Cross Cultural Leadership

ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS

Module Title: Cross Cultural Leadership

Module Code: MOD003348 Level: 7

Academic Year: 2014/15 Semester: 1

Module Leader:

Instructions: Undertake the following task.

Word Limit: 3,000 words

Written assignments must not exceed the specified maximum number of words. All assignments which do so will be penalised. The penalty will be the deduction of marks at the Marker's judgement. Assignments will not be accepted without a word count on the cover sheet.

Submission Date: This assignment must be uploaded on Turnitin no later than 1PM on 8th Janaury 2015.

Work submitted after this time or date will receive a mark of 0 unless an extension has been approved in advance of this deadline.

Requests for short-term extensions will only be considered in the case of illness or other cause considered valid by the Programme Director. These must normally be received and agreed by Programme Director in writing at least twenty four hours prior to the deadline.

Please refer to the Academic Regulations or your Student Handbook for full details.


Further details: This assignment must be completed individually.







TASK

A critical evaluation of leadership theories and cross cultural factors which exist (or not) in power relations within organisations.

INTRODUCTION

Scenario

KeepWell plc is a company, based in the UK, which manufactures and distributes nutritional supplements to the UK market. They have responded to the market demand for nutritional supplements to those people who feel their diet is lacking in vitamins and minerals. Many of their original customers were sportsmen and women. The supplements have proved to be very popular with the general public and sales have increased exponentially in the last five years.

The Board of Directors of KeepWell now want to follow up their domestic success by expanding into the international market. They are particularly interested in entering the lucrative North American market and feel that, at the same time they could expand into certain South American countries such as Brazil, where the importance of health & body image is high in the younger generation.

You are the Human Resource Director of KeepWell and you have been asked to investigate various aspects of recruiting and establishing a workforce in North and South America including the appointment of local managers. You are concerned about the appropriateness of the appointment of local managers and have mentioned your concerns to the Managing Director. He has asked you to prepare a short report, addressed to him, focusing on this issue.


Write a report for the Managing Director in which you:

Evaluate the factors which should be taken into account when deciding whether a local manager should be appointed or a current KeepWell Manager relocated to take over the leadership of each new site. (30 marks)

Prioritise the factors which should be taken into account when deciding the type of individual, in terms of experience, skills and competencies, who should be appointed as the managers of the new sites. (20 marks)

Critically evaluate the cultural issues which should be considered when identifying the style of leadership which should be adopted by these new managers. (30 marks)

Based on the above produce justified recommendations to the Managing Director. (10 marks)

Presentation must be in report format with summary, introduction, body (research, analysis of findings), conclusion, recommendations, references and appendices.
(10 marks)


Presentation
The word limit for this assignment is 3000 words.
Students are expected to keep within the word limit. Appendices can only be used to support the main body of the report. Any new information included in the appendices will not be marked.
Your assignment should be written as formal report to the Managing Director, using an appropriate writing style and vocabulary.
Assignments should be correctly referenced using the Harvard system of referencing. Incorrect or insufficient referencing will be penalised.
Assignments must be submitted via 'Turnitin'. Individual feedback will be automatically generated by Turnitin once the marking and quality assurance process has been completed.

The analysis must be supported by academic theories and concepts and the paper must be a report and comply with the Harvard referencing guidelines. The reflection must not be descriptive in nature; it should provide clear evidence of understanding of the issues under consideration.

There is no correct number of academic references to be utilised as the student must draw as many references as required to provide a high quality answer. However, a minimum of 12 academic sources are expected, and a majority of these should be current, internationally peer reviewed articles/journals or accredited textbook references. Sources such as Wikipedia and the like are not accepted. Sources available only online should be avoided.

You must be mindful of how marks are allocated based on your ability to define, analyse and apply the key concepts. The chart below demonstrates how the marks (in percentages) will be allocated according to the criteria shown.



You will notice that without any application or understanding you may struggle to pass the module and note that the majority of the weighting in the marks is on analysis. Similarly, if you only demonstrated understanding and application the highest mark that you could achieve is 40%.

Specific Module Guidance

To achieve a pass level mark you must ensure that you demonstrate your analysis and understanding of the range and scope of the current tourism sector. The focus will be on evaluating the ways in which the tourism sector is altering and developing to meet current demands from customers/clients.

This will require secondary research. Your work will be referenced according to the Harvard Referencing System and will be essay format.

To achieve higher marks, in addition to the requirements to achieve a pass mark, you will need to make informed comparisons between the theories and concepts you have studied and provide a reflection on how these apply to your project topic. The analysis will be very well applied and will rely heavily for support on current literature.

Marking Guide

Analysis of the factors to be taken into account when deciding to appoint local or to relocate managers. Maximum 30 marks

Analysis of the factors to be taken into account when deciding the type of individual to be appointed. Maximum 20 marks

Analysis of cultural issues. Maximum 30 marks

Recommendations on how the company should proceed. Maximum 10 marks

Presentation Maximum 10 marks