Please find the attached - Shrewd Writers

ASSIGNMENT1

Leabhair agus Caife – Book Shop (Spring 2022)

Background

Leabhair agus Caife (from the Irish meaning ‘Books and Coffee’) is a small independent chain of bookstores with operations in Galway City, Dingle in Co Kerry and Letterkenny in Co Donegal. It was established by Sylvester O’Sullivan in Galway City in 1985 and was simply known at that time as O’Sullivan’s Bookshop.

Sylvester was born and raised in the Connemara Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking area) in Co Galway and graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 1979 with a degree in English and Irish. After graduating he worked in various fields including as a labourer on a motorway in England, as a barista in a coffee house in Rome, as a stable hand with a racehorse trainer in Co Kildare and finally as a junior editor with a publisher in Dublin. In 1985 he unexpectedly came into a small inheritance from an aunt in Philadelphia, his mother’s sister who had emigrated to the USA in the 1950s. She had started out as a seamstress there but eventually had established a successful dressmaking business. The money enabled the young Sylvester to buy a small rundown barber’s shop in a side street off Shop Street in Galway’s city centre and start up a business as a bookseller – something he had always dreamed of doing. He also got married that year to Olivia, a Colombian girl, whom he had met while working as a barista in Rome. Olivia runs the coffee shop side of the business.

The bookshop stocked popular titles in English from authors from across the English-speaking world; it also had a smaller section of works in Irish. Although Sylvester believed it would not be economically feasible to stock books of a specialist nature, he put up a sign in the shop window offering to seek out and supply any book on any subject at the request of customers. Not long after opening the shop quite by chance the poet, Seamus Heaney, happened to walk into the book shop asking if he had a copy of Beowulf. Heaney was staying with friends outside Galway and had taken a fancy to re-read the Anglo-Saxon classic saga. Sylvester told him that he didn’t have a copy in the shop but would endeavour to have one for him by the next day. When Heaney left, he immediately rang around all the booksellers he knew across Ireland and located a battered old copy in Mullingar. That evening, after he had closed the shop, he drove to Mullingar to collect the book. When Seamus Heaney arrived the next day, he was very impressed by such good service and they got talking. When he realised that Sylvester was only starting up, he offered to do a poetry reading and a book signing in the shop. This was the start of several similar readings and signings by Heaney and led to Sylvester being able to attract other writers to undertake similar ventures – popular writers like Maeve Binchy, Eileen Keyes as well as literary figures like Sebastian Barry and Joseph O’Sullivan, and Booker Prize winners like Roddy Doyle, Anne Enright and Anna Burns.

So the business thrived and by the mid-1990s Sylvester was able to move to bigger premises on Shop Street itself and then to open bookshops in Limerick and Cork. The bookshops became well known for the readings and book signings he organised as well as for special events for children with well-known children’s authors like Eilis Dillon, Marita Conlon-McKenna and John Boyne. These continue to be a feature of the business’s success and only last summer JK Rowling visited the shop while on holiday and offered to do a signing of her next book.

In the early 2000s, at Olivia’s suggestion, each of the bookshops added a small coffee shop where customers are able to peruse copies of whatever books are currently most in demand while enjoying a coffee and a scone. She got the idea on a visit to Boston where she was impressed by bookstores which had coffee shops on their premises, At the same time the stores underwent a rebranding and became Leabhair agus Caife (which in English means ‘Books and Coffee’). Sylvester, a native Irish Gaelic speaker, was keen to give the business a distinctly Irish identity, especially as Galway is the gateway to the Gaeltacht Irish-speaking area) of Connemara. The other two bookstores in Dingle and Letterkenny are also based in or near to the Irish-speaking Gaeltacht areas of Kerry and Donegal.

By 2005, the three bookshops, although still essentially a small enterprise, were employing 50 people, one of whom was engaged in dealing with orders from abroad – especially from the UK, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Germany and Scandinavia – as well as, and increasingly, from the US. These orders were primarily from individuals who had visited the shop whilst on holiday and who wrote directly to the shop to order books.

The bookshop weathered the recession of the late 2000s largely because of its niche nature in the bookselling market but also because Sylvester was careful to plough a significant segment of the profits back into the business. Sylvester prides himself on offering every customer who contacts the any of the stores, whether in person, by phone or by email or otherwise remotely, a personal and individually customised experience, whether they are seeking to buy one book or stock a home library. It has remained an independent, privately owned business which has given Sylvester and his family a comfortable living.

