Scenario

You are asked by your Senior Management Team (SMT) to draft a briefing paper for them about leadership and management development in your own organisation (or an organisation with which you are familiar). You will be evaluating what currently happens, making recommendations for improvement and justifying these. Your briefing paper needs to be objective and evidence-based, drawing on your own organisational knowledge and observations, as well as authoritative published sources.  

At an initial meeting with your SMT you were asked to structure your paper around the following ten specific questions. Provide answers to each of these, aiming in each case to do so in around 390 words so that the total length of your assessment is 3900 words in length (+ /- 10% excluding references). You should answer each of the questions as fully as possible and you should take care to justify all the points you make.     

Task

Question 1 (AC 1.1)

Explain how recent, current and potential future trends in your industry's business environment are combining to underpin the case for a review of current leadership and management development activities or programmes. Illustrate your answer with specific examples.

Question 2 (AC 1.2)

Explain the meanings of ‘leadership development’ and ‘management development’ making a clear distinction between these two functions.

 

 

Question 3 (AC 1.3)

 

Drawing on published models of contrasting leadership and management styles, explain the prevalent current approach in your organisation (or an organisation with which you are familiar).

 

 

Question 4 (AC 1.4)

 

Compare the knowledge, skills and behaviours of leaders and managers in your organisation (or an organisation with which you are familiar) and identify the areas they most need to improve in. Justify your answer.

 

 

Question 5 (AC 2.1)

 

Drawing on your wider reading, identify two different ways in which the people management team in your organisation (or an organisation with which you are familiar) could support established leadership and management practices and programmes.  

 

 

 

Question 6 (AC 2.2)

 

Drawing on your wider reading evaluate two different approaches to leadership and management development that you would like to see adopted or further developed in your organisation (or an organisation with which you are familiar). Justify your answer.  

 

 

Question 7 (AC 2.3)

 

Discuss your organisation's (or an organisation with which you are familiar) current approaches to leadership and management development in terms of their effectiveness in consistently meeting core equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) objectives. Justify your answer.

 

 

Question 8 (AC 3.1)

 

Identify two stakeholders and explain their involvement in leadership and management development initiatives in your organisation (or an organisation with which you are familiar)

 

Question 9 (AC 3.2)

 

Evaluate the extent and nature of the methods used by your own organisation (or an organisation with which you are familiar) to evaluate the impact of its leadership and management development activity. Drawing on your reading explain how this might be improved. Justify your answer.

 

 

Question 10 (AC 3.3)   

 

Assess two specific business benefits that can accrue to organisations which invest in first-rate, up-to-date, evidence-led leadership and management development programmes.  

 

 

Your evidence must consist of: •        Written responses to each of the ten instructions above. •        Approximately 3900 words in total, refer to CIPD word count policy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Assessment Criteria Evidence Checklist 

You may find the following checklist helpful to make sure that you have included the required evidence to meet the task. This is not a mandatory requirement as long as it is clear in your submission where the assessment criteria have been met.

 

Assessment criteria           Evidenced Y/N			Evidence reference
1.1	Explain the external factors that drive the need for leadership and management within the organisation.
1.2	Explain the meanings of leadership and management and the interdependent nature of their functions.
1.3	Explain the contrasting styles and characteristics of leaders and managers.
1.4	Compare the different knowledge, skills and behaviours required for leadership and management in organisations.
2.1	Identify the role people professionals and learning development specialists have in supporting leadership and management development initiatives.
2.2	Evaluate a range of approaches that are available for effective leadership and management development.
2.3	Discuss why equality, diversity and inclusion should be an integral component of leadership and management development initiatives.
3.1	Identify the range of stakeholders and the involvement they have in leadership and management development initiatives.
3.2	Evaluate the indicators of successful leadership and management development initiatives.
3.3	Assess the impact and importance that leadership and management development initiatives have on organisational culture, strategy, reputation and performance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Assessment Criteria marking descriptors.

Assessors will mark in line with the following assessment criteria (AC) marking descriptors, and will indicate where the learner sits within the marking band range for each AC.  

Assessors must provide a mark from 1 to 4 for each assessment criteria within the unit. Assessors should use the mark descriptor grid as guidance so they can provide comprehensive feedback that is developmental for learners. Please be aware that not all the mark descriptors will be present in every assessment criterion, so assessors must use their discretion in making grading decisions.

The grid below shows the range for each unit assessment result based on total number of marks awarded across all assessment criteria.  

To pass the unit assessment learners must achieve a 2 (Low Pass) or above for each of the assessment criteria.

The overall result achieved will dictate the outcome the learner receives for the unit, provided NONE of the assessment criteria have been failed or referred. 

Please note that learners will receive a Pass or Fail result from the CIPD at unit level. Referral grades can be used internally by the centre.

 

Overall mark	Unit result
0 to 19	Fail
20 to 25	Low Pass
26 to 32	Pass
33 to 40	High Pass

 

Marking Descriptors

Mark	Range	Descriptor
1	Fail	The response DOES NOT demonstrate sufficient knowledge, understanding or skill (as appropriate) to meet the AC. Insufficient examples included where required to support answer. Insufficient or no evidence of the use of wider reading to help inform answer. Presentation or structure of response is not appropriate and does not meet the requirement of the question/assessment brief.
2	Low Pass	The response demonstrates an acceptable level of knowledge, understanding or skill (as appropriate) to meet the AC.   Sufficient acceptable examples included where required to support answer. Sufficient evidence of appropriate wider reading to help inform answer. Satisfactory in-text referencing. Answer is acceptable but could be clearer in responding to the question/task and presented in a more coherent way. Required format adopted but some improvement required to the structure and presentation of the response.