Description of Assessment Task and Purpose:
Your task is a 1,500 individual leadership essay (50% of overall module mark).  Your objective is to examine/analyse a leadership case study using theory drawn from the module. The purpose of this assessment is to assess your knowledge of the subject area and your ability to employ leadership concepts and theory in the analysis of the leadership case.

The essay should have approximately 1,500 words and in the essay, you must:

Identify, analyse and critique any leadership case of your choice – a case study organisation or an individual, a contemporary situation (leadership during the Covid-19 crisis), a fictional example (film, documentary, book) or any other and apply leadership theory to this scenario in order to provide insightful arguments about leadership. The case study can be real person (eg Barak Obama), a fictional character (eg Miranda Priestly in ‘The Devil Wears Prada’) or it can be an event (eg Cop 26) an ‘issue’ (eg #MeToo) or an organisation (eg Amazon). You have scope here to choose a case study which interests you.

Please note that when you are writing an essay, you are not describing a topic, but presenting some type of argument, or claim, about what you are analysing. You should go beyond describing the case study to articulate how the example that you chose relates to a theoretical framework (the framework should help you organise your
analysis). You should also use reliable academic references (evidence) to support your arguments and critique.
The essay should have the following sub-sections (you do not need to use titles and subtitles for the sections, as long as they are there – it is your choice):

 Describe the leadership case study. Clearly identify the leader and some of their traits, skills, behaviour that he or she demonstrates. Provide sufficient detail of the context and broader structural issues (eg power, diversity, culture) including the nature of the organisation (e.g. country, hospital, charity, school), the nature
of the team context (who are the followers?) and the situation faced by leader and team.

 Analyse the approach used by the leader in the case using at least two relevant theories. You may use several theories to extend your analysis, whether they were discussed in class or not. Give examples from the case to support and demonstrate your arguments.

 Discuss whether the leadership style/approach is appropriate and effective given the qualities of the leader, the team, its members, the situation and the context. Support the discussion with evidence.

 Provide recommendations based on your analysis (and evidence) of the leadership case. For example, would you recommend the leader to change their style and why? Critically discuss your recommendations drawing on implications for leadership practice.

 Conclusion – do not introduce new ideas but tell the reader ‘what do we know now that we read your paper that we did not know before’?

 Feel free to use tables/figures/diagrams, but make sure they are properly formatted (title, source, etc) and make sure to use them to promote your argument and are commented on/interpreted in the text.

 Appendix: if you want to add any information

 Reference list: Please use Harvard style – you must be consistent. Also, use a variety of scholarly sources from journal articles. There is a list with suggested journals in your module handbook. Be aware of online sources that may not be trustworthy. You may use some of those to present/illustrate your case, but you should not use them as evidence to support your arguments.