In the early 2010s Sylvester brought in his son and daughter as directors of what has remained a family firm. His daughter, Máire (33), who has a degree in Business Studies from University College Dublin and who later took a MSc in International Business at Griffith College Dublin, now oversees the financial and administrative side of the business; his son, Pádraig (31), who studied Marketing at DCU, is responsible for the marketing, buying and distribution side of the business as well as for online sales, having persuaded his father to develop their own website. Pádraig is keen to expand and ‘modernise’ the business. He has proposed greater investment in the online presence and believes they should proactively be seeking to grow the business across the EU, especially in those countries, primarily those mentioned above, which all have large numbers of English speakers. He also wants to expand the business in the US where he believes they should be tapping much more into the Irish American market. And with Brexit now a reality he has also been trying to persuade his father to open an outlet in Belfast so that they can continue to access the UK market; customers from England, Scotland and Wales have for long been a key element of the operation’s success.

Máire and Pádraig have also persuaded their father to consider diversifying the firm’s range of merchandise by adding Irish linen and lace, Arran knitwear and Celtic-themed gold and silver jewellery, items which can be easily shipped and which are particularly popular with American customers.

Sylvester is a bit wary of his children’s plans, what he calls their ‘big ideas’, having seen several bookshops he knows well in small towns across Ireland close their doors. He is often heard to say, “What’s put food on the table all these years is books – not fancy gifts or cups of coffee! His management style has always been very traditional and paternalistic; he is very respectful towards his employees, many of whom have been with him for a long time, and values their loyalty but he believes the business is ‘his baby’ and that he is responsible for its success or failure. He is reluctant to lose control of it; as a result he rejected lucrative offers to take over the business from chain bookstores like UK booksellers Waterstones and US firm Barnes and Noble. He has often been heard to say: ‘I built this business up from nothing and I’ve had all sorts of people telling me to do this and to do that. I’ve ignored them all and we’re still going strong while I’ve watched other bookshops up and down the country fold and die. So let’s make sure we don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.’

However, Sylvester is now planning to retire and has agreed that the business will now need to find a new CEO. Neither Máire nor Pádraig wishes to take over from him as managing director. Máire has two young children and likes to work no more than three days a week whilst Pádraig plays in a rock band and is often away on tours and does not wish to take on the responsibility of running the company full-time. However, all three will remain on the Board of Directors.

They have appointed the HR consultancy firm (Top People Recruitment), for which you work as a graduate entry trainee, to seek suitable candidates for the new post of CEO through a call for applications as well as through headhunting. As assistant to the consultancy partner, Helen Reilly, who is overseeing this recruitment, you have been helping her undertake the task of conducting initial face to face interviews with a longlist of over twenty applicants; together you have honed this down to a shortlist of three candidates to be called for final interviews. As directed by Helen you have put together a report on each of these three candidates which has been circulated to your boss and to each of the three Directors (see below). Although these three candidates will be formally interviewed by your boss and the three family Directors, with you present to take notes, they have made it clear during a recent meeting that they want you to give your opinion as to which candidate you would recommend to them. They have asked you to present a report on the day before the formal interviews.

Pádraig, who still believes the company’s image is quite old-fashioned, has also asked you to include in your report a new vision, mission statement and values for the company; this will be put to candidates during the interviews for their comments. He has also asked you draw up a SWOT analysis relating to the proposal to establish a second operation in Belfast. And with a Green Week planned for Galway in the Spring of 2022 he has asked you to come up with ideas for the bookshop to promote it.

Máire, not to be outdone by her brother, said that it would be important for you to identify very clearly the strengths and weaknesses of your recommended candidate and has asked you to propose a professional and personal development plan for him/her for the period of the next three years for the Directors to scrutinise. She has also asked that you identify the five key challenges facing the successful candidate over the same period.

Your boss has indicated that she has been very happy with your work to date and that there is every possibility of a fulltime post with Top People Recruitment once your traineeship comes to an end in three months’ time but that it will all hang now on the quality of the report for the O’Sullivan family. So this is a make or break for your career as well as for Leabhair agus Caife!

