Assessment Brief
Module name: Management and Leadership – Challenges and Practices
1. Module Overview
Management and leadership are an intrinsic part of systems and organisations. In this module learners will explore concepts and practices pertinent to leadership and management within organisations against the backdrop of current business environment and trends.
The module discusses the interplay between leadership, ethics, value and organisational culture. New approaches such as mentoring and coaching are becoming more popular, alongside the more traditional skillset of communication, persuasion, negotiation and conflict resolution.
The module aims to support learners in exploring various techniques, skills and approaches that leaders can apply in specific situations and contexts.
Students will have an opportunity not only to learn about leadership skills and their application in different contexts, but also to reflect on their own talents in this area. As a result, they may be able to identify new goals and workplace skills to include in Personal Development Plans and facilitate ongoing employability.
2. Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this learning, and this module, you will be able to:
1. Critically examine the links and differences between management and leadership and how leadership principles support organisational values.
2. Evaluate and apply effective leadership styles in achieving organisational objectives.
3. Demonstrate an understanding of leadership skills effective for team engagement in organisations.
4. Critically analyse the impact of organisation’s ethical and value-based approach to leadership.
Summative Assessment
Summative assessments are the pieces of coursework that you complete which contribute towards your final grade in this module. You should take the feedback that you receive from the completion of coursework in this module and use it to help you improve your performance in future assessments.
Summative assessment in this module is two pieces of submitted coursework. You will be expected to submit your summative assignments via the submission points in the Assessment folder of your module.
COURSEWORK 2
Assessment Type: Individual report
Assessment weighting: 70%
Word count: 3,000 words
Submission Method: Turnitin
Your CW2 will be marked under the Anonymous Marking Policy. It is the responsibility of students to respect and enable anonymity in the assessment process. You must submit your work using your student number to identify yourself, not your name. You must not use your name in the text of the work at any point. When you submit your work via Turnitin, you must submit your student number within the assignment document and in the Submission title field on Turnitin.
Assessment guidance
You are required to review two case studies (see appendix B), and then to respond by writing 1500 words per case study (3000 words in total). You will discuss and analyse the issues raised within these two case studies.
You must apply good academic referencing that will link current leadership practices pertinent to modern business and further underpinned by academic concepts, models and theories.
This assignment must be written in the 3rd person and in a scholarly manner ensuring that you have sufficiently addressed the key issues discussed in both these case studies, and addressed the questions listed for each case study.
The answers to both case studies must be written and presented in a professional way, with
the use of appropriate theoretical terminology, high standard of writing, grammar and
academic referencing, including in-text citations and the Reference list (Harvard style).
Remember to provide a wide range of evidence to support your judgement throughout the report; this could include a combination of objective/practical evidence and must include relevant theoretical models and frameworks covered in this module and wider.
Case Study 1: Ethical Practice in Leadership
This is about a leader trying to do the right thing, and there is no right or wrong answer to Lawrence’s predicament. This case study requires you to engage in this situation by drawing upon good academic discussion in order to justify your response to the questions.
This is about leadership and ethical practice, and as such, the results of your analysis must be written in a scholarly manner and that your work has been clearly underpinned by well-grounded academic management concepts, theories and research. You may be able to draw upon your own life experiences in order to help you focus on your answers, but remember being reflective will also require you to justify your discussion academically.
Questions
a) Upon reading this case study, what do you consider to be this person’s greatest strengths and weaknesses as a leader?
b) What would you do and why?
c) Why are codes of ethical practice considered by many organisations to be important? For example, the CMI Codes of conduct for managers.
Case Study 2: Organisational Cultures and Change
This is about the clash of cultures between two giant car manufacturing organisations. You will need to engage in the concept of change leadership, change management and the
powerful phenomenon of organisational cultures.
This assignment will require to draw upon good academic discussion in order to justify your response to the questions. This is about leadership and culture, and as such, the results of your analysis must be written in a scholarly manner and that your work has must be clearly underpinned by well-grounded academic management concepts, theories and research. You may be able to draw upon your own life experiences in order to help you focus on your answers, but remember being reflective will also require you to justify your discussion academically.
Questions
a) What type of organisational culture was Daimler-Benz and Chrysler?
b) Considering the types of cultures that Daimler-Benz and Chrysler practice, evaluate what types of leadership styles could be best suited to achieving both these organisations objectives?
c) In change management scenarios, what can leaders do to ensure effective team engagement within their organisations?
Appendix B
Case Study 1: Ethical Practice in Leadership
Blackley shipyard: A Moral Dilemma, What Would You Do?
The year is 1931. The place is the small town of Blackley in the northeast of England, population c. 10,000. The main industry in Blackley is a shipyard which builds and repairs ships, and employs around 800 people directly. The rest of the town is entirely dependent economically on the shipyard; the yard’s employees spend money in the town’s pubs and cafes and laundries and markets, enabling these other business to survive.
The shipyard had been founded in the late nineteenth century and had prospered through the First World War, building warships for the Royal Navy. The post-war recession hit the yard very hard, and in 1922 it was nearly forced to close. This caused panic in the town, for it was recognised that without the shipyard, the town itself was not economically viable.
