Management – Cheap Research Essays

Management

ASSESSMENT THREE – CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Type: Individual Critical Analysis
Length: 1700-1800 words
Submission: Tumitin submission through AUTonline :» Assessments > Critical Analysis.
Requirements: The purpose of this assessment is to demonstrate your ability to criticaily analyse management theories and concepts and apply these ideas to a team or organisation. The definition of an organisation is a
social entity that is deliberately structured and goal directed (Samson etal., 2012). A team is a collection of people who regularly interact to pursue common goals (Schermerhorn et al., 2011).
Firstly, choose a topic to critically evaluate and apply to an organisation or a team that you have been a member of (your workshop leader will have a list of approved topics and articles you can choose to critically
evaluate). The team or organisation that you choose to write about could be from your experience at schooi, university, fu!l-time or part time work, a farniiy business you are familiar with, sports, cultural
activities. religious groups, fundraising committee, etc.

This assessment has the foilowing parts which you need to complete:

Introduction (300 words)
in this section you wilt also introduce the topic the critical essay will discuss including ihe articles given to critically evaluate. In addition, you will briefly describe the organisation or team you have chosen to
appty concepts from the topic (You can describe it in terms of its purpose, history, size, diversity of membership, key activities etc.).

Topic you have chosen to critically evaluate (550 words)
You will be given a list of topics and journal articles to choose from (by your workshop leader) which you must criticaily evaluate. in this section you must describe the main ideasffrarneworlcfconce is and cnticail eva uate the main Ede ts (for example, at are the main ideas from the articles. What is good about the ideasfframeworkfconcepts, what is bad about these ideasffrarneworldconcepts. etc.). The point of this section is to debate the pros and cons of the articies about the topic you have chosen.

Application to teamlorganisation (550 words)

Using the points you have made in the section above, apply the main ideasrframeworkfconcepts to analyse a chosen team or organisation. In this section you will describe how reievant aspects of the frameworksfconceptsfmain ideas are to the teamlorganisation. Your application of theory to your teamlorganisation must include examples of actions, decisions or behaviours in your teamforganisation to
highlight its application.
Conclusions and Recommendations (200-300 words) 5
Deuelo 5-3 ke ractica! recommendations that could imrove both

mam and our – . u i- rformance in the
organisation or team. These should be presented as concise. action ‘ Be able “3 “””°’k °°”a’?°ra””“3’i3′
oriented bullet points, ordered by priority. They need to be developed ‘ 89 effective C°mm””‘°a‘°”5 (wrmen)
according to SMART principles (specific, measureable, achievable.
realistic. and ’llTn9lYl- Paper Learning This assessment event measures paper learning outcomes (3-5) stated
Format your assignment using the following sections:
1. Title page
2. Table of contents
3. introduction
4. Topic you are critically evaluating ASSESSMENT FOUR: FINAL EXAM ASSESSiiliEN_’i_f_§ml(“_.’._-7Ei’_
5. Application to tearnforganisation _WW All exam timetables are available on AUTonline. under “My
6. Conclusion and recommendations Exam Date’ Organisations”, via the Exams 8: Handback tab.
7. Reference list i weighting: 50%
To do well in this assessment you will need to demonstrate your skills in l Exam
critical thintdn and anal sis. Consider how our writing is related to
what you havge learned ifhis course »- Management and Organisation ‘ 3 h°“’3 pms 10 mmutes readmgnme‘
455001. This assessment event is compulsory.
Also lease note that descn‘ tion is not the same as anal sis. For ‘ 39 3°’f‘d“’e°t9d “9“e°“”9’ea’“e’§
examglefl-“Sis descfip-lion: p ‘V E”°Q’?”l”‘(‘ae E i in Be knowledgeableintheirmajorfielcl ofstudy
i felt annoyed that some team members often received credit for eammg 5’3 S‘ ‘ 33 Gililfial BHQUIFBFS and Dioblefn 50”-‘€75
good work done by the team, even though they contributed very * 39 6fi3oilV3 CommU“iC3l°l’3 (Written)
little, so I began to stack off too.
Pa er Learniri This assessment event measures paper learning outcomes (1 8: 3-5)
While stating something liite this is analysis: . _ _ stated above in 3.3‘
Because I experienced perceptions of negative equity in my
team (with my input/outcome ratio being less favourable than I
that of others’ in the team) it began to reduce my own inputs in
an effort to restore equity (for example, I made less products in
an hour).
A reference list for the report using the APA 6*“ edition style must be
included. Please ensure you consult the writing Guidelines for
Business Studies (2013) book by Lisa Emerson for directions on
referencing.
The length of the report is to be 1700-1 800 words. Please note thatthe
reference list does not contribute towards the word count. You are not
required to use appendices, or write an executive summary for this y
assessment. Do not go over the word limit, as this will cost you marks
for not following the assessment brief.
An electronic copy of your Critical Analysis must be submitted via
AUTonline through the Assessments tab. No hard-copy submissions
will be accepted.
Please note penalties will be applied per day (24 hour period) for work
that is submitted late. The due date for your critical analysis is Week 9
on Friday 3″‘ October by 12noon.
The marking criteria for this assessment will be posted on AUT Onlihe
b the end of Week 5.
pmgramme – Be self-directed reflective learners
Learning Goals, – Be knowledgeable in their major field of study
Be critical en uirers and roblern solvers