Therefore, you are required to provide a power point presentation as follows:

A Power Point presentation with a minimum of 20 Slides and a maximum of 31 slides (excluding the bibliography and references), in which you cover the following items:

1. An Executive Summary of your key recommendations. (This is a crucial element of the presentation as it demonstrates the ability to communicate information clearly and concisely). (1-2 Slides)

2. A list of the key criteria (knowledge, skills and attributes) which you believe the new CEO should possess with a clear explanation as to why each criterion has been chosen. It is not enough to simply give a list. You should provide 10 criteria and give each criterion a score so that the total adds up to 100. Scores for each criterion are likely to vary depending upon the importance you attach to it; (i.e. they do not all need to be worth 10 points. (2-3 Slides)

3. A list of discriminatory factors which ought not to be considered in the selection decision with a full explanation as to why certain factors should not be considered. (1 slide)

4. A slide on each candidate showing how they score against your criteria with a full explanation of why you have given each score. (3 – 6 Slides)

5. State clearly which candidate you believe would be the best ‘fit’ for the position of CEO. Justify your decision. (2-3 Slides)

6. Undertake a SWOT analysis of the proposal to establish a second bookshop in Belfast. (1-2 Slides).

7. A draft Vision, Mission Statement and Statement of Values for Leabhair agus Caife for the candidates to comment upon as part of the second interview process. (3-4 Slides)

8. Suggestions for promoting the ‘Green’ credentials of Leabhair agus Caife(1 – 2 Slides)

9. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of your proposed candidate and draw up an outline plan for his/her personal and professional development suggesting the areas for development which you believe that person should undertake over the next three years. You also need to give the costs of any suggested training. (3 Slides)

10. Identify thekey challenges which you believe will face the new CEO over the next three years. (1-2 Slides)

11. Bibliography and references. (Slides as required)

Communication and self-reflection (2-3 Slides) (10% of the overall module grade is for the overall standard of communication in evidence throughout the assignment and for a critical self- assessment of your work.

In reflecting on your work you should provide answers to the following questions:

What have you learned about leadership and management in completing the assignment?

(e.g. You will have made an initial choice of candidate on reading the material based on first impressions – we all do, it is a normal human reaction – but did that remain your final choice or did your view change after going through the process in detail?)

Which area or areas did you find the most enjoyable and why?
Which area or areas did you find the most difficult and why ?
What challenges did you face in completing the assignment?
Which material and sources did you find most useful and/or interesting and why?

Assessment Criteria:	*% of Marks Allocated*
Executive summary. Quality of structure and presentation with good supporting evidence.	10
Key criteria demonstrating an analysis of the knowledge, skills and attributes required for the role; a score for each criterion	10
Identify non-relevant factors and explain why these should not be considered	2
Scoring of each candidate with explanation	15
Justification for your recommendation.	5
SWOT Analysis of new Belfast business proposal	5
Draft vision, mission statement and statement of values which demonstrate an understanding of the role these play in a modern business environment.	10
Suggestions for Promoting the ‘Green’ credentials of LaC	5
Identification of strengths and weaknesses and areas for development and suggestions for a personal and leadership development plan to cover the first three years of the successful candidate’s time in the new role. You should provide details how and where the development will take place as well as an indication of the costs. You should refer to course concepts as well as use practical knowledge and ideas and this area of your report should demonstrate evidence of reflective thinking in relation to learning and development.	10
Outline what you believe will be the key challenges for the new CEO	5
Bibliography and references Bib & Refs 3% Correct acknowledgement of sources, Harvard Referencing as appropriate.	3
Creative elements of the presentation (see below) *10% Creative elements evident throughout the report.	10
Communication and self- reflection 10% (see below) **	10

* Creativity and innovation are skills are at a premium in business and public life. This is your opportunity to demonstrate your own creative skills and secure an offer of permanent employment. These skills will be evident in your power point presentations (in terms of your ideas as well as in your use of written, graphic and illustrative material – so do endeavour to make your presentations visually as well as intellectually appealing).

** Leadership and Management is characterised by high level communication skills as well as the ability to be aware of your own behaviour and of your strengths and weaknesses. These skills will be evident in your presentation. Listening is one of the most important skills for a leader. How well you have listened during classes and in the Assignment Workshop will be reflected in your final piece of work.

