MGMT591 Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Week 1 Discussion
CHOOSING A
LEADER
Choose a
well-known and analyzed leader in business. This will be someone who has a
substantial record of being analyzed through published material that can be
located in the DeVry library or elsewhere. Examples are Steve Jobs, Michael
Dell, Bill Gates, Sam Walton, Jeff Bezos, Carly Fiorina, Howard Schultz, Larry
Page, Indra Nooyi, Rupert Murdoch, Meg Whitman, Henry Ford, and Herb Kelleher.
Throughout this course, this leader will be the subject of your weekly
discussions, so chose a leader in an industry in which you currently or plan to
work.
To begin
this week’s discussion, imagine your job is to introduce your leader at a
large, professional, industry-specific convention. Your chosen leader is the
keynote speaker, and you’re responsible for outlining his or her career
highlights, education, career trajectory, and future goals for the audience.
MGMT591 Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Week 2 Discussion
ANALYSIS OF
YOUR LEADER
This week
you will apply your knowledge of emotional intelligence to further assess your
leader’s EQ. In this discussion, assess the "mood" of this leader and
also assess the level of emotional intelligence of the leader by applying the
analysis on pages 115 - 119 of the textbook. (Chapter 4)
MGMT591 Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Week 3 Discussion
YOUR LEADER
IN THE CONTEXT OF MOTIVATIONAL THEORIES
This week
you will examine the motivational concepts from Chapter 8 and show how your
chosen leader either applied or missed applying these concepts.
Research a
situation your leader faced while at the head of his or her current or previous
organization. Using the concepts outlined in Chapter 8, analyze the leader’s
actions through the lens of the motivational theories and argue that the
leader’s actions were appropriate or inappropriate in the context of the
theories.
MGMT591 Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Week 4 Discussion
YOUR LEADER
AND TEAMWORK
This week
you will further explore the effectiveness of your leader through an analysis
of teamwork in his or her organization. Review this leader’s organization and
assess what the group behavior was like under this leader (Chapter 9). How were
teams implemented in the leader's organization? Were they successful? What
could have been done better? (Chapter 10)
MGMT591 Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Week 5 Discussion
YOUR LEADER
AND COMMUNICATION AND CONFLICT
This week
you explore the communication style of your leader and how your leader has used
communication, among other tools, to manage conflict. Using Chapter 11,
determine the primary means of communication used by your leader. Was your
leader an effective communicator and mediator? Find an example of conflict
(Chapter 14) your leader dealt with and use the course concepts to judge its
results. Was your leader effective in conflict management? Explain your answer
using concepts from this chapter.
Be sure to
use actual examples from the literature and cite your sources appropriately. Be
sure to include extensive research outside the textbook and also to cite the
textbook correctly including page numbers. You are expected to use at least two
academic or business sources other than your textbook each week.
Be sure
your first post each week directly addresses the prompt above. Your remaining
posts should continue to further the depth and breadth of the discussion by
responding to your professor or classmates.
MGMT591 Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Week 6 Discussion
YOUR LEADER
AND ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
This week,
you will examine the organizational structure in which your leader currently
operates or formerly operated. Using your research, apply applicable concepts
from Chapter 15 and report on the organizational structure of your leader’s
organization. Based on your research, use the tools in Chapter 16 to
characterize the culture of the leader's organization. What is your estimate on
what kind of Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) result this leader's
organization would see?
Be sure to
use actual examples from the literature and cite your sources appropriately. Be
sure to include extensive research outside the textbook and also to cite the
textbook correctly including page numbers. You are expected to use at least two
academic or business sources other than your textbook each week.
Be sure
your first post each week directly addresses the prompt above. Your remaining
posts should continue to further the depth and breadth of the discussion by
responding to your professor or classmates.
MGMT591 Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Week 7 Discussion
FINAL
ASSESSMENT OF YOUR LEADER
This week
you will combine your research throughout the class to provide a final,
academically-informed and industry-applicable assessment of your chosen leader.
Using your research findings and citing proper sources, give a final and
comprehensive analysis of your chosen leader.
Be sure to
cover important topics such as: What are his or her most notable
accomplishments? What is his or her “style” (in the context of motivational and
management theories)? What was the greatest conflict your leader faced (Chapter
14)?
Be sure to
use actual examples from the literature and cite your sources appropriately. Be
sure to include extensive research outside the textbook and also to cite the
textbook correctly including page numbers. You are expected to use at least two
academic or business sources other than your textbook each week.
Be sure
your first post each week directly addresses the prompt above. Your remaining
posts should continue to further the depth and breadth of the discussion by
responding to your professor or classmates.
