Leadership challenge

Order Description

 

Assignment 2: Report. Leadership challenge

Suggested length
2,000 words (excluding Table of Contents, Summary, References etc)

Purpose of assignment
The purpose of this assignment is to provide you with an opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge about leadership and its challenges to a work setting. The
assignment also provides an opportunity to write a report – a format that is often used in a workplace setting.

Instructions/ scenario
For this task you are asked to apply your study to a life situation. You have 2 options, select ONLY ONE of them
Option a is to use a Canberra based organisation, real or fictional, that is in need of a new leader for a virtual information team that is international. For example,
the Chief Executive Officer (or equivalent) of an organisation (or branch of an organisation) in Canberra wants to create a new position to lead either: the
information-related functions of the organisation, such as information/knowledge assets, strategic communication, records and information management, library and
information services, archives or a combination of these disciplines. The position might be a Chief Information Officer or another strategic level role; or

Option b allows you to choose an organisation based in another country.
In either case you are asked to clearly define the qualities and behaviours and challenges of the new position and defend to your upper management, the real need for
this new position. Make sure you do all three and provide clear evidence for why each is needed. Your readings are invaluable in this context. Use them repeatedly.
I suggest, that the best starting point will be to build a “job description” for the new post (include it as an appendix) and use that job description to guide your
defense of the position. If you describe the new position carefully, that will give you plenty to write about in your actual defense. Make certain that the position
includes leading virtual teams, cross culture/language, and deals ONLY with leadership (not management) traits and characteristic. The organisation (could be
government, educational, private sector, or not-for-profit) is global, with locations in Shanghai, Dubai and London, so the employees, including yourself as the team
leader or manager, work in cross-cultural contexts and virtual workplaces and use the latest technologies and collaborative platforms for working and communicating.

You have been asked to provide input into the leadership qualities for the job description or profile for the new position. Place yourself in a context that matches
the case study organisation; and address the following questions.

Based on your readings of theory and practice, case studies in the literature, and through your own experience:
1 What are the leadership qualities and behaviours that you believe the person filling this new role should have, given the global nature of the organisation?
2 What are some of challenges for the position, such as strategic, cross-cultural, communication, virtual working contexts and ethical issues?

Report layout
This assignment is to be written in a business report format, and should include:

1 Report title page (with appropriate information).
2 Executive Summary (separate page; about 150 words).
3 Table of contents (separate page).
4 Introduction (starting on a new page; numbering to start at 1.).
5 Headings and sub-headings (that are meaningful).
6 Tables and/or Figures (if appropriate) – correctly labeled.
7 Bullet points allowed (but very sparingly).
8 Conclusion (not a re-statement of introduction).
9 Correct in-text referencing (APA style) and a reference list (correctly formatted).
10 Highly recommended – it is advised that you add a proposed job description to your appendix. Make this one of our first tasks – this will help focus your
discussion.

 

Marking criteria
This assignment will be assessed on your ability to:

1 Identify and describe an appropriate scenario for this assignment (ie, your professional judgment).
2 Demonstrate your understanding of the role of leadership in the modern workplace: personal qualities of leaders; and workplace challenges to leadership.
3 Use relevant and modern (say post 1995) academic literature to support your writing (no fewer than twelve (12) academic scholarly articles for a Pass).
Present information in a coherent, clear, structured, well-referenced report – see “Report Layout” in the assignment instructions.