Description
Apply theories and research to explain the problem and its impacts. For example: Why might the leader(s) be behaving in ineffective ways? Why are the behaviors of the leader(s) impacting the members of the organization in negative ways? How might the organizational problem be impacting clients, customers, and the community in negative ways? What motivational and attitudinal factors might help to explain the situation? Focus on the “why.” Clarify and revise the hypothesis if necessary.
About 40% of the literature review will be conducted here. You should demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the literature and high levels of critical thinking. You and your Mentor should have a brief conversation via phone or web conference (e.g. Canvas, Skype, Google Hangout, etc.) to discuss. Your Mentor should agree that you are ready to proceed with the next phase.
Attach and submit a text document to this drop box. Use one of the file types listed above.
Grading
This assignment will graded based on the criteria in the rubric below. All written work must be in APA format as described by the APA Style (Links to an external site.) and Purdue OWL (Links to an external site.) websites.
Writing Assignment Rubric
CRITERIA DESCRIPTIONS
Mastery of Subject Matter
(Breadth of Knowledge) Draws on theories and research from all core PSY courses (532, 539, and 833), at least three PSY electives, and at least one non-PSY elective.
Critical Thinking
(Depth of Knowledge) Demonstrates skills in analysis, synthesis, evaluation, etc. Identifies subtleties and contradictions in the literature. Compares and contrasts theories in a substantive way. Articulates a logical argument supported by theories and research. Reaches valid conclusions from analysis of literature.
APA Format Utilizes all elements of APA format: headings, page numbers, margins, citations, references, etc.
Creativity Applies literature in original, useful ways. Asks questions that challenge accepted ways of thinking. Identifies connections between seemingly unrelated concepts. Incorporates diverse perspectives. Generates unique insights about leadership effectiveness; goes beyond the obvious. Designs innovative methods for addressing an organizational problem.
Professional Acumen Writes about organizational issues in a realistic and holistic way. Acknowledges the complexities in organizational relationships and functions. Balances theoretical purity with contextual realism. Demonstrates awareness of general issues in an organizational sector. Discusses organizational issues in a broader societal context.
Project Development Process Demonstrates an openness to feedback from Mentor. Seeks Mentors input while demonstrating independent thinking. Incorporates feedback and improves work. Delivers any requested revisions to Mentor in a timely fashion. Interacts with Mentor in a professional, respectful way.
Writing Quality Uses standard English. Uses correct grammar, spelling, and paragraph construction. Demonstrates good writing principles.
These are the notes and comments that my professor left me for my previous paper and for my situational analysis paper moving forward.
PSY 894 Problem Definition Assignment
Grading
Elements Definitions Comments & Points Earned
Assignment
Requirements
Describe the organization in detail.
Define the leadership problem or issue to be addressed.
Utilize reputable sources and cite evidence to document problem details:
who is involved, what is happening, how long it has been happening, what
have been and will be the impacts, and so forth.
Explicitly compare the current state to the ideal state; in other words,
define leadership effectiveness and describe the ways in which the
situation deviates from it.
Focus on the “what,” not the “why.”
About 20% of the literature review will be conducted here.
You should articulate the importance and significance of the problem.
You should make a convincing case that there is a problem to be solved.
Simply describing a leadership style, approach, or behavior would not be
acceptable.
This assignment will graded based on the criteria in the rubric below. All
written work must be in APA format as described by the APA Style and
Purdue OWL websites.
Hi Shelby,
Thank you for the Problem
Definition paper. Overall, you have
conveyed the existence of a
problem at Frontera Strategies
involving the lack of a formal
leadership development program
along with the lack of related
policies and procedures that are
needed to successful support those
in leadership roles. You have also
effectively highlighted several
problems witnessed with the
current leader, Jeremy Rogers,
which support the need for the
development of a formal leadership
development program. However, as
written, the paper seems to focus
mostly on Rogers rather than the
overall problem and it is duplicative
in many areas from what you set
forth in your project plan paper. As
such, the overall problem to be
addressed is somewhat unclear and
can be restated much more
succinctly.
