Developing Leadership and Management

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Developing

Leadership and

Management

(6HR510)

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Submission Date:

Friday 12th May 2023

Not later than 23h59 (BCN time)

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Completing Your Assignment

Please Note:

▪ The information contained in these slides and on the accompanying audio

presentation is provided as an aide in preparing and presenting your end of term

module assignment.

▪ Whether you choose to use this information is entirely up to you, but it does offer

you chances to improve your grade outcomes.

▪ Your tutors will always welcome questions for clarification and to provide support in

helping you focus on constructing an appropriate answer to the assignment

question.

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Completing Your Assignment

• This guidance is offered to provide you with a structured way to construct and

present your end of term assignment (report).

• The ideas presented here are built up from best practice over a number of years,

using feedback and information from a range of academic tutors and former

students in terms of creating a framework so that module assignment submissions

can achieve better outcomes.

• Sticking very closely to this advice is more likely to help you gain the better

outcome you may be seeking. The choice to use it however is always yours.

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Final Year

• Tutor expectations of learners:

1. At this stage of your learning, you must be able to present an informed and

thoughtful argument (it is not enough to say you know how to do something, you

must be able to articulate that, in both written and verbal format).

2. That learners engage in the additional reading always required at this level of

study to achieve high-end grade outcomes.

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Creating Your Outcome

1. Hypothesis: a tentative assumption or idea about a relationship between two

or more variables, which can subsequently be examined and / or tested

2. Position: a stance or point of opinion (to be defended) on a particular issue

• You cannot achieve point 2 until you have undertaken point 1

• Point 1 is your argument or evaluation, Point 2 is your conclusion

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The Assignment Question

PART 1: (Learning Outcomes 1 and 2)

Through your understanding of academic literature, critically analyse the impact of

management and leadership on the operations and success of a modern business.

PART 2: (Learning Outcome 3)

Present a considered rationale as to why the continuing development of leaders

and managers is essential to working practices and organisational success.

Establish a clear link as to how these development activities facilitate that success.

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Breaking Down The Question

• Part 1:

✓ Ballpark 2,200 to 2,400 words (in total), including introduction, main report and

conclusion

✓ Minimum 22 to Maximum 30 academic sources (references) to be used

✓ No more than seven (7) web sites references can be used in this section (this

restriction necessitates you undertaking some appropriately robust

academic reading – books and journal articles)

✓ Remember: you can cite a source more than once in your work, it still only

counts as one reference

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Breaking Down The Question

➢ Using a robust range of academic sources, critically analyse the impact of

management and leadership on the operations and success of a modern business.

➢ You need to determine, based on your interpretation of your appropriate and

robust academic research how these two elements of leadership and management

impact (whether that is positively or perhaps negatively) on business operations

and the business success of a modern organisation.

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Breaking Down The Question

• DO NOT talk about these issues as separate things, it is important to examine the

key issues interrelatedly (so the reader can appreciate whether you see and

determine how these elements / functions add value, or perhaps subvert

(undermine) value in the way a business runs its day to day operations to work

towards or achieve business success).

• You should not just talk about the concepts of leadership and management, but

importantly explore their relative purpose, value and impact on a business.

Equally, do not simply write about the role of a leader or manager, but articulate

how they enable business operations and success (purpose and value).

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Breaking Down The Question

• For example, your view might recognise that managing operations effectively adds

value in encouraging better performance, or perhaps that micro-management or

authoritarian management / leadership leads to a lack of trust and poor

performance.

• You might consider how encouraging employees to tackle problems leads to

higher levels of trust and confidence or that a focus on the cost of actions to be

more efficient means customer service is compromised and lacks effectiveness.

• You argue your case, but ensure it focuses on purpose and value to the

organisation rather than just the specifics of how a leader leads (the role), or a

manager manages (the role).

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Breaking Down The Question

• Part 2:

✓ Ballpark 1,100 to 1,300 words

✓ Minimum 12 to Maximum 16 academic sources (references) to be used.

✓ No more than four (4) web site references to be used in this section (again,

this is to necessitate appropriate academic research being used to inform

your ideas and answer).

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Breaking Down The Question

➢ Present an academic rationale as to why the continuing development of leaders

and managers is essential to working practices and organisational success.

➢ This requires you to rationalise a purpose for the development leaders and

managers and determine how value is or can be added to the operations and

potential success of the business.

➢ You need to consider how the development of these skills might enable better

operational undertaking and / or business success. It is reasonable that you

identify specific skills and how they might enable that success.

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Presenting Your Work

• Your work is a representation of you, so please give some thought to the way you

construct and present your report.

• Attention to detail always matters. If you are sloppy or do not care, then why

should others?

• Use the information provided to ensure you construct an outcome that looks

professional. We view you as a business professional now, it is not just something

that will happen when you leave university.

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Presenting Your Work

• The assignment will be presented in REPORT format.

• Consequently there are minimum requirements that the report must contain.

• These will be explored in further detail on the coming slides.

