Syllabus - Mandatory units
Unit 1: Developing Strategic Management and Leadership Skills
Description of unit
This unit provides the learner with an understanding of the links between strategic
management, leadership and organisational direction, and the skills to be able to
apply this understanding.
Summary of outcomes
To achieve this unit a student must:
· Understand the relationship between strategic management and leadership
· Be able to apply management and leadership theory to support organisational direction
· Be able to assess leadership requirements
· Be able to plan the development of leadership skills
Content
Strategic management and leadership: functions of strategic management eg reviewing strategic aims and objectives, improving organisational performance, creating, communicating and implementing change, developing and leading high performance teams, strategic decision making; definitions of leadership eg Mintzberg’s 10 Managerial Roles; followership; direct versus indirect leadership; link between strategic management and leadership eg the skills of the leader to achieve the strategic objectives
Management and leadership style: style eg autocratic, bureaucratic,
charismatic, laissez-faire, persuasive, participative; influences on style eg
culture of organisation, characteristics of the manager/leader; impact of styles on strategic decisions; adapting management and leadership styles in different situations
Theories: universal theories such as Transformational Leadership, Transactional
Leadership (Bennis, Bass), charismatic leadership (Weber, Conger and
Kanungo); contingency theory eg Fiedler; situational theories eg Hersey and
Blanchard, Vroom and Yetton, tri-dimensional leadership theory (Yukl)
Emotional intelligence: influence on leadership effectiveness, drivers;
constrainers and enablers; studies on Emotional Quotient (EQ) eg Goleman,
Higgs and Dulewicz
Applicability to support organisational direction: factors eg efficiency, reliability,
innovation, adaptation and human resources in sectors, organisations and subunits;
size and stage of development of organisation eg business start-up
versus established business; turnaround leadership, cultural issues
Assess leadership requirements: generic challenges eg virtual organisations,
diversity, globalisation, economic climate, world threats, ethics and corporate
social responsibility; e-leadership, mergers and takeovers, restructuring,
integrity leadership, diverse teams, partnerships and alliances, regulatory
compliance, changes in reporting and control, new technology, interim
leadership
Development of leadership skills: different methods of developing leaders
through formal learning, self-help and developmental activities eg training
courses, job rotation, seminars, executive coaching, mentoring, companies’ own
universities, developmental assessment centres, action learning, self-directed
learning, reading articles, partnership with key academics; changing
methodology in leadership development programmes; benefits of self-help
activities eg learning from mistakes, viewing events from multiple perspectives;
developing leaders versus recruiting as needed; creating a learning climate;
model for assessing future leadership requirements eg Council for Excellence in
Leadership and Management diagnostic tools; leadership competencies eg
thinking and acting strategically, emotional intelligence, social intelligence,
ability to learn, systems thinking
Unit 2: Professional Development for Strategic Managers
Description of unit
This unit provides the learner with the methods and techniques to assess the
development of their own skills to support the achievement of strategic direction.
Summary of outcomes
To achieve this unit a student must:
· Be able to assess personal and professional skills required to achieve strategic goals
· Be able to conduct a skills audit to identify learning style
· Be able to implement a personal development plan
Content
Personal skills: time management eg using time effectively, analysing time
spent to improve productivity, setting SMART (specific, measurable, achievable,
realistic, time-based) objectives, prioritising work tasks, dealing with time
wasters, effective delegation; stress management; problem solving; decision
making; effective communication eg active listening, questioning, handling
conflict
Professional skills: counselling and mentoring to support staff with their own
learning and development requirements; coaching skills; leadership skills;
multi-tasking; using occupational standards to identify competencies;
continuing self-development to meet requirements for professional bodies eg
learning new skills and knowledge, developing in current and future job roles;
leading and chairing meetings; delivering effective presentations
Achieving strategic goals: importance eg to ensure that staff can perform their
job effectively, to provide opportunities to meet individual learning needs, to
improve flexibility and adaptability when responding to change, to ensure
business success, to create a learning culture; methods eg using conceptual
tools to identify own strengths and limitations, developing personal networks,
management
Skills audit: to assess skills and competencies against organisational and
personal objectives; personal profile using appropriate self-assessment tools,
psychometric testing, personal SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
threats) analysis – listing strengths, weaknesses, identifying opportunities for
improvement or career progression, identifying threats to progress; assessment
against relevant National Occupational Standards (NOS) and NVQ competence
standards; importance of feedback from others eg peers, line manager,
customers; methods of feedback eg appraisal, supervision, performance review,
mentoring; defining the gap, identifying learning and development needs to
meet strategic objectives
Identify preferred learning style: methods such as learning style inventories and
questionnaires, psychometric testing eg Kolb (converger, diverger, assimilator,
accommodator), Honey and Mumford (activist, reflector, theorist, pragmatist),
Fleming’s VAK/VARK model (visual, auditory, reading/writing, kinesthetic),
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI); criticisms of learning style theories
Personal development plan: importance of having a plan – to provide a
systematic or structured approach to decisions about what is needed to learn
and how to plan to learn it; setting objectives for life and career planning,
identifying resources and support needed and available to meet objectives,
identifying obstacles to achieving objectives and how to overcome them,
reviewing and monitoring plan; the importance of self-review, providing a
reflective record of management experience; gaining support from others to
achieve goals and work objectives
Monitoring and evaluation: importance of keeping a working document; to help
manage learning; to evaluate progress of achievement towards goals; to
become a critical, self-directed learner; to develop a clear understanding of
strengths and areas for development of leadership skills; review on regular
basis; compare achievements against original objectives, reflect on learning,
record results, agree whether objectives were achieved or not, set date for next
review; set new objectives when others have been achieved
Unit 3: Strategic Change Management
Description of unit
This unit provides the learner with the understanding and skills to support active
engagement in the process of strategic change management.
