This course is about you gaining an understanding of excellence in the workplace and how to lead an organization toward individual and organizational excellence. We have analyzed many aspects of organizational excellence, including stakeholder perspectives, teams, conflict, structure, culture, strategy, power, communication, change, and talent management and leadership.
Each of you has a unique workplace situation. Therefore, each of you should have taken with you different lessons that you will use in your specific workplace situation. As such, you are to complete an analysis paper detailing your current workplace situation and what you might suggest to fix it using the Leader’s P.O.V. framework.
This assignment is divided into 3 sections, Situation Analysis, Organization Analysis, and Action Plan.
SITUATION ANALYSIS (SEEING WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE)
• Define the context of your ‘organization’ (department, work group, etc.)
• Does your current organization achieve excellence? Why or why not?
• How does your smaller organization relate to the overall organization’s excellence?
• Does your overall organization achieve excellence? Why or why not? How do you know? What metrics are used to measure excellence?
Consider such aspects as mission, vision, strategic plans, change initiatives, structure, culture, leaders and their styles, power structures, communication, and talent management systems.
Go into depth and detail. Paint me a picture.
ORGANIZATION ANALYSIS (UNDERSTANDING UNDERLYING FORCES)
Using course theories and concepts, clearly and explicitly diagnose and analyze the dynamics underlying and surrounding the organization. There are likely multiple forces contributing to the current situation. What are those forces, and why? In other words, what roadblocks exist that might allow or prevent your organization to achieve excellence?
• What internal forces do you see that might exist that allow or prevent your organization to achieve excellence? What momentum might exist to allow or prevent your organization to achieve excellence?
• What external forces do you see that might exist that allow or prevent your organization to achieve excellence?
Consider such aspects as stakeholders who may allow or prevent your organization to achieve excellence, groups or teams that exist who may allow or prevent your organization to achieve excellence, conflict that exists that may allow or prevent your organization to achieve excellence, and systems and structures that exist that may allow or prevent your organization to achieve excellence.
ACTION PLAN (HAVING THE COURAGE TO INITIATE ACTION)
• If you had absolute power and could make any changes necessary for your organization (or the overall organization) to achieve excellence, what might they include?
• What power currently do you have to make changes to help your organization move further toward excellence?
• If left alone, what effects might this have on you and the organization over time?
Informed by the course theories and concepts, formulate a thoughtful, specific, and actionable plan to try to address organizational excellence within the next 6 – 12 months. View this plan as an experiment; what specific steps can you take that should, according to the theories, help you and your organization move further toward excellence? How does your action plan articulate with the theoretical analysis, given the forces that exist? What trade-offs might you need to make?