SEMESTER: SPRING Written Assignment II

2013 PROGRAMME: MODULE: LECTURER: Master of Business Administration People Leadership and Management Mr. Peter John Meehan

Distribution Date: Submission Date: Assessment Value: Assessment Type:

18/04/2013 03/06/2013 60% Individual Assignment

Assignment Objective: The objective of the assignment is to assess the students ability to critically evaluate their understanding of the dynamic relationship between the nature of leadership and management theories and approaches. The assignment will also assess the students ability to critically extrapolate ideas and evidence in the context of a practical case scenario. Students are expected to support their case evaluation with critical analysis, and are expected to propose reasonable conclusions, together with appropriate recommendations.

The Assignment: A. Critically evaluate the significance of leadership as it relates to driving the culture of an organisation. To support your analysis, it is imperative that a comprehensive literature review is conducted. This literature review should include reference to Understanding Organisations by Charles Handy (50 marks)

B. Identify a non-fictitious organisational setting as a case-study and critically evaluate the playing out of the leadership and management issues in context.
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In your discussion, you must specifically: 1. Analyse the significance of leadership and management in driving the performance of the organisation. (20 marks) 2. Identify areas of improvement which if executed will facilitate increased performance. (10 marks) 3. With respect to the identified areas of improvement, recommend solutions that could be implemented. (10 marks) 4. Discuss the implementation challenges with respect to the recommended solutions. (10 marks)

Assignment Instructions: The assignment should be word-processed and presented in proper academic format, with proper referencing (Harvard style) where appropriate. The total word count of the essay should not exceed 3000 words, excluding any diagram, appendix and bibliography.

Students should make reference to appropriate theory from Newstrom, J. (2011) Organizational Behavior, Human Behavior at Work and appropriate references and journal articles

Criteria for assessment: 1. 3000 words maximum in justified format 2. Harvard protocol must be used (style and referencing) 3. The assignment must be printed (1.5 spacing) and two copies produced - (one to be kept by student). An electronic version must be submitted.
This assignment requires an application of appropriate module concepts Total Marks Allocation: 60% Sample r eferences: (1) Books: Thompson, J.D. (1967) Organisations in Action. New York: McGraw-Hill. 2

Clark, K. B. & Fujimoto, T. (1991) Product Development Performance. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Fairclough, N. (1992) Discourse and Social Change. London: Polity Press. Hamel, G. (2007) The Future of Management. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. (2) Articles: Child, J. (1976) Participation, organisation and social cohesion. Human Relations, 29 (5): 83-97. Heath, S.B. (1982) What no bedtime story means: narrative skills at home and at school. Language in Society, 11 (1): 40-76. In the text, only author and date is necessary, i.e., (1) Reinertsen (1999) suggests that Legitimacy is a growing problem for business firms (Child 1989). Where you are giving a direct quotation or referring to a specific item in a book or article, give the page number e.g. (Porter 1990, p.13). As you will see, it is always the name of the published volume which is italicized, whether it is a single author book, an edited volume or a journal. References include the names of the authors in the order in which they appear on the title page; the date of the publication; the title of the book or journal (as appropriate); article title; the place of publication and the publisher. If you are quoting directly from a chapter in an edited volume or an article in a journal you also need to record the page numbers. Although there may be some slight variations in punctuation conventions, these key details are always present in the final list of references. (3) Chapter in an edited volume: Lea, M. & West, L. (1995) Motives, mature students, the self and narrative. In Swindells, J. Ed. The Uses of Autobiography. London: Taylor & Francis, 128-146. What is most important in referencing is consistency: all references must have a similar format. Look at the references in published works that you read to get a feel for how to do it. Hard Copies All written assignments must be accompanied by two copies of this sheet properly completed and signed by the student. Please retain one copy for your own records. The assignment deadline is mandatory and the following penalties apply to late submission. 10% penalty for assignments submitted within three days of the submission deadline. 3

20% penalty for assignments submitted within one week (seven days) of the submission deadline. Late submissions after one week will attract a further penalty of 5% for each additional day the work is late.

Turnitin Students are required to submit all assignments and coursework to Turnitin before final submission. A range of between 15% and 25% matched texts is considered acceptable - this usually indicates original work with substantial use of quotations, citations and referencing. Please note: Turnitin does not negate the need for correct referencing. All quotations and cited text must be correctly referenced to avoid plagiarism. Extensions An extension may be granted in circumstances where a written request for an extension is received no less than one week before the original submission date and an acceptable reason (e.g. certified illness) is given by the student. Extensions will be considered only where written application is submitted to the lecturer in advance of the deadline with supporting evidence as to why the extension is warranted (e.g. medical certificate). Technical problems such as computer failure or viruses are not deemed legitimate reasons for late submission or non-submission of work. If an extension is neither sought nor granted and work is not submitted it will be considered by the College that a student has failed that component of the module. Students must pass each individual assessment in all modules in order to progress in the Programme. Plagiarism Students are considered to have plagiarised when they do not credit the sources of their writingthe words, information, ideas or opinions of others. It is the students responsibility to ensure the assignment is properly cited and referenced in accordance with the Colleges citation requirements. You must give the full reference for each cited work. Note that, with regard to assessments and examinations, copying, cheating and plagiarism are all considered as breaches of examination regulations and are therefore completely prohibited. IBAT College uses anti-plagiarism software and this will be used without notice to validate any work submitted. Mr. Peter John Meehan