MGMT591 Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Week 8 Discussion
REFLECTING
UPON THE ANALYSIS OF YOUR LEADER
In Week 1,
you provided an introduction of your leader. You highlighted career
accomplishments, education, and other surface-level characteristics. Throughout
the course, you have used sophisticated theories and concepts to guide your
research to gain further insight into your leader and his or her style, EQ,
organization, and other important aspects.
This week,
provide some reflection on how your perspective of your leader changed as your
analysis deepened and your exploration became more sophisticated.
MGMT591 Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Week 2 Assignment
LIFE STYLES
INVENTORY™
Life Styles
Inventory (LSI) Assignment Guidelines
Developing
a willingness and ability to engage in self-reflection is a critical leadership
skill that is not easily learned, yet which reaps many rewards. The Life Styles
Inventory enables you to examine your unique way of thinking and how it
influences your behavior.
Your
Assignment
Complete
(on your own) Life Styles Inventory (Links to an external site.)Links to an
external site., so that you end up with your Life Styles Circumplex profile: 12
personal thinking style scores, with one score for each section of the circumplex.
See the embedded link for additional information.
Write a
three to five page paper examining and explaining your LSI results. Make sure
to comply with the Grading Rubric (Links to an external site.)Links to an
external site. provided. The required page count does not include the title
page or table of contents. Hint: The table of contents should include the four
topics in the grading rubric.
LSI Style
Interpretations
Go to the
LSI1 Results page, find your circumplex profile, and click on the circumplex
slice of one of the styles. The site will bring you to a customized
interpretation of the style you clicked on. Click on each of the 12 slices to
see all of the customized style description pages.
How to Use
the Inventory
Complete
the Life Styles Inventory (LSI) exercise (Links to an external site.)Links to
an external site.. Follow the instructions
given on the LSI website.
Section Points Description
Title Page Title
of your applied research paper, your name, course number and title, name of
professor, and date.
Personal
Thinking Styles 25
Identify
your primary and backup thinking styles: What are your "primary"
(highest percentile score) and "backup" (second highest percentile)
personal thinking styles as shown in your circumplex? Discuss how your primary
and backup personal styles are manifested in your life and work (see the LSI
Self Development Guide online). Using the style interpretations in the LSI
Guide, describe the styles and give your perceptions about the results. Do you
agree or disagree with them and why?
Identify
your limiting style: Identify and illustrate one style you think might be
working against you to reduce your overall effectiveness. Name the style you
have chosen and make a few remarks about why you are choosing this style as
limiting your professional effectiveness in organizations.
Select one
behavior associated with this style that you think you would like to change and
the difference it will make. Be sure to support your interpretation with examples,
and so forth.
LSI style
interpretations: Go to the LSI1 Results page, find your circumplex profile, and
click on the circumplex slice of one of the styles. The site will bring you to
a customized interpretation of the style you clicked on. Click on each of the
12 slices to see all of the customized style description pages.
Impact on
Management Style 25
What impact
do your personal styles have on your management style? Explore and assess the
impact of your styles on your effectiveness as a manager in terms of the four
functions of management, listed below.
Planning
Organizing
Leading
Controlling
If you are
currently not a manager, assume you are and predict your effectiveness as such.
Genesis of
Personal Style 25
Critically
evaluate and explain how you developed the personal styles that were revealed
in your LSI. What role, for example, did family relationships, school,
organizational memberships, culture, and so forth, have in shaping your
personal style?
Conclusion
and Reflection 25
Think about
your LSI results and your responses to the above questions. Summarize any
concluding comments. Close your paper with a statement of at least one question
or goal you hope your work in MGMT591 will help you to address and comment with
a few sentences to describe the value of this exercise to your personal and
professional development.
Include a
copy of your LSI Report. Either copy or paste it into this assignment or
include it as a pdf.
Please
note: The LSI Self-Development Guide is integrated into the LSI1 Participant
account and is available after you complete the LSI Survey and have access to
your results. In-depth and personalized style descriptions can be found by
clicking on the style slices of the circumplex. For example, if you would like
to learn more about the Humanistic-Encouraging style (Style 1), you simply
click on the circumplex slice for that style. The same goes for the other 11
styles.
You can
find the Challenge of Change and the Self-Improvement Plan information by using
two of the additional links that become available in your LSI online account
after the survey is complete. These links are The Challenge of Change and Your
Self-Improvement Plan. Good luck with the exercise!
MGMT591 Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Week 2 Assignment
CAPSIM
INTRODUCTION AND PRACTICE
Complete
the training exercises on CapSim. You will be unable to use the simulation
correctly without this preparation.
