Essay 360 Feedback

You are asked to evaluate your managerial skills and create a plan for developing them in the future, in an essay format.

Instructions

In a critical essay you are asked to present your viewpoint and to argue for it. This means giving evidence or justification for your conclusions, and being clear where the evidence or arguments are uncertain or raise further questions.

You should draw on learning from the text and class activities, discussions with others, and relevant academic references.

Include the following sections:

1) An Introduction stating the structure of your essay (about 300 words).

2) A brief review of relevant literature to show your understanding of what an effective manager is (about 1,000 words citing at least 3 non-textbook references in addition to the textbook).

3) An evaluation of your skills and competences for managing (about 750 words), including: a. A “360º” evaluation from four short interviews about your management practice or skills with people from different areas of your life including your manager, work colleagues or subordinates, and friends, family or classmates. Use open questions where possible to avoid leading them towards your preferred answers (closed ones are ok for specific questions). A summary of the discussions can be presented in an Appendix – present only the main themes and interesting points in the essay.

1. An analysis of your skills and competences relevant to management, using questionnaires and quizzes provided in class. Reference these (by url if not published), and think critically about the results. Detailed results can go in an Appendix.

4) A plan for your management development, specifying what skills or competences you will focus on, how and when you will learn them, and how you will know you have learned them (about 700 words).

5) A Conclusion (about 250 words).

6) A Reference list (not included in word count).

7) Any Appendices (not included in word count).

Present your essay professionally – how you express yourself on paper reflects your self-image as a manager. You can discuss your work with classmates and share readings and ideas.

#1. The introduction

• Introduce the subject of this essay: Use key terms such as effectivemanagement, skills and competencies.
• Indicate that the essay is personal and reflective in its approach. Use 1^st person voice ( I, me, my, mine)
• Outline the structure of the essay, giving an indication of the sections that will follow the introduction.
• Word length approx. 300 words.

Parts #2 and #3

You can choose which order to do these in.

• Example 1. Start with a review of literature and identify some of the many skills and competencies required by managers. Use this research to help you decide which quizzes and questionnaires you want to include and which questions you want to ask in your interviews.

Example 2. Start with quizzes and questionnaires (or interviews) and then learn more about the skills and competencies you identified there by searching in the management literature.

 

#2. Review of literature

• In this section show your understanding of what an effective manager is, according to the sources you have read. Write approx. 1000 words.
• This part of the assignment can be in 3^rd person as it is not personal to you.
• Cite a minimum of 3 non-textbook references.
• Narrow your focus to concentrate on 2 or 3 skills and competencies This will help you to be more analytical and less descriptive.

Choose skills and competencies that match those identified in the evaluation section. Build cohesion

#3. Evaluation of skills and competencies

This section has two parts:

1. An analysis of 4 short interviews about your management practices or skills.
2. An analysis of your skills and competencies in management from questionnaires and quizzes.

Word count for #3 is about 750 words.

In this section you are collecting independent evidence about yourself . You are trying to build a picture of your management skills and competencies.

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# Interviews

• Interview 4 people from different areas of your life.
• The interviews don’t need to be long. Focus on the skills and competencies that you identified in the review of literature and (if you have done them already) the quizzes.
• Put the questions and answers in an appendix.
• Comment on main themes and insights that emerged from your interviews in the main text of your essay. This might include feedback from interviewees that surprised you or feedback that confirmed what you already knew about yourself.
• Reference your interviews following.

# Interview Questions

• Closed questions = questions that can be answered with a single word or short phrase.

– Do you think I am a good decision maker?

– Am I a good communicator?

• Open questions = questions that require a longer answer

– Could you please comment on my decision making skills?– How would you describe my communication skills?

Open questions provide more information but closed questions can be useful for factual information. Open questions ask the respondent to think and reflect; and to give opinions.

# In-class quizzes

• Choose 3 or 4 in-class quizzes or questionnaires. Include a copy of the results in an appendix.
• Reference your quizzes (by URL if not published).
• Think critically about the results. What do the results suggest? For example:

– If some of the quizzes cover common ground, are the results consistent? If not, what does this mean? Are thequizzes reliable?

– Do the results of the quizzes agree with the feedback from the interviews? What does this mean?

#4. The plan

• The plan is about your management development.
• You should be specific. You need to say

– which skills/competencies you want to develop.

– how and when you will learn them.

– how you will know that you have learned them.

• Word length – approx. 700 words

#5 Conclusion

Your conclusion should bring your essay to a close by summarising the key points in approx.250 words.

Why was this reflective task undertaken?

Where did you get your information/evidence?

How consistent is the evidence?

What did you learn? Did it surprise you or confirm   what you already knew?

What you intend to do with that knowledge and why?