Posted: December 20th, 2021

umuc bmgt365 all week discussions latest 2016 september

WEEK ONE: 21st century Leaders

Learning Activity #1

Joe Jackson owned a saw mill in Stuttgart, Arkansas. It was a family concern that had not changed
in 50 years. Having grown up in the
business Joe had never really investigated the strengths and weaknesses of his
position as Vice President. His father was
always the President and he and his older brother Jacob were the heirs. The business was in turmoil because his
father’s health was precarious forcing him to step down. Joe’s brother was expecting to step up to the
role of Vice President but Joe knew that was a mistake. The business itself was quickly eroding
because of the sustainability issues facing the world. Joe could see this but not Jacob. Joe needed
to have a long talk with Jacob to make him see his reasoning. Either they worked together for the future or
Joe would have to take the lead role.

Prepare an outline of points for Joe to make in his
discussion with his brother. Explain the role of the 21st century leader and
why it differs from that of the 20th century leader. Make sure to use the course reading material,
citing and referencing to validate the points you make.

Learning Activity #2

Click on the link below and fill out the chart to include
the individual characteristics of a leader and manager in the categories named.

/content/enforced/11362-001034-01-2142-US2-4550/BMGT365leadvmangchart.doc

Learning Activity #3

In his article, “What Leaders Really Do,” Kotter (2001)
[] stated, ” Managers promote stability while leaders press for change,
and only organizations that embrace both sides of the contradiction can thrive
in turbulent times” (p. 3).

In the fact pattern below Juan Para must make a decision
about hiring June Davies. Keeping
Kotter’s ideas in mind complete the following tasks:

Define the leader’s and manager’s approach (mindset) to
solving the dilemma.
Determine Para’s solution if he used the leader’s
perspective and then if he used the manager’s perspective.
Do you see a difference? If so what differences? If not, why
not? Could the outcome be the same and still benefit the company?
Protection Insurance Stays Alive

At 7:30 a.m., Juan Para hit the snooze alarm for the third
time, but he knew he could never go back to sleep. Rubbing his eyes and shaking off a headache,
Para first checked his iPhone and read an urgent message from his boss,
explaining that Jack Nixon, chief security analyst, had resigned last night and
needed to be replaced immediately.
Frustrated, Para lumbered toward the shower, hoping it would energize
him to face another day. After last
night’s management meeting, which had ended after midnight, he was reeling from
the news that his employer, Protection Insurance, was spiraling toward a
financial meltdown.

Para scratched his head and wondered, “How could one of the
world’s largest insurance companies plummet from being the gold standard in the
industry to one struggling for survival?”
At the end of 2007, Protection Insurance had $100 billion in annual
revenues, 65 million customers, and 96,000 employees in 130 countries. One year later and staggered by losses
stemming from the credit crisis, Protection Insurance teetered on the brink of
failure and was in need of emergency government Helpance. Protection Insurance had been a victim of the
meltdown in the credit markets. The collapse of this respected financial
institution sent shock waves throughout the world’s economy.

Within Protection Insurance’s Manhattan office, Para and his
coworkers felt growing pressure to respond to this crisis quickly and
ethically. But morale was sagging and
decision making was stalled. New
projects were on hold, revenues weren’t coming in fast enough, and job cuts
were imminent. Finger-pointing and
resignations of key managers had become commonplace. Strong leadership was needed to guide
employees to stay the course. Para knew his first priority was to replace Jack
Nixon. When leaving the meeting last night, his boss had told him, “It’s
critical that we keep key managers in place as we weather this storm. If we lose any managers, be sure you replace
them with ones who can handle the stress and can make tough and even unpopular
decisions.”

Working up a sweat as he rushed into his office, Para began
sorting through the day’s priorities.
His first task would be to consider internal candidates to replace
Nixon. He pondered the characteristics
required of a chief securities analyst and scribbled them on a notepad:
experienced in security and regulatory issues; strong decision-making skills;
high ethical standards; able to make job cuts; comfortable with slashing
budgets; and respected for calm leadership.
Para immediately thought of June Davies, a senior analyst who had been
vocal about her desire to move up and had recently shown steady leadership as
the organization started to crumble.