Strategic Leadership:
The Essential Skills
by Paul J.H. Schoemaker, Steve Krupp,
and Samantha Howland
Managing yourself
T
he storied British banker and
financier Nathan Rothschild noted
that great fortunes are made when
cannonballs fall in the harbor, not when
violins play in the ballroom. Rothschild
understood that the more unpredictable
the environment, the greater the oppor -tunity—if you have the leadership skills
to capitalize on it. Through research at
the Wharton School and at our consulting
firm involving more than 20,000 execu -tives to date, we have identified six skills
that, when mastered and used in concert, IllusTraTI on: Kelly Bla Ir
allow leaders to think strategically and
navigate the unknown effectively: the
abilities to anticipate, challenge, interpret,
decide, align, and learn. Each has received
attention in the leadership literature, but
usually in isolation and seldom in the
special context of high stakes and deep
uncertainty that can make or break both
companies and careers. This article de-scribes the six skills in detail. An adaptive
strategic leader—someone who is both
resolute and flexible, persistent in the face
of setbacks but also able to react strategi-cally to environmental shifts—has learned
to apply all six at once.
Do you have the right networks to help
you see opportunities before competitors
do? Are you comfortable challenging your
own and others’ assumptions? Can you
get a diverse group to buy in to a common
vision? Do you learn from mistakes? By
answering questions like these, you’ll get
a clear view of your abilities in each area.
The self-test at this article’s end (and the
more detailed test available online) will
help you gauge your strengths and weak-nesses, address deficits, and optimize your
full portfolio of leadership skills.
Let’s look at each skill in turn.
anticipate
Most organizations and leaders are poor at
detecting ambiguous threats and oppor -tunities on the periphery of their business.
Coors executives, famously, were late
seeing the trend toward low-carb beers.
Case study 137
When a fledgling
partnership
becomes an iP risk
synthesis 142
How envy damages
the american Dream
Life’s Work 148
Historian David
McCullough on what
makes a great leader
Experience Managing Your Professional Growth hbr.org
January– february 2013 Harvard Business review 131
Lego management missed the electronic
revolution in toys and gaming. Strate -gic leaders, in contrast, are constantly
vigilant, honing their ability to anticipate
by scanning the environment for signals
of change.
We worked with a CEO named Mike
who had built his reputation as a turn-around wizard in heavy manufacturing
businesses. He was terrific at reacting to
crises and fixing them. After he’d worked
his magic in one particular crisis, Mike’s
company enjoyed a bump in growth,
fueled in part by an up cycle. But after
the cycle had peaked, demand abruptly
softened, catching Mike off guard. More of
the same in a down market wasn’t going
to work. Mike needed to consider various
scenarios and gather better information
from diverse sources in order to anticipate
where his industry was headed.
We showed Mike and his team mem-bers how to pick up weak signals from
both inside and outside the organization.
They worked to develop broader networks
and to take the perspective of custom -ers, competitors, and partners. More alert
to opportunities outside the core busi-ness, Mike and the team diversified their
product portfolio and acquired a company
in an adjacent market where demand was
higher and less susceptible to boom-and-bust cycles.
To improve your ability to anticipate:
Talk to your customers, suppliers, and other
partners to understand their challenges.
Conduct market research and business
simulations to understand competitors’ per -spectives, gauge their likely reactions to new
initiatives or products, and predict potential
disruptive offerings.
Use scenario planning to imagine various
futures and prepare for the unexpected.
Look at a fast-growing rival and examine
actions it has taken that puzzle you.
List customers you have lost recently and try
to figure out why.
Attend conferences and events in other indus-tries or functions.
Challenge
Strategic thinkers question the status quo.
They challenge their own and others’ as -sumptions and encourage divergent points
of view. Only after careful reflection and
examination of a problem through many
lenses do they take decisive action. This re -quires patience, courage, and an open mind.
