CH 13 Writing Assignment

 Activity Objectives

This activity is designed to support the following Learning Objectives:

1. What is the nature of leadership and the leadership process?
2. What are the processes associated with people coming to leadership positions?
3. How do leaders influence and move their followers to action?
4. What are the trait perspectives on leadership?
5. What are the behavioral perspectives on leadership?
6. What are the situational perspectives on leadership?
7. What does the concept “substitute for leadership” mean?
8. What are the characteristics of transactional, transformational, and charismatic leadership?
9. How do different approaches and styles of leadership impact what is needed now?

 Instructions: Writing Assignment

COMPLETE PART I, PART II, AND PART III BELOW...

PART I

Identify a charismatic leader and a leader with little charisma. What are the traits and skills that allow them to succeed in their roles? How can you incorporate the traits that allow them to be successful in their roles into the skills you will need to have in a leadership position?

PART II

You have just taken a leadership position where 40 percent of the workforce telecommutes. You want to encourage teamwork and want to ensure that telecommuting is not hurting teamwork. What is your plan to discover how things are working and how to communicate your desire to have effective teamwork?

PART III

Are top executives paid too much? A study of CEO compensation revealed that CEO bonuses rose considerably—from 20 percent to 30 percent—even at companies whose revenues or profits dropped or those that reported significant employee layoffs. Such high pay for CEOs at underperforming companies, as well as CEO compensation at companies with stellar results, has raised many questions from investors and others. The highest gap in pay was in 2000. CEO pay at the largest U.S. firms was 376 times higher than that of average workers. The gap has shrunk to only 271 times higher in 2016, but that is still a lot higher than the 59-to-1 ratio in 1989. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) now requires public companies to disclose full details of executive compensation, including salaries, bonuses, pensions, benefits, stock options, and severance and retirement packages.

Even some CEOs question the high levels of CEO pay. Edgar Woolard, Jr., former CEO and chairman of DuPont, thinks so. “CEO pay is driven today primarily by outside consultant surveys,” he says. Companies all want their CEOs to be in the top half, and preferably the top quarter, of all CEOs. This leads to annual increases. He also criticizes the enormous severance packages that company boards give to CEOs that fail. For example, Carly Fiorina of Hewlett-Packard received $20 million when she was fired.

Using a web search tool, locate articles about this topic, and then write responses to the questions in the Ethical Dilemma section below. Be sure to support your arguments and cite your sources.

Questions

1. Are CEOs entitled to increases in compensation when their company’s financial situation worsens, because their job becomes more challenging?
2. If they fail, are they entitled to huge severance packages for their efforts?
3. Should companies be required to divulge all details of compensation for their highest top managers, and what effect is such disclosure likely to have on executive pay?

Instructions: Read the questions carefully and provide thorough, well thought out answers. Provide justification for ALL your answers, even if the questions do not ask “Why?”. If you make assumptions, state and explain the assumptions made. Use the textbook and/or any research tool to support EACH answer. Please disclose names, titles, links, etc. of sources used. Use full sentences and paragraphs.

Length: The combined answers should be a minimum of 450 words in length. Note that your name, date, class, headings, and works cited page do NOT count towards the minimum length requirement. You may exceed the minimum length requirement.

Formatting: Size 12, Courier New font; 1.5 space per line; Standard margins. At least two points will be deducted from your score if you fail to follow formatting guidelines.

 Grading 

This assignment is worth 20 points.

Please see the grading rubric.

Note, plagiarized assignments will receive a score of 0.

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