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

- Demonstrate critical knowledge and understanding around key and contemporary debates about theory and practice in Leading and Managing People in organisations;
- Evaluate and analyse relevant models for effective people performance, leadership and management within an organisational context.
- Critically evaluate and analyse the effectiveness of change management in organisations.

Context:

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 such 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?"

Your Task:

Formulate a critical and constructive response to this manager in the form of a short report (no more than 2,000 words) on ONE of the following topics(incorporating evidence-based argument to support your views and to advise what it all means):
- motivation;
- flexibility and the psychological contract;
- team-working;
- ethics and social responsibility;
- managing organisational change;
- organisation and job design;
- managing a diverse workforce

Introduction

(around300 words) Short introduction to the discussion initially clarifying why Leading and Managing People is a relevant unit to study and also identifying the topic you intend to discuss in making the business case for this assignment.

Discussion of topic

(around 1400 words) 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?

Conclusion and recommendations(around 300 words) Summarise the main findings from your discussion and make your final suggestionsto this manager.

Reference List A list of the third-party sources you have consulted and which are cited directly in the text. All these sources should be properly identified. Harvard style (see the Learning Resources website: lrweb.beds.ac.uk/help/guide-to-ref).

Appendix A - Guidance on academic practice

1. Good academic practice

Good academic practice is the use of ideas, research findings and text by a learner in ways that recognise where these represent the knowledge of others. It is important because it enables learners:

- To demonstrate their breadth of reading by identifying and comparing their sources of information;

- To demonstrate an individual understanding of their findings as they learn, by using their words to describe and interpret the ideas of others;

- To develop their own originality by synthesising, commenting on and structuring their argument around the contributions of others;

- To apply their reading and their understanding to a range of subjects and situations in ways that make clear their process and their conclusions.

To do this, learners are required to:

Recognise the origins of ideas and of statements, where these are not theirs, to recognise the difference between the two, and to deal with each appropriately within their own work.

- Report accurately the findings of their research (primary and secondary)

- Submit work for assessment that represents their individual and independent effort unless otherwise advised in the assessment brief.

- Doing this is good academic practice.

Referencing systems are used to identify where a writer is using the ideas and words of others. They ensure that both writer and reader are able to distinguish accurately between a learner's own ideas, their interpretation of the ideas and words of others, and their direct use of the ideas and words of others in their own work.

2. Academic practice and learning

The University encourages its learners to demonstrate their reading and their research by making appropriate reference in their work to the ideas and words of others.

- It requires learners to use a referencing system (see http://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/guides/referencing), and it expects learners to use this system fully and accurately as a way of making clear to readers where the ideas and words of others have been used.

- It recognises that learners need to develop their use of referencing systems as part of their learning process, within the subject area(s) they are studying.

- It also recognises that the importance of acknowledging the ideas and words of others as a requirement of good academic practice is new to some of its learners.

In this context, the University outlines the responsibilities of learners as follows.

B. The responsibilities of learners

- To identify accurately where they have used in their work the words and/or ideas of others.

- To use referencing systems accurately in that identification.

- To avoid practices that may give rise to academic concern and/or suspicion of academic offence.

- To read this policy, and to attend and make use of the guidance and support offered at induction (or the additional/replacement guidance and support sessions offered for late arriving students).

- To make use of the further guidance and support offered at each study stage in advance of the first deadline for submitted work.

- To seek assistance if they are, for any reason, unable to take advantage of the standard guidance and support offered.

- To complete and sign the assignment coversheet for each piece of work submitted, confirming that they understand this policy and its requirements

- To take full responsibility for work that is submitted in their name

- To bring to the attention of an invigilator any circumstance or event that might be evidence of, or suggest, a breach of academic discipline.