This assignment provides you the opportunity to demonstrate mastery of the various theories and concepts studied in the ORGL program by applying them to real life leadership situations and scenarios.
The submitted paper should address leadership of organizations from a real-life perspective and include connections to ORGL courses listed below. Topics to be addressed (these are your section headings of your paper) are:
Leadership style or approach.
Success as a leader- how is it achieved?
How do leaders handle difficult situations, circumstances, and people?
How do leaders strike a balance between organizational effectiveness and follower morale and wellbeing?
Reliance of leaders on certain theory, concept, or philosophy to effectively move an organization forward.
How leaders develop followers to follow in their footsteps. How are the next generation of leaders chosen?
How current leaders are adapting to changes in technology and society.
As you develop this paper, plan on using three types of reference sources:
Outside literature that focuses on real-life application of leadership at Southwest Airlines or FTX (choose one company as your focus)
Literature and other materials you used and studied in the ORGL program
Content and insight from conducting interviews with two leaders of complex organizations, if you have questions about the prospective interviewee, please let me know.
Source 1: Southwest Airlines or FTX
Southwest Under Fire for Mass Flight Cancellations
https://www.commondreams.org/news/southwest-airlines-corporate-greed
What Happened to Crypto Giant FTX?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/qai/2022/12/13/what-happened-to-crypto-giant-ftx-a-detailed-summary-of-what-we-actually-know-here/?sh=62fa130b60fa
Two real-life scenarios chosen for you are Southwest Airlines and FTX. Both companies experienced a crisis, and leadership had to answer the call of working through that crisis.
Consider these two companies and the situation explained in the attached articles as you explore the leadership of organizations in your paper. CHOOSE ONE COMPANY to use as a basis of discussing real-life application of leadership in your paper. You are provided with two articles as sources, but you may research and find additional sources related to Southwest or FTX for your paper.
Southwest Airlines Article: Southwest Under Fire for Mass Flight Cancellations
FTX: What Happened to Crypto Giant FTX?
Outside references related to either the Southwest Airlines crisis or the FTX crisis include articles such as Harvard Business Reviews and other sources that discuss leadership and leaders including blogs, published interviews and video sources. Do not rely 100% on website articles from weak, unknown sources as these will result in a lower grade. Seek supporting material from other outside sources such as journals, published papers and other scholarly sources.
Source 2: Materials in ORGL Program
ORGL classes to be connected are:
ORGL 3311 – Foundations of Organizational Leadership
ORGL 3321 – Organizational Communication
ORGL 3322 – Organizational Ethics
ORGL 3331 – Data Driven Decision Making
ORGL 3332 – Organizational Behavior
ORGL 4341 – Leadership Theory
ORGL 4342 – Leading Diverse & Inclusive Teams
ORGL 4343 – Leading Change
ORGL sources will include specific class material from the noted courses, or others.
Source 3: Interviews
For the interview reference, select two upper-level leaders from different types of organizations to interview. The two individuals you are asked to interview must have a high level of responsibility and supervision within their complex organizations. They must be leaders, not managers. You will be rewarded for your creativity in choosing your appropriate interviewees. The aim of these interviews is to allow you to learn about leadership practices and realities from people who are practicing them on day-to-day basis in real organizations.
Do not interview a family member, relative, or close friend. For your two organizations, pick organizations that are reasonably large and complex in function. For example, one organization could be a for-profit business company (like L-3 Communications, American Airlines, JC Penney, a chain restaurant, or a local bank), while the second one could be a non-profit governmental, educational, or public organization (such as a city government, a local post office, a community college or university, YMCA, or the Red Cross). Do not select someone from your current organization or place of work. I would like for you to explore as many concepts and practices of leadership as possible in a variety of organizational settings.
Assure the interviewees that what they tell you will be kept confidential. Ask for permission to write notes or audio tape your interviews to keep an audit trail.
Important Requirements Related to Your Paper:
Once you have sourced program and outside reference material and completed the two interviews, start writing your paper. You are required to write one integrated paper, analyzing the data you received from your reference material and the two interview participants. Discuss, compare and contrast material that you have gathered around each topic. Include a robust but concise introductory paragraph which will introduce the material to be covered.
To be sure, I want you to do very little reporting, just enough for your readers to understand the context of your discussion. The major bulk of your paper should be your analysis of your topics and reference material. Make sure that you relate or connect the views or perspectives of your interviewees to the other reference material about leadership, followership, organizational theory (how organizations work), and organizational behavior. Familiarize yourself with leadership theories and concepts, particularly Fiedler’s Contingency Leadership Theory and Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership Theory and use these to support your content.
You should use quotes where feasible and relate back to applicable concepts and theories from your readings and experience. Please provide both in-text citations and a complete reference page for all sources. All scholarly papers must have a bibliography. Familiarize yourself with the APA style of referencing. The APA style is the most popular and also easiest to use. It is critical for your paper to be APA-compliant.
All scholarly papers must be written in complete sentences (not point from), with proper introduction of new topics or ideas, transition between points and paragraphs, and coherence. You must have a list of references (bibliography) at the end of your paper. Remember that you are senior about ready to graduate with your degree. You must present a well-written scholarly and rigorous paper, with clear indications that you understand the concepts and practices of leadership and the ways to which they are connected to how organizations work (organizational theory). Academic scholarship is about presenting new ideas, not regurgitating old ones.
Formatting: Please use Microsoft Word, Times New Roman 12 pt. font, typed double spaced, with no more than 1″ border on all four sides. Write in complete sentences (not in point form) using regular indented paragraphs. Remember to number your pages and run your spell checker before you submit your paper. I am expecting between 10-12 pages for this paper, not counting the formal title page, reference pages, and appendices. You will get back detailed tracked feedback on your paper.
Re-submissions: Based on my previous encounters, almost all students in this course have to re-submit their papers at least once, in many cases more than once. You are allowed a maximum of three serious revision attempts. If you wait until the end of the term to submit your paper, you run the risk of getting an F grade since you will not have the time to rewrite. If you have been assigned a B grade on your paper, you will NOT be allowed to rewrite. If you are also signed up for Capstone II this term, it is even more critical for you to complete all assignments for this class early so that you can move on to Capstone II.
Plagiarism: Please be mindful about TAMUC’s academic misconduct policies. Copying from other students’ previous written assignment, not citing sources, submitted the same content from a previous course (recycling) to get credit for another, and representing other people’s work as your own are forms of serious academic misconduct. If you commit any of these acts, you will face a possible formal charge.
ORGL 4352: Capstone I
Leadership Interview Questions
These are not required questions. These are some general example of questions that can start the conversation with your interviewees. Ask follow-up questions to suit the conversation and interview process.
Question 1: What would you describe your leadership style or approach?
Question 2: What has contributed to your success as a leader?
Question 3: What is your typical approach in handling difficult people, conflicts, and complicated circumstances as a leader?
Question 4: Leaders may have to strike a balance between organizational effectiveness on the one hand and a regard for subordinate or follower satisfaction or morale on the other. Can you please explain how you personally balance the two and make it work?
Question 5: Have you developed or relied on a particular philosophy, theory, or approach to leadership that has helped you succeed as a leader? Can you please describe it and explain how and why it has worked for you?