There was little in the way of social safety net in those days, and if the yard closed the population of the town would have to disperse to find work elsewhere. A thriving little community would be broken up, and Blackley would become a ghost town. Into the breach stepped our hero, Arthur Lawrence, a successful stockbroker from London then in his late twenties. He had fond memories of the area, where he had holidayed with his parents and family for many years, and had a great affection for Blackley. Lawrence had done very well in the markets and had money to spend. A well-educated, honourable young man, he was also restless and looking for something to spend his money on, something that would do good in the world. In Blackley he saw his chance. He bought the shipyard, invested his own fortune in it, and build the yard up again, this time making cargo vessels for the merchant marine.
Through the 1920s, Blackley prospered. Then came the Wall Street crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, and the world market for shipping disappeared almost overnight. Orders for new ships were cancelled. For a time the yard survived by doing repair and refit work, but these jobs too began to dry up. By the end of 1931, it was clear that the writing was on the wall. Lawrence and his fellow directors calculated that they had enough money to pay the workforce until the end of February 1932.
After that, the money would run out. With no bank willing to lend them funds, they would have no choice but to close the shipyard and lay off the entire workforce, with disastrous consequences for Blackley. Then, at the eleventh hour, a message arrived. The Ministry of Marine in Romania was looking bids to build two small tankers to service the country’s burgeoning oil industry. Building these tankers would keep the yard in work for another year, during which time the economy might improve and the demand for shipping revive. There was one problem: the Romanian government was known to be endemically corrupt, but Lawrence was willing to take the risk. He jumped at the offer like a drowning man seizing a lifebelt, and took the next train to Bucharest. On arrival, he was received warmly by officials of the ministry and made welcome.
To his surprise, he discovered that he was the only bidder for the contract. Everything went smoothly. The Romanian negotiators were happy to accept whatever terms Lawrence proposed. At the end of the second day it was announced that the contracts would be signed at the Ministry of Marine at noon the following day. At ten o’clock that night, two officials from the Ministry of Marine knocked at Lawrence’s hotel room door. Their message was simple and blunt. Unless Lawrence provided a bribe of £20,000, half to the Minister of Marine and half to themselves, before noon tomorrow, the contract would not be signed. There would be no deal.A telegraph line would be held open for Lawrence to contact his bank and arrange a wire transfer, but he would not be permitted to make a telephone call or contact his associates back in Blackley. He had only a few hours, on his own, to decide.
The choice was grim. He could pay the bribe, and hope the officials kept their word and the contract would be signed. If he did so, the shipyard would have work and the business and the town would survive. But he himself would have broken the law; then as now, British law forbade the payment of bribes overseas. If he was caught, he would go to prison, and be banned from ever holding a company directorship again. His career would be wrecked. He himself would have to live with the knowledge that he had broken the law. And finally, he would have been contributing to and reinforcing the culture of corruption in Romania, which was seeing a small number of officials enrich themselves while the mass of the population sank steadily into poverty.
Alternatively, Lawrence could refuse to the pay the bribe. The deal would collapse, and he would return to Blackley empty-handed and tell his directors and his workforce that it was all over. In two months, they would be unemployed and the community would disappear. He would in effect have sacrificed the shipyard and the town to save his honour.
Case Study 2: Organisational Cultures and Change
The Merger of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler: a Clash of Cultures
The merger of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler is a prime example of an attempt at growth that failed in part because the real value wasn’t there. When Daimler-Benz purchased Chrysler in 1998 for $37 billion, it grew overnight into one of the world’s largest car manufacturers. The two organisations never were integrated into anything that approached a cohesive whole. The potential synergies that were used to justify the deal went unrealised. Why did this happen?
Because the two organisations really didn’t like each other, and couldn’t cooperate to the extent necessary to make the combination work. Serious efforts to integrate the operations of Daimler and Chrysler foundered on lack of trust clashes between the mid-market cowboys of Detroit and the high-end knights of Stuttgart.
The seeds of post-merger disintegration were sown early when it became obvious that a“merger of equals” was actually a takeover of Chrysler by Daimler.
And there were unbridgeable differences in the cultures of the two organizations. As is too often the case in acquisitions, the synergies were all on the surface. In theory, the Daimler-Chrysler combination should have yielded two very potent sources of competitive advantage. The first was a cohesive global brand architecture. Consider Toyota. Its brand structure is extremely clear and logical: Lexus for the high-end buyer, Toyota for the middle-income family, and Scion for the young. The segmentation makes sense and the progressions between segments are natural ones. Young people find partners, have children, and buy minivans; people with money move up to luxury vehicles.
The second potential source of competitive advantage lay in creating a coherent platform strategy built on the economic logic of parts sharing. Because the cost of developing new vehicles is so great, car companies design “platforms” from which they create families of vehicles. They also try to share parts between platforms to drive economies of scale in manufacturing. Realising synergy in brand architecture and platform strategy would have required deep integration of Daimler and Chrysler. German engineers would have had to design cars using parts created by American engineers and vice versa.
