Leadership Theory and Analysis

Traditional and Contemporary Approaches to Leadership

Analyse traditional and contemporary approaches to leadership and discuss how these can be combined and adapted to enhance leadership in organisations. Students will have a thorough grounding in leadership theory, commencing with the ‘Trait’ approach through to George’s more recent ‘Authentic’ approach. In addition, they will undertake a series of self-assessment questionnaires to determine their own leadership style and preference, and how they can be adapted to meet changing need. Students will be able to evaluate how a leader supports and develops understanding of the organisations’ strategy.

Individual presentation on Leadership

This first assessment is a presentation (Youtube video & Powerpoint slides) where you must demonstrate your understanding of leadership theory. You must reference a minimum of 4 academic articles/textbooks studied on the module and reference these correctly. Your analysis of 2 leadership theories studied on the module should show your deeper understanding of organisational leadership. For your presentation you must select a leader and critically apply at least 2 types of leadership theory you have studied on the module. You must demonstrate how the leader demonstrates (or not) the theory and provide some critique on the theory. For example, how do the traits, behaviours, style of your leader relate to George’s theory of authentic leadership? You could critique whether it is always good to be ‘authentic’ in business In addition, at the end of your presentation you must each briefly present your own self- evaluation of your learning about leadership. Having completed self-administered questionnaires on leadership styles and preferences, this presentation will expect you to evaluate your style against the leadership theory you have studied. The purpose of the presentation is to demonstrate an understanding of Leadership and to critique and apply leadership theory to your chosen leader.

You should also present an analysis of your own self-assessment of your leadership traits/ skills. You could use a table to do this.

Key Points

1) Choose a leader from one of the following categories:

Politics

Fashion

Retail

Sport

Technology

Media

You should analyse and critically apply 2 appropriate leadership theories/ models or theories that have been discussed during the first semester.

2)You must demonstrate your use of academic journal articles and books in your presentation and you must reference correctly according to the Harvard Reference system – see library website for guidance.

2) Your Presentation must include references from 4 of the academic journal articles we have studied and your wider academic reading e.g. Northouse/ Academic Journal Articles and Business quality references e.g. FT/ Economist/ Forbes.

3) Your self reflection:

What have you learned so far on the module about your own leadership traits and skills? Using the trait/ skills/ style leadership questionnaires how would critique your leadership knowledge and skills? What would you like to develop? You could consider some aspects from the following.

• Using academic references e.g. Kotter - use Harvard Referencing
• Your leader - What makes her/him a leader? Use academic references to support this - use Harvard referencing
• What specific leadership models and theories could help to describe or explain their approach to leadership in their field of expertise?
• What is their leadership style? Reference
• What traits / characteristics do they demonstrate? How / why? Reference
• What area of leadership does this person best demonstrate? (Use semester theory e.g. Skills/ behaviour/ situational/ transformational/ female leadership)
• Briefly outline how are they portrayed in the media? - how does this relate to their leadership style / internal leadership? Use Quality business references e.g. FT/

Economist/ Forbes/ Trade press

• What are their successes and failures?
• What can business learn from your chosen leader?
• You also need to ensure you include a range of media e.g. radio/TV interview clip/ twitter feed/ newspaper.

Presentation skills

This is an academic presentation. You are expected to and will be graded on;

• demonstrating a high level of scholarship by drawing from a broad range of recognised sources, accurately referenced, and competently applying them
• demonstrating complete professionalism in presentation of self and work