Confirm
that you can connect to CapSim's CapSimCore simulation for the course. You
should be assigned to a team. If not, contact your professor.
Complete
training exercises and tutorial videos as specified below.
Beginner
training
Intermediate
training
Advanced
training
Enter and
save decisions for your company for each of the two practice rounds scheduled
this week.
Review the
simulation report before making decisions for each round.
Review the
simulation report after each round has processed. What went well? What didn't?
What can you do to improve your company's position next round? Post in the next
week's discussion.
Complete
practice rounds 1 and 2 as scheduled by your professor.
MGMT591 Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Week 3 Assignment
CAPSIM
SIMULATION - COMPETITION
Round 1 and
Round 2 decisions
Team Course
Project Milestone
MGMT591 Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Week 6 Assignment
ORGANIZATIONAL
CULTURE INVENTORY (OCI)
Go to the
OCI (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. and follow the
instructions on the site.
Submit your
OCI results for this week (pdf or copy/paste into Word).
Add three
to five paragraphs about your learning experience impacted by the
Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI). Please specifically discuss/assess what
you see as an ideal culture or a culture that is ideal for rapid change.
In two to
three paragraphs, discuss how Continuous Improvement is impacting healthcare,
banking, retail and/or government (choose one area). Merger of Lean and Six
Sigma are interesting topics you can explore here.
Submit your
assignment.
MGMT591 Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Course Project
Leadership
and Organizational Behavior in Action
Objective
Research
shows that people learn effectively when working on real problems grounded in
their work experience. To this end, the Collaborative Course Project is
designed to incorporate students' work experience into the learning process in
this course.
The project
is an opportunity to explore, in-depth, a topic related to the course objectives
(COs) that is of significance to one ore more of your team member's organization
(current or former).
Summary
Each team
is required to prepare an applied research paper, with a minimum of 15 pages
but not to exceed 20 pages in length (excluding cover page, table of contents
and appendices), on a specific issue related to leadership or organizational
behavior.
Guidelines
Topic
Selection
Select a
specific organization of interest to the team members and identify a problem at
the firm related to organizational behavior (OB).
Think of
your team as a group of organizational consultants. Assume that a key manager
has requested a thorough analysis and recommended course of action to resolve
an actual organizational problem. The team’s goal is develop recommendations
that will make a positive difference to the performance of the organization.
Your team's
paper should address the following three course objectives, at minimum:
Course
Objective A - Evaluate how organizational theories and practices can improve
organizational operations.
Course
Objective B - Analyze how values, attitudes, beliefs, feelings, and personality
influence decision making in the workplace.
Course
Objective F - Analyze the impact of different structures and lines of authority
on organizational strategy and culture.
Research
Sources
All papers
must have a minimum of eight scholarly sources cited within the text of the
paper and identified in the references section.
Additional
research sources can be attached in a bibliography.
For more
information on how to access and use EBSCOhost contact the Library at
800.293.3044Call: 800.293.3044 or library.devry.edu (Links to an external
site.)Links to an external site. and click Ask A Librarian.
Paper
Format
All papers
should be double-spaced, using an 11- or 12-point font.
The length
of the paper is to be between 10 and 15 pages, not counting the cover page,
table of contents, nor appendices.
The first
page should include the title of the work, student name, course number and
title, date, and professor name.
The second
page should be a table of contents. It should, at a minimum, reflect the seven
items listed in the Grading Rubric.
Follow APA
style for general format and citations (see the APA Guidelines Tutorial in the
Syllabus).
The paper
sections must adhere to the guidelines below, and each section must be labeled
in the text.
The
language should be clear, concise, and precise.
The tone
should be professional, consistent, and not filled with jargon.
Grammar and
syntax (sentence structure) must be correct.
The report
must be free of misspellings and typos.
Tables and
Figures
All figures
and tables must be referred to in your text before they appear on the page.
Figures and
tables should appear on the same page as, or the page after, the text that
refers to them.
All figures
and tables need captions. Captions go below figures and above tables.
Quotations
and Citations
Quotations
and citations are crucial components of a research paper and must be present.
Failure to
properly cite research sources and borrowed ideas is plagiarism.
Refer to
the APA style guide for assistance with properly citing quoted or borrowed
materials and ideas.
Turnitin is
used on all reports and projects. A report can be obtained for your review
prior to submitting your final work. Make sure that you are in compliance with
the University's 20/80 rule.
Milestones
Week Action Required
Familiarize
yourself with course content and select an organization and problem area to
research.
Submit the
Team Contract.
