دانلود رایگان مقاله خود آگاهی و رهبری، ایجاد طرح توسعه فردی در رهبری MBA

ABSTRACT

This paper describes an MBA course assignment, the “Individual Strategic Professional Development Plan”. The assignment consists of three parts, requiring students to: 1) conduct an industry and job analysis 2) explore, benchmark and develop their leadership skills; and, 3) develop a personal strategic plan for guiding and achieving their leadership capabilities and career goals. As a core competency, leadership is needed by all business and management students. While courses in leadership may offer important theoretical and conceptual guidance for students, our assignment requires students to go further; they must reflect on their own identities (who they are) while considering the necessary and critical routes that must be followed on their paths toward becoming effective organizational leaders. In dynamic and uncertain global and technological environments, students' abilities to strategically map their careers and assess and develop key leadership skills critical to career success are more important than ever. Anecdotally, students in post-class assessments have voiced praise for the assignment, citing it as one of the most important outcomes in their MBA experience.

5. Summary and conclusion

Most graduate students, and perhaps many working professionals, often do not allocate time for needed self-reflection and introspection on their strengths and weaknesses as managers and leaders in organizations; nor do they devote full consideration of where and how they will achieve their personal and career goals. This lack of self-reflection among students in graduate programs has been a concern, and has prompted scholars to address the way business schools are educating future leaders. For example, Pfeffer and Fong (2002), Mintzberg (2005), and Bennis and O'Toole (2005) have voiced that business schools “are on the wrong track”. Mintzberg (2005), in particular, caused the biggest disruption with his publication: “Managers Not MBAs: A Hard Look at the Soft Practice of Managing and Management Development.” This book provides a harsh critique of business schools in the U.S., stating that they are focusing on the wrong people and the wrong techniques in educating managers and they, the business schools, need to get back to bringing real life experiences into the classroom. Earlier, Mintzberg (2005) gave a similar critique of management education when he said: “Our management schools have done an admirable job of training the organization's specialists—management scientists, marketing researchers, accountants, and organizational development specialists, but for the most part they have not trained managers” (p. 61). Not long after these critiques, AACSB suggested that business education should cover skills and competencies (AACSB, 2015). Hence, many business schools heard what Mintzberg and others said and started to focus on the learning outcomes linked to management skills and competencies. However, key to the success of managing and leading others is understanding yourself; how can you expect to manage and understand others if you don't understand yourself? Nevertheless, business schools have been slow to adopt practices that force students to not only critically assess case studies and business problems, but to also assess themselves; especially in the context of their inherent skills and abilities. The presented individual strategic professional development plan assignment for our MBA leadership class forces students to not only reflect but to self-analyze and to take control of their development and the achievement of their future goals. The foundation of this assignment uses the pedagogical method of “self-directed learning.” As Whetten and Cameron (2016) point out: this type of learning is primarily learner directed, rather than instructor directed. Thus, one of the key to successful leadership is the ability to self-manage oneself!