Describe the values and culture of your organization.

Module Overview:
In this module, you will explore the leader as a communicator. Leaders today must be effective in all three communication modalities—one to one, one to many, and in various “e” forms of communications (e.g., e-mails, blogs, webinars, or teleconferences). They must also be consistent and “in the moment.” It is all about making connections and creating an atmosphere of open, bi-directional dialogue.
Effective communication occurs only if the receiver understands the message as the sender intended. The importance of effective communication to leaders is clear daily in all organizations. Since 1938, when Chester Barnard concluded that communication was the main task of managers and executives, emphasis has been placed on improving leadership communication in organizations.
The key to the success of any executive is the ability to communicate effectively. Can you imagine an effective leader who is not an effective communicator? Some research suggests that leaders devote seven of every ten minutes of their leadership time to some form of communication.
Because today’s employees demand a more coaching or mentoring leadership style, leaders need to develop strong interpersonal skills. Leaders today often pride themselves on the ability to multitask especially through the use of technology. Others argue that this creates superficial relationships and interactions with employees and that it is far more effective for leaders to focus on the “moment” and to create meaningful interactions with employees.
Barnard, C. (1938). The function of the executive. Cambridge, NY: Harvard University Press.
Module Readings:
Complete the following readings early in the module:
Read the overview for the Module
From the textbook, The leadership challenge (5th ed.), read the following chapters:
Recognize Contributions
Foster Collaboration
From the Internet, read the following:
Barrett, D. (2006). Leadership communication: A communication approach for
senior-level managers. Handbook of Business Strategy, (7)1, 385–390. Retrieved from http://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/27037/Leadership
%20Communication%20-%20A%20Communication%20Approach
%20for%20Senior-Level%20Managers%20-%20Barrett.pdf?sequence=2
LASA 1 Assignment-The Leader as a Strategist Report
For this assignment, you will choose an organization to analyze. This organization can be one you are personally familiar with, or one you have observed to be an effective organization, You now become a newly appointed senior leader in that organization.
As a new leader, you must prepare a report for the CEO that assesses the organization’s overall alignment between its vision, mission, values, and strategy. This report should consist of the following sections:
1.) An analysis of the strategic cascade of the organization This includes assessing the organization’s strategy and market position. Use the framework implied in Michael Porter’s (1997) article “What is Strategy.” When describing the business strategy of your organization, consider the following questions:
What is the target market (target customer)?
What is your organization’s value proposition (How does it deliver value that satisfies the target’s wants and needs?)?
How is your product or service positioned in the market (What specific features and attributes define the product/service and how is its value reflected in its pricing, distribution, marketing communications, etc.?)?
How is your organization sustainably different from your competitors (What is the source of uniqueness and how sustainable is it from being diminished by competitors?)?
2.) A strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis
A SWOT analysis is a strategy planning tool that examines both internal and external environments for factors and trends that should shape planning and operations over the next five years. Environmental factors internal to the company are classified as strengths (to be leveraged) or weaknesses (to be mitigated), while external factors are classified as either opportunities (to be pursued) or threats (to be monitored and responded to)
Some primer questions for the SWOT analysis include the following:
Strengths
What advantages does your organization have?
What do you do better than anyone else?
What unique or lowest-cost resources can you draw upon that others cannot?
What do people in your market see as your strengths?
What factors mean that you “get the sale”?
What is your organization’s unique selling proposition (USP)?
Weaknesses
What aspects of your product or service could you improve?
What market segments or competitive areas should you avoid?
What are people in your market likely to see as weaknesses?
What factors can make you lose sales?
Opportunities
What good opportunities can you spot?
What interesting trends are you aware of? Useful opportunities can come from such things as the following:
Changes in technology and markets on both a broad and narrow scale
Changes in government policy related to your field
Changes in social patterns, population profiles, lifestyle changes, and so on
Local events
Threats
What obstacles do you face?
What are your competitors doing?
Are quality standards or specifications for your job, products, or services changing?
Is changing technology threatening your position?
Do you have bad debt or cash-flow problems?
Could any of your weaknesses seriously threaten your business?
3.) A summary of the internal environment, including the organization’s values and the key elements of the organization architecture that influence worker behavior.
Include the following characteristics when analyzing the internal environment:
Structure: This includes the ways the organization assigns formal roles and responsibilities, decision-making authority, expertise and skills, and work tasks. Think of the organization chart and how its implied structure directs the decision making, resource allocation, and workflow of the organization. Is it consistent with the strategy?
