The Simulation/Context PowerPoint
Throughout this course, you will participate in a virtual scenario where you will imagine yourself as a leader in an organization, and you will produce artifacts/assignments that relate to this virtual role you will take on. The purpose of these virtual scenarios is to have you apply your knowledge and skills in an imaginary setting, called the simulation in this course.
Beginning in Module 2, you will demonstrate your knowledge of the content by utilizing the assignment portion of each module to conduct a multi-module opportunity to practice what it is like to conceptualize, plan for, execute, and evaluate change. As the learning continues to unfold in this course, you will be exposed to various situations and scenarios that will help you to conceptualize the challenges articulated in this course and to handle those challenges in a focused and realistic way.
For this course-long virtual scenario, you will be assuming the role of Vice President in an organization of your choosing. You can choose an industry or business modality you’re interested in or familiar with for these simulations. You will not be required to have in-depth knowledge of the professional content area. However, it is probably wise to choose an industry that you at least have some understanding of. You will have opportunities to describe the organization’s work in later assignments, and at least having some perspective will matter. Of course, you will not be graded on the accuracy of the professional descriptions associated with the chosen job. Instead, this will be a vehicle for you to demonstrate the new knowledge you are gaining regarding the course content introduced thus far.
Finally, you will also notice that this simulated scenario requires some interaction with a CEO. You are to assume that this company is of moderate size in that there is a CEO, a Vice President for New Business Development (you), a team of middle-level leaders, and several other workers who ostensibly are on the frontline of doing the work of the company. A mid-size company like this was identified as a mechanism for helping you to more concretely conceptualize some of the specific challenges leaders will need to face. A company of this size will therefore require you to have strategic oversight given its size. Yet, the scope is still small enough for you to conceptualize and describe individual leader actions and the impact that could unfold in front of you.
Based on what you have learned in this course, create a PowerPoint presentation addressing the following points/questions. Be sure to thoroughly answer all the questions for each bullet point. Use clear headings that allow your professor to know which bullet you are addressing on the slides in your presentation. Support your content with at least two (2) sources throughout your presentation. Make sure to reference the citations using the APA writing style for the presentation. Include a slide for your reference at the end. Follow best practices for PowerPoint presentations related to text size, color, images, effects, wordiness, and multimedia enhancements. Review the rubric criteria for this assignment.
The Interview Presentation: You are in the final stages of the hiring process for a new Vice Presidency in a mid-sized company. You are free to choose the work that the company engages in. You may select profit or non-profit endeavors.
You have gone through all the screening processes and are preparing for the final interview with the CEO. She has explained that you will be offered a position and that this is the final step in the process that is more about the transition from thinking about being with the company to getting serious about the work ahead. To that end, you are aware that at every level of the interview, you have been told repeatedly that this position needs to be the catalyst for driving change in this company. Unfortunately, this company has not been successful in conceptualizing or negotiating change lately. They have struggled mightily to be successful in working together to make change happen, and the CEO is explicitly targeting this position to be the catalyst for changing that trajectory and improving the future fortunes of the organization.
For this final interview, you are asked to prepare a PowerPoint presentation to explain to the CEO why change is necessary and inevitable. Simply put, the CEO wants to know whether you can genuinely make the theoretical case for change and be a resounding voice for the importance of change and improvement.
In this assignment, you will formally prepare a presentation to the interview panel, which outlines the theoretical case for change. Your presentation should include these components.
Component 1: Introduction to the definition of change (4 slides)
Component 2: Articulate some factors that can influence change today and how they drive change’s inevitable force. (4 slides)
Component 3: Resistance to change: Briefly describe from a theoretical standpoint why so many organizations often fear and resist change. Articulate the factors that make that happen and help conceptualize for the CEO why this is an altogether natural part of the change process. 4 slides)
Include at least two outside references which can be used to support your ideas presented.
Assignment Expectations
Length: 10-15 slides; answers must thoroughly address the questions in a clear, concise manner
Structure: Because a good presentation has few words on the slides, include a script with the verbiage you would say when presenting; the script should be a minimum of 50 words per slide.
References: Use the appropriate APA style in-text citations and references for all resources to answer the questions. Include at least two (2) scholarly sources to support your claims.