Summary of outcomes
To achieve this unit a student must:
· Understand the background to organisational strategic change
· Understand issues relating to strategic change in an organisation
· Be able to lead stakeholders in developing a strategy for change
· Be able to plan to implement models for ensuring ongoing change
Content
Models: John P Kotter's eight steps to successful change; Kübler-Ross five
stages transition (grief) cycle; Prosci’s five building blocks ADKAR (awareness,
desire, knowledge, ability, reinformcement) model; McKinsey’s 7S (strategy,
structure, systems, shared values, skills, style, staff) framework; Kurt Lewin’s
change management model - unfreeze, transition and refreeze; Burke-Litwin’s
causal change model; action research; gap analysis
Strategic interventions: teambuilding consensus and conflict, game play,
contingency theory, autocratic versus participative style, proactive and reactive,
creating synergy; human process interventions; techno-structural interventions;
human resources management interventions; organisational and external
environment interventions
Need for change: reasons for change eg changes in markets, economic
downturns, changes in global markets, customer expectations, competitive
edge, budget pressures, legislation, size, demographics, mergers, acquisitions,
change in mission, restructuring operations, new technologies, major
collaborations, rightsizing, new programmes such as Total Quality Management
(TQM), re-engineering
Factors driving the change: change drivers eg economics, political factors,
environmental, financial pressures, new markets, loss of markets, technological
advances, transition to a new chief executive, funding cuts, need to be
competitive
Resource implication: human resources eg restructuring, interviewing and
hiring, redundancies, training; physical resources eg equipment, vehicles,
buildings; financial resources eg costs of training, redundancy costs, relocation
costs; new building, refurbishment of existing buildings
Systems to involve stakeholders: stakeholder analysis, systems modelling,
systems and sub-systems, input transformation-output modelling, multiple
cause diagrams, ‘tropics’ factors, configuration, divergence and convergence,
functional and divisional structures, cultural web, images of organisations, team
development, influencing skills, awareness raising, commitment development
Involving stakeholders in the change management strategy: six steps
stakeholder circle (identify stakeholders, prioritise stakeholders, map their
profiles, develop an engagement strategy, optimise their support, monitor
changes); methods of involvement eg dialogue with individuals and groups,
meetings, presentations, group facilitation, team building, coaching, delegating,
developing and sharing a change plan
Resistance to change: types of resistance eg individual versus collective,
passive versus active, direct versus indirect, behavioural versus verbal or
attitudinal, minor versus major, resistance to the content of change, resistance
to the process of change.
Strategies: eg open communications, education, involvement, forums, listening
to stakeholders, feedback, addressing needs, ownership of the change, change
champions, communicate the vision, getting the support of all key
Plan to develop appropriate models for change: choice of appropriate model eg
John P Kotter's eight steps to successful change; Kübler-Ross five stages
transition (grief) cycle; Prosci’s five building blocks ADKAR (awareness, desire,
knowledge, ability, reinforcement) model; McKinsey’s 7S (strategy, structure,
systems, shared values, skills, style, staff) framework; Kurt Lewin’s change
management model - unfreeze, transition and refreeze; Burke-Litwin’s causal
change model; action research; gap analysis
Plan to implement a model for change: organisational development, Business
Process Re-Engineering (BPR), learning organisation, Kaizen, delayering and
right-sizing, matrix organisations, network organisations, adhocracy, virtual
organisation, push and pull strategies, conflict handling, transformational
leadership, empowerment, consultation, contextual planning, contingency
planning, adjustments, flexibility
Develop appropriate measures to monitor progress: eg goal-based evaluation,
process-based evaluation, outcome-based evaluation, regular reports,
meetings, quality circles, progress reviews, milestones, deadlines
|