MNGT6372 Managerial Skills (Intensive) · MNGT6372 Managerial Skills (Intensive) Contents Course...

Never Stand Still Business School

Course OverviewAGSM @ UNSW Business SchoolAGSM MBA Programs

Session 3, 2014

business.unsw.edu.au/agsmCRICOS Code 00098G

MNGT6372Managerial Skills

(Intensive)

Contents

Course calendar 1

Session 3, 2014 1

Getting started 2

Course outline 3

The learning approach 6

Course materials 6

Experiential learning 6

360° Feedback Profile 7

Skill development planning and action research 9

Assessment 10

Assessment policy 10

Summary of requirements 10

Assessment requirements 10

Assessment 1: Action Learning Review (ALR) 12

Assessment 2: Career Plan 15

Assessment 3: Four Action Learning Journal (ALJ) entries 17

Learning resources and support 20

Learning resources 20

AGSM MBA Programs contact details 22

Course leader 24

Other course contributors 25

References 26

Appendices 27

Course calendar

Session 3, 2014

Managerial Skills (Intensive)MBA (Executive)

Week no. Week begins Unit Assessment due

(% weighting) Other activities

Engaging respondents for your AGSM 360° Feedback Profile Thursday 28 August

0 1 SeptemberCourse

OverviewTeleconference

1 8 September

Unit 1Unit 2Unit 3Unit 4Unit 5Unit 6

2 15 September

3 22 September

4 29 September

Workshop 1Fri 3 October (6pm – 9pm)Sat 4 October (9am – 5pm)Sun 5 October (9am – 4pm)

5 6 October

Unit 7Unit 8Unit 9

Unit 10Unit 11

6 13 OctoberAssessment 1 (25%) due 5pm, Monday 13 October

7 20 October

8 27 October

Workshop 2Fri 31 October (6pm – 9pm)Sat 1 November (9am – 5pm)Sun 2 November (9am – 4pm)

9 3 November

10 10 NovemberAssessment 2 (35%) due 5pm, Monday 10 November

11 17 November

12 24 November

Assessment 3 (40%) due 5pm, Monday 1 December

Course overview 1

Getting started

Welcome to Managerial Skills!

In this section, we briefly outline some opening activities that will enable you to make a strong start in your studies. You should aim to complete all these activities by the beginning of Week 1.

Read this Course Overview.

This will illuminate the overall goals, structure, and content of this course, the assessment requirements, the learning processes that you will be using, and the resources that will enable you to make the most of your learning opportunities.

Connect your UNSW zMail address to a preferred email address.

Ensure that emails sent to your UNSW zMail address are forwarded to your preferred email address.

To do this, go to: https://www.it.unsw.edu.au/students/zmail/redirect_external.html

Your instructor will use your UNSW zMail address to send you important information and updates, including your assessment feedback and grades. Thus, it is important to set up and keep current your email forwarding address at UNSW Identity Manager: https://idm.unsw.edu.au

Please take a few minutes to check that now. It will ensure you do not miss out on emails vital to your success and enjoyment of the course.

Familarise yourself with the 360° Feedback Profile process.

This is one of the key processes you will use to get feedback about your managerial skills. It is imperative to make an immediate start on this, in order to engage your respondents in time to have a full profile ready for the first workshop.

Look ahead.

Review the tasks and activities over the next 13 weeks to begin to schedule your study and assessment writing activities.

2 Managerial Skills (Intensive)

Course outline

No job is more vital to our society than that of the manager. It is the manager who determines whether our social institutions serve us well, or whether they squander our talents and resources.1

People who cannot invent and reinvent themselves must be content with borrowed postures, second-hand ideas, fitting in instead of standing out.2

A report commissioned by the Australian Government (2007) titled “2020 Vision: The Manager of the 21st Century” suggested that Australian managers of 2020 will need to grapple with challenges including:

• The services economy globalising (possibly following the path of manufacturing), creating a more complex management environment.

• A long-term skilled labour shortage requiring more flexible working environments to attract and retain high calibre staff.

This increasing complexity and need for flexibility is likely to impact the skills and attributes that successful managers require. For example:

• Managers will need to balance a wider range of interests and ethical issues, often under greater internal and external scrutiny.

• The cult of the CEO is likely to decline. Managers at all levels will need to become better than ever at bringing out the best in others.

• Managers will face greater tensions and trade-offs between work life and personal life, necessitating proactive stress and career management.

• Success as a manager will depend on meeting diversity challenges such as recruiting and retaining talented women and minority group members.

This Managerial Skills course has been designed to help you to understand and develop many of the skills outlined in “2020 Vision...” through the process of action learning. These skills include stress management, communication, teamwork, coaching, networking, and building employee engagement.

