Enterprise leadership busm1008 autumn 2022

Autumn Final Take Home Exam – 2022

Arwen-Leigh LaCour
Student No. 20777265

Question 1: Distinctions between Management and Leadership – Reflective and critical

thinking

a) Define critical and reflective thinking

Reflective thinking is defined as a form of mental process which is applied with the purpose
of gaining a greater understanding of complicated or unstructured ideas. It is also largely
based on the reprocessing of evaluation, knowledge and decision making.
(BUSM1008 Module 01 Week 1, ‘Thinking Lecture’ slideshow, Moon 2008, p.104)

Critical thinking is defined as the mode of thinking in which the thinker improves the quality
of their thinking through taking charge of the types of structures which are inherent to critical
thinking and enforcing more intellectual standards upon those thoughts. (BUSM1008 Module
01 Week 1 ‘Thinking Lecture’ slideshow, Scriven & Paul 2004, p.102

b) Critically discuss the role of critical and reflective thinking in Enterprise

Leadership
Critical thinking enables enterprise leaders to think rationally and independently, which then
allows enterprise leaders to effectively engage in group thinking and interpret multiple ideas
and perspectives. A leader who thinks critically will then be able to comprehend the
connections between different ideas and then make logical decisions. Reflective thinking
allows enterprise leaders to reflect on what factors may have caused them to make certain
decisions and become more conscious on how they performed such actions. Therefore,
critical and reflective thinking for enterprise leaders assists in further developing their
abilities to be an enterprise leader through learning how to cope with unprecedented external
changes such as political or sociocultural, assisting other leaders to evaluate and analyse
within organisations and a leader can gain an awareness of self. (Module 01 Week 1,
Thinking lecture slideshow, Reflective Thinking & Practice, 2022)

Question 2: Becoming an Enterprise Leader – Management and Leadership

a) Define the role of an Enterprise Leader

Enterprise leaders are appointed the role of interconnecting management with leadership to
align members within the organisation towards the same goal and work alongside employees
to hear their thoughts rather than implementing a ‘I talk, and you listen’ dynamic between
employees and leaders within an organisation.

b) Examine the main characteristics of an Authentic leader. How does authentic

leadership influence the efficiency and effectiveness of Enterprise Leaders?
 Enterprise leadership busm1008 autumn 2022

Arwen-Leigh LaCour
Student No. 20777265

The characteristics of an authentic leader include exhibiting genuine leadership, ensuring to

lead from conviction, ensuring they are originals and not copies and basing their actions on
their values. (Module 04 Becoming and Enterprise leader, BUSM1008 Lecture 3 ‘Authentic
leadership’ 2022). These characteristics are critical in becoming an authentic leader because
they promote a sense of originality and legitimacy within the organisation. These four
characteristics also provide a link between self-concept between followers and leaders actions
and how this impacts performance in w workplace. This influences efficiency and
effectiveness for enterprise leaders because it emphasises leaders influence to those who
choose to follow. If the perception that the lead has of their leaders is positive then this will
encourage people who follow the leader’s vision and build trusting relationships, thus
maximising the effectiveness of enterprise leaders’ influence.

Question 3: How do internal and external environments influence organisational

performance? In your response consider the role of individual behaviour for socially
responsible leadership.

Components of the external environment are global, economic, technological, political,

sociocultural and demographic. (Module 06 Week 6, Lecture 1 ‘External environments’).
Internal factors include human resources, technical, financial and production also impact
organisational performance. These environmental factors influence performance both directly
and indirectly, therefore potentially jeopardizing an organisations current proceedings and
projects. Technological factors impact performance because companies may face challenges
in remaining viable in the market against competitors who are able to adopt new and
innovative technologies and improve operation systems. Economic factors impact
performance because when the economy trends downwards this typically results in the
unemployment rate to rise which can impact a business performance as they may have to
employ less qualified individuals to compensate for possible terminations of current
employees. Internal factors include human resources, technical, financial and production also
impact organisational performance. These are the category of factors in which businesses
have the power to control and improve upon for the performance’s sake of the organisation,
they can influence performance in a business because a certain culture may have been
established which can show a standard that has been set for the expected work ethic that must
be shown for organisational processes to operate well.

