Ask Operation Management Expert

Need a 150 word comment to the following:

The University of Phoenix adult learning model is based on the idea that learning does not occur in isolation. Learning occurs as individuals dialogue with others such as faculty and peers to gain new insight and perspective. For this reason, The University of Phoenix groups students in cohort communities.

A cohort is a group of individuals working cooperatively to achieve common goals. Students benefit greatly from working in a cohort because they are able to share their personal and professional experiences and learn from each other.

The cohort model is a microcosm of real life, as students' experiences in the cohort often mirror challenges faced in their personal and professional lives. Interacting in the cohort provides students opportunities to learn new ways of addressing personal and workplace challenges.

Doctoral Learning and Communities of Practice

According to Reynolds and Herbert (1998), cohort learning provides students with the opportunity for ongoing and supportive interaction between peers, between students and facilitators, and between students and the larger community.

As members of a cohort uncover new ideas and understanding, their dialogue increases, diversifies, validates, and assures understanding. Although individuals often require time alone to think and reflect, learning in a cohort environment keeps individuals engaged and inspired to learn.

Cohort communities encourage camaraderie, build student confidence, and challenge individuals to strengthen and apply their critical thinking skills.

Doctoral learning differs from learning at the bachelor's or master's levels. Doctoral learning in general, and doctoral writing in particular, require the integration of feedback and dialogue to formulate scholarly thought.

Doctoral faculty often insist that doctoral students may not rely upon personal opinion when reaching conclusions. Rather, students must support their ideas and opinions with scholarly evidence and be able to generalize their findings. As previously stated, one way to advance scholarly thought is through interaction in a learning cohort.

Another way to advance scholarly thought includes reading scholarly (peer-reviewed) publications and supporting ideas with citations from these publications. Another way to promote scholarly thought is to participate in a community of practice.

According to Wenger, McDermott, and Snyder (2002), a community of practice is a group of individuals with a shared quest and interests, who interact regularly to improve their learning.

A community of practice is not simply a group of individuals with surface commonality; for example, people who share the same taste in music or like the same type of movies. Members of a community of practice are practitioners of a common discipline. They dialogue with peers to validate and generalize their practitioner experience.

They create a collection of resources, practices, and tools; sharing these resources to build a more comprehensive body of knowledge. Developing shared practices requires time, continual interaction, and dialogue.

An interesting discussion with someone in the company cafeteria may provide new information, but this type of conversation is simply a conversation. Members of a community of practice communicate with a purpose. The purpose of their communication is to advance learning and validate experience. Sometimes, developing a shared practice is accomplished without members' conscious awareness.

For example, a group of nurses who eat lunch together every day may not realize their discussions have become one of their primary sources of information on how to improve the quality of patient care. Because of their conversations, these nurses have created a protocol for their practice.

As doctoral students, the cohort is your community of practice. The cohort is an organization in its own right with unique characteristics. Members of the cohort continually engage in knowledge sharing and use feedback from peers to advance scholarly thought. The student-to-student and student-to-facilitator interaction affects the educational experience on three levels: (a) internally, (b) externally, and (c) throughout the life of the student (Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002).

Students' educational experience is impacted internally through online dialogue with fellow students and facilitators. Students integrate the feedback gained in their online dialogue to advance scholarship and to validate and generalize their opinions.

Students' educational experience is impacted externally as they apply information gained through online dialogue to their leadership practice and workplace experiences. Finally, students' educational experience is impacted throughout the lifespan, as they generalize and apply their learning to the practice of leadership outside the academic setting.

Leadership Development

The ability to integrate theory and practice requires rigorous self-examination, flexibility, and the willingness to remain open to personal growth and change. A commitment to self-examination suggests leaders, as part of their ongoing development, continually examine whether their actions match their words. Leaders should conduct a periodic, personal gap analysis. If inconsistencies exist, leaders should develop corrective action or leadership-development plans.

Part of developing a leadership-development plan requires that leaders identify the competencies that define effective leadership and assess themselves against these competencies. Although various leadership-competency models exist, Spencer and Spencer's (1993) research determined that 21st century leaders must be able to display the following competencies:

Strategic Thinking - The ability to understand changing market conditions, opportunities, and trends, and identify an optimal response.

Change Leadership - The ability to communicate change initiatives in a way that inspires adaptive action.

Relationship Management - The ability to develop a network of relationships and contacts whose cooperation is necessary to achieve organizational goals.

Flexibility - The ability to change processes and procedures when necessary.

Entrepreneurial Innovation - The motivation to champion new products, services, and production processes.

Interpersonal Understanding - The ability to understand and value the input of colleagues from a diverse community.

