Leadership Module Coursework: Portfolio Tasks and Learning Outcomes

Task 1: Critical Essay on Past Experiences of Leadership

1. Critically appraise the abilities and skills supporting strategic leaders.
2. Critically evaluate a range of variables influencing strategic leadership requirements.
3. Critically assess strategies for building effective relationships with followers.
4. Critically analyse personal strategic leadership learning ambition and development strategy.

The module is evaluated by a portfolio coursework:

1) A 2,000 words critical essay on your past experiences of leadership and how your learning from the module and the weekly activities will support the reinforcement of the effectiveness of your leadership. (40% weighting)

There are several key aspects for you to cover in this essay:

Select three to five examples amongst your past experiences of leadership (preferably from a workplace context) and the weekly activities organised in class.

Explain how leadership theories can help with analysing the situation for each of your selected examples, and to what extent this critical analysis encourages you to adopt a similar or a different leadership behaviour in the future. Make sure you are selecting at least three different leadership theories to analyse your examples, focusing on different theories for each of your examples.

2) A 500 words reflective statement on your intended contribution to supporting the values of your future organisation and the welfare of your staff.  (20% weighting)

Reflect on the contribution that you are intending to make as a future leader in order to support the values of the organisation(s) that you aim to work with and the welfare of your staff/colleagues. As part of your reflection, you should identify recommendations arising from your learning in this module.

3) A 5-year personal development plan focusing on the development of your personal leadership effectiveness in the workplace after your graduation, supported by a 1,000 words rationale for what you have included in your plan. (40% weighting)

As part of this task, you need to identify some strategic leadership challenges that may impact an organisation operating in the industry that you are intending to work for/with over the next five years.

You then need to identify how you will prepare yourself to develop the relevant strategic leadership skills so that you can effectively contribute to these strategic challenges.

You are expected to link your approach to the development of your leadership skills to the recommendations of theories covered during your study of the module.

Your personal development plan should be presented in a table format.

All elements should be included within a single MS Word or pdf file and submitted to the online dropbox by Friday, the 1st of May 2020 before 1pm.

The coursework is intended to assess the achievement of the four learning outcomes set for the module. The portfolio of tasks set for this coursework is designed in such a way that it will encourage the students to develop and demonstrate:

The ability to connect their learning of the key theories in the field of leadership to students’ personal practical experience of leadership,

The ability to structure a leadership development plan,

The ability to identify strategic challenges that will impact on the leadership needs in an organisation,

The ability to reflect on their contribution to organisational values and staff welfare.

The work should start by a cover page which states the title of the module, the student’s name and number, as well as the word count for each task.

Each task should be presented using an essay format (short introduction, main body of the answer and short conclusion for each task).

The personal development plan should be presented in a table.

Students should only present one overall alphabetical list of references at the end of their coursework (before any appendices).

Please note that appendices are not formally required – students are encouraged to keep those to a minimum in case they wish to include appendices.