Davies had worked her way up through the organization,
becoming a respected expert in her field.
She had developed a strong team of loyal employees and made training and
job development a priority. She was likable, sensitive to her employees, and a
consensus builder. While many managers
within Protection Insurance had made questionable business decisions, June had
held herself to a high ethical standard and created a culture of
integrity. Davies was focused on the
future—a go-getter who knew how to get results.

With the future of the company at stake; however, Para
wondered if Davies could handle the tough challenges ahead. Although he valued her team-building skills,
she could be soft when it came to holding employees accountable. A large part of her motivation was to have
people like her. When she reported a
shortfall in earnings in the last company meeting and came under fire, she
became defensive and did not want to point fingers at employees who were to
blame. In fact, Para recalled another
instance when Davies recoiled at the thought of firing an employee who had
developed a pattern of poor attendance while caring for her sick husband. She confessed a hesitation to confront poor
performers and employees struggling to balance home and work life.

Para stirred his morning coffee and wondered aloud, “Is June
Davies capable of balancing kindness and toughness during a crisis? Can I count on her to be decisive and focused
on top- and bottom-line results? Is she too much of a people pleaser? Will it impact her ability to lead successfully?”

WEEK TWO: Types of Leadership
There are various types of leadership roles in an
organization. They extend from the executive leadership role to the project
leader. Each has different sets of responsibilities to the organization and
each leadership role utilizes skill sets that require influencing people to
move the business towards the vision.
This week’s theme focuses on those levels that are most visible to the
students either because they are seen from afar as being on the top or because
they seek to become involved personally: executive, managerial, and team
leaders.
In completing the following learning activity, students will
examine the role of each leadership type and the skill sets associated with
them.
Executive Leader: Are leader that are often seen from afar.
They are the people at the top. Their
role is to design the vision, mission, structure and culture of the
organization. It is their ideas that provide the framework upon which the
manager builds. The job of the executive
leader is to be the social architect. An executive leader creates the vision,
mission, structure and culture and is change agents.

Managerial Leadership: Leaders create followers through influence
while managers lead people and manage things (overlap is the skills needed to
lead people to do things)
Leading Teams: In
this role, guidance, direction, instruction, motivation and leadership are
provided to a group of workers for the expressed purpose of achieving an
outcome.
Learning Activity #1
Read the course material for this week.
Develop and post a list of the characteristics of the
executive leader that distinguish a leader from a manager.
Research and find one leader that you would define as a
successful executive leader as described by the list of characteristics that
you made.
Explain the reasoning for selecting the chosen leader and
for the list criteria used to make the selection.
Learning Activity #2
“Leading from where you are” means taking a leadership role
in any job held.
Take a few minutes to reflect about whether you have ever
led from where you are? Using your
experience in the workplace give an example of when you “led from where you
are.”
Remember leadership in this context means an action that
leads others to an action that benefits the organization but is not necessarily
within the job description. Be sure to
define what “leading from where you are” means.
Be sure to use the course material to support your
reasoning/explanation.

WEEK THREE: The Leader as the Social architect
Organizational Structure
Preface:
A leader’s job is to create the direction so the company can
move forward. The leader does this in steps. Here are the steps of the process:
First, the leader designs the vision and mission for the
company and
Second, the leader must establish an organizational
structure which promotes the vision, mission and empowers the employees to keep
the forward movement in the organization.