First as noted above there are
many portions of this paper that are
simply cut and pasted from your
Project Plan submission. As noted in
the Capstone Syllabus, each written
assignment is to be a new standalone paper and not a running
extension of prior papers.
Therefore, while much of the
content that is cut and pasted from
your project plan may indeed be
supportive of what you are
attempting to address (i.e. the
research on leaders, followers and
context as support for the
implementation of a formal
leadership development program),
Grading
Elements Definitions Comments & Points Earned
such cannot simply be cut and
pasted into the subsequent papers.
I think you really have to take a step
back here and re
-define the overall
leadership problem and also have to
first provide more context as to
what Frontera does as an
organization. While Rogers can
certainly be referred to as an
example of what has been wrong
and support the need for the
development of a formal leadership
development program
the paper
and overall project should not be
focused so exclusively on Rogers;
instead, it should be focused on a
program that will both address
Rogers and position the organization
for an improved situation in the
long
-term that will develop future
leaders in a productive and ethically
prudent manner.
So
you should begin a paper such
as this with an overview of Frontera
before diving into any discussion of
Rogers or a precise leadership
problem. This should include
information about the size of the
organization and the scope of
services offered by Frontera. From
there, you should more succinctly
identify the leadership issue rather
than getting into the toxic situation
that currently exists with Rogers. So for example, you may work with
something along the lines of the
following as the leadership issue
that exists: Frontera does not have
a formal leadership development
program and, as a result, an
environment of toxic leadership
exists which adversely impacts the
well
-being of employees, clients,
an
d the community.
Grading
Elements Definitions Comments & Points Earned
Once you state the Problem in this
type of manner, you can then get
into detail of how Rogers is an
unfortunate example of what has
happened at Frontera given the lack
of a formal program. But
in
stating the
what
of the problem,
your focus should be just on the what of the problem with enough
examples to demonstrate that there
indeed is a problem to be solved.
Now
you have included some fine
details on
ideal state
in this paper.
Mainly, it sounds as if
in an ideal
state
Frontera must implement a
formal leadership development
program that will mold leadership
behavior to align with principles of
transformational and transactional
leadership. In addition, to support
the program and help ensure that
employees have support, non
–
retaliation policy and formal
complaint reporting process nee
ds
to be implemented. All of these
things can be intervention activities
that will ultimately lead to an
improved leadership team that does
not exhibit toxic behaviors all for the
betterment of employees, clients,
the larger organization and the
community. So
much of what you
would seemingly like to implement
here would be positive and address
the current problem of the lack of a
formal leadership development
program
but you should again,
first paint the picture of what the
organizational problem is more
succinctly as I have suggested above
and, from there, you can work
toward the ideal state with the
implementation of these types of
activities/items going forward (and
Grading
Elements Definitions Comments & Points Earned
from there, measure success via
survey tools etc).
On another note, much of the
research you have cited in this paper for example, the detail on the
different types of followers
is
accurate
though you may not need
to get into this much detail when
the core problem to be solved is the
lack of a leadership development
program. So
while you would
want a leadership development
program to cater to many different
types of followers
and it is good to
know what the different types of
followers are
including this much
detail on the types of followers may
not be needed. Instead, you may
want to focus on the core
components of a leadership
development program that will
ensure leaders develop skills that
respect all employees from diverse
backgrounds and follower types, but
focus more on what needs to be
achieved in th
e leadership
development program rather than
just stating the specifics of what
types of followers may generally
exist.
So
I think you have plenty of
content to work with here
but
everything just needs to b
e
organized a bit more clearly. As
noted above, the Capstone is not a
running assignment where the
sub
sequent papers are a
cut and
paste
of prior papers with the
inclusion of some additional content
in the later papers. Instead, each
paper is a new paper
so
, while you
will build upon many of the key
points from your prior papers, there
should not be straight cutting and
Grading
Elements Definitions Comments & Points Earned
pasting of sections from prior
papers.