The management team would have had to develop a global brand strategy and associated logic of competitive positioning. None of this happened. They ran the two organisations as separate operations. When major shifts in the environment (rising gas prices and the move away from SUVs andtrucks) kicked out the blocks from under Chrysler’s recovery, it was both necessary and possible for them to part.
Corporate culture clash between the two companies with different business management and production philosophies were not managed properly. For Chrysler’s leadership team, they encouraged creativity, and egalitarian relations among staff, but Daimler-Benz insisted on respect for authority, bureaucratic precision, and centralized decision-making. Chrysler leadership were often rewarded handsomely, performed little paperwork and liked to keep their meetings short.
Chrysler operated a flat management structure, whereas Daimler-Benz were hierarchal in their management philosophy. Daimler-Benz tried to administer the Chrysler division as if it was a German company, and from Chrysler‘s point of view, instead making use of new synergy effects, and instead of gaining competitive advantages over the competitors, the merger with Daimler-Benz drove Chrysler into chaos.
When it comes to cross-border or cross-cultural mergers and acquisitions, you must not disregard the cultural differences inherent.
One corporate culture cannot simply suppress and replace the other one. A consensus has to be reached and the foundation for a new culture, based on elements of both cultures involved, has to be laid. In the case of Daimler and Chrysler, both parties were never truly willing to cooperate wholeheartedly and to accept changes and to enter compromises in order to make this merger of the two companies a success.
Provided Below is the recommended reading list for the module.
MODULE READING LIST
Organisational behaviour in the workplace Book by Laurie J. Mullins; Jacqueline E. McLean 2019 Essential
Management Book by Richard L. Daft; Natalia Vershinina; Alan Benson 2016 Essential
Leadership in organizations: Gary Yukl, William M. Gardner, III. Book by Gary A. Yukl; William M. Gardner 2020 Essential
Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice Book by Michael Armstrong; Stephen Taylor 2014 Recommended
Cultural change and leadership in organizations: a practical guide to successful organizational change Book by J. J. Boonstra 2013 Recommended
‘Leadership’ in Management Chapter by Daft and Benson Recommended Note for students Read Chapter 13, pp. 431–433 to learn more about the leader-follower relationship.
Modern management: concepts and skills Book by Samuel C. Certo; S. Trevis Certo 2016 Recommended Note for students Read ‘Tips for Managing Around the Globe’ pp.491-528
Management, organisation and employment strategy: new directions in theory and practice Book by Tony J. Watson 2013 Further Reading
Management from the masters: from Confucius to Warren Buffett, twenty timeless principles for business Book by Morgen Witzel 2014 Further Reading
‘Leadership and management development’ in International human resource development: learning, education and training for individuals and organizations Chapter by Carbery and Garavan Recommended Note for students pp. 387–405
Emotional intelligence in action: training and coaching activities for leaders, managers, and teams Book by Marcia Hughes; James Bradford Terrell 2012 Recommended
Emotional intelligence in action: training and coaching activities for leaders, managers, and teams Book by Marcia Hughes; James Bradford Terrell 2012 Recommended
The leadership experience Book by Richard L. Daft; Patricia G. Lane 2015 Recommended
Organizational culture and leadership Book by Edgar H. Schein; Peter Schein 2017 Recommended
Managing change: a strategic approach to organizational dynamics Book by Bernard Burnes 2009 Further Reading
HRM devolution to middle managers: Dimension identification in BRQ Business Research Quarterly Article by Cascón-Pereira, R.; Valverde, M. 2014 Recommended
Line Managers’ Role in Supporting the People Profession | Factsheets | CIPD Webpage 2020 Recommended
‘Reflections on motivating knowledge workers: critical thinking zone’ in Organisational behaviour in the workplace Chapter by J. McLean Recommended
The dynamics of managing diversity: a critical approach Book by Gill Kirton; Anne Marie Greene 2016 Recommended
‘Reflections on leadership and management: critical thinking zone’ in Organisational behaviour in the workplace Chapter by J. McLean Recommended Note for students pp. 363-365
The glass ceiling in context: the influence of CEO gender, recruitment practices and firm internationalisation on the representation of women in management in Human Resource Management Journal Article by Eddy S. Ng; Greg J. Sears 01/2017 Recommended
Managers and leaders: Are they different? in Harvard Business Review Article by Zaleznik, A. 1977 Further Reading
Employee engagement Book by Emma Bridger 2014 Further Reading
Power, politics and organizational change: winning the turf game Book by David A. Buchanan; Richard J. Badham 2008 Recommended
Business ethics and corporate sustainability Book by Antonio Tencati; Francesco Perrini 2011 Further Reading
Topics Covered in Module for this Assessment:
Unit 1: Management principles
Unit 2: Leadership principles
Unit 3: Management and leadership practice
Unit 4: Organisational behaviour
Unit 5: Emotional intelligence and resilience
Unit 6: Managing and leading people and teams
Printable Versions for Module Coursework Units
https://courseresources.derby.ac.uk/bbcswebdav/xid-19783882_1
https://courseresources.derby.ac.uk/bbcswebdav/xid-19842118_1
Last Completed Projects
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