The Assignment Brief in Detail Your presentation should be in the following format and should be produced to a professionalstandard– a document capable of being presented to the Board of Directors of Leabhair agus Caife.

A Title Page, including number of slides and overall word count

Executive summary. Quality of structure and presentation with good supporting evidence.

Key criteria demonstrating an analysis of the knowledge, skills and attributes required for the role; a score for each criterion.

Elements not to be taken into account with an explanation

Scoring of each candidate with reasons for your scores

Explanation of your choices. Justification for your recommendation.

SWOT Analysis which demonstrates an understanding of the role these play in a modern business environment

Vision, mission statement and statement of values which demonstrate an understanding of the role these play in a modern business environment.

Suggestions for improving the ’Green’ image of Leabhair agus Caife

Identification of areas for development and suggestions for a personal and leadership development plan using course concepts and practical knowledge and ideas showing evidence of reflective thinking in relation to learning and development.

Outline of what you believe will be the key challenges facing the new CEO

Bibliography and references

Self-reflection

Supporting Notes

Before preparing your answer, read all the assignment tasks and background notes VERY carefully. Attention to detail is a key management skill. You may lose marks if you do not follow the brief.
Take note of where questions/sections are linked.
Attend the Assignment Preparation Workshop. This is an important event as it will give you an opportunity to ‘walk through’ the tasks with your lecturer and discuss your planned approach and report with your fellow students. Students may be penalised for non or partial attendance.
DO make reference to LMD terminology and theories throughout your answers as appropriate and provide suitable citations and references at the end, in the agreed GBS format.
Module material need only be referenced; copying large sections is unnecessary and will gain no marks. (You have limited space for your own work).
Tailor your efforts according to the allocation of marks.
Feel free to use diagrams, graphs, pie charts or any other illustrative material.
All diagrams must be clearly readable when included in the report and presentation i.e. it is acceptable to submit scanned images.
Read though your work through before submitting it.
A soft copy of your report (without cover sheet) should be uploaded to Moodle for Turn it in by the assigned date on the evening before the submission date. If you cannot submit to Moodle for any reason you must email a soft copy so that your lecturer can upload it to Moodle.
Ensure that you submit the presentation with a signed cover sheet/disclaimer.

Plagiarism

If you take material from the module materials or elsewhere and incorporate it in your answer word for word, you mustindicate where you have taken it from. Not to do so is termed ‘plagiarism’ and is regarded as an infringement of copyright. To attempt to pass off such work as your own is cheating and is considered academic misconduct. You must therefore acknowledge all your sources of information. All assignments submitted will be checked using collusion and plagiarism-checking software. If the result of this check indicates that you have included third-party material without proper indication and acknowledgement, then the work will be given a mark of 1 and will be referred to the Faculty.

Submission deadline

You must ensure that your assignment is submitted on the deadline date via turnitin no later than the evening before the cut-off time and date.

If there are good reasons why you cannot meet a cut-off date and you need an extension, you must contact the Faculty Office to request permission for an extension. To do so, please apply (via the GBS Administrator at gbs@griffith.ie) to the Head of the Graduate Business School for the extension.

Lecturers have no discretion in granting extensions for assignments and the Faculty will do so only in exceptional circumstances.

Learning Outcomes and Lectures

For this assignment you will need to refer in particular to Learning Outcomes 1 – 6 and Lectures 1 – 6.

Overall length of presentation
Each assignment part is given an indicative slide count, which you should follow. Your answer should not exceed this significantly although you may use some extra slides in the form of an appendix.
A limit is applied to motivate you to demonstrate the skills of focusing on a question and of answering it concisely. Both skills are expected of students at this level of study.
Answers which exceed the recommended limits and/or are overly long may be penalised; your lecturer has the discretion to award no more than 70% of the marks available, however good the answer. In such cases your marker may only skim read the excess content and mark it by impression.
The guide length for each part of the report is given in the assignment task.
Included within the slide count are: all text; lists and bullet-pointed sentences; tables, graphs, and other illustrative material.

Leabhair agus Caife (formerly trading as O’Sullivan’s Bookshop) is a book business with its headquarters based in Galway City which currently employs 22 full-time and 29 part-time staff. Leabhair agus Caifemarkets its products primarily in Ireland and the UK but also does some mail order business, and increasingly online trading as well, in several European countries and in the US.

