Coursework

Listed below are the 4 x ‘ Competency Evaluation Matrices ’ that students will need to work on in order to attempt the ‘ Re-examining Your Personal Competencies Matrix ’ which they will the use to inform and write about their ‘ Personal Development Plan ’

The Collaborate-Focused Competency Evaluation Matrix

STUDENT TASK SHEET

Objective:

The final exercise in each module is intended to give you a starting point for developing a comprehensive strategy for mastery that you can implement and monitor in the future. These competency evaluation matrices will be used at the end of the teaching block to help you create a long-term development plan that focuses on enhancing your behavioural complexity.

Review:

The first competency in the Collaborative quadrant, ‘Understanding Self and Others’, discussed the importance of emotional and social intelligence, focusing particularly on how to increase your self-awareness, as well as different personality variables that can affect how people behave in your organisation. Next, we discussed the importance of communicating honestly and effectively. We noted that there are many barriers to effective communication and offered suggestions on overcoming these barriers. In this competency, we also introduced the concept of ‘left-hand column’ issues – those things that people think and feel but that they chose not to communicate, and we discussed why it is often important to find ways to raise those hidden issues. Our third competency, mentoring and developing others, addressed formal performance evaluation processes as well as more informal coaching and mentoring activities. We also discussed the value of using delegation as a tool for developing others. We then moved from one-to-one interactions to consider managing groups and leading teams. After presenting key variables that influence team effectiveness and suggestions for increasing meeting effectiveness, we discussed the team development process and offered some suggestions for team building activities. Our final competency focused on managing and encouraging constructive conflict. We noted that although interpersonal conflict can be dysfunctional, conflict that focuses on the task at hand can actually help improve our decisions. We identified five different ways that people tend to respond to conflict and provided examples of when each of the five ways might be appropriate.

Task:

Answer the questions in Table 1 for each competency in this module based on the reading material, class discussions, and your personal work (e.g., Assessment exercises and Application exercises)

Reflection:

Taking time to record how you feel about your current performance for the five competencies and to identify specific actions that you can take to improve your performance helps reinforce what you have learned. If you have questions as you are going through this exercise you can ask for guidance from your tutor or work with your peers to ensure you have a solid understanding of the material covered up to this point in the teaching.

Table 1: Module 1 – Collaborate-Focused Competency Evaluation Matrix

The Control-Focused Competency Evaluation Matrix

STUDENT TASK SHEET

Objective:

The final exercise in each module is intended to give you a starting point for developing a comprehensive strategy for mastery that you can implement and monitor in the future. These competency evaluation matrices will be used at the end of the teaching block to help you create a long-term development plan that focuses on enhancing your behavioural complexity.

Review:

The first competency in the Control quadrant focused on organizing information flows for the individual manager, with an emphasis on increasing the efficiency of handling information inflows and improving the effectiveness of information outflows. Next, we expanded our view of the manager's job to consider how managers can work and manage across functions. The third competency focused on planning and coordinating activities in general, while the fourth competency focused on monitoring and measuring performance to ensure that actual outcomes were aligned with goals established in the planning phase. Finally, we considered control and stability in light of pressures from the external context, particularly issues of compliance with Government guidelines for corporate accountability

Task:

Answer the questions in Table 2 for each competency in this module based on the reading material, class discussions, and your personal work (e.g., Assessment exercises and Application exercises)

Reflection:

Completing the matrix in Table 2 should give you some ideas about how you can continue to improve on competencies that focus on establishing and maintaining stability and continuity, consistent with the goals of the internal process quadrant.

Table 2: Module 2 – Control-Focused Competency Evaluation Matrix

The Compete-Focused Competency Evaluation Matrix

STUDENT TASK SHEET

Objective:

The final exercise in each module is intended to give you a starting point for developing a comprehensive strategy for mastery that you can implement and monitor in the future. These competency evaluation matrices will be used at the end of the teaching block to help you create a long-term development plan that focuses on enhancing your behavioural complexity.

Review:

The first competency in the Compete quadrant focused on developing and communicating a vision and included exercises to help you connect your vision to your career goals. To help turn that vision into reality, the next competency reviewed how to set goals and objectives, where we emphasised the importance of creating SMART goals that are aligned with your overall vision. The third competency, motivating self and others, provided insights into what is necessary to translate goals into actions and considered both what motivates people and how our beliefs and expectation influence our willingness to exert the effort needed to achieve specific goals. The discussion of designing and organizing focused on the organizational context and helped us understand how key structural variables and organizational culture can impact our ability to achieve the goals of the organization. Finally, we considered what kinds of systems and processes can help us be successful as we manage execution and drive for results.

Task:

Answer the questions in Table 3 for each competency in this module based on the reading material, class discussions, and your personal work (e.g., Assessment exercises and Application exercises)

Reflection:

Completing the matrix in Table 3 should give you some ideas about how you can continue to improve on competencies that focus on improving productivity and profitability, consistent with the goals of the rational goal quadrant.

Table 3: Module 3 – Compete-Focused Competency Evaluation Matrix

The Create-Focused Competency Evaluation Matrix

STUDENT TASK SHEET

Objective:

The final exercise in each module is intended to give you a starting point for developing a comprehensive strategy for mastery that you can implement and monitor in the future. These competency evaluation matrices will be used at the end of the teaching block to help you create a long-term development plan that focuses on enhancing your behavioural complexity.

Review:

The first competency in the Create quadrant focused on using power ethically and effectively. In addition to identifying different sources of power and influence tactics, we also discussed the importance of networking effectively to build your power base. Next, we addressed the competency of championing and selling new ideas. After describing four different types of managerial communication, we discussed how the building blocks of Set, Support, Sequence, Access, and Polish can improve the quality and impact of presentations and other types of communication. The third competency, fueling and fostering innovation, described the characteristics of creative thinking and provided suggestions for encouraging creativity in the workplace. Negotiating agreement and commitment, the fourth competency in this module, provided suggestions for how to achieve win—win solutions by focusing on the problem and the interests of the parties, generating multiple possibilities, and using objective standards rather than emotional arguments. Finally, we discussed how to implement and sustain change and described how to conduct a force field analysis. We also identified four approaches to bringing change, discussed how they related to the four quadrants of the competing values framework, and explained how different approaches may be appropriate for different situations.

Task:

Answer the questions in Table 4 for each competency in this module based on the reading material, class discussions, and your personal work (e.g., Assessment exercises and Application exercises)

Reflection:

Completing the matrix in Table 4 should give you some ideas about how you can continue to improve on competencies that focus on promoting change and encouraging adaptability, consistent with the goals of the open systems quadrant.

Now that you have complete evaluation matrices for each of the four modules, take some time to go back over your earlier work and select four competencies that you think are most critical for you to focus on now; one from each module. These will form the basis of your Personal Development Plan. As your skills in these areas improve, you can return to these matrices to identify new areas for development

Table 4: Module 4 – Create-Focused Competency Evaluation Matrix