Organizational Science - Leadership Paper

Leadership and Performance ORSC 2143

Spring 2020

Guidance for Current Leadership Challenge Paper (30 percent of grade)

The purpose of this assignment is to bring a current, real-life example of a company into the conversation about leadership and performance. I need a written analysis on the company ‘Zappos’ and their company culture. Talk about how they take daily action to affirm the company’s core values within employees and the customer service they provide. How their values are important with each decision they make, through hiring, onboarding, training and team building exercises.

Link the paper with leadership, talk about how managers are at the heart of Zappos systems, link it to Trait theory of leadership, authentic leadership theory, and any other theory or concept linked to leadership.

Zappos does performance evaluations, provides feedback, and how they have created career paths for their employees and push them to their potential to reach the goal- link this example to the Path Goal Theory of Leadership, and how Human Resource management plays a key role within the organization.

Linking key examples of leadership and performance of Zappos Company to some of the Leadership theories is key to the paper- there is a book called ‘Leadership: theory and practice- 7th edition by Northouse’ that describes in detail, the various leadership theories.

Here is the task:

Analyze Zappos and its culture from the perspective of how leadership affects performance. What are the circumstances for the organization and what is the effect of leadership – is it necessary? Is leadership confined to an individual, or is a broader group important? How? Is the challenge being addressed effectively? How? What are the impediments? What can you draw from the course readings- ‘Northouse Leadership: Theories and Practice 7th edition’. Prepare a ten-to-twelve-page paper, double-spaced in length that summarizes the current challenge and discusses in-depth the specific aspects of leadership in navigating the white water. Be sure to highlight the leader’s traits, skills, processes or approach that you find most compelling. As with all writings in this course, use MLA format citation, as appropriate.

Rubric for Current Leadership Challenge Paper (total of 75 points available)

Points 20-25 each

Summary/evaluation of the leadership issue	strong summary of leadership issue, exceptional connection to course theories or readings
Analysis	strong and insightful comments that demonstrate in-depth analysis and thorough understanding of the impact of leadership on performance
Writing	clear and concise language; free of grammatical and spelling errors

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