A recent report in the business press described the business as follows: ‘Leabhair agus Caife is a small but profitable and very highly regarded book business which we believe is capable of growth under the right management. With the retirement of the founder, Sylvester O’Sullivan, expected any time soon there are rumours that it may decide to expand and perhaps undertake a flotation. This is one to watch.’

The stated aims of the company according to one of the family business’s Directors, Pádraig, are:

to continue to grow in its traditional markets
to develop a new rangeofmerchandise
to develop a new more modern but still traditionally Irish image with an emphasis on its ‘green’ climate-respecting credentials
to break into new markets in the UK, EU and US
the company is also considering developing another retail outlet in Belfast.

Candidate Profiles

Candidate 1

Robert Gill is Head of Sales with the online book business, Book It, a medium sized enterprise based just outside Ireland’s second city, Cork. He has been with the company for four years. Prior to that he worked for Amazon UK and before that again he was with a tech start up in Dublin. He was born and brought up in Cork and completed a primary degree in Commerce (BComm) at University College Cork Business School, achieving an Upper Second Class Honours degree. He has a reputation for being very bright and is said to have just missed out on achieving First Class Honours, primarily it is said owing to ‘an overactive social life.’ He also has a MSc in International Business from Griffith College in Dublin, which he undertook when the start-up collapsed owing to lack of funding.

He is a member of the Marketing Institute of Ireland and, as he has a good sense of humour, is often called upon to speak at dinners and events hosted by the Institute because his talks are guaranteed to be entertaining. He also represents Ireland on the Board of the European Federation of Marketing Associations.

People talk about Robert as being the type of person who will either make CEO or become Managing Director of his own company someday. In all his performance reviews he has been rated very highly for his social ability and for innovation and creativity. It was his suggestion to change the name of Brilliant Books to the more ‘catchy’ Book It (essentially a play on words referring to the phrase ‘Look it’ commonly used in Ireland). However, he is known to become irritable when things do not go his way. One member of his team was reduced to tears for delivering a report a day late.

He won an internal competition in 2017 to rebrand the company, formerly known as Brilliant Books, as Book It. His presentation to the Board at the time was regarded as one of the best it had ever seen. His wit and sense of humour during the presentation even brought a smile to the notoriously serious and dour Chair of the Board, James Smith.

A letter of reference from his former boss at Amazon described Robert as ‘very bright, full of ideas, confident and cooperative and gets on well with everybody’.

In a study carried out just over a year ago by external consultants Robert scored very highly among the directors and senior management team in terms of leadership abilities.

Robert is a keen Rugby Player who played at Fly Half for Presentation College in Cork and now helps out on the coaching side. He is married with two children, a boy aged 7 and a girl aged 3. His son has been diagnosed with autism and Robert now organises charity rugby matches to raise money for the Shine Centre for Autism in Cork.

Candidate 2

Fiona McCleod-Traoré is currently Head of Acquisitions with Liverpool City Council’s Public Libraries Service.

She was born on the Hebridean island of North Uist in Scotland, where Scottish Gaelic is the first language. She studied for a BA in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at the University of Cambridge, where she achieved a First Class Honours degree. She then undertook a Masters degree in the Department of Library Sciences at Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA, graduating with Distinction. She worked as a tutor on the University’s English Literature and Creative Writing Programmes for some years before joining the publishing group, Little Brown and Company, based in its Young Readers Department in New York City. She progressed rapidly to become a Copy Editor and then a Commissioning Editor. During her time at Little Brown she was one of only two middle managers to be sent by the company to attend a Leadership Program at Harvard Business School.

When the French publisher Hachette took over Little Brown in 2016 she moved to a more senior commissioning role at their headquarters in Paris before moving back to the UK to become Head of Acquisitions with Liverpool Public Libraries in late 2017.

She is quietly ambitious and can be competitive, sometimes a little aloof, but also very loyal. Her team would do anything for her. She regularly hosts dinners for colleagues and members of her teams and is a cordon bleu chef. She also often invites members of her team to social events at her tennis club.

One of the Senior Managers at Hachette, when he heard that she was leaving to take up the post in Liverpool, was heard to remark to the Director of Human Resources: ‘I’m so sorry to hear that Fiona will be leaving us. She has easily the best mind of anyone I have worked with and the ideal combination of intelligence, drive and authenticity necessary to lead a team of professionals. I had hoped that she would stay and succeed me when I retire in a few years’ time.’

