MGMT 4100
Personal Learning Summary Assignment
The objective of this assignment is to give you experience in analyzing and synthesizing job position information and practicing your critical thinking skills. In addition, the personal learning summary assignment is designed to be an exercise that allows you to assess your own “organizational” characteristics and how these fit with a career or occupation that you find potentially desirable. The written report gives you an opportunity to develop:
(1) Your ability to apply concepts from class and the text to a practical situation
(2) Your analytical and written communication skills
(3) Your career interests
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1. Content of Paper
This assignment will consist of three parts. Make sure you answer all of the questions. Please use the headings and subheadings in your paper (i.e., I do not want one long essay).
Part 1 of the project involves obtaining information about a job in which you are interested based on the results of your vocational assessment. (i.e., a job you might want after graduation).
a. Find a job description of a job that seriously interests you.
b. Please copy title and tasks into your document (and use appropriate formatting as not to waste space with large fonts, advertisements, or spacing). The job announcement itself does not count towards the page requirements. Make sure to cite the source of your job announcement/description.
c. Analyze the job you chose to pursue in terms of (this requires several pages). Your analysis should go beyond what is written in the job description:
i. Knowledge, skills, abilities – In your own words, what do you need to know/know how to do to successfully perform this job in terms of knowledge, skills, and abilities?
ii. Work environment – what will a typical day in this job look like? Think in terms of tasks, interactions with customers/colleagues, types of activities, physical environment, stress levels etc.
Part 2. You have completed various self-assessments throughout this course. The results of these assessments will be summarized in this part of the assignment. In other words, you should describe what you have learned about yourself in terms of your strengths, weaknesses, and dispositions as a future employee and/or manager from each of these self-assessment exercises. You do not need to discuss the assessment instruments themselves***.
Integrate concepts discussed in class or in the book as you consider these explanations. You may draw from any exercises or readings we’ve done as part of the class or from outside sources (however these need to be cited and referenced).
You should incorporate 4 self-assessments, 3 of which are mandatory, and the other one should make sense for your chosen job. The following self-assessments are mandatory for this assignment:
1. Big Five Personality Factors
a. State and briefly explain your score (using percentiles) on each of the Big Five personality traits. (e.g., what does it mean to score high on Extraversion?)
b. What does each of these scores mean in terms of strengths and weaknesses for you as a 1) subordinate, 2) a manager? Please be objective and thorough.
2. Least Preferred Coworker Scale
a. Using your self-reported score, state your leadership preference and give a brief overview of what that means to you.
b. Does this match with your high scores on the Big 5? Explain why or why not?
3. Job Diagnostic Survey
a. Evaluate and discuss the Motivating Potential Score (MPS) of the job you have now.
i. How does the job rate on each of the five job dimensions? (scale 1-343)
ii. Is it low, moderate, or high? And why?
b. Discuss your personal Growth Need Strength (GNS). (scale 1-7)
i. Is it low, moderate, or high?
ii. Is it what you expected? Why/why not?
c. Compare the job’s MPS and your personal GNS.
i. Is there a match or a mismatch?
ii. If there is a mismatch, what about the job could be changed to make the MPS match with your GNS?
4. One self-assessment of your choice (choose only from Dark Tetrad, Organizational Culture Profile, values questionnaire):
a. Name which assessment you chose to do and why this assessment is relevant to the job that you chose for this assignment.
b. What was/were your score(s) on the assessment? What does it/do they mean?
c. Describe the key things you learned about yourself from this exercise in terms of strengths, weaknesses, and dispositions.
d. Discuss the implications of these findings for you as an 1) employee and 2) manager.
***Note: Make sure to attach your self-assessments to this paper.
Part 3 will consist of a summary diagnosis and a comparison of what you discovered in parts 1 and 2. This part should be several pages long. This is the most important part of the paper, so spend a lot of time on this part!
a. Integrate the results of the assessments done in part 2 to provide a summary diagnosis of your own organizational behavior.
i. Please provide a brief overview of the strengths and weaknesses discovered in part 1 and 2. Please discuss the consistency and any lack of consistency (if any) between the assessments.
ii. Based on your discoveries in part i, what are the main trends of your organizational behavior across the assessments? You need to be specific here. Name the assessments and dimensions and provide the evidence for the trends (This should NOT be a replication of part 2, but an integration!). Please remember that trends can be positive or negative.
b. Compare your summary diagnosis from part a. above to the job requirements as discovered in part 1****. In other words, assess your “fit” with the job you described in Part 1 in terms of culture, values, knowledge, skills, abilities, and job requirements. (how does the job fit with your summary diagnosis Please make sure to assess both your fit with your strength trends and your weakness trends.
c. Based on what you know about yourself now, is this a good job for you? Why/why not?
d. What weaknesses related to OB did you identify in part a i. that you would like to work on (if nothing, explain why)? Why do you want to make these changes? How will you go about improving these weaknesses? Please be specific.
****Note: Make sure to attach your job description to this paper.
2. Writing style of the paper:
• The writing should be clear and intelligible. Thus, it should display proper grammar and sentence structure. Have the paper proofread so that it displays proper spelling, punctuation, grammar, syntax etc.
• The paper should be well organized with headings and subheadings
• The paper should use appropriate business terminology.
• The paper should be typed and double-spaced using 1” margins and 12-point font.
• All reports turned in for grading must meet professionalism standards. The professor reserves the right to reduce grades on unprofessional assignments (e.g., inconsistent font or formatting; lack of organization, spelling, grammar mistakes, etc.)
• Although the length of the paper is unimportant as long as all aspects of the project are thoroughly covered; anticipate 4-5 pages double-spaced total.
• You should have 12pt font, Times New Roman, double-spaced, 1” margins, with a cover page listing your name and class and a title of your paper, like below:
Discovering Myself: An Examination of my Future Career
Your Name
Georgia Gwinnett College
MGMT 4100
Professor Huff
3. Other considerations:
• The assignment has to be original. Cite the work of others properly. The textbook can be one of the references and the other references must be from either academic or professional sources. Dictionaries and encyclopedias are not acceptable references for college work. A reference page documenting the references that are used to prepare the report is required. Each reference must contain the author’s name, the name of the article or document, the name of the journal/magazine/book or website where the article is published, and the date of publication.
• Please use outside references where applicable, using a CONSISTENT citation system (e.g., MLA, APA, footnotes).
• Late papers will incur a 10% point reduction per day.
4. Grading:
You will be graded on the following criteria:
a. Part 1 – Analysis of job
• Explanation of the job itself and the sources for this information
• Depth and completeness of culture and values analysis. You need to add value above and beyond a simple summary of your results on the various exercises.
b. Part 2 – Self-assessment analysis
• Depth and completeness of your analysis. The paper should demonstrate your level of introspection. You need to add value above and beyond a simple summary of your results on the various exercises.
• Demonstration of understanding of the exercises and class concepts.
c. Part 3 – Analysis of person-job fit
• Depth and creativity of analysis of person-job fit
d. Clarity, organization, and professionalism (e.g., format, lack of typos, ease of reading) of your writing
