Adaptive challenges Assignment

Adaptive challenges Assignment

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Adaptive challenges Assignment
Adaptive challenges Assignment

Adaptive challenges Assignment

Adaptive challenges can only be met through adaptive leadership. The first activity of adaptive leadership is observing patterns and events. The goal here is to remain as objective as possible. The Harvard researchers suggest that leaders step “on the balcony” in order to improve their powers of observation. In this technique, they imagine themselves standing on a balcony watching the action below, describing what they see. The second activity of adaptive leader- ship is interpreting observations. Leaders come up with as many interpreta- tions or explanations as possible to account for the behaviors and patterns they noted during the observation phase. Like social scientists, they develop hypotheses to explain the data they have collected, considering such factors as body language, emotions, values, and loyalties.

The third activity of adaptive leadership is developing interventions. Lead- ers address the challenges they identified through the interpretation process, tentatively testing out their interpretations or hypotheses through a series of experiments. For example, colleges venturing into online education often begin by developing hybrid courses (those that meet in person and online) and by offering a few online courses at first.

Adaptive leaders help expand the adaptive capacity of their organizations. Those groups that develop significant adaptive capacity are better equipped to

Hackman-Johnson 6E.book Page 246 Tuesday, March 12, 2013 12:54 PM
Leadership in Organizations 247

deal with the significant challenges that will arise in the future. The five quali- ties of an adaptive organization are:

1. Name the elephants in the room. At many organizations, difficult issues are seldom raised in public meetings. Instead, the issues are discussed in offices and at the coffee machine before and after public gatherings. Members of adaptive organizations, on the other hand, raise sensitive issues and allow subordinates to challenge authorities in public ses- sions. As a result, crises are identified early and the “elephants” are addressed. Former Intel CEO Andy Grove, for example, attributes much of the company’s success to the organization’s “paranoid” vigi- lance in scanning for problems and opportunities. Leaders encourage followers to name the elephants by modeling questioning behavior and by protecting troublemakers.

2. Share responsibility for the organization’s future. In highly adaptive organi- zations, members look beyond their immediate work groups and take ownership for the entire organization. They work with people in other departments and form cross-functional teams. To nurture a sense of shared responsibility, leaders base rewards on the performance of the organization as a whole, promote the sharing of information, make sure that those given positions of authority have worked in a variety of departments or divisions, and institute job shadowing.

3. Value independent judgment. Meeting adaptive challenges is more likely when followers don’t expect their leaders to have all the answers. Rather, both leaders and followers argue their positions and are will- ing to change their minds in the face of new evidence. In addition, responsibility for decision making and idea generation is given to those at lower levels of the organization. Adaptive leaders strive to make themselves dispensable by giving work to others, by encouraging followers to become leaders, and by helping constituents tolerate ambiguity or uncertainty.

4. Build leadership capacity. Leadership development is essential to building adaptive capacity. Such development includes selecting the right employees, providing on-the-job guidance, and creating succession plans. Adaptive leaders make sure that employees have an opportunity to lead on the job. They also create individualized leadership develop- ment plans for followers and require that managers have succession plans in place.

5. Institutionalize reflection and continuous learning. Adaptive organizations emphasize ongoing learning and experimentation. Their leaders con- sider the perspectives of frontline people when making strategic choices, hold retreats and off site meetings, provide coaching and sab- baticals for managers, encourage reflection, and foster communication across organizational boundaries. In order to institutionalize learning, adaptive leaders ask difficult questions like “What are the gaps between where we are and where we want to be?” They run lots of small experi- ments on an ongoing basis and reward those who take risks.
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASSDiscussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.