Assessment Task: What does it mean to be an effective Manager?

Learning outcomes

Addresses the following Course Learning Outcomes:

CLO2: Research management theory and explain how this theory applies to contemporary and socially responsible practices.

CLO4: Critically reflect on the relationship between management theory and management research evidence and communicate your knowledge of responsible management practices.

Details:

Online critical analysis of your style of managing

Assessment task: What do I need to do?

You will research and select an academic article about managing diversity in the contemporary workplace. You will then use the key ideas from this article to help you critically evaluate your own potential for managing diversity, both as a learner and as a future manager.You will need to formulate a question that you will respond to through your research. For example, you may question: Do managers need to be good motivators to be effective?

Rationale: Why is this important?

The contemporary workplace is diverse, global and changing. Effective managers need to be able to locate and evaluate information and use it to develop and apply appropriate strategies to workplace situations. Managers must also understand their personal style of leadership in order to lead teams and manage people.

This assessment task will help you develop your skills in research, critical thinking and evaluation. You will also develop your ability to analyse your responses to key concepts/issues in a reading and communicate your discussion clearly in a short piece of academic writing.

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO TO COMPLETE ASSIGNMENT

STEP 1: IDENTIFY FOUR IMPORTANT VALUES
As a first step, identify at least four of their most important values. Identifying and articulating key values is required because this assignment needs you to critically evaluate your own potential for managing diversity within a contemporary environment. Personal values can determine the style of management adopted. Values and learning styles may link so consider how these may influence the question you develop for this assessment

STEP 2: UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPT OF DIVERSITY IN ORGANISATIONS AND HOW TO RESEARCH
Consider what the term diversity represents within an organizational context.
1. What is diversity?
2. Why is it important in contemporary workplaces?
3. What are managers doing to manage diversity?
Describe how an article you have selected relates to the concept of diversity or responsible management practice.

STEP 3: FORMULATE A QUESTION
Your question must be rigorous. Spend time thinking over the material you have read.
Draft a few questions before making a final choice.
Work with your tutor to identify a suitable question. For example, you may have the question: ‘How can managers manage conflicts in communication in multicultural groups?' and is a much better question.
Explain that their initial question may be modified when the reflective piece is completed, but students should not change questions completely (If you are not sure if you have a good question ask your tutors).
Sample questions:
- What are the challenges of responsibly managing diversity in a digital workplace?
- How can technology assist managers to effectively manage diversity in a digital workplace?
- What skills enable managers to responsibly manage diversity in diverse work groups?
- Are behavioural approaches to management better at responsibly managing diversity in the than the classical approaches?
- How can cultural competency be used for responsibly managing a multicultural workforce?
- Do Managers need to be good motivators to effectively manage their team?

Step 4: Find at least three peer-reviewed journal articles on managing in the workplace that is relevant to the question formulated
The 3 journal articles must be current (within the past 10 years) and from peer-reviewed journals. Read through the three articles and analyse the key points in them in relation to the question you have formulated. Critique and evaluate the key findings from these articles on their merits/demerits, applicability and relevance to modern work environments.
Need help finding peer-reviewed journal articles?? Ask a Librarian

STEP 5: THINK ABOUT HOW THE KEY VALUES IDENTIFIED WILL INFLUENCE THE STUDENTS' MANAGERIAL STYLE
Reflect on how you will as a future manager and manage the identified issues on diversity based on your values, learning and or personality style. It is important that you write a considered response based on your research. Please refer to the guidelines for reflective writing to inform how to structure the reflective writing.

STEP 6: LINK THE KEY IDEAS ANALYSED AND EVALUATED IN STEP 4 WITH THE YOUR IDENTIFIED MANAGERIAL STYLE (IN STEP 5)
It is important to be able to understand your potential to manage diversity issues as a future manager by linking the key ideas he/she analysed in his/her journal articles review you're your identified managerial style. You can also create and propose new forms of managerial styles and/or approaches to management based on the research undertaken.

STEP 7: COMPLETE THE REFLECTIVE WRITING PIECE
The document must be typed in MS Word using Times New Roman font (size 12, 1.5 spacing and justified). The document must include:
An Introduction: Briefly introduce the purpose of writing the reflective piece and the key question addressed in there.
Body paragraphs: Use separate paragraphs to present the information in the piece. The Body of the reflective writing should show analyses based on the research undertaken (with in-text references), the students' managerial style based on his/her values, the potential to manage the diversity issues identified and new ideas proposed by the student.
Conclusion: The conclusion must briefly summarize the key points in the body paragraphs.
References: Include a separate reference list formatted according to RMIT Harvard style of referencing.

Method: How do I complete this assessment task?

- Use the RMIT library databases or Google Scholar to find a scholarly article (peer-reviewed) about managing diversity.
- Read the article and outline the main points.
- Analyse how these main points address the issue of managing diversity responsibly in the contemporary workplace.
- Reflect upon and describe your possible strengths as both a learner and future manager working with diverse groups.
- Compare and contrast your personal analysis with the article's main points.
- Identify what is critical in responsible management practice.
- Write a short response (approximately 750 words) using paragraphs and complete sentences to support your discussion.
- Use RMIT Harvard EasyCite to correctly reference your article and cite any direct quotations or paraphrasing used.

Length: Maximum 750 words including references ( Please include a minimum of 3 academic references)+