For Wizard Kim - PCS

Personal Leadership Experience – Case Study

Choose a personal leadership experience that will be the basis for your case study over the next four weeks. It should be based on an actual experience. Specific details that would identify actual individuals or locations can be excluded or modified. The case will have the following characteristics:

· You found the situation challenging.

· You think you can learn something about yourself and the organization from the situation.

· You are motivated and interested in the situation to explore it throughout the course.

Think broadly when choosing a case situation. It need not be limited to a work setting. Many powerful personal cases have examined sports teams, family dynamics, relationships with roommates or spouses, church and volunteer groups.

The case is  NOT an opportunity to show your strengths off to the instructor. This leaves little room for motivation for exploring what you might have done differently--the paper then will not become "just another assignment." As opposed to an opportunity for deep learning. Alternatively, I am asking that you not write a case about someone else. Doing so removes the opportunity to dig into your own preferences, choices, and strategies. Often  the best cases are based on your own setbacks and failures.

The case write up due in week one will become the basis for the papers written in weeks 2-4 in which you integrate what you have learned about the four frames. The case write-up will be 3-5 pages (double-spaced/New Times Roman) using APA format. Use the following organization for your case.

1 Introduction: Identify the key problems and issues in the case. Discuss the primary adaptive challenge present in the case and positions held by stakeholders.

2 Background: Provide the necessary information without getting too lost in the weeds. Remember your audience. If this was a journal article how much information is important and how much is not relevant to the issue. What was your role in the case? Who were the primary stakeholders? What decisions were made? What was the outcome?

3 Theory Integration: Use content from week one materials to deepen the discussion of the case. How does the course content help you understand the primary leadership and organizational challenge? Don't short-change this section.

4 Central Inquiry Questions: What are 3-4 primary questions you are left with as a result of this case? The answer to these questions should not be clear in week one but set the stage for later analysis. Ultimately, you should be on the hook for these questions. This means they are reflective in nature and you are at the center of the inquiry. For instance, "Why did my boss make such a bad decision?" would not be a reflective questions. Rather, "What are the ways that I can effectively speak truth to power when it feels risky?" is a question that you are closely involved with.

Use citations/references from the book Bolman/Deal and other sources as needed to illustrate your knowledge of course concepts.

Note that if you do write an adequate personal case study the instructor may ask that you revise and resubmit the case study so that it can be used in remaining papers. Be sure and read the grading rubric before submission.

E-Book Information:

Reframing Organizations

URL: vbk://9781119281849

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