Analytical Paper
Deliverable:A maximum 2,500 word paper (not including title page, abstract, or reference list) that demonstrates mastery of the major course theories and concepts pertaining to leadership (i.e., power, contingency factors, influence tactics, leader-member exchange, decision styles, time-driven model, transformational/transactional) and their relevance and usefulness in a situation that has meaning for you. Comply with the requirements described in the week 7 conference topic entitled “Content Guidance and Format Requirements for Week 7 Paper.”
Purpose:This assignment offers you an opportunity to analyze, reflect upon, research, and write about the kind of leader you are and want to be. Leadership in this case refers not to a position but to the mix of traits, behaviors, knowledge, and skills that enable a person to inspire others to achieve their potential and goals.
Process:
1. Consider an individual in your professional life (not necessarily a CEO or formal leader) who either demonstrated the characteristics and behaviors associated with effective leadership or failed to do so. Select an example sufficiently meaningful for you that it has caused you to reflect upon your own leadership capacity and goals. Your example can be someone who either impacted you personally or who had a broader and more significant organizational impact in your workplace. What is most important for this assignment is that the individual’s behaviors served to influence your thinking and possibly your own attitudes and behavior. In making your selection of a leader who has influenced you, it is wise to ensure you have sufficient emotional distance to undertake a balanced analysis.
Content Guidance and Format Requirements for Week 7 Paper
Review the syllabus instructions for this assignment.
Use the following to help guide what you present in the discussion and analysis section of your paper.
- Why (or why not) does this serve as an example of exemplary leadership?
- Which source or sources of organizational power did the leader employ and to what extent was this handled optimally?
- To what extent was the leader constrained by the existence of the types of contingency factors Colquitt et al describe, how, and why?
- What influence tactics were used and were they effective? Are there others that might have been used and, if so, how and why?
- What ethical issues were involved and were they handled in a way that supports your conclusions about the type of leadership your example illustrates?
- What are the relative merits of the decision-making style(s) this leader employed?
- Which best describes this leader, transformational or transactional and why?
- To what extent was this leader’s effectiveness constrained or supported by the presence of “neutralizers” or “substitutes?”
- Did your example have a measurable impact on performance and/or commitment and, if so, was it positive or negative and why?
Use the following format for your paper:
- Title page
- Abstract
- Introduction: In one short paragraph explain the purpose of the assignment, the main points you will be making from your analysis of this case example, and the organization for the paper.
- Context: A brief (one paragraph) explanation of the leadership example you will be using.
- Discussion and Analysis: Use the theories and ideas examined in this week’s required readings, and the additional articles, to critically analyze your example and to address the above guiding questions.
- Conclusions and Reflections: Offer a brief summary of what you found and concluded along with reflections about the lessons you will take from this research project as a current or future manager/leader.Use this as an opportunity to comment upon the results of the assessments you have taken this semester and the implications for managing situations such as the one you analyzed.
