Competencies
3018.1.1 : Practice of Management
The
graduate explains the theoretical bases, current knowledge, best
practices, and trends related to the practice of management.
3018.1.2 : Theories of Leadership
The
graduate uses contemporary theories of leadership to develop personal
leadership skills based on a personal leadership philosophy.
3018.1.3 : Sustaining Business Performance
The graduate applies management and leadership theories for long-term global-business success.
3018.1.4 : Organizational Performance Methods
The graduate analyzes appropriate methods to improve organizational performance.
Introduction
For
this task, you will write a paper on an existing organization with
which you have had personal experience. The organization can be a
business or a nonprofit, and you may represent any level of the
organization (e.g., team, department, division, whole) in your analysis.
You
will first describe the chosen organization. Your description of the
organization should convey personal experience, rather than information
gained from secondhand sources or media coverage. You will then perform a
SWOT analysis on that organization. Last, you will analyze that
organization’s leadership.
Note: Any information that would
be considered confidential, proprietary, or personal in nature should
not be included in the actual task submission to WGU. Do not include the
actual names of people, suppliers, the organization(s), or other
identifiable information. Fictional names should be used. Also,
organization-specific data, including financial information, should not
be included but should be addressed in a general fashion as appropriate.
Work performed for clients and employers is their property and should
not be used without written permission.
Requirements
Your
submission must be your original work. No more than a combined total of
30% of the submission and no more than a 10% match to any one
individual source can be directly quoted or closely paraphrased from
sources, even if cited correctly. The originality report that is provided when you submit your task can be used as a guide.
You
must use the rubric to direct the creation of your submission because
it provides detailed criteria that will be used to evaluate your work.
Each requirement below may be evaluated by more than one rubric aspect.
The rubric aspect titles may contain hyperlinks to relevant portions of
the course.
Write a paper (suggested length of 10–16 pages) by doing the following:
A. Describe an existing organization with which you have had personal experience and its objective(s).
1. Describe three leadership practices of the current leader, other than yourself, in the existing organization.
Note: Leadership practices are routine actions, behaviors, functions, and responsibilities that the current leader performs.
2. Discuss how the current leader has affected organizational culture.
Note:
You may represent any level of the chosen organization (e.g., team,
department, division, whole) and the respective current leader in your
description.
B. Conduct a SWOT analysis evaluating the chosen organization by doing the following:
1. Evaluate two of the organization’s current strengths.
2. Evaluate two of the organization’s current weaknesses.
3. Evaluate two of the organization’s current unmet opportunities.
4. Evaluate two of the organization’s current unresolved threats.
Note:
The accepted model for a SWOT analysis defines strengths and weaknesses
as internal to the organization, and opportunities and threats as
external to the organization.
C. Conduct a leadership evaluation of the current leader discussed in part A1, using one of the scholarly leadership theories below that is different from task 1, by doing the following:
• transformational leadership
• transactional leadership
• situational leadership
• participative leadership
• servant leadership
• behavioral leadership
• trait theory of leadership
1. Evaluate three strengths of the current leader, using the chosen scholarly leadership theory, including how each strength relates to the theory. Support the evaluation of the leader’s strengths with at least one scholarly source.
2. Evaluate three weaknesses of the current leader, using the chosen scholarly leadership theory, including how each weakness relates to the theory. Support the evaluation of the leader’s weaknesses with at least one scholarly source.
3. Recommend three actionable items to improve the effectiveness of the current leader, including how each actionable item relates to the chosen scholarly leadership theory. Support the recommendations of actionable items with at least one scholarly source.
Note: The recommendations need to address the current leaders identified leadership weakness.
Note:
A scholarly source could be a reputable journal, a published book, or
any source from a university faculty member or business leader.
Scholarly sources also include any article or book in the online WGU
library.
D. Acknowledge sources, using in-text citations and references, for content that is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.
E. Demonstrate professional communication in the content and presentation of your submission.
File Restrictions
File name may contain only letters, numbers, spaces, and these symbols: ! – _ . * ‘ ( )
File size limit: 200 MB
File
types allowed: doc, docx, rtf, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx, odt, pdf, csv,
txt, qt, mov, mpg, avi, mp3, wav, mp4, wma, flv, asf, mpeg, wmv, m4v,
svg, tif, tiff, jpeg, jpg, gif, png, zip, rar, tar, 7z