Consider Bob, a division president in
an energy company we worked with, who
was set in his ways and avoided risky
or messy situations. When faced with
a tough problem—for example, how to
consolidate business units to streamlin e
costs—he would gather all available in-formation and retreat alone into his office.
His solutions, although well thought out,
were predictable and rarely innovative. In
the consolidation case he focused entirely
on two similar and underperforming busi -nesses rather than considering a bolder
reorganization that would streamline
activities across the entire division. When
he needed outside advice, he turned to a
few seasoned consultants in one trusted
firm who suggested tried-and-true solu -tions instead of questioning basic industry
assumptions.
Through coaching, we helped Bob
learn how to invite different (even oppos -ing) views to challenge his own thinking
and that of his advisers. This was un-comfortable for him at first, but then he
began to see that he could generate fresh
solutions to stale problems and improve
his strategic decision making. For the orga-nizational streamlining he even assigned
a colleague to play devil’s advocate—an
approach that yielded a hybrid solution:
Certain emerging market teams were
allowed to keep their local HR and finance
support for a transitional period while tap -ping the fully centralized model for IT and
legal support.
To improve your ability to challenge:
Focus on the root causes of a problem rather
than the symptoms. Apply the “five whys” of
Sakichi Toyoda, Toyota’s founder. (“Product
returns increased 5% this month.” “Why?”
“Because the product intermittently malfunc-tions.” “Why?” And so on.)
List long-standing assumptions about an
aspect of your business (“High switching
costs prevent our customers from defect -ing”) and ask a diverse group if they hold
true.
Encourage debate by holding “safe zone”
meetings where open dialogue and conflict
are expected and welcomed.
Create a rotating position for the express
purpose of questioning the status quo.
Include naysayers in a decision process to
surface challenges early.
Capture input from people not directly
affected by a decision who may have a good
perspective on the repercussions.
Interpret
Leaders who challenge in the right way
invariably elicit complex and conflicting
information. That’s why the best ones are
also able to interpret. Instead of reflexively
seeing or hearing what you expect, you
should synthesize all the input you have.
You’ll need to recognize patterns, push
through ambiguity, and seek new insights.
Finland’s former president J. K. Paasikivi
was fond of saying that wisdom begins by
recognizing the facts and then “re-cogniz -ing,” or rethinking, them to expose their
hidden implications.
Some years ago Liz, a U.S. food com-pany CMO, was developing a marketing
plan for the company’s low-carb cake line.
At the time, the Atkins diet was popular,
and every food company had a low-carb
strategy. But Liz noticed that none of the
consumers she listened to were avoiding
the company’s snacks because they were
on a low-carb diet. Rather, a fast-growing
segment—people with diabetes—shunned
them because they contained sugar. Liz
thought her company might achieve
higher sales if it began to serve diabetics
rather than fickle dieters. Her ability to
connect the dots ultimately led to a profit -able change in product mix from low-carb
to sugar-free cakes.
To improve your ability to interpret:
When analyzing ambiguous data, list at least
three possible explanations for what you’re
EXPERIENCE
132 Harvard Business Review January–February 2013
observing and invite perspectives from
diverse stakeholders.
Force yourself to zoom in on the details and
out to see the big picture.
Actively look for missing information and
evidence that disconfirms your hypothesis.
Supplement observation with quantitative
analysis.
Step away—go for a walk, look at art, put on
nontraditional music, play Ping-Pong—to
promote an open mind.
Decide
In uncertain times, decision makers may
have to make tough calls with incomplete
information, and often they must do so
quickly. But strategic thinkers insist on
multiple options at the outset and don’t
get prematurely locked into simplistic
go/no-go choices. They don’t shoot from
the hip but follow a disciplined process
that balances rigor with speed, considers
the trade-offs involved, and takes both
short- and long-term goals into account. In
