2018 152707 writing workshop 4

WRITING WORKSHOP 4
152707 Leading and Organizing Change

You will learn how to:
• Summarise and quote from management literature
• Organise your notes under topics which are relevant
to your leadership experiences
• Use these notes to write a scholarly critique of
leadership experiences
Learning outcomes

The assignment question
workshop 5

Suggested structure for each vignette
Story of leadership experience (1 paragraph)
workshops 1 & 2
Analysis of leadership experience (1 paragraph)
workshop 3
Scholarly critique of leadership experience (1
paragraph)
workshop 4 (this one!)

I was Training Manager of an organisation in London. There were 10 trainers in
my team. I developed a new assessment system, based on 10 different criteria
that trainees had to achieve. For each criterion, they received 0, 1, or 2 points
– adding up to a maximum of 20. Any student who received 12 points or more
out of 20 passed. I piloted this new system myself with a group of trainees and
it worked like a dream. I made a few minor improvements and then presented
the improved system to the other trainers, expecting them to adopt it
immediately and enthusiastically. Instead, they complained that they found the
new system confusing and time-consuming and continued to assess the
trainees in their own way. I felt frustrated and disappointed that they couldn’t
see the obvious logic of the new system and that I was powerless to make
them. I resigned soon afterwards. If this was management, I decided I wanted
nothing more to do with it.
Example vignette: Paragraph 1 (Story of Leadership Experience)

It was clear to me at the time that this was not a successful attempt at change
leadership. But back then, my response was to personalise the failure in terms of
my own shortcomings and those of my colleagues. What I did not have was a clear
concept of leadership roles and methods or a framework for leading changes
(citation). In retrospect, my story seems very much focused on myself as the
originator and implementer of the whole process of change. It makes me wonder if I
was a leader at all, given that I had no followers. My resulting frustration with the
lack of power over my team members led to my resignation. It begs the question:
Can one be a leader without power? Indeed, if not from the leader, where can the
power be found to drive forward the difficult process of change?
Example vignette: Paragraph 2 (Analysis of Leadership Experience)

My assumption that a leader’s role was to drive forward change has been widely
shared in Management (citation). According to this view, my main error was an
operational one: a failure to create, a “guiding coalition” (citation) of colleagues
committed to the change. This coalition-building strategy might also have addressed
the powerlessness which I experienced in proposing my change. However, I have
become increasingly uncomfortable with this ‘operational’ model of change leadership.
My failure, it now seems to me, was more of an ethical than an operational one: it was
not a lack of leadership, but a lack of followership. Unknowingly, I had a narcissistic
concept of leadership (citation), in which the rest of my team were seen as tools to
implement a change I had determined. With a greater sense of followership, I might
have focused instead on empowering the team to decide what the problem was and
how to address it, limiting my role to helping my colleagues work in unison towards
common, agreed goals. In retrospect, I see my problem not as a lack of power, but as
my inability to see the power which was already there; distributed among my team
members, rather than concentrated in myself.
Example vignette: Paragraph 3 (Scholarly Critique of Leadership Experience)

You’ll see a question on the screen and then, a
few moments later, a photo of somewhere
on the campus, together with four options.
For example:
Where can you sit down on
these colourful chairs?

You need to select the correct answer by pressing the
appropriate square on your smartphone or tablet.
You’ll receive points not only for correct answers
but also according to the speed of your selection.

• Open kahoot.it
in your browser
• Enter the game pin
which I will show
you in a minute
• Enter your nickname
(and you will see it
appear on the public
screen)
To join the quiz you need to:

Question 1
How many paragraphs do I suggest for the
whole reflective journal?
ANSWER
12

Suggested Journal Structure
Introduction (one paragraph)
Vignette 1 (three paragraphs)
Conclusion (two paragraphs)

You’ll see some short texts about leadership.
Read each example and discuss with your partner, is it:
Copied from a Management text
or
Summarised in my own words

One approach to change leadership identifies four key
principles: maximise stakeholder participation; strengthen
relationships; build task-focused teams; ensure that decision-
making is inclusive (Axelrod, 2000).
1. widen the circle of involvement
2. connect people to each other
3. create communities for action
4. embrace democracy
Question 2
ANSWER: Copied from a Management text
My Summary

Question 3
• A unified face to customers
• Faster internal decision-making
• Reduced costs through shared resources
• The development of more innovative products
Through effective collaboration, teams can make decisions
more efficiently, use organisational resources more cost-
effectively, develop products more creatively and speak to
clients with one voice (Weiss & Hughes, 2013).
My Summary

Question 4
Which of these is an effective way of summarising ideas from a Management
article?
• Close the original text while you write your notes.
• Keep all technical words; change all non-technical words.
• Keep as much of the original text as you can without plagiarising.
• Explain the text to a friend and ask them to write a summary of the ideas you told
them.
ANSWER
Close the original text while you write your notes.

