Aim: To develop a critical awareness of current factors affecting leading and managing people and to demonstrate how effective policies can add value to the business' strategic goals.

Learning Outcomes:

To be able to

- Debate and critically evaluate the characteristics of effective leadership and the methods used to develop leaders in organisations.
- Debate and critically evaluate the leading theories behind group and team effectiveness and flexibility at all levels in organisations.
- Critically evaluate the dilemmas of ethical and responsible behaviour that managers face offering appropriate analytical tools to help manage them
- Critically evaluate and analyse the effectiveness of change management in organisations.

You receive an Email from a senior manager in your organisation (has no formal qualifications) who has been told he has to send three members of his junior management teamon an MBA course. He has received information about the course from the local university but needs clarification on the content of one of the units being offered in year one. Heknows you have completed this course.

The email says:
"I have been readingabout this unit, Leading and Managing People. The course information says it is not a subject like Financial Management or Quantitative Methods in Business, but I am not convinced of its purpose. What value will such topics as:motivation, team-working, ethics and social responsibility and organisational change really add to my staff's development and how will they ever use any of the concepts learned? The brochure says there are really no right or wrong answers so far as the leadership and management of people are concerned. Are you able to explain to me why this is the case and what this all means please?"

YourTask:

Formulate a critical and constructive response to this manager in the form of a short report on ONE of the topics mentioned above (motivation; team-working; ethics and social responsibility; organisational changes) incorporating evidence-based argument to support your views and to advise what he should do.

Task

Discussion of topic

Provide a detailed and critical discussion of the topic chosen. Ensure you define the area clearly and include relevant academic literature, theories and current thinking about the topic. Evaluate the merits and disadvantages of this topic area to a business. How well does it work and what causes it to go wrong? Citations from or references to research and/or other sources of evidence is expected. It will also be useful to include examples of this topic in action in current organisations to show how knowledge about leadership and management has been systematically applied to improve individual and corporate outcomes. You may also wish to challenge the manager's view that there are no ‘right' answers in the people leadership/management arena: even if the answers aren't absolutely ‘right', are there some answers which are better than others? (around 1000 words)

Appendix A: Academic Discipline Policy
(extracted from the Academic Discipline Policy September 2014)

New registrations (first teaching term/semester)

i. A student registering for the first time at the University of Bedfordshire, and who submits an assignment within the first teaching term of the start of their taught course (i.e. the submission deadline occurs before the end of the teaching period) and who is found to have made use of the words and/or ideas of others with attribution that is inaccurate or incomplete (poor referencing), but where it is possible to evaluate the submission for grading purposes, will have their work graded and returned only within the context of a face to face discussion between the marker and the student, recorded on the APG1 form. The form will be kept on record in the Faculty.

ii. A student who has made unattributed use of the ideas and/or words of others, with no evidence of attempt to acknowledge sources (bad academic practice), the work will be considered a fail (grade F-) and the student required to undertake specified guidance and support as a condition of referral. A record of the occurrence will be maintained within the Faculty (AOF). In such cases, a letter from the Faculty Dean will confirm:

a) the process and penalty to be applied (as above);
b) the requirement for guidance and advice, and for confirmation that this has been undertaken, as a condition of resubmission;
c) the date of the meeting for guidance if it has been set, or a requirement to arrange a meeting with the tutor for guidance by a set date.

After the first term/semester

iii. All other students at level 2 (FHEQ 5), or above, which are not new registrations in their first teaching term/semester, will be deemed to have a responsibility for the proactive development of their academic practice and sufficient ability to be permitted to register with advanced standing or status.

iv. Bad academic practice will be treated as an issue of academic concern where it constitutes the unattributed use of the ideas and/or words of others, with no evidence of attempt to acknowledge sources (bad academic practice) or the use of the ideas and/or words of others with attribution that is incomplete and/or inaccurate (poor referencing):

v. The work containing bad academic practice will be considered a fail (grade 1 F-) and the student required to undertake specified guidance and support as a condition of referral, and confirm by a specified deadline that this support has been received, noting this on the AGP2 form.

vi. A record of the occurrence will be maintained within the faculty (AOF)

Where a student does not attend for guidance on the set date, or does not arrange a meeting by the specified date, this will be taken to mean that the student fully understands the University regulations regarding acceptable academic practice, and that the student does not require guidance. This should be recorded on the AOF and any further academic offences will be referred automatically to the ACP.

For all students with a recorded academic concern, any subsequent case arising in the work of the same student, and which is deemed, on the basis of available evidence including the support provided in response to earlier similar issues, to reflect a breach of the principles of good academic practice will be referred automatically to the ACP using the AOF form unless they meet the criteria set out in 4.5.1 above.