Systems: This comprises the information flows that coordinate activities between groups and across the organization structure while helping direct worker behavior, including performance management, financial management, operating, forecasting and planning, and other regulating mechanisms. How do these systems help align workers and their actions with the strategy?
Culture: This consists of the unwritten rules and norms that govern worker behavior and help coordinate the activities across structural boundaries. Is the organization culture an enabler or impediment to the corporate strategy? What specific behaviors embedded in the culture support the strategy? What specific behaviors block the strategy?
4.)A synthesis of the information evaluating the ability of the organization to implement the strategy using Kouzes and Posner’s Five Practices (for example, modeling the way) as a framework.
Include answers to the following:
Company Culture
Describe the values and culture of your organization.
What are the values of your organization?
How are they reflected in the behaviors you see at work?
Employee Behaviors
Describe the behaviors in your organization.
Are these behaviors consistent with the business strategy?
Where do they conflict with the strategy?
What new behaviors are required to align with the strategy?
Leadership
How might you and other leaders create new behaviors to support the strategy?
What specific actions would you implement to communicate, motivate, model the way, coach, inspire the vision, challenge the process, and encourage the heart?
Your response to each part of the assignment should be approximately three pages.
Your final product will be Turned-in on time, Plagiarism Free in a word document and be approximately 6–8 pages in length and utilize 4–7 scholarly sources in your research. This is A Mid-Term Assignment and Needs to Be treated as such…
All Assignment Details and Qualifications Followed, Running-Heads Included, Pages Numbered, Cover Page Included, reference Page Included Paragraphs Indented, Questions Included Followed By the Answers, Follow Grading Criteria, main heading should be centered; all new paragraphs should be indented; paper should have been right ragged, not right justified; references, should always go on a standalone page. abstracts are not usually indented; should be right ragged, and not right justified. acronyms should be spelled out when using them for the first time, for example HR. references as listed are APA standard. When you submit your papers through turnitin.com, you overall similarity index score should not be exceedingly high, with ten to fifteen percent being the maximum, acronyms should be spelled out when using them for the first time, for example HR, abstracts are not usually indented; should be right ragged, and not right justified, Please work on your APA formatting of citations. I have provided the APA resource cite for you. https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01, Please work on using literature within the span of the last 5 years, keep in mind there should not be any one, two, or three sentence paragraphs
Your response should be thorough and address all components of the discussion question in detail, include citations of all sources, where needed, according to the APA Style, and demonstrate accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Your paper should be written in a clear, concise, and organized manner; demonstrate ethical scholarship in accurate representation and attribution of sources; and display accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
By Tuesday May 8, 2018, deliver your assignment to the Submissions Area.
Assignment Components Proficient Max Points:
Content Knowledge: Understanding
Communicates understanding of the organization’s current vision, mission, and strategy.
Response incorporates analysis and synthesis of central concepts of the assigned topic.
Response reflects understanding of the nature of the specific topic within the discipline and its applications in contemporary times.
Response provides necessary details and specific examples. / 80 pts
Content Knowledge: Application Component 1
Communicates the ability to analyze the “strategic cascade” of the organization and complete a SWOT analysis.
Response demonstrates a working command of the disciplinary content knowledge.
Response examines the specific issue within the context of the topic area using relevant details and examples.
Response analyzes the specific aspect of the issue to applicable areas within the discipline and their relevance to real world contexts.
Response is adequately supported by current and relevant literature. / 40 pts
Content Knowledge: Application Component 2
Communicates the ability to summarize the internal environment, including the organization’s values and the key elements that influence the worker’s behavior.
Response demonstrates a working command of the disciplinary content knowledge.
Response examines the specific issue within the context of the topic area using relevant details and examples.
Response analyzes the specific aspect of the issue to applicable areas within the discipline and their relevance to real world contexts.
Response is supported by current and relevant literature / 40 pts
Content Knowledge: Application Component 3
Communicates the ability to state the ability of the organization to implement the strategy.
Response demonstrates a working command of the disciplinary content knowledge.
Response examines the specific issue within the context of the topic area using relevant details and examples.
Response analyzes the specific aspect of the issue to applicable areas within the discipline and their relevance to real world contexts.
Response is supported by current and relevant literature /20 pts
Written Communication/Personal Effectiveness
Conveys through written word understanding and application of the essential assignment components.
Writing is concise and clear in content, language use, grammar, organization, and sentence structure.
Writing is free of major grammatical and usage errors. / 20 pts