Extra question
Is this sentence copied from a Management text or summarised in my
own words?
Leaders and followers are both following the invisible leader – the common
purpose.

Because this is a short (and famous) phrase, it might be worth quoting
it, rather than summarising it in your own words. Here is an example:
A common misconception about the leadership is that it consists in giving clear
and persuasive orders to followers. This concept of leadership is narrow in scope
and inconsistent with a democratic ethos. Within democratic organisations, in
which individuals are empowered, rather than subjugated, effective leadership
aims, instead, to ensure that everyone – including leaders themselves –
understands and contributes to shared goals. In this way, as Parker Follett
explained, “Leaders and followers are both following the invisible leader – the
common purpose” (1987, p. 55).

Research & Note-Taking Suggestions
Identify leadership topics which are relevant to your three
stories.
Find concepts, theories and research findings related to this
topic in Management books (using Discover) and journal articles
(using Business Source Complete database).
Only copy the text if the original language is special (e.g. an
authoritative definition of an important concept). Keep
quotations short and include the page number it came from.

For effective note-taking, try to remember the main point in
your head. Look away from the screen or book as you do
this. Then make notes as much as possible in your own
words. If you are not sure, you can look back at the source
to double-check if your summary notes are accurate.
Organise your notes and quotes under relevant topic
headings (sometimes they’ll fit under more than one
heading).

The two leadership topics I chose to discuss in
relation to my first story were:
• The process of leading change
• Leadership power
You’ll see three of the notes I made: Which topic
do they fit under?
Questions 5, 6, & 7

Question 5
The need for careful planning is shown by the fact that up
to 80% of change initiatives fail (Appelbaum, Habashy,
Malo, & Shafiq, 2012).
ANSWER
PROCESS

Question 6
A narcissistic leadership style is one in which followers
are seen as extension of the leader instead of as
individuals with their own needs and potential (Higgs,
2013).
ANSWER
POWER

Question 7
Leaders cannot work in moral isolation: “if it’s unethical or
immoral, it is not leadership” (Burns, 2003, p. 48).
ANSWER
POWER

Question 8
How many citations were included in this
example paragraph of scholarly critique
based on my leadership story (shown on the
next slide)?

My assumption that I needed to show leadership in order to achieve change is one
which has been widely shared in Management. In fact, the ability to drive forward
necessary organisational change has been seen as the primary function of
leadership, as the leader first defines a future vision, aligns followers with that vision
and provides them with the necessary inspiration for the change to be achieved.
According to this view, my main error was an operational one: a failure to create, a
‘guiding coalition’ in which my main aim at the early stage would be to widen the
circle of colleagues committed to the change. This coalition-building strategy might
also have addressed the powerlessness which I experienced in proposing my
change. My approach had relied on the effectiveness of my claim to expert or
referent power, which I sought to exercise through a display of logic, expertise and
example. The legitimacy of my claim might have been reinforced by showing respect
for the opinions of my team at an early stage, since research has shown that
followers who feel respected by their leader(s) are more likely to be open to their
influence.

My assumption that I needed to show leadership in order to achieve change is one which has been
widely shared in Management. In fact, the ability to drive forward necessary organisational change
has been seen as the primary function of leadership, as the leader first defines a future vision, aligns
followers with that vision and provides them with the necessary inspiration for the change to be
achieved (citation). According to this view, my main error was an operational one: a failure to create,
a ‘guiding coalition’ (citation) in which my main aim at the early stage would be to widen the circle of
colleagues committed to the change. This coalition-building strategy might also have addressed the
powerlessness which I experienced in proposing my change. My approach had relied on the
effectiveness of my claim to expert or referent power (citation), which I sought to exercise through a
display of logic, expertise and example. The legitimacy of my claim might have been reinforced by
showing respect for the opinions of my team at an early stage, since research has shown that
followers who feel respected by their leader(s) are more likely to be open to their influence (citation).
Place citations immediately after the information they support
ANSWER
FOUR

Question 9
What does the text in white on the next slide
refer to?