She is a very sporty person who has a Cambridge Blue in Athletics; she clocked record times in the 400m and 800m events. She still enjoys running and takes part in one marathon every year. She is a keen cyclist and also plays tennis and is treasurer of her local tennis club.

Fiona is single, has no children and says she lives for her work. She was engaged to Matthew, a professional cricket player from Barbados who played with Lancashire County Cricket Club and the West Indies but was tragically drowned two years ago whilst attempting to rescue a child who had fallen into the sea in Morecambe in stormy weather.

She is fluent in French, a native Gaelic speaker and has a competent level of German.

Candidate 3

Eileen Fitzpatrick was, until recently, joint owner of an independent bookshop in Belfast with her husband, David, whom she married shortly after finishing university in 2005. They sold the business for an undisclosed sum to the Waterstones chain but it was said to have been an extremely good offer and one that ‘they would have been mad to refuse’.

Eileen started her career with Waterstones after graduating from the University of Ulster with a First-Class Honours degree in Business Studies. She worked her way up to become Head of Sales before moving to a similar but better paid role with Eason’s in Dublin.

In 2013 she was involved in a car accident which left her with serious injuries. However, she resolved not to let it affect her life or career. Indeed in 2015, with the compensation she received – the blame for the accident was deemed to be entirely with the other driver – she and her husband, a Financial Controller with Belfast City Council, bought a failing independent bookshop in Belfast (below market value rumour has it) and over the next four years they turned the business around, achieving year on year double digit annual increases in sales. Part of the turnaround was down to a decision to diversify into internet sales and to host book signings, poetry readings and musical evenings at the shop.

Whist she was recovering from the accident she enrolled for the MPhil in Creative Writing at Trinity College, Dublin and wrote a book of stories for children which was accepted for publication by the O’Brien Press and was subsequently shortlisted in the Children’s category of the An Post Irish Book Awards.

She has been described by a senior colleague with whom she worked at Eason’s ‘as intelligent, self-confident as well as dogged and determined. She’s resilient. It takes a lot to come back from the kind of setback she suffered. And don’t be fooled by that beautiful smile – she can be ruthless if she needs to be. But she is always reliable and true to her word. I would trust her without any hesitation whatsoever’

Her reference from Waterstone’s stated: ‘Eileen has the self-motivation, social intelligence and downright dogged sales ability to turn a profit on anything she turns her hand to.’

Eileen was a keen show jumper and point to point horse rider prior to her accident. She still takes a keen interest in horses and is secretary of her local pony club. She took up sailing in 2016 and is known to be a very competitive sailor, having been skipper of a crew of 6 who came second out of 21 entries in the Round Ireland Race in 2018.

She has two children, a girl of 11 and a boy of 9. The family has a holiday home in Spain and she is currently attending a private tutor to improve her spoken Spanish. She also has a basic command of Irish having studied it at school to ‘A’ level where she attended summer schools in the Irish-speaking Donegal Gaeltacht.

