Unit 3: Developing Strategic Management and Leadership Skills
Unit code: F/602/2058
QCF Level 7: BTEC Professional
Credit value: 10
Guided learning hours: 32
Unit aim
This unit provides the learner with an understanding of the links between strategic management, leadership, and organizational direction and the skills to apply this understanding.
Unit introduction
The main aim of this unit is to investigate how current thinking on leadership influences an organization’s planning to meet current and future leadership requirements. Learners will gain an insight into the current thinking on leadership from an organizational perspective.
They will examine the links between strategic management and leadership, particularly the skills a leader needs to support organizational direction. The unit will help learners understand the impact of management styles on strategic decisions in differing situations by examining the competencies and styles of successful leaders.
Applying management and leadership theories and models to specific situations will enable learners to assess their impact on organizational strategy.
The unit will draw a selection of established principles, including emotional intelligence on leadership effectiveness. This will enable learners to assess how organizations can plan to meet current and future leadership requirements.
This unit provides an organizational perspective, but it also offers learners insight into how it can contribute to their strategic management and leadership skills by assessing requirements for their current or future job roles and measuring these against relevant National Occupational Standards.
Learners will develop analytical and long‐term planning skills through case studies and research. Finally, this unit will enable learners to research various management and leadership development methods and evaluate their ability to meet the skills requirements for effective leadership.
Learning outcomes and assessment criteria
To pass this unit, the evidence that the learner presents for assessment needs to demonstrate that they can meet all the learning outcomes for the unit. The assessment criteria determine the standard required to achieve the unit.
On completion of this unit, a learner should:
| Learning outcomes | Assessment criteria |
|
explain the link between strategic management and leadership,, analyze the impact of management and leadership styles on strategic decisions evaluate how leadership styles can be adapted to different situations |
|
review the impact that selected theories of management and leadership to have on organizational strategy create a leadership strategy that supports the organizational direction |
|
use appropriate methods to review current leadership requirements plan for the development of future situations requiring leadership |
|
plan the development of leadership skills for a specific requirement report on the usefulness of methods used to plan the development of leadership skills |
Unit content
- Understand the relationship between strategic management and leadership
Strategic management and leadership: functions of strategic management, e.g. reviewing strategic aims and objectives, improving organizational performance, creating, communicating and implementing change; developing and leading high-performance teams, strategic decision making; definitions of leadership e.g. Mintzberg’s 10 Managerial Roles; followership; direct versus indirect leadership; link between strategic management and leadership e.g. the skills of the leader to achieve the strategic objectives
Management and leadership style: style, e.g. autocratic, bureaucratic, charismatic, laissez-faire, persuasive, participative; influences on style, the eg culture of the organization, characteristics of the manager/leader; the impact of styles on strategic decisions; adapting management and leadership styles in different situations.
- Be able to apply management and leadership theory to support the organizational direction.
Theories: universal theories such as Transformational Leadership, Transactional Leadership (Bennis, Bass), charismatic leadership (Weber, Conger, and Kanungo); contingency theory, e.g. Fiedler; situational theories, e.g. Hersey and Blanchard, Vroom and Yetton, tridimensional leadership theory (Yukl)
Emotional intelligence: influence on leadership effectiveness, drivers; constrainers and Enablers; studies on Emotional Quotient (EQ), e.g. Goleman, Higgs and Dulewicz Applicability to support organizational direction: factors e.g. Efficiency, reliability, innovation, adaptation and human resources in sectors, organisations and subunits; size and stage of development of organisation e.g. Business start‐up versus established business; turnaround leadership, cultural issues
- Be able to assess leadership requirements
Assess leadership requirements: generic challenges, e.g. virtual organisations, diversity, globalisation, economic climate, world threats, ethics, and corporate social responsibility; e‐leadership, mergers and takeovers, restructuring, integrity leadership, diverse teams, partnerships and alliances, regulatory compliance, changes in reporting and control, new technology, interim leadership.
- Be able to plan the development of leadership skills
Development of leadership skills: different methods of developing leaders through formal learning, self‐ help and developmental activities, e.g. training courses, job rotation, seminars, executive coaching,
mentoring, companies’ own universities, developmental assessment centres, action learning, self‐directed learning, reading articles, partnership with key academics; changing methodology in leadership development programmes; benefits of self‐help activities e.g. learning from mistakes, viewing events from multiple perspectives; developing leaders versus recruiting as needed; creating a learning climate; model for assessing future leadership requirements e.g. Council for Excellence in Leadership and Management diagnostic tools; leadership competencies e.g. thinking and acting strategically, emotional intelligence, social intelligence, ability to learn, systems thinking.