In creating the structure various factors must be
considered.
First and foremost is the purpose of the company or
organization. What type of structure will best accomplish that goal? Certainly a company like UPS needs a somewhat
rigid structure that is set up to focus on procedure and time sensitivity. Since UPS has as its goal to get the correct
parcels to the right customers in the fastest possible way, variance in
procedures or ways of accomplishing the tasks would not work well. A tight delineated structure is imperative.
Along with the purpose the leader must look at the vision of
the organization. Where does the leader want the organization to go? How best
can the structure provide for the future?
Will the vision call for expansion into other countries or simply call
for product development changes? Does a
leader plan a structure that can easily grow in size without harming its
integrity or one that focuses on the best way to make new products? Also, vision must be built into the
organizational structure.
The people who make up the organization, their jobs and the
decision making authority should be considered. The authority must flow and
make the organization respond favorably to the decisions and changes that are
needed to move the organization forward toward the vision while making sure
stability continues to keep tasks on track.
This is tricky because the leader’s job here is not to tell the manager
what procedures to use or make but rather to set up a structure and authority
to make it possible for them to develop those procedures, etc.
The structure should be people centric focuses on how people
will best work together to get their jobs done while still focusing on the
vision and the necessary change that is inevitable to keep the business alive
in the 21st Change is the operative word.
Budget is a major consideration in the present and in the
future.
Finally, environment factors like sustainability and
knowledge management will need to be considered in developing the structure.
Learning Activity #1: Creating a Vision and Mission
Statement

The following fact pattern has an existing vision and
mission statement created by Richard Purvis of the Jordan Shoe Company before
he considered an expansion.

The two statements contain mistakes and are not the best for
the current company now that an expansion will take place.

Students are to change the vision and mission statements to
help Purvis obtain the best design for the company’s organizational structure
and culture as possible. Be sure to
explain what mistakes you see and how and why you corrected them to make it
better for Purvis using the course material as support.
Richard Purvis started the Jordan Shoe Company in Boulder
Colorado. The company is known for its great specialty tennis shoes at moderate
prices. The company designs and creates
fun shoes for young children, mostly girls.
Catering to the age group of 1-12 years, the shoes are popular in
Colorado. The shoes have been growing in
popularity and Richard is thinking of expanding into other states. Business has grown steadily in the last seven
years and the company’s future looks bright.
If Richard expands the company he would have to set up two plants in
other states and will have to reorganize the Colorado plant.
The staff has always gotten along well because Richard has
been able to keep things on an even keel with his personality and concern for
their each employee’s personal welfare.
Richard would have to find someone to take his place to run the plant in
Colorado. He wants to set in place a
structure that will continue to grow the business while ensuring quality,
reputation, and the happiness of its employees are maintained.
Purvis has set up his factory with a horizontal
collaborative structure. He has four
departments; design, the production department, sales and marketing, and
administration. Each department has a
manager that acts as a team head. Purvis
meets weekly with all the heads together and individually off and on during the
week.
Purvis currently employs a plant manager who heads the
production department, which has 12 factory workers, two salesmen one of whom
is the team head that also handles the marketing aspect of the business. The administrative head is the general
manager, and there are two office workers and a bookkeeper. Finally, the design team has three employees
one of whom is the head designer who leads the team.

The cost of expansion could be done effectively if the
current profit level remains stable and that can only be done if the Colorado
plant continues to run smoothly.
The current vision for the company is: to produce the best
children’s specialty shoes.
The mission is: to produce quality, stylish shoes that are
known for their durability, style, and contemporary kid fashion. The “kid” must
be in every shoe.

Purvis believes strongly that his employees must be free to
create the best shoes possible. He wants
them to work together happily and with a commitment to the development of the
vision. He also wants them to continue
to work together as they do now and to encourage creativity among them all and
not just with the design department. He wants to empower them but the shoes
have to be completed and shipped promptly.
Learning Activity #2 Organizational Structure
Review the Purvis fact pattern and identify the structure
that Purvis currently has.
Identify the organizational structure. Does the structure
fit the purpose of the company? Why or
Why not? Explain in detail using the
course material as support. Be sure to include in the discussion the idea of
the decision making flow.
Select from the course reading three types of organizational
structures that would work as well if not better for Purvis once the expansion
takes place. Explain the pros and cons of each structure and determine what
organizational structure would work best fit for Purvis. Support the reasoning using the course
material.