	Candidate Profiles (based on analysis of CV and first interview)
	Name	Robert	Fiona	Eileen
	Gender	Male	Female	Female
	Age	37	37	38
	Education	BComm (Hons) Upper Second Class in Commerce from UCC and MSc in International Business from Griffith College.	BA (Hons) First Class in Modern Languages and Business from Trinity College Dublin and MBA from Harvard Business School.	BSc (Hons) Upper Second Class in Business Studies from the University of Ulster and MPhil in Creative Writing at Trinity College
	Marital status	Partner with two children.	Single	Married, two children
	Parents	Mother: Teacher Father: Owner of Grocery Store	Mother: Housewife Father: Retired Medical Practitioner	Mother: School Cook. Father: Carpenter (deceased
	Physical traits	Attractive, tall, healthy, fit – rugby player	Attractive, healthy, fit, top class athlete, marathon runner; she regularly cycles to work	Attractive, fit, interests include tennis and sailing
	Education	National primary school in Co Cork. Community Secondary School BComm (Commerce) MSc in International Business (GCD). Member of Marketing Institute of Ireland and European Federation of Marketing Associations.	State primary school in Edinburgh. State Secondary School BA (Hons) in English, University of Cambridge MSc in Information and Library Sciences (Rutgers University) Harvard BS Leadership Program	State primary school in Belfast. All-Girls Grammar School BSc (Hons) Business Studies MPhil in Creative Writing at Trinity College Board Member of the CBI in Belfast.
	Languages	Irish to Leaving Cert level, French, German	Gaelic – first language French, German	French, Spanish, Irish to ‘A’ level
	IQ	127	132	129
	Strong intelligences	Intrapersonal, Naturalist.	Linguistic, Interpersonal.	Musical, Logical-Mathematical.
	Preferred learning style	Pragmatist.	Activist.	Reflector.
	Myers Briggs Profile	ENFP	ESFJ	ESTJ
Mental strengths	High social intelligence. Alert. Self-confident.	High social intelligence. Responsible. Insightful.	High alertness. Initiative. Persistent.
Managerial skills assessment – gleaned from both formal and informal reports.	Has a reputation for always achieving his goal. Well-liked by staff, peers and reports. People-oriented who achieves objectives through others. Sometimes described as charismatic. Expert in marketing. Has an ability to create a positive culture. Empowers others. Considered a team manager. Prefers supporting but has been known on a couple of occasions to have become emotional and irritable when his team failed to do as well as he expected. Robert is a governor of his children’s primary school. He also helps with coaching junior teams at his rugby club.	Highly intelligent and capable. Has a deep knowledge of all aspects of business strategy and of international markets. Someone who thinks about the long term and gets buy-in through consensus. Considered an authority-completion manager who some regard as aloof but to whom her peers and direct reports are fiercely loyal. Achieves things through authority and authentic leadership Trustworthy and honest. Fiona likes to keep her personal life private but you have been informed that she spent two x 3-month periods as a student working as a volunteer in a school in the Ivory Coast. She is also known to work as a volunteer for Save the Children.	Has vision and drive. Good at planning and has an eye for profitable opportunities. She is believed to be someone who will stick closely to the rules, sometimes unnecessarily according to some reports. A social architect, generally motivational; considered by some to be ruthless. Always achieves the bottom line. A mix of task and people oriented. A good problem solver. A risk taker. Good in a crisis. Adopts a coaching and delegating style. Eileen is a trustee of a charity which works on behalf of refugee children. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of Disability Action NI.
Preferred activities using Covey’s ideas.	Pathfinding. Talent Development.	Pathfinding. Doing the job.	Managing the business. Creating the future.

		MARKING SCHEME
	ES, Kca, Non-relevant areas, Scoring, Justification, Bib and Refs (45%)	SWOT, V MS Vs, ‘Green’ proposals, Creativity (20%)	PPDP and Key Challenges (15%)	Creativity and Communications (10%)


A (80-100)	Comprehensive and clear summary that encapsulates the entire contents of the report and the approach Excellent outline of Key Criteria with clear understanding of role requirements. Clear and precise ranking with comprehensive analysis to support selection. Excellent rationale, well presented, well-structured with good supporting evidence.	Very well thought out and imaginative SWOT analysis, Vision, Mission Statement and Values and ‘Green’ proposals demonstrating a very clear understanding of the role they play in an organisation. Strong use of theory.	Excellent understanding of relevant concepts with evidence of ideas from outside course materials e.g. use of models or concepts from learning and development. Evidence of reflective thinking.	Clear evidence of original thinking and imaginative use of formats throughout the report. Demonstrates a very high level of written and visual communications and understanding of the concepts underpinning the module together with excellent listening skills. Strong evidence of reflective thought.
B+ (70-79)	Clear identification and description of all key issues, conclusions and recommendations. Clear outline of key criteria with clear understanding of significant and non-significant role requirements. Clear and precise ranking and rating. Very good rationale, well presented, very good structure with very good supporting evidence.	Considered SWOT analysis, V, MS and Values and ‘Green’ proposals demonstrating evidence of imaginative thinking and understanding of the role they play in an organisation. Good use of theory.	Very good understanding of relevant concepts demonstrating evidence of ideas from outside course materials e.g. use of models or concepts from learning and development. Evidence of reflective thinking. Underpinned by relevant references to theory.	Good evidence of original thinking and imaginative use of formats throughout the report. Demonstrates a high level of written and visual communications and understanding of the concepts underpinning the module together with very good listening skills. Good evidence of reflective thought.
B (60-69)	Good identification of key issues, conclusions and recommendations. Clear outline of key criteria demonstrating a good understanding of significant and non-significant role requirements. Good ranking and rationale, with good supporting evidence.	Good SWOT analysis, Vision, Mission Statement and Values and ‘Green’ proposals demonstrating some imaginative thinking and understanding of the role they play in organisations.	Good clear identification and recommendations for plan supported by good evaluation and understanding of concepts. Underpinned with good use of theory.	Good use of theory and formats. Demonstrates a good level of written and visual communications and understanding of the concepts underpinning the module together with good listening skills. Evidence of some reflective thinking.

