Leadership in Organizations

Assessment Outline
This assignment requires you to do the following:
1. Critically reflect on your own experience of leadership and suggest areas for your own development, including an Action Plan (1500 words). Addresses learning outcome 4 and 6.

2. Use leadership theory and concepts in the analysis and evaluation of the leadership of Elon Musk CEO of Telsa (1500 words). Addresses learning outcomes 1,2,3,5
Submission date

Part one
You are advised to focus on one or two specific experiences of leadership – either where you were in a leadership role, or where you could observe ‘leadership’ in action even if you were not a ‘leader’. These experiences might be drawn from your work experience or from other experience (voluntary work, student experience in working in a group, parenting, sport or other leisure activities). The experience should be one where you were an active participant. You should briefly describe the situation and evaluate the leadership process using relevant theory and concepts drawn from the academic literature on leadership. You should reflect on what the leadership experience taught you about your own leadership style and how you need to develop. In suggesting areas for your own development you should focus on skills or attributes that you think you need to develop, based on analysis of the experience. You should situate this reflection within the concepts and theory discussed in class and/or through your reading for the module. As an appendix you should attach a development plan to provide concrete evidence of how you have sought to improve your leadership.
Part two
The second part of the assignment requires you to critically evaluate the leadership of Elon Musk CEO of Tesla. You should consider the effectiveness of Musk’s leadership qualities from the perspectives of the leadership theories explored on the module. Your essay could consider the following theories; trait and behavioural theories, situational and contingency theory, transformational and transactional leadership, distributed leadership, ethical leadership and critical leadership perspectives.
You should read widely on theories of leadership, styles of leadership and critical leadership, and apply these critically to Elon Musk. You should also incorporate a regard for the ethics of leadership. Sources relating to Musk’s leadership style are available on this Moodle Page. It is important you read these in-depth in the context of the leadership theories we are exploring on the module so that you can form your own argument in relation to how theories of leadership apply to his leadership.

Submitting your work
You will submit Part One and Part Two together in one Word document. You should include one reference list for both parts at the end of the document. You should also attach your Leadership Development Action Plan, as an appendix at the end of the document.

Your work should be word processed in Font Arial or Times New Roman size 12. The assignment must be submitted via the Turnitin link on the Moodle site for the module. The pass mark is 40%. Referencing should be in the style which is standard across UEL and is compliant with Cite Them Right. More information relation to the full range of academic writing and referencing support that is available at UEL can be found here:
https://uelac.sharepoint.com/LibraryandLearningServices/Pages/Study-Support.aspx

Assessment Criteria – how you will be marked

This assignment will be assessed against the following criteria:
(i) Critical reflection on experience (20%)
(ii) Application of academic concepts and models to the analysis of your own development (10%)
(iii) Suggestions for personal development (10%)
(iv) Application of academic concepts and models to the analysis of the case (40%)
(v) Presentation including language and grammar (10%)
(vi) Referencing (10%)

Each of these criteria will be assessed on a 9 point ‘rubric’ scale in Turnitin as follows:

Critical reflection on experience
1-3 Merely describes experience with no critical reflection
4-5 Clear description of experience(s) with little reflection and dogmatic assertion
6-7 Very good succinct with reflections using a model of ‘experiential learning’ (e.g. Kolb, Boud) to structure reflections. A good balance between description and critical reflection showing awareness of strengths and weaknesses.
8-9 Excellent, highly persuasive critical reflection showing good awareness of personal strengths and weaknesses.
Application of academic concepts and models to the analysis of own development
1-3 Very little or no knowledge of relevant theory or theory applied inappropriately.
4-5 Some relevant theory applied to reflection but weakly integrated and uneven in quality.
6-7 A good range of relevant theory applied to the reflection to make convincing arguments.