• Remember: these ideas work, they help focus attention and structure your work

appropriately. If a high grade is a personal objective, then it is highly

recommended you take on board this advice.

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Presenting The Report

✓ Cover Page

✓ Assignment Checklist

✓ Contents Page

✓ Introduction

✓ Main Report – Part 1

✓ Main Report – Part 2

✓ Conclusion

✓ References (Please note: This is NOT a Bibliography)

? Appendices (if required, but not absolutely necessary or required)

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Understanding The Report

• Introduction: Ballpark 170 – 200 words (included in the word count)

✓ This sets the scene.

✓ It provides the reader with a scope of understanding and direction of travel

through the report (what is the report doing and where is it going).

✓ You will introduce the reader to at least three key models or theories that will be

used in the main evaluation (this means they must appear in the main report).

✓ These models or theories must be appropriately cited (Harvard style protocols)

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Understanding The Report

• Main Report (Part 1): Ballpark 1,800 – 2,000 words (included in the word count)

➢ You will construct an informed overview of the assignment question using a

good robust range of academic sources (refer to slide 6 to note any

restrictions).

➢ You are likely to use at least 22 and up to 30 academic sources.

➢ Develop each key point of discussion using multiple academic sources (at least

3 and ideally 4). This shows the reader you have read around the subject and

are able to use multiple perspectives to create an informed and thoughtful view.

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Understanding The Report

• Main Report (Part 2): Ballpark 1,100 – 1,300 words (included in the word count)

➢ You will construct an informed overview of the assignment question using a

good robust range of academic sources (refer to slide 8 to note any

restrictions).

➢ You are likely to use at least 12 and up to 16 academic sources.

➢ Develop each key point of discussion using multiple academic sources (at least

3 and ideally 4). This shows the reader you have read around the subject and

are able to use multiple perspectives to create an informed and thoughtful view.

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Understanding The Report

• Conclusion: Ballpark (approx) 170 – 200 words (included in the word count)

• Draw conclusions (from your perspective) on what you have read and articulated in

this report.

• You must use at least three academic sources (appropriately cited) to facilitate and

validate your ideas.

• These academic sources will have been used by you in the main evaluation (main

part of the report). Do not introduce any new academic sources at this point.

• They act as an aide to the reader to remind them where your ideas have come

from.

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Understanding The Report

• References: (not included in the word count)

✓ Must be presented alphabetically by surname (Harvard style protocols apply).

✓ Understand that you must present a reference list not a bibliography. A

bibliography is something different and is not required in this report.

✓ References will be presented as one (1) list. You do not need separate lists for

part 1 and part 2 of the main report.

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Constructing a Professional Report

• Use Verdana, Arial or MS Sans Serif font type (bigger fonts are easier to read –

think about your audience)

• Use size 12 font

• Use line and half (1.5) spacing

• Pay attention to detail (spelling etc)

• Use spell check and grammar check (silly basic errors can be avoided)

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Constructing an Informed Dialogue

• Each paragraph must lead the reader through an appreciation of the key issue

being discussed (it has to have a purpose).

• A good robust paragraph is likely to be around 16 – 20 lines of dialogue / analysis.

• It will contain at least three (3 for a really good grade) and ideally four (4 for an

extremely good or better grade) academic sources. This gives the reader a sense

that you have read around the subject and can outline an informed view of that key

issue being discussed.

• Include some interpretation of what all these views might infer (see Assessment

Guidance Handbook – page 14)

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Interpretation – Why It Matters

• Doing robust academic research is always a good thing. Understanding what that

research might mean, tends to lead to higher outcomes.

• The key word in the previous sentence is ‘MIGHT’. People will interpret someone

else’s ideas in different ways, that is natural.

• Consequently, as long as you did not misuse what these academic writers say,

then your interpretation is providing a view based on your awareness, appreciation

and experiences.

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Asking For Help

• Talking to your tutors is an essential aspect of your learning. Their role is to help

you direct your attention on things that will add value in answering the assignment

question.

• Explore your ideas with them.

• Do not leave it too late, it is your work, so you control the process to completion

(the timeline is set as the assignment submission deadline, so you cannot control

that aspect). However, leaving things to the last minute puts you under pressure

and often places unrealistic expectations on your tutor.

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Why all this matters

• The guidance provided is used as the framework to grade your assignment.

• It focuses attention on the things that will realise higher grade outcomes, so

hopefully, focuses your attention on things that matter (that add value).

• It enables you to answer the question that has been set, not the one you think you

would like to do.

• It tests your skills to construct an academically informed and thoughtful piece of

work.

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Why Grades Reduce

• The question being asked is not the one answered in your report

• Insufficient rigorous and robust academic research

• Too much academic research that offers no interpretation (of that research)

• Using too many web sources

• Focusing on one part of the question and not paying sufficient and appropriate

attention to all elements

• Lack of attention to detail (construct, presentation, use of Harvard protocols etc)

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Submission Date:

Friday 12th May 2023

Not later than 23h59 (BCN time)

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If you are in any doubt,

or need any point clarified

ASK FOR HELP