Leadership Resources

Effective leaders stay up to date on leadership research and theory while taking a critical eye to new ideas that emerge from research. This unit's resources only scratch the surface of the broad issue of leadership in complex, diverse environments. This assignment will provide an opportunity to investigate these issues in more depth and practice finding and evaluating scholarly resources. The assignment will also help you to prepare for one element of your Final Project, a critique of leadership concepts and models.

Imagine you have been asked to contribute to planning a staff development session on leadership, collaboration and teamwork in a culturally diverse workplace for your organisation. The leaders of this session are keen to incorporate the latest thinking and research on these issues.

To complete this assignment, observe the following:

-   Select two of the articles located in this unit's required resources on leadership topics that interest you.

-   Search the Internet for a third article that presents scholarly research, models or theories on topics related to the issues addressed in this unit. Consider the reputability and credibility of the sources you examine by using ideas from the How to...Think Critically guide in the resources. Two useful sites to help you start your search include the following:

•   Google Scholar, which enables you to search for scholarly journal articles and in many cases access the full-text article online
•   Google Books, which provides full-text or preview access to electronic books on a range of topics

-  For each article, prepare three bullet points summarising key ideas of the article and a brief paragraph describing the relevance of the article to leadership practice. Avoid simply restating the article's abstract if it has one. You should aim to provide a critical summary of what you read, demonstrating your understanding of the articles. The information you provide should represent what the staff development session leaders could use to evaluate the articles and determine if they should be included in the session materials.

Reflective Journal

Positive feedback is very important for the morale and performance of individual employees and the entire organisation. Without positive feedback, employees may feel like they cannot do anything right, and the organisation may develop a toxic culture as a result. As a leader, it is therefore crucial to provide employees with positive feedback and foster a rewarding work environment.

For this Reflective Journal entry, concentrate on the notion of strengths-based feedback and the process by which you have given and received feedback, both in this unit and in your past experience. With that in mind, write 2 to 3 paragraphs that address the following questions:

• What might be the value of strengths-based feedback to you as a leader and manager?
• What skills in giving and receiving feedback do you need to develop further?
• What aspects of your ability to work effectively in a multi-cultural environment do you need to develop further?

Activity 1: Communicating Expectations

Part of being a learning leader is the ability to learn from and with others, to be able to take on new responsibilities and rise to new occasions. Think about a time when you were asked to take on a new project or to complete a new task that you had never done before. How was the project or task presented to you? Did you have a sense that your manager believed you could do it or just hoped you could do it? There is a big difference!

In fact, there is an established correlation between a manager's expectation and an employee's performance, as discussed in Livingston's (2003) article on the Pygmalion effect. Difficulties can arise when personality, culture or other differences between the manager and employee cause the manager to communicate expectations or give feedback in ways that can sabotage performance.

To prepare for this Shared Activity, review the media presentation and observe the following:

• Evidence of expectations set by the supervisor
• Evidence of reactions to expectations by the employee
• Any correlation between the expectations and behaviours exhibited by the individuals

To complete this Shared Activity, discuss the following questions:

• Share an example of the Pygmalion effect you have observed in the past. What effect did the leader's or manager's expectations have on an employee's performance in the workplace?
• How you could use effective communication strategies and feedback to create a positive set of expectations to a subordinate or peer?