My assumption that I needed to show leadership in order to achieve
change is one which has been widely shared in Management. In
fact, the ability to drive forward necessary organisational
change has been seen as the primary function of leadership, as
the leader first defines a future vision, aligns followers with that
vision and provides them with the necessary inspiration for the
change to be achieved (citation). According to this view, my
main error was an operational one: a failure to create a “guiding
coalition” (citation) in which my main aim at the early stage would
be to widen the circle of colleagues committed to the change. My
approach had relied on the effectiveness of my claim to expert or
referent power (citation), which I sought to exercise through a
display of logic, expertise and example.

Scholarly critique of experience ‘flip-flops’ between theory and experience.
ANSWER
THEORY
My assumption that I needed to show leadership in order to achieve change is one which has
been widely shared in Management. In fact, the ability to drive forward necessary
organisational change has been seen as the primary function of leadership, as the leader
first defines a future vision, aligns followers with that vision and provides them with the
necessary inspiration for the change to be achieved (citation). According to this view, my
main error was an operational one: a failure to create a “guiding coalition” (citation) in which
my main aim at the early stage would be to widen the circle of colleagues committed to the change.
My approach had relied on the effectiveness of my claim to expert or referent power (citation),
which I sought to exercise through a display of logic, expertise and example.

SUGGESTINGS FOR USING THEORY
The focus of the third paragraph (scholarly critique) should be
on what you learnt about leadership from the experience in
your story.
Use leadership theories as a lens to look through as you
examine your earlier experience from the perspective of
someone who has learnt about leadership.
Explain how certain concepts or findings made you revise your
earlier understanding of what happened.

Question 10
Which kind of language is highlighted in
white on the next slide?

Hedging shows that you understand the difference between theory and fact;
a lot of hedging signals to the reader that you don’t necessarily agree with
the theory you are using and prepares the reader for a counter-argument.
ANSWER
HEDGING
My assumption that I needed to show leadership in order to achieve change is one which has
been widely shared in Management. In fact, the ability to drive forward necessary organisational
change has been seen as the primary function of leadership, as the leader first defines a future
vision, aligns followers with that vision and provides them with the necessary inspiration for the
change to be achieved (citation). According to this view, my main error was an operational one:
a failure to create, a ‘guiding coalition’ (citation) in which my main aim at the early stage would be
to widen the circle of colleagues committed to the change. This coalition-building strategy might
also have addressed the powerlessness which I experienced in proposing my change.

Question 11
What do the phrases highlighted in white on
the next slide indicate?

ANSWER
A NEW UNDERSTANDING OF PAST
EXPERIENCE
However, I have become increasingly uncomfortable with this ‘operational’ model of change
leadership. If ‘creating a coalition’ is reduced to a tactical stage in a change process which has, in
reality, been determined from above, it seems to me both morally and practically impoverished; and
as XXX (citation) points out, “if it’s unethical or immoral, it is not leadership”. My failure, it now
seems to me, was more of an ethical than an operational one: it was not a lack of leadership, but a
lack of followership. Unknowingly, I had what XXX (citation) describes as a narcissistic concept of
leadership, in which the rest of my team were seen, essentially, as extensions of myself, functioning
only to implement a change I had set in motion ….

Question 12
What is the main purpose of the parallel
structures highlighted in white on the next
slide?

ANSWER
THEY CONTRAST MY ORIGINAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE
EXPERIENCE WITH MY CURRENT UNDERSTANDING
(INFORMED BY CRITICAL READING OF THEORY)
My failure, it now seems to me, was more of an ethical than an operational one: it was not a lack
of leadership, but a lack of followership. Unknowingly, I had what XXX (citation) describes as a
narcissistic concept of leadership, in which the rest of my team were seen, essentially, as extensions
of myself, functioning only to implement a change I had set in motion. My problem was not a lack of
power, but the inability to see the power which was already there; distributed among my team
members, rather than concentrated in myself. My attempt to impose my change may actually have
inhibited the power of my team to develop their own change.

SUMMARY
• understanding of Management theories
• ability to view experience through the lens of
Management theories
• learning about yourself through reflection
• learning about the value and / or limitations of
Management theories
Effective scholarly critique of leadership experience provides
evidence of your:

© 2018
This PowerPoint Presentation and the accompanying handouts are
copyrighted by Centre for Teaching and Learning, Massey
University and may not be used, except for personal study,
without written permission from the copyright owner. Please
note that examples are provided for illustration of writing
principles only and no reliance should be placed on any of the
ideas referred to in the texts.
Martin McMorrow, Centre for Teaching and Learning
ctlalb@massey.ac.nz
These slides can be viewed at: tinyurl.com/152707W4

2018 152707 writing workshop 4

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