferenced or vague comments.
Ask yourself, “Who says so, or how do I know this?”. Providing a reference
shows the reader that there is evidence for this and that you are not making
this up yourself. Showing that your opinions are founded upon relevant
research and reading will gain you credibility. It is far more difficult to dismiss
someone's opinion if it is shown to be built on sound research and supported
by other experts in the field. Therefore, referencing your work will not only
improve your grades but prepare you for whatever career you end up in.

Examples in-text citation of journal article:

Transformational leaders are effective in leading change (Herold et al.,
2008).
A study by Herold and colleagues (2008) showed that transformational
leaders are effective in leading change.
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Example reference list of a journal article:

Herold, D. M. et al. (2008) ‘The effects of transformational and change
leadership on employees’ commitment to a change: a multilevel study’, The
Journal of applied psychology, 93(2), pp. 346–57. doi: 10.1037/0021-
9010.93.2.346.

Key to a good essay is professional presentation. Please stick to the word

count (3000 words excluding references), pay particular attention to layout,
grammar and spelling, and make sure that your referencing is immaculate. If
you use material from case studies or company websites remember that
these need to be properly quoted and referenced just like all other materials
using Harvard Referencing style.

 Appendix

Include in the appendix a print screen of you leader portrait poster.

Process and support:

If you follow the tips for self-leadership and implement the learnings from the tutorials
in your own work week by week you will make continuous progress with your
leadership report so that you have written your summative assignment by week 12.

Tip for self-leadership: Allocate time for working on your leadership report in advance
in your agenda and set weekly goals to avoid binge-writing at the very last minute!

Week 9 You will learn how to transform your formative assignment into
your summative and make a helpful outline for your own report in
the tutorial.

Tips for self-leadership:

 Allocate time for finishing your outline and start writing the
two paragraphs of the first section ‘Description of the case’
right after the tutorial. Since you can take all the information
from your poster, this should not take long.
 Set your weekly goal: “By the end of week 9, I have finished
the outline and started writing the first section”.

Week 10 In the tutorial at the end of week 10, you will learn how to develop
strong arguments.

Tips for self-leadership:

 Allocate some more time in week 10 for writing the first draft
of the two paragraphs of the second section ‘Analysis and
Evaluation’. After the tutorial 10, read again your draft of
section 2 and check whether your argumentation is
stringent, and you have provided evidence for the points
BUSI 1323 Leadership in Organisations

you want to make in order to strengthen your

argumentation. Revise section 1 and 2, if necessary.
 Set your weekly goal: ”By the end of week 10, I have
finished writing section 1 and 2”.

Week 11 In the tutorial of week 11, you will learn how to polish your report
1. April 22 and perfect your writing in the tutorial. Bring a draft of your report
(ideally almost ready for submission) to the tutorial in week 11.

Tips for self-leadership:

 Allocate some more time for writing the third section
‘Conclusion and Recommendation’ and fourth section ‘Self-
reflection’ during week 11. After tutorial 11, start polishing
and perfecting your writing in all sections of your report.
 Set your weekly goal: ”Before tutorial 11, I have a finished
draft of the report”.

Week 12 If needed, you can have a last-minute Q&A session with your tutor.
8 April 22 Be aware that the last tutorial is at the same date as the
submission deadline!
If you have not done so already, you submit your leadership report
in Turnitin on Moodle before 11:30pm.

Tips for self-leadership:

 Allocate time for finalising your report (e.g., check layout,
spelling, grammar, referencing in Harvard style) and
preparing it for submission at the beginning of the week.
 Set your weekly goal: ”I finalise my report at the beginning
of the week and submit it before the 8th April”.