WEEK FOUR:
Organizational Culture
Richard Purvis started the Jordan Shoe Company in Boulder
Colorado. The company is known for its great specialty tennis shoes at moderate
prices. The company designs and creates
fun shoes for young children, mostly girls.
Catering to the age group of 1-12 years, the shoes are popular in
Colorado. The shoes have been growing in
popularity and Richard is thinking of expanding into other states. Business has grown steadily in the last seven
years and the company’s future looks bright.
If Richard expands the company he would have to set up two plants in
other states and will have to reorganize the Colorado plant.
The staff has always gotten along well because Richard has
been able to keep things on an even keel with his personality and concern for
their each employee’s personal welfare.
Richard would have to find someone to take his place to run the plant in
Colorado. He wants to set in place a
structure that will continue to grow the business while ensuring quality,
reputation, and the happiness of its employees are maintained.
Purvis has set up his factory with a horizontal
collaborative structure. He has four
departments; design, the production department, sales and marketing, and
administration. Each department has a
manager that acts as a team head. Purvis
meets weekly with all the heads together and individually off and on during the
week.
Purvis currently employs a plant manager who heads the
production department, which has 12 factory workers, two salesmen one of whom
is the team head that also handles the marketing aspect of the business. The administrative head is the general
manager, and there are two office workers and a bookkeeper. Finally, the design team has three employees
one of whom is the head designer who leads the team.

The cost of expansion could be done effectively if the
current profit level remains stable and that can only be done if the Colorado
plant continues to run smoothly.
The current vision for the company is: to produce the best
children’s specialty shoes.
The mission is: to produce quality, stylish shoes that are
known for their durability, style, and contemporary kid fashion. The “kid” must
be in every shoe.
Purvis believes strongly that his employees must be free to
create the best shoes possible. He wants
them to work together happily and with a commitment to the development of the
vision. He also wants them to continue
to work together as they do now and to encourage creativity among them all and
not just with the design department. He wants to empower them but the shoes
have to be completed and shipped promptly.
Learning Activity #1
Tasks for this activity are as follows:
Using the case scenario from week 3 (above) identify the
existing culture for Purvis’ company and identify the desired future culture.
Complete the OCAI assessment (https://monkessays.com/write-my-essay/ocai-online.com/)
for Purvis’ company. Use information
from the case scenario to identify the two cultures. Then, assess both the
current cultural state and identify gaps between current and desires cultures.
(Hint make sure to remember the purpose of the business and how to keep a
competitive edge in making your selection)
Learning Activity #2
Explain how structure and culture interface to make the
organization work toward the accomplishment of the vision and mission. How is it going to work in the case of
Purvis? Give examples of what Purvis can
do to make sure everything flows together.
Include in your answer the ideas of artifacts, espoused beliefs, basic
underlying beliefs and assumptions (external adaptation issues, assumptions
about managing internal integration and deeper cultural assumptions)

WEEK FIVE: Individual
Leadership Skills
Themes this week focus on the leader as an individual. It
discusses the soft skills that a leader, as an individual, needs to create and
maintain followers.
Learning Activity # 1
Tanesha Bloom was made Captain of the USS Barnes. She worked hard in her new post and
rank. Having served on several ships
over the last twenty-five years, Bloom was known for being tough but fair in
her approach to her subordinates. She
was civil to everyone but was considered a loner by her fellow officers and
remote in her dealings with others.
Fearful that should would not be treated with respect and determined
that she would be obeyed in her command, Bloom became overly attentive to her
officers and micromanaged everyone from the lowest seaman to her immediate
second in command. She penalized and put
on report people for the smallest infraction.
The USS Barnes serving personnel who were known to have the best morale
in the fleet became the most demoralized and unresponsive crew. When the ship docked, almost half the ship’s
crew asked for immediate transfers.
Bloom was called to task by her superiors immediately. They said that they would give her one more
chance but if the negative reports continued she would be demoted and removed
from the ship by the next month. Scared
and worried for her career, Bloom comes to you to ask for advice.
Assess how Bloom might go about changing her leadership
style. Take into consideration her
personality traits, organizational values, emotional intelligence and the
social leadership aspects of her role as leader. In short make her a new woman, one that the
crew would want to follow.
Learning Activity # 2
Take the Jung Typology Test at https://monkessays.com/write-my-essay/humanmetrics.com/
Take the emotional intelligence quiz at
https://monkessays.com/write-my-essay/queendom.com/tests/access_page/index.htm?idRegTest=3037
Take the Ultimate Ethics Quiz at
https://monkessays.com/write-my-essay/gotoquiz.com/the_ultimate_ethics_quiz
Take the How good are your communication skills quiz at
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newCS_99.htm
Students may decide to report the results either completely
or generally. Privacy is a consideration so the decision is all yours.
After a review and reflection of the results, discuss how
this information can improve relationships with others in the workplace.
Give five examples of practical situations where a leader
could use this information to improve his or her success in leading others
especially in the current business climate.
Learning Activity #3
Take the “What is your leadership style assessment” at
https://monkessays.com/write-my-essay/leadershipiq.com/blogs/leadershipiq/36533569-quiz-whats-your-leadership-style
Students may decide to report the results either completely
or generally. Privacy is a consideration
so the decision is all yours. Discuss
the different types of leadership styles.
How does personality affect leadership style? Take a look at the results of the two quizzes
to answer. How can an individual create
a style that enhances the change of being a successful 21st century
leader? Explain how your personality
affects the style that was explained in the results of the test. Make sure to use the course readings in
responding to each question.