In your next paper, the situational
analysis, you
ll need to focus on
WHY
the problem of a lack of
leadership development program
exists. So
you may want to include
some discussion on lack of for
esight
by prior leaders, the size of the
organization and lack of bandwidth
to focus on a formal program
or
similar explanation to speak to the WHY of the problem. So what
are the root causes? Please review
my weekly announcement with
some further guidance on the
Situational Analysis paper.
Finally, I
d note that there continue
to be some writing quality issues
and APA format issues. For APA
format, please review the Purdue
Owl materials
the link to which
can be found in one of my prior
announcements. In terms of
writing, please make sure t
o
proofread and run spelling/grammar
checks
but again, just remember
to speak anew to the conte
nt in
each paper and do not simply cut
and paste sections from prior
papers. Again
there is plenty of
material to work with here to
ultimately carve out a good
intervention to get you to the ideal
future state, but please take the
above comments into consideration
as you go about putting together
your written
assignments going
forward and please let me know if
you have any additional questions or
would like to discuss anything
further.
Best,
Grading
Elements Definitions Comments & Points Earned
Paul Obidinski
Writing Assignment Rubric Applicable to All Assignments
CRITERIA DESCRIPTIONS
Mastery of
Subject Matter
(Breadth of
Knowledge)
Draws on theories and research from all core PSY courses (532, 533, and 539),
at least three PSY electives, and at least one non-PSY elective.
There is much support drawn from
MPS courses though see
comments above about tying it into
the specific problem (rather, than
for example, just outline much detail
on follower types).
12 of 15 points awarded
Critical Thinking
(Depth of
Knowledge)
Demonstrates skills in analysis, synthesis, evaluation, etc. Identifies subtleties
and contradictions in the literature. Compares and contrasts theories in a
substantive way. Articulates a logical argument supported by theories and
research. Reaches valid conclusions from analysis of literature.
Youve shown some good critical
thought but again, you need to
more succinctly define the problem
as one of the lack of a formal
leadership program generally with
less attention to Rogers. Rogers can
certainly be used as an example of
the larger problem, but its
important to focus on the larger
overall problem rather than just
much of what Rogers has done
poorly.
5 of 10 points awarded
APA Format Utilizes all elements of APA format: headings, page numbers, margins, citations,
references, etc.
APA Format was followed in part
but see the Purdue Owl documents
on full APA format. For example,
the abstract should be on its own
page.
3 of 5 points awarded
Creativity
Applies literature in original, useful ways. Asks questions that challenge
accepted ways of thinking. Identifies connections between seemingly unrelated
concepts. Incorporates diverse perspectives. Generates unique insights about
leadership effectiveness; goes beyond the obvious. Designs innovative methods
for addressing an organizational problem.
Overall, the vision of how to address
the problem (ideal state) is wellstated and the next step will be to
come up with creative solutions that
will work well given the structure of
the organization.
5 of 5 points awarded
Grading
Elements Definitions Comments & Points Earned
Professional
Acumen
Writes about organizational issues in a realistic and holistic way. Acknowledges
the complexities in organizational relationships and functions. Balances
theoretical purity with contextual realism. Demonstrates awareness of general
issues in an organizational sector. Discusses organizational issues in a broader
societal context.
Very thorough understanding and
discussion of the organization.
5 of 5 points awarded
Project
Development
Process
Demonstrates an openness to feedback from Mentor. Seeks Mentors input
while demonstrating independent thinking. Incorporates feedback and
improves work. Delivers any requested revisions to Mentor in a timely fashion.
Interacts with Mentor in a professional, respectful way.
While you addressed some
comments from prior feedback,
some were not addressed with the
cut and pasting of portions from the
prior assignment. Please feel free to
contact me with questions and
please try to address all comments
provided back.
