Developing Leadership Capabilities Project

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Part 1: Leadership Reflection Essay

Assume you have been promoted within your company (or your dream company) to a top management position. In preparation for your new position, reflect on your leadership point of view and describe your leadership values. Share how your leadership approach will develop your employees to create a high performing organization (or improve it).

In a 1,000-word reflection essay, considering your leadership view, evaluate the following:

  • Identify key people and events that have shaped and influenced your leadership point of view.
  • Describe your leadership values.
  • Share your expectations for your self and others.
  • Articulate how companies can do the same to develop their employees to create high-performing organizations.
  • Articulate how your personal talent development strategy (personally) and how you can become an effective leader and develop others to succeed. 

Part 2: Memo/Email

As a new top manager in your company (or your dream company), write a memo or email to your direct reports to share your expectations of yourself and others. Review “Chapter 7: Writing Emails, Letters, and Memos” from Business Writing for Everyone for assistance on formatting your memo or email. 

Situational Leadership Analysis

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  • What is Situational Leadership? How can you/leaders use situational leadership in their daily activities to better their organization? How can Situational Leadership be used to develop employees throughout the organization?
  • Where would you see yourself on the Situational Leadership map? Do you think Situational Leadership would have a benefit to training other managers/leaders to help develop their skills within the organization?
  • Research articles on Situational Leadership and articulate the pros and cons of this leadership theory and practice.

Social Change Experience

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Social Change Experience

What is your experience with social change?

Drawing on your readings on progress and degeneration, and considering D. B. Bury’s and Benedict Morel’s perspectives, describe your personal experience in defining social needs for change either progressively or in degeneration (social worsening) as a professional in your community.

Include the following in your discussion:

  • Identify the problem.
  • Explain how the problem was first identified.
  • Describe the population or individuals affected.
  • Identify what or who was responsible for responding to the need for change.
  • Explain whether the community, business, non-profit, or government agency was expected to implement social change policy.

Use a minimum of two references (and their associated citations in your discussion narrative), applying APA style.

Leadership Empowerment & Self-Leadership Analysis

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  • Based on the readings describe how leadership empowerment can help an organization serve its customers better. What can you do personally from a leadership perspective to help the organization serve its customers better?
  • On a practical and individual level, how can you become a self-leader through individual learning? Based on the text, can you use the three skills of a self-leader to help your organization or team become more high-performing?

Who Makes Public Policy?

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Who Makes Public Policy?

In Chapter 1 of the Simon Public Policy text, we see that in a governing entity (whether a government, for-profit, or non-profit organization), values are fundamental to the understanding public policy. Since Simon mainly focuses on the U.S. federal or state government as the principal actor in the making of public policy, we should note that the governing bodies of for-profit and non-profit organizations are influenced by the same ideas and practices. In other words, governance by any organization may serve to implement public policy. But, in these different governing bodies, who are the actors actually making public policy? Can we say it is people in a community, officials in program agencies, or governing officials? Can we envision a role for human services professionals? 

Drawing on Internet sources, identify one example of social change initiative promoting progress and one example of degeneration that can occur. Note in your discussion who the principal actors are in developing public policy in response to either progressive social change or degenerative social change.

HRMT

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HR Headline: Pay for Performance Remains Controversial

“Pay for Performance” has made inroads in business, but has remained a hard sell in public school systems. There are some successful examples where teacher pay has been linked to student test scores. For example, in Minnesota, some districts have stopped giving automatic raises for seniority and base 60% of all pay increases on performance. In Denver, unions and school districts designed an incentive program where teachers receive bonuses for student achievement and for earning national teaching certificates. However, some plans have not worked. For example, Cincinnati teachers voted against a merit pay proposal and Philadelphia teachers gave their bonus checks to charity rather than cashing them. It appears that having teachers involved in planning the incentive system is one key factor to success. The same can be said for all incentive plans – if employees don’t buy into them, they will not work.

Your paper may be based on a business entity of your choosing from the public or private sector and must answer the following Research Questions:

1. How could an organization measure the effectiveness of its pay-for-performance plan(s)?

2. From an employee’s perspective, what are the advantages and disadvantages of using a pay-for-performance plan?

3. From an employer’s perspective, what are the advantages and disadvantages of using a pay-for-performance plan?

Public Policy and Response to Social Change

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Public Policy and Response to Social Change

Discuss three models for the development of public policy (public choice, group theory, and elite theory) and the suitability of each model for human services. Recognizing that community opinion, informed small groups, or the political elite may be the dominant source of social problem identification, make a judgement about the best source on which to rely, depending on the subject matter. Draw on your reading of Simon’s Public Policy text, Chapter 2 when considering your analysis of whether one or another of the models is most suitable.

Human Resource

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HR Headline: Pay for Performance Remains Controversial

“Pay for Performance” has made inroads in business, but has remained a hard sell in public school systems. There are some successful examples where teacher pay has been linked to student test scores. For example, in Minnesota, some districts have stopped giving automatic raises for seniority and base 60% of all pay increases on performance. In Denver, unions and school districts designed an incentive program where teachers receive bonuses for student achievement and for earning national teaching certificates. However, some plans have not worked. For example, Cincinnati teachers voted against a merit pay proposal and Philadelphia teachers gave their bonus checks to charity rather than cashing them. It appears that having teachers involved in planning the incentive system is one key factor to success. The same can be said for all incentive plans – if employees don’t buy into them, they will not work.

Your paper may be based on a business entity of your choosing from the public or private sector and must answer the following Research Questions:

1. How could an organization measure the effectiveness of its pay-for-performance plan(s)?

2. From an employee’s perspective, what are the advantages and disadvantages of using a pay-for-performance plan?

3. From an employer’s perspective, what are the advantages and disadvantages of using a pay-for-performance plan?

Understanding Social Change

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Understanding Social Change

As Weinstein explains in our text on Social Change, our contemporary understanding regarding social change is that it may be intentional or it may be unintentional. In other words, individuals or social movements can intentionally cause social change (either progressive or regressive). It is equally true that unintended changes in society can result from environmental changes, migrations of people responding to war, climate change, cultural clashes, and urbanization.

  1. Drawing from your readings, discuss one example of intended or unintended progressive social change and one example of intended or unintended regressive social change.
  2. In light of the probability that there will always be proponents of change as well as persons seeking to maintain the status quo, discuss how human services professionals may play a role in advancing progressive social change or regressive social change.

Performance Appraisal System

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The evaluation of performance should be a process that assists in achieving individual and organizational goals and serves as a catalyst for overcoming challenges. The assignment connects the dots between the initial position questionnaire, the resulting job analysis, the job design, and finally, the intent of the performance appraisal process.

For this assignment, you will

Evaluate the importance of the initial position questionnaire/interview, the resulting job analysis, the job design, and the performance appraisal process.

Explain how each step is connected and why each is important to the next, ensuring consistency in employee job performance.

Explain the elements that you consider to be important and appropriate for an appraisal system for an individual and the organization based on your evaluation.

Support your decisions with examples and scholarly resources.

The Performance Appraisal System paper

Must be three to four double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s APA Style (Links to an external site.) resource.

Must include a separate title page with the following:

Title of paper

Student’s name

Course name and number

Instructor’s name

Date submitted

Must use at least three scholarly sources in addition to the course text.

Must document any information used from sources in APA Style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s APA: Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.) guide.

Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA Style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.