Portfolio: International Leadership Development Programme

Your assignment is to produce a portfolio. It has 3 parts:

1. A report. (60%)
2. A development plan. (30%)
3. A review (10%)

Information

• You must answer all three sections. Please read the question and the marking criteria carefully before answering. Make sure you answer all parts of the question.
• Each section is worth a different percentage toward your final mark. The marks for the individual sections will be combined to calculate the portfolio mark. You will pass the module with a mark of 50% or more.
• You must submit all sections in one document.

• You must comply with the University of Hertfordshire Policy on Academic Integrity and Misconduct:
  • Properly acknowledge the work of others. Use quotation marks when quoting from a source.
  • Make sure that everything in your assignment is your own work.
  • We will be using Turnitin software to identify cases of academic misconduct and plagiarism.

You must submit your work on Canvas by, 26th April  2022 by 2300 (Provisional date, to be confirmed).

Part 1: A report.

This is the scenario for the report.

You are a management consultant. You have been asked to write a report for a company called Interestocom. (Interestocom is not a real company. It is fictitious company made-up for the purposes of this assignment)

• Interestocom are a multi-national marketing services company. They are expanding into different markets around the world.
• Next year, Interestocom expect to promote 50 managers - the managers come from the regional offices in Africa, Asia, The Americas, Europe, and Oceania.
• The managers will be promoted to new Global Director roles.
• The new roles will involve increased responsibility. It includes international leadership.
• Interestocom would like to run a leadership development programme for the newly promoted global directors.

Interestocom would like your report to cover the following areas,

1. Should Interestocom run a single global leadership development programme for all the new leaders, or should they run separate leadership development programmes in each region? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each option?

1. What leadership theory should the development programme be based on?
   You are advised to choose one theory only (you can opt to combine theories e.g. transactional + transformational. You can choose a theory that has not been covered in the module – if you do this you must discuss with a tutor before writing your report). You will need to explain the leadership theory you choose and provide some critical analysis. Why did you choose this leadership theory? Why is it suitable for the future of global business?

1. Give examples of 3 specific skills/behaviours that should be included in the development programme. Why are these skills/behaviours important? You should back-up your choices by citing academic and practitioner sources.

1. Provide a conclusion to your report and propose your recommendations for the next steps to take. Include a brief explanation of how you could measure the success of the programme.

Your report should be no more than 2000 words.

Your report should follow the standard report format for Hertfordshire Business School.

The table below gives guidance about what you should write in each section.

Section

Contents for Coursework

Writing style

Contents

Title

Not included in word count

"A Report of recommendations for...”

This should be short and precise. It should tell the reader what the report is about, e.g. A report into the feasibility of establishing a student run catering service at HBS.

Executive Summary

Approx. 50-100 words

"The growing popularity of Internet shopping has been accompanied by a rapid growth of courier delivery services. It has been argued (Green, 2018) that the delivery aspect of any e-commerce business is crucial to its success. This report investigates this relationship with respect to independent courier companies in the Hertford area. The report... “  

The executive summary is a self-contained summary of the whole of your report - it summarises what the report does. It should therefore be written last and is usually limited to one paragraph.

● The question being investigated.

● Main findings

● A conclusion and recommendations

Table of Contents

Not included in word count

Produce a table of contents

Include all headings and sub-headings used in the report and their page numbers (do this last) (See CASE Guide IT for HBS Assignments)

Introduction

Approx. 300 words

Introduce the topic area of International Leadership.

“The rapid growth of e-commerce, particularly in relation to large volume trading sites, such as eBay, has provided local courier businesses with the opportunity for rapid expansion of services. For example, ‘Hertsmove Couriers’, based in Hertford, have developed a text messaging booking system for eBay customers which ensures rapid collection and delivery of secured items.

The Introduction ‘sets the scene’ for your report; it does this in two ways:

§ By introducing the reader in more detail to the subject area you are dealing with

§ Through presenting your objective

Discussion

Approx. 1100 words

Your discussion should include:

Your choice of a single global leadership development programme or different regional development programmes.

What leadership theory should be used and why.

‘Investment into drone-enabled delivery has been reported to have significant risk (Driver, 2020). This has not prevented some businesses going ahead, Flyer (2021) successfully implemented drone delivery using the following risk mitigation actions:”

This is the most important and longest section of your report. It helps the reader to understand the relevance of your research and recommendations in this business subject area.

This is your chance to discuss, analyse and interpret your research in relation to the scenario described in the question.

You should discuss advantages of the approach/theory you have chosen and any criticisms, limitations.

Examples

Approx. 300 words

You should give 3 specific examples for leadership skills/behaviours that should be included in the programme.

You can use a table if you prefer or write 3 paragraphs.

Conclusion

Approx. 50 words

Brief conclusion

"Findings from this research indicate that communication needs improving...”

Summarise the key points already made and the main issues arising from your report.

Recommendations

Approx. 250 words

Recommendations for the next steps to take.

“To improve communication, the organisation should…”

Recommendations follow the conclusions. Your recommendations should be realistic for the scenario in the question.

References

Not included in word count

Full reference list Harvard format

Give details of work by all other authors which you have referred to in your report (see CASE Guide to Harvard Referencing).

Appendices

Not included in word count

Appendices should only be used for material that is relevant to your report but is not essential to the main discussion, e.g. data about different regional differences (e.g. ‘See Appendix 2’ - this signals to the reader that Appendix 2 contains all the data concerned)

Part 2: A development plan

Write an individual development plan for yourself. The aim of the plan is to develop the skills/behaviours you need to be a global leader.

1. You should select 3 specific skills/behaviours.
2. Complete the table below.
3. Write a maximum of 600 words on how and why you chose those skills/behaviours and actions. You should use insights you have gained from your reflections about the module and the discussions you have had with fellow students in the tutorials. You should include a minimum of 3 references to show how your choices/actions relate to theory/research.

Skill/behaviour

What is it?

Why is it important?

How will you develop it?

Action you will take within the next 3 months

Part 3: Workshop review (10%)

You should write a review of either (no more than 150 words):

1. The workshop about International Negotiation

OR

1. Workshop about the China Leadership case study

Your review should contain:

1. Why was the session useful to your studies of Leadership & Management in International Business?
2. What were the 2 or 3 most important things that you learnt?
3. How you plan to apply this knowledge to your studies or to your future work.

Write about one of the workshops only – do not write about both workshops.

This part should be written in the first person e.g. ‘I attended the workshop on…’