C+ (55-59)	Some identification and description of key issues, conclusions and recommendations. Satisfactory outline of key criteria demonstrating some understanding of role requirements and how to rank and rate candidates. Some rationale with supporting evidence.	Satisfactory SWOT analysis, Vision, Mission Statement and Values and ‘Green’ proposals demonstrating some imaginative thinking and understanding of the role they play in an organisation.	Satisfactory identification of needs and challenges and recommendations supported by evaluation and understanding with some use of theory.	Satisfactory but minimal use of theory and formats throughout the report. Demonstrates a moderate level of written and visual communications and understanding of the concepts underpinning the module together with some listening skills. Some reflective thinking.
C (50-54)	Description of report’s contents and some explanation and supporting evidence. Criteria, justification and referencing no more than satisfactory.	A SWOT analysis, Vision, Mission Statement and Values and ‘Green’ proposals but may be lacking in imaginative thinking and understanding of the role they play in an organisation.	Some identification of needs and challenges and recommendations for plan supported with minimal evaluation and little or minimal understanding of concepts. Lacks underpinning with theory.	Limited use of theory and unimaginative use of formats throughout the report. Basic level of written and visual communications and understanding of the concepts underpinning the module together with some listening skills. Some reflective thinking at a basic level.
D (45-49)	Not entirely clear or unfocused ES and description of Key Criteria with little explanation. Little or lacking supporting evidence; little or no reference to sources studied.	Incomplete SWOT analysis, Vision, Mission Statement and Values and ‘Green’ proposals with a lack of imaginative thinking and understanding of the role they play in an organisation.	Unsatisfactory identification of needs and challenges and minimal recommendations for plan. No understanding of theory.	Little or no use of theory and poor use of formats throughout the report. No evidence of taking theory or activities into account. Basic level of communications skills and little or no evidence of listening. Lacks evidence of reflective thinking.
F ( 0-44)	Unclear and uncomprehensive piece of work which fails to demonstrate an understanding of key concepts; little or no reference to sources studied.	Incomplete and unsatisfactory work, demonstrating little or no understanding, .	Very unclear, demonstrating little or no understanding.	Poor communications skills and understanding of theory. Little or no evidence of listening.

ASSIGMNET 2 JOURNAL

Date of Issue:	Spring 2022
Weighting:	10% of total grade
Assignment Deadline	Individual Reflective Journal–Spring 2022 – Week 12 An electronic copy must also be uploaded to *turnitin* by the same date.
Word Count:	Each entry should be about 1 typed page in MS Word. (not including bibliography)
Assignment Title/Brief:	*Reflective Journal* – SpringSemester 2 2022

Leadership and Management Development Research Journal Topics

Please ensure your self-reflective journal details each of your researched areas in the course, application to the workplace and critical thinking, along with suitable sources of references.

Each entry should be about 1 typed page in MS Word. The entire journal should be saved as one PDF file once completed.

Please provide a coversheet, table of contents and sections heading for each topic outlined below.

Journal Entry 1

Explore the views of Leadership V Management from the views of Kotter and Bennis & Nanus
Are Leadership Qualities Innate – Nature V Nurture
The Physical and Mental Traits of Leaders

Journal Entry 2

Learning Theories/Styles from Robert Katz and Honey & Mumford

Women in Leadership and Management

Journal Entry 3

The Role Intelligence plays in Leadership and Management

Journal Entry 4

The role of Vision, Goals and Objectives in Leadership

Journal Entry 5

Stephen Covey – 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Journal Entry 6

David McCelland’s Need Achievement Theory.

David