Question 4: Decision making, leadership and change management – Case Study

a) With a reference to learning module 10, describe, using examples, a model of

decision making for Duarte Inc.

An Intuitive approach to decision making would be the most effective model of decision
making for Duarte Inc. based on the complications they have presented in the case study. ,
This decision making model entails making decisions based on previous or current
experiences. For example, Duarte Inc has concluded that convoluted decision-making
processes was a waste of time for their organisation. Therefore, an intuitive model would
work well for their company because through adopting this model, they are able to avoid
 Enterprise leadership busm1008 autumn 2022

ineffectiveness. As stated in (BUSM1008, Module 10 ‘Decision Making and prob’ pg.5,

2022) what is known as the decision rule tells decision makers which alternative would be
most effective to choose once a predetermination has been made regarding information. This
rule is relevant for Duarte Inc. because through implementing this rule they can make future
decisions based on the perceptions and knowledge they already have on classifying what
works best for the organisation to work effectively.

b) Based on your response in section A: Discuss the implications of managing change

within this scenario. Provide Examples

One of the implications for managing change that is presented is the lack of understanding
between executives and the leader of when ideas from the leading party must be heard and
taken into consideration. This could potentially become problematic when discussing the
importance of change in collaborating ideas and opinions to conclude with the same strategy
as one another. For example, the leader states in the case study that ‘this made my executives
blurry about what they had the power to act on and when they needed to loop me in’. There
for, recreating the dynamic between these two groups in the organisation to spend their
decision-making time more effective, will be an implication to manage regarding who has the
power to change this dynamic.

c) Examine the role of managing controls in this process? Provide examples

Throughout the case study, it is evident that Duarte Inc. is facing issues with improving their
performance compared to the standard that has been set regarding the effectiveness of
decision making. In this process of change for this organisation, managing controls will have
the role of assisting Duarte Inc to measure actual performance, then compare actual
performance against standard, for example, compare the 37% of decision making that is
spend ineffectively against the effectiveness of the decision-making processes they are
undertaking. Finally, taking managerial action. It is necessary for these controls to be
included in this process because it will allow the company to determine how the company is
progressing compared to the goals and objectives that are organisational, divisional,
departmental and individual, towards changing how they make decisions by following an
input, processes and output control.
 Enterprise leadership busm1008 autumn 2022

References

Axe, D 2022, "What is Authentic Leadership?", Leaders.com, viewed June 13, 2022,
<https://leaders.com/articles/leadership/authentic-leadership/>.

Quian, S 2018, "Internal & External Factors That Affect an organization", Your Business,
viewed June 16, 2022, <https://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/internal-external-factors-affect-
organization-11641.html>.

Team, I 2021, "9 External Environment Factors That Affect Business", Indeed Career Guide,
viewed June 15, 2022, <https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/external-
environment-factors>.

Gordon, B 2022, ‘Thinking Lecture’ ‘Introduction to Enterprise Leadership, Thinking

Lecture’ BUSM108 Enterprise Leadership, March 7, online lecture, viewed June 14, 2022,
vUWS learning management system

Gordon, B 2022, ‘Thinking Lecture’ Introduction to Enterprise Leadership, Thinking

Lecture’ BUSM1008 Enterprise Leadership Module 1, March 14, online lecture, viewed June
15, 2022, vUWS learning management system, Scriven & Paul 2004, p.102

Gordon, B 2022, ‘Lecture two’ Distinctions of management and Leadership, BUSM1008

Enterprise Leadership Module 01, March 14, online lecture, viewed June 15, 2022, vUWS
learning management system

Gordon, B 2022, ‘Lecture 2 Ethical Leadership’ Becoming an Enterprise leader, BUSM1008

Enterprise Leadership Module 4, March 23, online lecture, viewed June 16, 2022, vUWS
learning management system

Gordon, B 2022, ‘Lecture 1 External environments’ External environment and

Organisational culture, BUSM1008 Enterprise Leadership Module 6, April 11, online
lecture, viewed June 16, 2022, vUWS learning management system

Gordon, B 2022, ‘Decision making, Leadership and Change Management’ Heuristics &
Decision making, BUSM1008 Module 10, May 3 – May 7, online lecture, viewed June 19,
2022, vUWS learning management system