3 of 5 points awarded
Writing Quality Uses standard English. Uses correct grammar, spelling, and paragraph
construction. Demonstrates good writing principles.
Key points were conveyed
however, see my comments above
regarding writing style, spelling and
grammar.
2 of 5 points awarded
Up to this point in PSY 894, you have selected an organizational problem or issue, and described the problem in detail. You identified a few possible theories youd like to apply, and then you gathered and synthesized about 20% of research. Your next assignment asks you to explain why the problem is happening. So thats what Id like to discuss in todays video message.
Just to review, the requirements for that paper are to:
Apply theories and research to explain the problem and its impacts. For example: Why might the leader(s) be behaving in ineffective ways? Why are the behaviors of the leader(s) impacting the members of the organization in negative ways? How might the organizational problem be impacting clients, customers, and the community in negative ways? What motivational and attitudinal factors might help to explain the situation? Focus on the “why.” Clarify and revise the hypothesis if necessary.
About 40% of the literature review will be conducted here. You should demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the literature and high levels of critical thinking.
Every step in your capstone project will prepare you to address your organizations leadership issue in an effective way. It is so important NOT to jump to conclusions as to why a problem is happening.
Please do not assume you already know why its happening. Also, please do not limit your analysis by just using your favorite theory or the theory you understand the best. As the old saying goes, when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail! Define the problem in detail and identify all of the possible reasons why it might be happening. Then gather your research to explain the situation in a more scientific way.
To provide guidance on how you should approach your Situational Analysis, Ill provide an example. In a previous video message, I shared an example of a situation I encountered while working in financial services involving a senior executive named William and two teams he was overseeing the compliance and risk teams led by Frank and Helen respectively.
There was an ongoing issue with both the compliance and risk functions facing numerous internal audits and regulatory examinations related to policies being out of alignment with applicable laws, rules, regulations or risk thresholds. This was a systemic problem. As an employee interfacing with both the compliance and risk teams on a regular basis, I had an opportunity to examine the issue thoroughly. I reviewed the systems that both the compliance and risk functions had in place, observed the behaviors of the involved leaders, reviewed existing procedures, spoke with many employees working within both functions regarding their backgrounds and experiences (both within the company and in prior roles outside of the company), and analyzed the communications processes (or lack thereof) in place between and amongst the respective functions.
After thoroughly reviewing the situation, I concluded that the crux of the problem was likely that neither function, nor the company as a whole, maintained a universal database of applicable laws, rules, regulations or risk thresholds which in turn, made it difficult to ensure policies aligned appropriately and led to an overabundance of audit and regulatory issues. However, upon doing this full analysis, I realized that the problem was much more complex. It simply wasnt the lack of a universal database that was causing the problem but it was the lack of the universal database coupled with many other issues including: power and influence of leaders; poor or non-existent communications, ethical egoism, low morale, employee conflicts, customer complaintsthis situation had it all!
This full analysis, however, was necessary for me to get to the true root cause of the problem. In short, the following factors, in some combination, were all at play and led to the problem of there being an overabundance of audit and regulatory issues:
A glaring systems issue the lack of a universal online database containing all applicable laws, rules, regulations, and risk thresholds
A leader of the compliance function who exhibited characteristics of dysfunctional leadership and who exerted legitimate power, thereby creating a toxic culture
A leader of the risk function who did not engage in directive leadership techniques but more of a participative leadership style
A Senior Executive (to whom both the compliance and risk leader reported) who was disengaged
An environment of competition between the two functions rather than cooperation
Employees in both functions who were part of cohesive groups but groups that may have been suffering from groupthink
Poor communications between both functions.
So, the problem had several prongs, and there were numerous research areas I could apply to explain why it was happening: organizational culture, business strategy, motivation, goal setting, group decision making, conflict resolution, organizational ethics, training and development, leader ethicsand so forth.