WEEK SIX – Creating Followers
Theme One is simply how do you empower people? The student
should differentiate motivation from empowerment. It might also be useful to go back to week
one and review the idea that motivating followers is a better tool for the
manager instead of the leader because of its specific nature and the intrinsic
or extrinsic need of the follower.
Empowerment is the tool of choice for the leader primarily because it
must be insured through the organizational structure and culture. The leader is
creating structural empowerment and building trust to keep the vision and future
clear for forward motion.
Learning Activity #1 21st Century Leader Why Would Someone
Follow You?
So far in
our journey through leadership in this class we have repeatedly said that
leaders must influence their employees. They do this thru empowerment and
creating an environment that allows employees an enivronment that allows
employees to flourish and be happy in the workplace. Leaders do this so that employees will follow
them toward achieving the vision they have created. However, we have said
little about followers and why they choose to follow a leader. After all
doesn’t everyone want to be a leader?
The leader is the one who gets the credit and to call the shots. Isn’t
the position they hold enough to get people to follow? In the 20th century this
was true; the position was everything.
Not so in the 21st century with flat and collaborative environment,
leaders must develop a relationship with followers to drive the vision.
Position while helpful is not the reason people do their jobs well. Watch the following video and take the quiz
(some have more than one answer to the question).

Dancing Man Video

1) Which phrase(s) best describes the relationship between a
leader and a follower? *
The leader is the flint the follower the match X.
The leader is a nut and the follower is nutty too.
The leader is the idea and the follower the speaker of the
idea.
The leader is nothing without the follower.
2) How does the leader create additional followers?
The leader’s idea of dancing is so compelling that they just
want to join in the action.
The leader publicizes the idea and dances with the new
comers.
The leader calls out to others to join him.
The leader is making the first followers equals by dancing
with them.
3) The first followers are more important than the leader
because…
The followers show active support of the leader.
The more followers a leader has the more things get done.
The followers make the leader possible.
The followers make the others think about joining the
action.
The Dancing Man video suggests that followers take on different
types. Barbara Kellerman in the lecture
video below explains the types of followers and what their virtues and problems
are. The best way to understand how a
leader can create followers is to understand who followers are and how they can
be engaged to work as a result of that understanding. To begin this discussion, watch the video and
the review following sets of images (Week 6 Images .
Barbara Kellerman Lecture on Followership (Transcript available by clicking on more
under the video line)
Identify which slide represents the type of follower
discussed by Kellerman and why.
Give a practical example as to how a leader can best create
a relationship with each type of follower.
Post your answers in the discussion forum.

Learning Activity #2
Answer the following questions and support your answers from
the weekly reading:
If a leader’s job is to develop the future of the
organization how does motivation and empowerment fit in to this role? Be sure
to explain the difference between the two ideas and ways that both motivation
and empowerment should be used in the job the leader does.
Why is it important for the leader to empower? Why can’t the
manager do the job? OR do they both do the job?
What is meant by structural empowerment? Why is it important
to the leader?
Learning Activity #3
Research telecommuting and flat organizational structures
and how they serve to encourage or not encourage employee satisfaction.

