People, culture and contemporary leadership

Assessment Objective

The objective of this assessment task is to write a reflective essay that includes discussion of what and how you have learnt, what you have done or experienced, and how this learning applies to the theories and concepts of leadership that you have been exposed to.

A reflective essay is an academic analysis of your own experience. It still follows academic conventions, for instance, it is structured with a beginning, middle, and end, and it should have a logical series of paragraphs.

It is a self-analysis where you need to critically reflect on thoughts, feelings and actions, then integrate these reflections with the theoretical concepts. A reflective essay should be written in both the first and third person.

Assessment Process

- Throughout this subject you have been exposed to various perspectives on leaders, leadership and the impact on organisations.

- You have also participated in numerous group activities in class, as well as undertaking questionnaires and psychometric assessments.

- Throughout the course, you have been encouraged to keep a reflective journal which you should now draw upon to write a reflective essay.

- You are required to answer the following question:

- What type of leader am I and what are the key areas that I need to improve to become more effective?

Using Gibb's (1988) framework of reflective learning is a useful starting point: Your reflective essay should include:
- A clear introduction defining scope.
- A brief discussion of what leadership is, including any appropriate theory related to leadership.
- A discussion of the questionnaires completed, and what these mean for you as a leader.
- A discussion of the class activities you were part of, and what these mean for you as a leader.
- A clear articulation of what your own development areas are, why they are and what you could undertake to improve them.
- A clear conclusion that summarizes your leadership.
- A reference list.
- An appendix that shows any questionnaires and psychometric assessments you have done including your own results.
- An appendix that shows a 1-page example from your learning journal.

Further guidance:

- You should include a minimum of 10 references. At least 6 of these should be academic journals. The rest can be textbooks and appropriate websites.
- You should adopt the Harvard referencing convention throughout your essay as well as in the reference list at the end.
- It is recommended that you use the structure outlined above and adopt sub-headings based on each bullet point.

In this assessment task you are to write a reflective essay that should include a reflection and discussion on your learnings throughout the semester. Your reflection must include a self-analysis of your thoughts, feelings and actions using relevant theories to support your arguments and point of view.

Guidelines

1. Use any 3-5 activities such as questionnaires and in-class activities to discuss how these helped you to understand the concept of leadership. Please note leadership is a process of reciprocal influence between a leader and a follower.
2. Completing questionnaires and participating in class discussions and activities form an integral part of your learning in this subject.
3. Upon completion of the questionnaires reflect on the score and identify areas of improvement for you.
4. Similarly reflect on some of the team activities that you participated in class. Ask yourself the following questions
- What was the purpose of the activity?
- How did my group work together to complete the activity?
- What was my role and how much did I contribute towards the activity?
- Reflect on the group dynamics honestly and did you observe dominant leaders emerging in the group (please do not mention names of group members...use alphabets to identify them ...e.g A...was...like or B...)
- How did you feel about the whole exercise and your level of participation? How much responsibility would you take in completing the activity?
- What was your learning from this activity in the context of the subject?
5. Format must include the following
- Abstract (200 words) an essay must include an Abstract that is not included in the word count. Appendix are also not included in the word count.
- Please include the list of Questionnaires and class activities that you have addressed in this assessment.
- Introduction-this section must include a paragraph on the objective and the concepts addressed.
- Leadership: In this section you must compare and contrast different theories on leadership and conclusions drawn from them.

- Questionnaires and class activities- Here you must include a discussion on any 5 (in total) questionnaires and class activities
- Identify areas for improvement and strategies on how you wish to improve.
- Conclusion drawn on leadership and highlight what you have learnt in completing this assessment task.