Going back to the old saying, when all you have is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail I could have stopped at the first explanation the lack of the universal databaseand watched the problem persist and get worse.
In todays video message, I want to focus on two topics: first, explaining why something is happening; and second, clarifying your hypothesis. These are the two main goals of the Situational Analysis paper.
As with the other papers you have written so far, remember to review the Writing Assignment Rubric for expectations regarding mastery of subject matter, creativity, formatting, and so forth.
Explaining Why a Problem is Happening
In the previous Problem Definition paper, I think all of you went beyond just describing WHAT the problem was. You discussed to a greater or lesser extent WHY the problem might be happening and HOW the problem could be solved. Its difficult to focus on the WHAT without the WHY and HOW. I get it. But thats a skill that I hope you can strengthen this semester.
Think about it this way: You would not want your auto mechanic to replace the engine in your car because he thinks it would fix whatever strange noises your car might be making. You would not want your plumber to install all new pipes in your house if all you have is a leaky faucet. And you certainly would NOT want your medical doctor to perform surgery on you based on her assumptions of what might be wrong with you.
So an organizational leader needs to fully understand a problem, gather measurable evidence, and explore numerous possible causes before introducing a change to the organization. Change can be difficult. Change can negatively impact an organization if its not the appropriate change, or if it is just a Band Aid that covers the symptoms without getting to the root causes.
You will be doing about 40% of the research for your capstone project just for the Situational Analysis paper. This is a critical time for you to integrate and synthesize what you have learned in the program. What might also help you is to use a few simple business tools, namely: the fishbone diagram, the five whys, and the flowchart.
These are tools from Lean and Six Sigma that organizations oftentimes use to help business teams analyze problems and design strategies for working more efficiently and effectively. If you are struggling to sort out everything that might be happening in your organization, I encourage you to try using these tools.
Heres a link to a good resource for the fishbone diagram: https://asq.org/quality-resources/fishbone (Links to an external site.)
The article talks about how you would use the tool in a business meeting or workshop. You wont be conducting a business meeting or workshop for your Situational Analysis paper, obviously. You could just sketch the diagram on a piece of paper or create one in PowerPoint to explore various possible causes in different categories.
The five whys also can help: http://asq.org/healthcare-use/why-quality/five-whys.html (Links to an external site.) Use the tool and push yourself to literally ask why five times to dig into the root causes of a problem.
I always liked flowcharts as well, as they helped teams communicate with each other about their improvement opportunities. Heres a link to a good resource on that: http://asq.org/learn-about-quality/process-analysis-tools/overview/flowchart.html (Links to an external site.).
Again, you are not actually conducting a workshop to create a flowchart for your Situational Analysis paper. But you could draw a flowchart on a piece of paper or create one in PowerPoint to facilitate your thinking about your organizations problems, their impacts, and intervention strategies.
If you do happen to create a fishbone diagram, do a five-why analysis, or create a flowchart this semester, and if you found it helpful, I encourage you to include it in your paper.
Clarifying Your Hypothesis
In its simplest definition, a hypothesis is a prediction about how a change in the environment (or other, measured variable) relates to a change in behavior. You should have already stated a hypothesis: maybe it was an after the fact hypothesis about how certain leader behaviors led to certain organizational issues; or maybe it was a prediction about how an intervention might improve your organization. Please feel free to refine your hypothesis as you do more research.
This is where measurement comes in, and its essential for doing this type of organizational effectiveness work. In my feedback I have encouraged you to define how you will measure the extent of the problem and its impacts. Well, you absolutely will need those measurement tactics in order to predict what success looks like.
If you cant measure the extent of the problem, then how will you gauge your improvement after the intervention? This is called a before/after or pre/post research design, and it is common in organizational settings.
So, along with your hypothesis, be sure to define how you will measure your variables. Remember to balance scientific significance with practical significance! Although giving your leaders a particular leadership personality survey might sound good from a scientific standpoint, it might or might not be practical in your organization.