Essential guidance for lecturers
Delivery
Lecturers will need to use a wide range of teaching and learning methods so that learners meet the learning outcomes in this unit. Methods include lectures, seminars, workshops, project work, and individual and group assessments.
Some formal delivery will be necessary, but work can be increasingly learner‐ centered on developing independent learning.
Learners need to adopt an investigative, analytical and participative approach to achieve the learning outcomes and reflect on their own experiences and roles to enhance the learning experience.
To allow learners to undertake the research needed to help them meet the learning outcomes and be responsible for their own learning.
For learning outcome 1, it is important that learners understand that strategic leadership is required to respond to the challenges organizations face in relation to today’s rapid rate of change and globalization.
In order to understand leadership requirements in organizations, learners need to explore the fundamentals of the concept of followership and the relationship between leaders and followers.
Lecturers could provide input on the key elements that underpin effective followership and follower types (for example isolate, bystander, participant, activist and diehard) using case studies of leader-follower interactions.
Learners need to appreciate the importance of leaders needing to adopt a strategic approach to examine the causes of the impact of systems on the organization, as well as evaluating and justifying different leadership theories and models used to enable change.
The development of future leaders versus recruiting as needed is an issue that could involve much group discussion. When covering learning outcome 2, it is important to focus on current thinking and consider models and theories selected from each section of the learning outcome content.
For most learning outcomes, it is preferable to spend time consolidating and actively learning and considering the application of a theory or model representative of a school of thought rather than learning many different theories and models using a lecturer‐led approach.
When learning about the competencies for strategic leadership and the styles of successful leaders, learners can use their own experiences and relate them to current theories and models.
For learning outcomes 3 and 4, lecturers must highlight the differences between operational and strategic leadership and the opposing aspects of leadership – the need to oversee day‐to‐day work and push for change continuously. Small‐group working can enable learners to use case studies to investigate current and future requirements for different organizations, sectors, and
Discuss the typical challenges that organizations face today and how they can be addressed, for example by applying e‐ leadership principles.
There are different ways and initiatives for developing leadership skills to meet these challenges and learners could work in groups to research them. Learners could produce a chart showing analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of each method, as well as preparing a plan for developing their own leadership skills.
Outline learning plan
The outline learning plan has been included in this unit as guidance and can be used with the suggested assignment. It demonstrates one way of planning the delivery and assessment of this unit.
|
Topic and suggested assignments/activities and/assessment |
| Introduction to unit and programme of learning |
| Lecturer‐led discussion on definitions of strategic management and leadership –learner group work and exercises |
| Lecturer input on management and leadership styles followed by exercises |
| Learner research on adapting management and leadership styles in differentsituations contributing to |
| Topic: Management and Leadership |
| Lecturer input on theoretical models and concepts of leadership followed bylearner research and activities. |
| Learner research on organizational direction contributes to |
| Topic: Leadership Strategy |
| Learner research on current and future leadership requirements using their own organization (if appropriate) and case studies |
| Learner activity on a case study on recruiting for a leadership position inan organisation, contributing to |
| Topic: Planning for Leadership |
| Learner research on suitable development activities to improve theirown leadership skills |
| Learner activity – evaluating the usefulness of planning methods, contributing |
| Topic: Planning for Leadership |
|
Review of unit and programme of assignments |
situations contributing toTopic: Management and LeadershipLecturer input on theoretical models and concepts of leadership followed by learner group work and exercisesLecturer input on management and leadership styles followed by exercisesLearner research on adapting management and leadership styles in different
learner research and activitiesLearner research on organizational direction contributing toTopic: Leadership StrategyLearner research on current and future leadership requirements using their
own organization (if appropriate) and case studiesLearner activity on a case study on recruiting for a leadership position in
an organisation, contributing toTopic: Planning for LeadershipLearner research on suitable development activities to improve their
own leadership skillsLearner activity – evaluating the usefulness of planning methods, contributingTopic: Planning for LeadershipReview of unit and programme of assignments
Assessment Guidelines
Unit 3: Developing Strategic Management and Leadership Skills
LO1: Understand the relationship between strategic management and leadership. Explain the link between strategic management and leadership
- Explain your understanding of strategic management and leadership with the support of different authors and literature.
- Explain the link between strategic management and leadership by explaining the functions of the strategic management process and discussing how leadership can be used in each function to achieve the strategic objectives with examples.
- Discuss the skills of successful leaders to achieve the organisations’ strategic objectives in the 21st century (including Emotional Intelligence).
: Analyze the impact of management and leadership styles on strategic decisions
- Research at least two challenges that your organization has faced recently and discuss the way that your organization has decided to overcome these challenges.
- Analyze the impact of the leadership styles on the decision-making process for the challenges.