This course incorporates a 360° Feedback Profile process that will enable you to collect confidential feedback from your direct reports, peers, and manager(s) on how they observe you performing as a manager and a leader. This feedback will help you identify the skills you need to develop to become a more effective manager.

1 2

1 Henry Mintzberg (2003, p. 9)2 Warren Bennis (1993, p. 1)

Course overview 3

The units in Managerial Skills can be broadly categorised into two parts, as detailed below.

Figure 1 Course structure

CORE MANAGERIAL SKILLS

Unit 5 Ethics

Unit 6 Interpreting your AGSM 360° Feedback Profile

Unit 1 Proactive learning

Unit 2 Self-management

Unit 3 Communication

Unit 4 Working in teams

APPLICATION OF CORE SKILLS

Unit 11 Maintaining the

momentum

Unit 7 Employee

engagement

Unit 8 Networking

Unit 9 Negotiation

Unit 10 Career

management

Part 1: Core managerial skills (Units 1–6): These units will enable you to optimise your learning and development during the remainder of your EMBA program. In Unit 1, you will learn how to foster your learning orientation and to mindfully engage with the various concepts you encounter throughout your EMBA. We outline how to learn from deliberate, systematic application of course concepts and to craft plans to support your managerial skill development. Given that it can be challenging to combine study and work, Unit 2 addresses how to manage your time, stress, and mindset with regard to your academic and work performance. You will also learn how to increase your resilience, positivity, self-efficacy, and psychological flexibility, so as to flourish in the face of your academic and career challenges.

Management development often happens through interaction with others, such as instructors and fellow students in an academic context, or employees, bosses, and peers in a work context. In Unit 3 you will learn a range of communication skills such as how to target your message to an audience, to engage in active listening and peer coaching, and to give and receive feedback constructively. Unit 4 addresses the nature of team effectiveness and outlines some process tools to get your team off to a great start, and to keep team members working well together until the team’s


task has been completed. Unit 5 will assist you to recognise ethical issues, clarify your ethical values, and apply relevant ethical principles. Doing so can bolster your foundation for ethical conduct, decision making, and leadership.

What might be the most useful thing(s) for you to focus on in order to improve your managerial effectiveness? Valuable insights for answering this question can be gleaned from your AGSM 360° Feedback Profile. This profile is based on feedback from your boss, peers, and employees (if relevant) about your effectiveness in four broad dimensions of your work: (i) doing things, and (ii) getting things done, (iii) enabling yourself, and (iv) enabling others. Unit 6 explains what is involved in each of these four areas and will guide you in using your AGSM 360° Feedback Profile to identify your development edge(s).

Part 2: Application of core skills (Units 7–11): These units address how to apply the core managerial skills to the tasks of performance management, fostering employee engagement, networking, negotiation, and managing your career. Effective managers do these things well, so it can be fruitful to develop some relevant insights and hone your skills in these areas. The concluding unit provides you with an opportunity to reflect upon and clarify what you consider to be the most useful concepts from each unit to develop your managerial skills and your organisation’s capabilities.

You are strongly encouraged to experiment with deliberately applying a relevant concept or two after reading each unit and before attending the intensive workshops. Continually practising action learning, through intentionally applying course concepts in your work, is essential preparation for the workshops. In both workshops, you will be invited to report on what you have learnt from applying course concepts.

This continual practice of action learning is also essential preparation for Assessment 3. This comprises four Action Learning Journal entries documenting how you have deliberately applied course concepts during the course.

Course overview 5

The learning approach

The course incorporates the following elements:

• Course materials and exercises: reading the course materials (including assigned readings) before thoughtfully completing the exercises in your workbook to reflect on your managerial experiences and skills

• Experiential learning: peer coaching, team-based case analysis, and experiential activities during the two workshops

• 360° Feedback Profile: in-depth analysis of your AGSM 360° Feedback Profile

• Skill development planning and action research: creating, implementing, and fine-tuning plans to develop your managerial effectiveness

Course materialsThe course materials have been prepared to help you work in a self-directed manner through a range of rigorous and practical core concepts and tools on each of the topics covered in this course. Reading this material – and doing the related exercises in your workbook – will equip you for the two workshops and for completing your assessment tasks.

Please note that it is essential to complete all the prescribed reading and exercises prior to each workshop. The workshops do not include lectures summarising course materials. Instead they provide you with opportunities to practise and refine the skills covered in the course materials.

Experiential learningThe experiential learning approach (Kolb 1984; Torbert & Associates 2004) is based on the assumption that to achieve change we need to practise new behaviours and skills, receive feedback, see the consequences of new ways of behaving, and integrate new insights and skills into our managerial practice. This approach is illustrated by the Action Learning Cycle shown in Figure 2 and explained in more detail in Unit 1 – Proactive learning.


Figure 2 Action learning cycle

Immersion: Ascertaining the actual

results of implementation via mindful observation,

self-assessment, and seeking extensive unbiased feedback.