Empowerment - The ability to share information, solicit others' ideas, delegate meaningful responsibility, and make employees feel more capable and motivated to assume greater responsibility.

Team Facilitation - The ability to use group process skills to inspire diverse groups of people to work together effectively toward common goals.

Portability - The ability to adapt rapidly to and function effectively in any unfamiliar environment. (p. 343)

The competencies above consist of interpersonal and functional skills, both of which are important to the practice of leadership. As doctoral students and students of leadership, it is your task to assess yourself against these leadership competencies and develop a plan for growth and change.

There are a variety of ways to develop these competencies. Recognize that you are earning the highest level of academic credentials and as such are responsible and accountable for your own development, progress and completion of all strategies undertaken. Begin now to craft your future leadership strategy.

References:

Reynolds, K., & Hebert, F. T. (1998). Learning achievements of students in cohort groups. Journal of Continuing Higher Education 46, 34-42.

Spencer, L., & Spencer, S. (1993). Competence at work: Models for superior performance. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating communities of practice: A guide to managing knowledge. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Operation Management, Management Studies

  • Category:- Operation Management
  • Reference No.:- M92718535
  • Price:- $10

Priced at Now at $10, Verified Solution

Have any Question?


Related Questions in Operation Management

Conflictdefine functional versus dysfunctional conflict in

Conflict Define functional versus dysfunctional conflict in a work group and explain how you can increase functional conflict and decrease dysfunctional conflict. Develop a response that includes examples and evidence to ...

For this assignment you will need to find 2 articles in

For this assignment, you will need to find 2 articles in business that can help describe what are IT strategic initiative being undertaken by an organization are like. Choose a different organization for each of the arti ...

Coping with problems joe is a little nervous he has just

Coping With Problems Joe is a little nervous. He has just been transferred from another plant to take over a production line. Production is down and there is a serious problem with absenteeism. To make matters worse, the ...

Over 30 years ago michael porter identified a holistic

Over 30 years ago Michael Porter identified a holistic approach to understanding how competitive forces shape strategy. He posited that the only way to truly insulate an organization from underlying economic volatility i ...

You are the contracting officer for an air-to-ground

You are the contracting officer for an air-to-ground missile development program. A contract for pre-production models of the missile was awarded by your predecessor and the contractor is behind schedule. In a program me ...

The ikea case provides an excellent opportunity to apply

The IKEA case provides an excellent opportunity to apply strategic management concepts to a large privately-held company that is expanding into India. IKEA is a Netherlands-based Swedish company with a presence in 44 cou ...

Can you answer for me the following questions about social

Can you answer for me the following questions about social loafing and the three main causes of free-riding. 1. Give a description of the phenomenon of social loafing. 2. Give a description of the phenomenon of free-ridi ...

1 analyzing the bridgestonefirestone and ford motor company

1. Analyzing the Bridgestone/Firestone and Ford motor company, is it sufficient to use the ISO/QS 9000 standards as the main basis of vendor/product selection? 2. What position to these cars company ( 1. Volkswagen, 2. F ...

Research the effect of primary and secondary seat belt laws

Research the effect of primary and secondary seat belt laws on the occurrence of motor-vehicle injuries and fatalities. Explain how epidemiologic studies influenced the development of current seat belt laws. Describe how ...

Please provide a brief paragrap of the key takaways from

Please provide a brief paragrap of the key takaways from each of the following topics: Designing Clear Visuals in business reports Designing Successful Documents and Websites Writing Winning Proposals

  • 4,153,160 Questions Asked
  • 13,132 Experts
  • 2,558,936 Questions Answered

Ask Experts for help!!

Looking for Assignment Help?

Start excelling in your Courses, Get help with Assignment

Write us your full requirement for evaluation and you will receive response within 20 minutes turnaround time.

Ask Now Help with Problems, Get a Best Answer

Why might a bank avoid the use of interest rate swaps even

Why might a bank avoid the use of interest rate swaps, even when the institution is exposed to significant interest rate

Describe the difference between zero coupon bonds and

Describe the difference between zero coupon bonds and coupon bonds. Under what conditions will a coupon bond sell at a p

Compute the present value of an annuity of 880 per year

Compute the present value of an annuity of $ 880 per year for 16 years, given a discount rate of 6 percent per annum. As

Compute the present value of an 1150 payment made in ten

Compute the present value of an $1,150 payment made in ten years when the discount rate is 12 percent. (Do not round int

Compute the present value of an annuity of 699 per year

Compute the present value of an annuity of $ 699 per year for 19 years, given a discount rate of 6 percent per annum. As