Enterprise leadership take home exam PDF

Preview

Summary

This was a take-home exam for enterprise leadership autumn 2021 semester....

Description

Matthew James Hobday 20509008 Final Take Home Exam – Enterprise Leadership

Question 1 – Distinctions between Management and Leadership - Reflective and Critical Thinking (8 marks) (Max. 200 words)

Describe the differences between reflective and critical thinking. (2 marks) 

Province of British Columbia, (2021) Suggest that Reflective thinking involves making decisions based on observations, experience and forms of communication to solve the desired problem and address issues. Critical thinking involves using ideas, experiences and reflections to set goals, make judgements and tune their thinking to come up with the most suitable outcome.

What role does reflective and critical thinking play in enterprise leadership? (6 marks) 

Reflective and critical thinking play a vital part in the day decision making by enterprise leaders. Reflective thinking will allow leaders to make decisions based on past experiences which could be a positive or negative, through these experiences they will have grown through learning from their accomplishments and failures, as a result, Leaders who can reflect on their past experiences will be able to make decision with confidences.



Critical thinking allows leaders at all stages to understand the impact of their decisions on the business as a whole and to ensure that the decision is in line with the firms values and goals.

Question 2 – Becoming an Enterprise Leader - Leadership (8 marks) (Max. 200 words) Discuss the four developmental components of an authentic leader. (2 marks) 1. Self-awareness: An authentic leader demonstrates self-awareness by reflecting on their strengths, weaknesses and values and deeply knows who they are and what they stand for. 2. Relationship transparency: By openly sharing their own thoughts and beliefs, but not overloading their emotions to their workers, they create a balance.

1

Matthew James Hobday 20509008 3. Balanced processing: Authentic leaders are balanced in how they approach situations as they ask for opinions from their workers and encourage opposing views on certain situations and take into consideration their views. 4. Strong moral code: By displaying a strong moral code, leaders can demonstrate their ethics towards situations and build foundations for their subordinates to follow. Towler, (2019)

How does understanding individual behaviour help authentic leaders overcome challenges in organisations? Provide an example in your response. (6 marks) 

Authentic leaders should be able to understand individual’s behaviour in the organisation as this is key when providing authentic leadership. By understanding the individual behaviour, it will allow the leader to make appropriate changes according to the individual and their situation. This will decrease the chance of a negative attitude towards the challenge and or change within the organisation. An example of this involves the leader participating alongside the subordinates while in a difficult period within the organisation. Williams, (2021).

Question 3 – Socially responsible leaders - Social Responsibility (10 marks) (Max. 200 words) Critically discuss what it means to socially responsible in today’s global environment In an organisation, leaders should hold strong morals and values. This includes going beyond profit making, furthering social welfare and improving social or environmental conditions. Going beyond profit making refers to a company’s ability to stray away from traditional business goals such as profit maximisation and turning towards more contemporary goals associated with the environment and how a business treats their customers as well as employees. Improving the social welfare of the business will lead to increased productivity as well as the increase of capacity for the firm willingness to adapt to change. Socially responsible leaders play an important role in solving social problems through seeking opportunities to improve society by using practical, innovative and sustainable approaches. Such as the socioeconomic view, which provides incentives for the employees which may include flexible working hours. Edmans, (2015)

2

Matthew James Hobday 20509008 Question 4 – Decision making, leadership and change management - case study (14 marks) (Max. 300 words)

A. Describe, using examples, the six-step decision making process that would be used to move teaching from totally online delivery to the new hybrid system of lesson delivery (6 marks) 1. Identifying a problem: identifying that COVID-19 and government restrictions of social distancing. 2. Identifying decision criteria: Determining what is relevant in the decision-making process which is keeping staff employed and education going. 3. Allocating weight: prioritising will help deal with issues, for example, prioritising education and employment was the at the top. 4. Develop alternatives: creative and innovative ways to solves the issues. This was done by developing the hybrid system. 5. Analysing alternatives: Analysing will help managers decide on which is the best alternative. Example of this was implementing the hybrid system which allowed for 50% of classes to resume on campus which was beneficial for education. 6. Evaluation: evaluate the outcome of the decisions in action. This new system allowed for the top priorities as WSU to continue even within the COVID-19 Pandemic which proves the system to be effective.

B. Discuss the internal forces for change within this scenario. Provide examples (4 marks) Changing employee attitudes: As staff were required to work from that would have had to adapt with the change and have a new attitude towards how they complete their work. Composition of workforce: With the new hybrid system, the composition of the workplace was changed from 100% in class learning to 50% in class and 50% online. This changed the composition as staff had to manage the change of the new system which included them having to work from home.

What is the role of operations management in this process? Provide examples (4 marks)

3

Matthew James Hobday 20509008 Operation management is responsible for maximising production at the most efficient rate therefore, operations management played a role in ensuring that the new hybrid system would be able to produce at maximum efficiency despite the imposed changes on the organisation.

References: Griffith Ph.D., Jakari & Avolio, Bruce & Wernsing, Tara & Walumbwa, Fred. (2009). What is Authentic Leadership Development?.

Towler, A ‘The power of authentic leadership’, CQ Net, viewed June 8 2021, .

Williams, B 2021 ‘ 7 strategies for overcoming resistance to change in the work place’, Primeast, viewed on June 8 2021, . Edmans, A 2015, The social responsibility of businesss, online video, viewed 9 June 2021, . < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5KZhm19EO0>

4...