Scenario

You are employed in the Human Resources Department of a business in the tertiary sector, which has grown rapidly since the last recession. The business’ strategic plan is focussed on expanding further but the CEO is concerned about the quality of leadership and management skills to deliver these plans. He has asked HR to organise training, coaching and support for the current team of managers working at strategic and operational levels, with a particular emphasis on leadership. The Head of HR is taking a series of actions to meet his directive. She has asked you to prepare an easy to use reference Handbook for Managers which will accompany the training. 

Your handbook should be formal and appropriately structured.  Where appropriate you should use academic theories to support your understanding. You should use relevant examples taken from organisations that you know well, for example where you have been or are currently employed or where you work in a voluntary capacity. Alternatively case studies can be provided. You may also be able to gather information about specific leaders and organisations from press releases and company websites.

The following tasks indicate different sections of your Handbook for Managers

Task 1 Introduction

Provide an introduction to leadership. You need to makes sure all leaders understand

• the concept of leadership (LO1)
• the leadership process (LO2)
• the role of power and influence in leadership (LO3)

1. Some of the managers are natural leaders, others are not. However, at times all may need to act as leaders in order to execute their managerial role successfully. You need to differentiate between leaders and managers (AC 1.1)
2. It is clear that some managers will need leadership training. Explain how leaders can develop themselves through experience and education, providing examples of appropriate educational/training opportunities (AC1.2)
3. So that individuals know how they will be judged, evaluate the methods and techniques used to measure the success of leaders (AC1.3)
4. ‘All leaders have followers’! Explain the different types of followership and the role of followers (AC2.1)For the following tasks you will need to use one or more organisations and examples of actual leaders to exemplify your answers.
5. Investigate the relationship between leaders, followers and the environment in which they work (AC 2.3)
6. Use this investigation to critically analyse the contribution of leaders as individuals (AC2.2)

 Task 2 Values and personality, power and influence

Leaders operate in many different ways.  The impact of their values and personality on their leadership styles can be significant.  It can also impact on their influence and power. To ensure all leaders in your organisation are aware of this you need to:

1. Evaluate the concept of values (AC 4.1)
2. Analyse the impact of values on leadership (AC 4.2)
3. Explore the implications of cultural difference on leadership (AC 4.3)
4. Analyse the relationship between personality and leadership (AC 5.1)
5. Analyse how different forms of intelligence influence the behaviour of leaders (AC 5.2)
6. Distinguish between power and influence (AC 3.1)
7. Examine different sources of power (AC 3.2)
8. Critically assess leaders’ motivation to influence and lead others (AC 3.3)

Task 3

All leaders hope that those they lead, whether in teams or groups are motivated, satisfied and performing well. But how do they ensure this? Provide information in which you:

1. Differentiate between groups and teams (AC 7.1) and identify the stages of building highly successful groups and teams (AC 7.2)
2. Evaluate leadership as a group and team function (AC 7.3)
3. Explain how to lead virtual teams (AC 7.4)
4. Assess how leaders influence follower motivation (AC6.1)
5. Assess how leaders influence follower satisfaction (AC 6.2)
6. Evaluate the dynamic relationship between motivation, satisfaction and performance (AC 6.3)

Task 4 Situational factors

Many situational factors have an impact on leaders and how they perform.  Produce an analysis of:

1. how task interdependence, task structure, job characteristics and changes to these influence the behaviour and performance of leaders and followers (AC 8.1)
2. how organisational factors such as structure, design and culture influence leadership (AC 8.2)
3. the influence of legal, political and economic environment on leadership (AC 8.3)

Task 5 Leading organisational change

The CEO in your organisation is planning for expansion and this will lead to organisational change. Strong leadership of organisational change will be critical to the success of these plans. In the handbook ensure managers start to understand this by:

1. critically analysing the rational approach to organisational change (AC 9.1)
2. critically analysing and evaluating the emotional approach to organisational change (AC 9.2)