Personal Development for Leadership and Strategic Management Assignment

You have been a senior manager for several years and have decided that your next career move should be to take responsibility for an aspect of strategic management in an organisation. Some interesting posts have been advertised recently and you have registered with a recruitment agency, Harris Hall, which specialises in senior positions.

Task 1

Harris Hall has sent you a guidance pack titled ‘Preparation for Application and Interviews’ which includes some tasks for you to complete. This will provide the foundations for the applications you will make. You are required to produce a file of information. In section 1 of your file, you must:

 Analyse the knowledge and skills in leadership and strategic management which are required to support the creation and achievement of organisational vision and strategy

Extension activities

To achieve a Merit, you should also include an assessment of how strategic leadership knowledge and skills support achievement of organisational vision and strategy.

To achieve a Distinction, you must add content which evaluates the leadership and management knowledge and skills required for the successful achievement of organisational operations versus the creation and achievement of organisational strategy.

Learning outcomes and assessment criteria

LO1 AC 1.1, 1M1, 1D1

Task 2

Harris Hall has sent you an email about an interesting post which is advertised in Management Today and you have decided to apply. As part of the application, the organisation wants you to send a CV and a paper titled ‘Developing and Communicating Organisational Vision’. The employer will use this information in the shortlisting of applicants for interview.

Prepare a paper which:

 Analyses the factors which impact on the creation of organisational vision  Assesses the different approaches to developing vision

Unit 5 Personal Development for Leadership and Strategic Management Assignment v1.0 13/02/22

 Evaluates the key factors which impact on the communication of vision to external stakeholders

Extension activities

To achieve a Merit, you must include an additional section in the paper which evaluates the key factors needed to gain the commitment of internal stakeholders when communicating vision.

Learning outcomes and assessment criteria

LO 2 AC 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2M1

Task 3

The final part of the information file enables you to manage the development of your own personal knowledge and skills in leadership and strategic management. This will support achievement of personal and organisational vision and strategy. This assessment must be done in the context of an organisation where you are employed, where you work in a voluntary capacity, where you wish to gain employment or where you are studying. You must:

 Assess the benefits of different self-evaluation techniques that can be used in the achievement of personal and organisational strategy

 Assess your own leadership and management knowledge and skills. The knowledge and skills identified must facilitate the creation and achievement of organisational vision and strategy

 Devise objectives to meet your personal development needs to support the achievement of personal and organisational vision and strategy

 Prepare a personal development plan to develop own leadership and management skills to meet personal objectives aligned to the creation of organisational vision and strategy

Extension activities

To achieve a Merit, justify how the objectives and the plan prepared for personal development support achievement of organisational vision and strategy.

To achieve a Distinction, you must:

 Implement personal development activities to develop knowledge and skills identified in the personal development plan

 Review your progress and outcomes in relation to the objectives of your personal development plan

Learning outcomes and assessment criteria

LO3 AC 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3M1, 3D1 LO 4 4.1, 4D1

Note:When citing sources of information that you have used, provide a reference using an appropriate format, e.g., Harvard.

Unit 5 Personal Development for Leadership and Strategic Management Assignment v1.0 13/02/23

Guidelines for assessors

The assignments submitted by learners must achieve the learning outcomes and meet the standards specified by the assessment criteria for the unit. To achieve a merit or distinction grade, the learners must demonstrate that they have achieved all the criteria set for these grades. Where work for the pass standard is marginal, assessors can take account of any extension work completed by the learners. The suggested evidence listed below is how learners can demonstrate that they have met the required standards. The command verbs contained within the AC are highlighted in bold in the suggested evidence boxes.

Task number

LOs and AC Suggested evidence PASS

Suggested additional evidence MERIT

Suggested additional evidence DISTINCTION

1. LO1 AC 1.1 1M1,1D1

AC1.1 The learner must produce a clear and detailed analysis of the knowledge and skills in leadership and strategic management which are needed to support the creation and achievement of organisational vision and strategy.

1M1 The learner must assess how knowledge and skills support the creation and achievement of organisational vision and strategy. This must be applied to the knowledge and skills required to successfully create and achieve organisation strategy. The judgements made must be explained and justified.

1D1 The learner should produce a balanced evaluation of the leadership and management knowledge and skills required for the successful achievement of organisational operations versus the creation and achievement of organisational strategy. The learner should consider arguments for and against and judge the evidence from the different perspectives. This should lead to valid conclusions.

2. LO2 AC 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 2M1

AC2.1 The different factors impacting on the creation of vision should be described and analysed in detail.

AC2.2 The assessment of the different approaches should be clearly presented and lead to judgements. In the assessment, reference to actual examples

2M1 The evaluation of the key factors needed to gain the commitment of internal stakeholders when communicating the vision must consider the points from different perspectives.

Unit 5 Personal Development for Leadership and Strategic Management Assignment v1.0 13/02/23

from organisations would assist the learner in supporting the points which are made.

AC2.3 The evaluation of key factors impacting on the communication of the vision to internal and external stakeholders should clarify who the stakeholders might be and how the message might be differentiated for different stakeholders. The evaluation should consider the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches and lead to judgements.

The learner should provide reasoned judgements.

3. LO3 AC 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 3M1, 3D1

LO 4 4.1, 4D1

AC3.1 The assessment of learner’s own personal leadership and management knowledge and skills should be objective and factual. It is not sufficient to base this purely on personal reflection. The audit needs to be related to the analysis produced for AC 1.1.

AC3.2 The objectives devised must be presented clearly, directly related to the personal audit and organisational strategic needs. The objectives should be SMART.

AC3.3 The personal development plan prepared should be in a clear format with stated specific objectives, timescales and monitoring points. The plan must be detailed and might include a range of activities such as formal learning or training, as well as informal learning.

3M1 The learner must give a comprehensive explanation to justify how the plan and the stated objectives support achievement of organisational vision and strategy.

3D1 There should be evidence of the implementation of the personal development activities. This may take the form of a log and include witness statements, agendas of meetings, programmes of training events etc. The evidence must link to the knowledge and skills identified in the personal development plan.

4D1 The review should accurately identify and explain the progress made in achieving the objectives set in the personal development plan. The review must be honest, factual and based on the activities which have been

Unit 5 Personal Development for Leadership and Strategic Management Assignment v1.0 13/02/23

AC4.1 The assessment should be objective and lead to judgements. This should be accompanied by a full explanation of when the review tools can be used to support achievement of personal and organisational strategy. The learner may wish to refer to examples of review used in different organisations to support individual and organisational progress.

completed, identifying where objectives have been met and where any shortfalls exist.

Unit 5 Personal Development for Leadership and Str
Assignment Scenario
Task 1
Extension activities
LO1 AC 1.1, 1M1, 1D1
Task 2
Extension activities
LO 2 AC 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2M1
Task 3
Extension activities
LO3 AC 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3M1, 3D1
Guidelines for assessors