the end, strategic leaders must have the
courage of their convictions—informed by
a robust decision process.
Janet, an execution-oriented division
president in a technology business, liked
to make decisions quickly and keep the
process simple. This worked well when the
competitive landscape was familiar and
the choices straightforward. Unfortunately
for her, the industry was shifting rapidly
as nontraditional competitors from Korea
began seizing market share with lower-priced products.
Janet’s instinct was to make a strategic
acquisition in a low-cost geography—a yes-or-no proposition—to preserve the com -pany’s competitive pricing position and
market share. As the plan’s champion, she
pushed for a rapid green light, but because
capital was short, the CEO and the CFO
resisted. Surprised by this, she gathered
the principals involved in the decision and
challenged them to come up with other op-tions. The team elected to take a methodi -cal approach and explored the possibility
of a joint venture or a strategic alliance. On
the basis of that analysis, Janet ultimately
pursued an acquisition—but of a different
company in a more strategic market.
To improve your ability to decide:
Reframe binary decisions by explicitly asking
your team, “What other options do we have?”
Divide big decisions into pieces to understand
component parts and better see unintended
consequences.
Tailor your decision criteria to long-term
versus short-term projects.
Let others know where you are in your deci-sion process. Are you still seeking divergent
ideas and debate, or are you moving toward
closure and choice?
Determine who needs to be directly involved
and who can influence the success of your
decision.
Consider pilots or experiments instead of big
bets, and make staged commitments.
Align
Strategic leaders must be adept at finding
common ground and achieving buy-in
among stakeholders who have disparate
views and agendas. This requires active
outreach. Success depends on proactive
communication, trust building, and fre -quent engagement.
One executive we worked with, a chem-ical company president in charge of the
Chinese market, was tireless in trying to
expand his business. But he had difficulty
getting support from colleagues elsewhere
in the world. Frustrated that they didn’t
share his enthusiasm for opportunities in
China, he plowed forward alone, further
alienating them. A survey revealed that
his colleagues didn’t fully understand his
strategy and thus hesitated to back him.
With our help, the president turned the
situation around. He began to have regular
face-to-face meetings with his fellow
leaders in which he detailed his growth
plans and solicited feedback, participation,
and differing points of view. Gradually
they began to see the benefits for their
own functions and lines of business. With
greater collaboration, sales increased, and
the president came to see his colleagues as
strategic partners rather than obstacles.
To improve your ability to align:
Communicate early and often to combat the
two most common complaints in organiza -tions: “No one ever asked me” and “No one
ever told me.”
Identify key internal and external stakehold -ers, mapping their positions on your initiative
and pinpointing any misalignment of interests.
Look for hidden agendas and coalitions.
Use structured and facilitated conversa-tions to expose areas of misunderstanding or
resistance.
Reach out to resisters directly to understand
their concerns and then address them.
Be vigilant in monitoring stakeholders’ posi-tions during the rollout of your initiative or
strategy.
Recognize and otherwise reward colleagues
who support team alignment..
Learn
Strategic leaders are the focal point for
organizational learning. They promote a
culture of inquiry, and they search for the
lessons in both successful and unsuccess -ful outcomes. They study failures—their
own and their teams’—in an open, con-structive way to find the hidden lessons.
A team of 40 senior leaders from a
pharmaceutical company, including the
CEO, took our Strategic Aptitude Self-
Assessment and discovered that learn-ing was their weakest collective area of
leadership. At all levels of the company,
it emerged, the tendency was to punish
rather than learn from mistakes, which
meant that leaders often went to great
lengths to cover up their own.
The CEO realized that the culture had
to change if the company was to become
more innovative. Under his leadership,
the team launched three initiatives: (1) a