WEEK SEVEN: The Five Leadership Challenges
Learning Activity #1
Maria Artos, a 25-year-old female graduate of Harvard
Business School, has just been appointed to the job of Director of IT in a
medium size business. Her immediate junior in the business, Anthony Jones, is a
53-year-old long term employee of the business.
He was passed over for the job that Maria Artos now holds.
First, identify all the leadership challenge issues that
might be suggested by this fact pattern.
As can be imagined, both Artos and Jones could feel
uncomfortable since Artos was told that Anthony Jones also applied for the
position and Anthony could be resentful for being passed over. Students will
create the opening interview/meeting between Artos and Jones on her first day
on the job. Use this week’s course material
to create the exchange between Artos and Jones.
In creating the exchange between Jones and Artos, have Artos
deal with all the identified issues using her “leadership relationship building
skills”. Note: In responding, consider that the situation is one in which the
skills from week five should be employed along with addressing the topic of
diversity.
Learning Activity #2
Top executives and board members of a large international
bank in New York are meeting to consider three finalists for a new position. The winning candidate will be in a high-
profile job, in charge of a group of top loan officers who recently led the
bank into some risky financial arrangements in the Middle East. Recently, when the value of the dollar fell,
the bank took a financial hit because of risky loans made in the company’s
Yemen office.
The board voted to hire someone to directly oversee this
group of loan officers and to make sure the necessary due diligence is done on
major loans before further commitments are made. Although the bank prefers that decisions are
made as close to the action level as possible, they believe the loan officers
have gotten out of hand and need to be reined in. The average age of the all-male group is
39.
The effectiveness of the person in this new lead position is
considered to be of utmost importance for the bank’s future. They are also aware that certain cultural
differences have made the problem even harder to solve. The bank needs a candidate who will know how
to work with the Yemen employees and at the same time has some knowledge of the
customs and language of the country.
After carefully reviewing résumés, the board selected six candidates for
the first round of interviews, after which the list of finalists was narrowed
to two. Both candidates seem to have the
intellect and experience to handle the job.
One candidate is female and the other male. The male candidate is 34
while the female is 36. Both candidates are attractive and single.

Before the second-round interview, the Board decided to ask
you to devise a set of questions that will help elicit information as to how
familiar the candidates are with handling the cultural diversity issues the job
will present. In addition to the using
the course reading for the week you may want to research some of the cultural
bias issues unique to the Yemen culture. (Hint:
consider women in the Arab workplace)
Learning Activity #3
How do the five challenges facing the 21st leader affect the
bottom line of the business if leadership is missing? Define and discuss each
one specifically. Use the course
readings to support the reasoning.

WEEK 8- Creating a Competitive Edge
Learning Activity # 1
You are the CEO of a medium-sized solar panel firm located
in California. The company has been
doing well so far but new regulations and rising taxes are hurting the profit
margin.
You have been negotiating with the Governor a tax reduction
because of the company’s green status.
You would like to stay in California for the sake of the employees and
the small town, which benefits largely from the company’s presence in the
area. However, talks with the Governor
do not look promising.
Two of your major competitors have left the state and are
now located in areas where taxes and wages are considerably cheaper. These businesses are already cutting their
prices and have taken away one of your major clients. While you have a new product line due out in
eight months, which will create a disruption in the marketplace, the wait may
be too costly.
You are considering moving the business to New Mexico and
have been in negotiations with the Governor there, and it looks almost too good
to be true. The two other members of the
leadership team are aware of the pending move.
Your employees however, do not know of the discussion and the possible
move that may require them to relocate or lose their job. It is time to break the news and get everyone
on board.
Explain in a memo to your leadership team how and when you
want the news to be known to the staff.
Detail the way the news should be broken and by whom.
Discuss how competitive edge relates to the decision and its
importance to timing for the move.
Provide suggestions to the others as to how to handle the
feedback you will get from the news.
Learning Activity #2
Compare the vision you had of a “leader” when you
started the course and the vision you have today. Be specific in your
description.
Address the role of social architect in the 21st century,
the characteristics, and perspective of the leader as you have come to
understand them from the class reading, concepts and ideas presented.
What are the major differences between the two visions and
therefore the major ideas you will take away from this course?

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