Topic: essence of leadership.
(Transformational leadership, trust and leadership, motivation, leadership and delegations, learning to be a better leadership)

Task : a critical essay of 2000 to 3000 words (draft of the final paper) which integrates theory and practice. The assignment must include a clear structure with abstract, list of references, appendices, and diagrammatic representation where appropriate. You must make appropriate use of journal articles, research papers and texts.

The assignment must contain:

1. A critical literature review of key theories of the nature and exercise of leadership in organisations (40% of the available marks)
2. A critical evaluation of the behaviour of selected leaders that you have encountered in the course of your career, in relation to a range of theories of leadership (40% of the available marks)
3. A summary of the learning you can take from this assignment for your own practice and development as a leader (20% of the available marks)

To preserve confidentiality, please anonymise the organisation or organisations you discuss in the assignment, eg by calling them Company X, or Governmental Organisation Y, or International Organisation Z. Similarly, where you write about private individuals, call them manager A, or leader B.

Note the mark allocations to each part of the assignment.

For part two of the assignment, you should include a brief explanation of how you know about the behaviour of the leaders you are discussing: for example, did you work for them? Or alongside them? If so, for how long? In order to enable you to undertake a thorough analysis, you are advised to discuss only two, or at most three, individuals. Make sure that you analyse their behaviour in relation to published theories of leadership.

For part three of the assignment, you should include specific points about what you will do to develop your leadership capabilities.

To preserve confidentiality, please anonymise the organisation or organisations you discuss in the assignment, eg by calling them Company X, or Governmental Organisation Y, or International Organisation Z. Similarly, where you write about private individuals, call them manager A, or leader B.

N.B. The word count will include quotations but exclude footnotes, bibliography, appendices, tables and graphs. Appendices will not count against the word limit but should not contain large amounts of text. If you exceed the wordcount by more than 10%, you will be penalised.