: Evaluate how leadership styles can be adapted to different situations
- Research at least two challenges that your organizations had faced recently.
- Discuss the leadership styles that your organization used to overcome those challenges.
- Evaluate the leadership styles that your organization has used to overcome the challenges of achieving its objectives.
- Propose suitable leadership styles for the situation to achieve optimal results.
LO-2. Be able to apply management and leadership theory to support the Organizational direction
: Review the impact that selected theories of management and leadership have on organizational strategy
- Review a range of management and leadership theories and models, particularly empathize with current thinking. (e.g., Transactional Theory, Transformational Theory, Charismatic leadership, situational Theory, etc)
- Discuss the impact of the theories on the organizational strategy. (Note: At least 5 academic sources are required for these criteria)
: Create a leadership strategy that supports the organizational direction
- Assess the current direction of your chosen organization. (Vision, Mission, Objectives (1-year objectives, 3-year objectives, Values, Brand Positioning Statement, Competitive advantages).
- Conduct a PESTEL analysis, SWOT analysis, and Competitor’s analysis to propose an organizational strategy for your organization.
- Propose an appropriate organizational strategy by using Ansoff’s Matrix.
- Propose the leadership practices that you will use in your organization to implement your strategy and create a leadership strategy for your organizational direction.
LO-3. Be able to assess leadership requirements.
: Use appropriate methods to review current leadership requirements
- Access the one‐year strategic objectives of your organization
- Leadership requirements for by using appropriate methods. (SWOT, Organizational Audit, Internal Analysis, etc.)
- Describe at least three situations your organisation faces in achieving the strategic objectives.
- Present current leadership requirements (Skills Requirements/Human Resource Requirements) to achieve the objectives of your selected organization.
: Plan for the development of future situations requiring leadership
- Describe at least three situations your organisation can face in the future.
- Outline what leadership competencies (Knowledge, Skills, Attitude, Behaviors) are necessary to face these situations.
- Prepare sample job descriptions
- Prepare a sample person specification for a required position.
- Prepare a job advertisement for your proposed position.
- Prepare a recruitment plan for your organization.
- Construct a Leadership development plan for your organization based on your previous studies.
LO-4.Be able to plan the development of leadership skills.
: Plan the development of leadership skills for a specific requirement
- Construct a leadership development plan for yourself to perform your job descriptions
- Describe the required leadership competency that you are required to support the strategic objectives of your organization.
- Prepare a leadership development plan for yourself. (To manage the change in your organization)
:Report the usefulness of methods used to plan the leadership skill development
- Present at least five leadership development methods you can use to plan the leadership development plans.
- Report the usefulness of methods used in your leadership development plans (e.g., formal learning, training courses, job rotations, seminars, executive coaching, mentoring, Self‐ directed learning, etc.)
The table below shows a Suggested Assignment covering the assessment grid criteria. This is for guidance only, and it is recommended that centers either write their assignments or adapt Edexcel. Assignments to meet local needs and resources.
|
Assignment Title |
Assessment Method | AssessmentCriteria Covered |
Scenario |
| Management Report | Report | AC 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, | Learners analyze the impact of management and leadership styles on different work situations and evaluate how styles can be adapted. |
| Leadership Strategy | Theoretical Review+
Leadership Strategy |
AC 2.1, 2.2 | Learners review theory when creating a leadership strategy. |
| Recruitment Planning | Recruitment Method | AC 3.1, 3.2, 4.1, 4.2 |
Learners plan the recruitment and future development of a specific leadership role. |
Essential resources
There are no essential resources required for this unit.
Indicative resource materials Textbooks
Adair J – Effective Leadership: How to be a Successful Leader (Pan, 2009) ISBN 0330504193
Adair J – How to Grow Leaders: The Seven Key Principles of Effective Leadership Development (Kogan Page, 2009) 0749454806
Gold J, Thorpe R, and Mumford A – Leadership and Management Development (CIPD, 2010) ISBN 1843982447
Kouzes J M and Posner, B Z – The Leadership Challenge, 4th Edition (Jossey‐Bass, 2008) ISBN 0787984922 Mullins L J – Management and Organisational Behaviour, 9th Edition (Financial
Times/Prentice Hall, 2010) ISBN 0273724088
Journals
Management Today (Haymarket Business Media)
People Management (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development)
Professional Manager (Chartered Management Institute)
Training Journal (www.trainingjournal.com)
Websites
www.cipd.co.uk Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
www.leadershipnow.com Articles and blogs on leadership Changes www.managementhelp.org free management library for articles and blogs on leadership development planning
www.managers.org.uk Chartered Management Institute – a searchable database that members can use to access journal articles and other publications
www.peterhoney.com Questionnaires and trainer packs www.strategicmanagement.net The Strategic Management Society.