Submit a
written Brief Proposal of Research containing the following:
A brief
overview of the chosen organization and your team's role in it.
A
preliminary problem statement in the form of a researchable question.
A brief
narrative description of the organizational problem that you would like the
team to research and resolve.
Conduct library
research on your topic.
Identify a
minimum of eight scholarly resources for the project.
All
resources for the paper must come from DeVry Library and must be of scholarly
quality.
Use the librarians
for assistance in accessing materials.
Review the
Using EBSCO tutorial.
Please
Note: Articles found online (many on consulting company websites, Internet
magazines, or other blogs) will not be considered an acceptable scholarly
resource. Conduct your research through a library where you can be assured that
the sources are of scholarly quality.
Submit a
written Expanded Research Proposal containing the following:
Title page
and Table of Contents.
Documentation
of at least four initial scholarly sources from the library.
Expanded
introduction to the organization.
Expanded
description of the chosen problem.
Preliminary
solution options (can be bullet points).
Preliminary
analysis of leadership and organizational behavior concepts addressed in the
paper.
Continue to
work on the class project; seek professor help as required.
Submit the
completed project.
Team Files
Here are
the files that you will need for your team project.
Team Name
and Contract (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Peer
Review (Links to an external site.)Links
to an external site.
Project
Outline
Your paper
must include the following sections.
Section Points Description
Title Page
Title of
the team's applied research paper, course number and title, professor, and date.
Introduction
Provide an
overview of the organization and your team's role in it. Give enough
information about the firm to acquaint an unfamiliar person (no matter how
famous the company). Identify name, location, size, market segment (business
line), and a brief history. Identify the essential issues, events, or actions
to help frame the problem and subsequent discussion points.
Problem
Statement
Identify
and clearly state the problem (the leadership or organizational behavior issue
that you have selected to research). The problem statement should be phrased in
terms of a researchable question. For example, if a work group is not
performing effectively, an effective problem statement might be "How can group
performance be improved?"
A
well-formed problem statement has the following.
Focus: The
problem should be well-defined and specific enough for the reader to gain a
clear idea of the OB topic area and the direction of your study and research.
Structure:
If the problem statement is sufficiently focused, it will provide a basis for
decisions about which information to include and which to exclude from the
paper.
Literature
Review
5
Your team
must address at least eight scholarly resources in this section. Approach this
section as a mini book report on each of the reference sources that
significantly informed your analysis and proposed solutions. Give the reader an
encapsulated review of what information you found most relevant to your
research. You may have found conflicting opinions or theories related to your
topic area. Identify and discuss any such contrasts or describe in detail
significant agreement among your sources. Your literature review should be
separate and distinct from your analysis section; it is a summation of your
research. The goal should be a paragraph containing a minimum of three to five
sentences per review.
Analysis
50
Explore the
problem in depth and with scholarly rigor.
Provide an
identification and description of the root causes of the problem or issue. Be
sure not to address only symptoms of your problem. Diagnose the problem and its
origins.
A critical
element of this section is to apply leadership and organization concepts and
models from our text, from class discussions, and from the team's literature
review. Discuss the concepts, ideas, or insights that are most valuable in
helping you make sense of the causes of the problem. Support your analysis with
reference to appropriate research material.
Solutions
40
Identify at
least three potential workable solutions to your problem and identify the pros
and cons of each alternative solution and its high-level implementation steps.
Identify
your preferred solution and describe exactly what should be done and how it
should be done, including by whom, with whom, and in what sequence. Always
explain your thinking behind your final solution set. It's important to be
clear about why a particular alternative (solution) was chosen, as opposed to
others.
Reflection
10
Think about
this assignment and write a well-thought-out reflective statement about how
this assignment influenced the team members' personal, academic, and
professional leadership and managerial development.
References
10
You must
use no fewer than eight library resources outside of your textbook.
All
references must be cited in two places—within the body of your paper and on a
separate reference list. Choose references judiciously and cite them
accurately. Cite all sources using APA format.
Please note
that citing an author's work within your text documents your research,
identifies the source for readers, and enables readers to locate the source of
information in the alphabetical reference list at the end of the paper. To use
the ideas or words of another person without crediting the source is
plagiarism. Plagiarism in its purest form involves copying passages either
verbatim or nearly verbatim, with no direct acknowledgment of the source. The
most common form of plagiarism is to paraphrase information from your source
material. Paraphrasing does not relieve you of the obligation to provide proper
identification of source data. The best way to avoid plagiarism is to make sure
all quotes, ideas, or conclusions that not your own are given proper
acknowledgment in your text.
