Guidance on Assessment 3: Assessing and developing yourself as a manager
Assignment task: The concept of management/leadership emphasises self-awareness as the first step in a person’s ability to manage and lead others. A good understanding of our personality, values, emotions, team role preferences, leadership style, conflict handling style, change adaptability etc. helps us in being more authentic as a manager and leader and help lead others in organisations and life.
This task requires you to examine a range of self-assessment tools with the aim of reflecting on and understanding the self. You have to undertake six self-assessment exercises (references to these tests must be included with your assignment). These may be taken from relevant online sources, OB text-books or others that you have completed through work within the past two years. You are required to integrate relevant OB literature and research throughout your analysis.
Worth: 40%
Word limit: 2500 words (+/- 10% acceptable) excluding the reference list and appendices but including all headings, sub-headings and in-text references. Assignments that are more than 10% over the word limit will be penalised.
References: A minimum of ten academic references are essential. You need to use Chicago 17B referencing style.
Task details: Any SIX (6) self-assessments must comprise two (2) each of the following three categories:
Category 1: Individual behaviour and processes (this includes the topics of individual behaviour, personality and values, perception, workplace emotions, attitudes and stress, motivation, decision-making and creativity)
Category 2: team processes (this includes topics of team dynamics, communication in teams, power and influence and conflict & negotiation)
Category 3: Organisational processes (this includes topics of leadership, organisational structure, organisational culture and organisational change)
Category 1: ‘Individual behaviour and processes’ self-assessments.
Examples of self-assessments related to individual behaviour and processes include the following:
Personality tests:
https://www.123test.com/personality-test/
http://hexaco.org/questionnaire_quiz
Self-esteem test:
https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/RSE.php
Emotional intelligence:
https://globalleadershipfoundation.com/geit/eitest.html
Creativity:
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/creativity-quiz.htm
Category 2: ‘Team processes’ self-assessment.
Examples of self-assessments related to team processes include the following:
Team roles:
https://www.123test.com/team-roles-test/
https://www.belbin.com/belbin-for-individuals/belbin-individual-reports/
Conflict handling styles:
http://www.blake-group.com/free-assessments
Communication style preference:
https://www.leadershipiq.com/blogs/leadershipiq/39841409-quiz-whats-your-communication-style
Category 3: ‘Organisational processes’ self-assessments.
Examples of self-assessments related to organisational processes include the following:
Preference to organisational structure
McShane, Steven, Mara Olekalns, Alex Newman, and Angela Martin. 2019. Organisational Behaviour: Emerging Knowledge. Global Insights. 6th ed. Sydney, NSW: McGraw Hill Australia. (ISBN/ISSN: 9781760421649)
Organisational culture/corporate culture preference
https://www.ocai-online.com/products/ocai-one
Tolerance to change
https://www.quia.com/sv/551724.html
Leadership style
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_50.htm
Having completed the required assessments (copies/results of which are to be handed in as an Appendix but the tests themselves are not included in the word count) you may consider the following in the assignment:
• Why you chose the particular assessments you completed ‐ were there particular areas of your behaviour you were trying to understand?
• What do the self‐assessments that you have completed tell you about yourself as a manager and as a person?
• Based on an increased understanding of yourself, what is likely to be challenging for you as you move through your course of study and your career? What is likely to be easy for you?
• Were there any surprises in the assessments you completed? That is, were the results different to what you expected?
• If there were no surprises in the assessments you completed, why?
• The usefulness of the self-assessments you have completed with respect to your own development.
• What you will do differently (if anything) as a result of these self-assessments and how you might monitor if the changes you want to make are working.
• Any reservations you have about the particular tools you used.
• Anything else that you feel is relevant.
Structure: The assignment should be structured so that it includes a brief introduction about your personal and professional background and how you intend to benefit from this assignment.
Relevant headings and sub-heading should be used throughout the paper. For example under heading on ‘self-assessments related to individual behaviour and processes’, you can use the subheadings of ‘Big-5 personality test’ and ‘Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire’ to critically evaluate the tests and the results.
A brief conclusion should be provided at the end. No new themes should be introduced in the conclusion.
Assessment copies/results should be attached as appendices after the reference list.
Assessment criteria (marking rubric) available in the folder will give you a good understanding of the requirements of the assessment.
Document formatting: Time New Roman or Arial font, size 12, normal page margins and double line spacing.