program to publicize stories about projects
that initially failed but ultimately led to
creative solutions; (2) a program to engage
cross-divisional teams in novel experi-ments to solve customer problems—and
then report the results regardless of
outcome; (3) an innovation tournament
to generate new ideas from across the
organization. Meanwhile, the CEO himself
hBR.o Rg
January–February 2013 harvard Business Review 133
became more open in acknowledging his
missteps. For example, he described to a
group of high potentials how his delay in
selling a stalled legacy business unit had
prevented the enterprise from acquiring
a diagnostics company that would have
expanded its market share. The lesson,
he explained, was that he should more
readily cut losses on underperforming
investments. In time the company culture
shifted toward more shared learning and
bolder innovation.
To improve your ability to learn:
Institute after-action reviews, document
lessons learned from major decisions or
mile stones (including the termination of a
failing project), and broadly communicate the
resulting insights.
Reward managers who try something laud-able but fail in terms of outcomes.
Conduct annual learning audits to see where
decisions and team interactions may have
fallen short.
Identify initiatives that are not producing as
expected and examine the root causes.
Create a culture in which inquiry is valued and
mistakes are viewed as learning opportunities.
Becoming a strategic leader means
identifying weaknesses in the six skills
discussed above and correcting them. Our
research shows that strength in one skill
cannot easily compensate for a deficit in
another, so it is important to methodically
optimize all six abilities. The following
test—a short version of our Strategic
Aptitude Assessment, which is available
online at hbrsurvey.decisionstrat.com—
can help reveal which areas require
attention. For clearer and more useful
results, take the longer survey and ask
colleagues—or at least your manager—to
review and comment on your answers.
HBR Reprint R1301L
Paul J.H. Schoemaker is the founder and
executive chairman of Decision Strategies
International (DSI) and the research director of
the Mack Center for Technological Innovation at
the Wharton School. Steve Krupp is the CEO of
DSI. Samantha Howland, a senior managing
partner at DSI, leads its Executive and Leader -ship Development Practice.
Are you A str Ategic le Ader?
As you complete this assessment, think about the work you have done over the past year
related to developing new strategies, solving business challenges, and making complex
decisions. Average your scores for each of the six leadership skills and then address your
weakest area first, following the recommendations described in this article and online.
How often do you…
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Gather information from a wide network of
experts and sources both inside and outside
your industry or function.
Predict competitors’ potential moves and likely
reactions to new initiatives or products.
rArely
Almost
AlwAys
SuRvEy Av ERA gE: 4.99* AnticipAte
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Reframe a problem from several angles
to understand root causes.
Seek out diverse views to see multiple
sides of an issue.
SuRvEy Av ERA gE: 5.52 chAllenge
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Demonstrate curiosity and
an open mind.
Test multiple working hypotheses with
others before coming to conclusions.
SuRvEy Av ERA gE: 5.78 interpret
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Balance long-term investment for growth
with short-term pressure for results.
Determine trade-offs, risks, and unintended
consequences for customers and other
stakeholders when making decisions.
SuRvEy Av ERA gE: 4.81 decide
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Assess stakeholders’ tolerance and motivation
for change.
Pinpoint and address conflicting interests
among stakeholders.
SuRvEy Av ERA gE: 5.01 Align
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Communicate stories about success and
failure to promote institutional learning.
Course correct on the basis of disconfirming
evidence, even after a decision has been made.
SuRvEy Av ERA gE: 4.95 leArn
*Av ERA gES ARE b ASED On RESPO nSES TO ThIS SuRvEy fROM MORE ThAn 20,000 ExECuTI vES .
eXPeRience
134 harvard business Review January–February 2013
hbR.ORg
Harvard Business Review Notice of Use Restrictions, May 2009