Being receptive to unexpected results

is the key.

Conceptualisation: Using relevant models and

concepts to develop new goals and approaches, before assessing

their suitability, cost/benefit, and potential obstacles.

Reflection: Analysing results relative to expectations, priorities,

values, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges.

Questioning assumptions about each of these.

Implementation: Building motivation and self-efficacy before implementing

plans to enhance effectiveness, capitalise on opportunities,

and solve problems.

Insights into what has occured

Results of implementation

SMART+ development plans

Awareness of opportunities

for better results

The first two assessments in Managerial Skills ask you to reflect on your managerial skills and approach, and to craft plans for improvement and development. Assessment 3 requires you to deliberately apply course concepts in your work, to observe and report on the results, to reflect on what you have learnt, and to craft plans for further development.

360° Feedback ProfileDuring this course you will receive a 360° Feedback Profile to help you identify your managerial strengths and the skills you need to develop to become a more effective manager.

A 360° Feedback Profile helps you understand how others perceive you at work and gives you information that you can use to plan your professional development. It is often likened to “holding up a mirror”, where you have the opportunity to “see” yourself from all angles.

Course overview 7

The AGSM 360° Feedback Profile has been developed from the latest academic research literature on what effective managers do. Be sure to carefully read Unit 6 in order to derive the maximum learning from your feedback. Below are the steps involved in obtaining your 360° Feedback Profile.

Summary of key dates

Date Week

28 August Pre-course Pre-course initial information provided by the Leaderskill Group.

Start to engage respondents for your AGSM 360 Feedback Profile

19 September Week 2 All 360° Feedback Profile questionnaires to be completed by this date.

25 September Week 3 Instructors access students’ 360° Feedback Profiles.

26 September Week 3 You will be given access to download your 360° Feedback Profile from Leaderskill’s survey website from 9am.

3–5 October Week 4 Workshop 1: Discussion of 360° Feedback Profile.

Process for collecting your 360° Feedback Profile

Your AGSM 360° Feedback Profile is accessed online via Leaderskill Group’s survey website (a delivery partner). We provide them with your name and email address for use only with this survey. There is a strict privacy policy regarding all information.

When you receive your login email from Leaderskill:

Step 1: Read the online instructions and complete your self-questionnaire.

Step 2: Identify colleagues who will provide you with feedback. Brief them face-to-face, or by phone. Include:

o your boss (and, if appropriate, up to two bosses)

o four to six direct reports if available (minimum three).

o four to six of your peers if available (minimum three).

Choose people who know you well enough to be able to respond. Invite both “fans” and “critics”!

Step 3: Enter your respondents into the survey. They will receive their own login emails with individual passwords to access the questionnaire.

Step 4: Log in regularly to check the progress of your survey and send reminders if required.


Step 5: Download and print your profile when you have access to it.

Step 6: Complete the exercises in the Unit 6 – Interpreting your AGSM 360° Feedback Profile portion of your workbook.

Survey schedule

• Receive login email: Thursday, 28 August 2014.

• Request feedback: As soon as possible.

• Survey completion date (by you and your respondents): Friday, 19 September 2014.

• Download date: Friday, 26 September 2014.

For details regarding these dates, see: www.360facilitated.com/resources/AGSM_MS_2014.htm

Support

For further assistance, please contact Student Experience by phone on +61 2 9931 9400 or, for technical support, contact Leaderskill on [email protected] or +61 2 9449 7737 (9am to 5pm Australian EST).

Skill development planning and action researchSkill development planning and action research play such an important role in developing your managerial skills that they form the basis for Assessments 1 and 3, and comprise an important component of Assessment 2, as outlined next.

Course overview 9

Assessment

Assessment policyThe assessment process plays two roles; to provide you with feedback on your progress, and as a means of testing and grading your performance.

Summary of requirementsAssessment 1: Action Learning Review (ALR)Weight: 25% of total marks

Maximum length: 3 pages (double-spaced)

Due: 5pm AEDT, Monday 13 October (via email to your instructor)

Assessment 2: Career PlanWeight: 35% of total marks

Maximum length: 8 pages (double-spaced)

Due: 5pm AEDT, Monday 10 November (via email to your instructor)

Assessment 3: Action Learning Journal (ALJ)Weight: 40%

Length: 4 × 1 page (single-spaced)

Due: 5pm AEDT, Monday 1 December (via Moodle)

Note: As you read through the course material, you will see the relevance of some Managing People and Organisations concepts. While these links may be explored during your workshops, focus only on applying Managerial Skills concepts when completing your written assessments.

Assessment requirementsGrading criteria

Your assessment tasks will be graded in accordance with the criteria detailed in the relevant grading template for each assessment. These are Appendices to this Course Overview. An overarching principle to keep in mind is that, because good management is evidence-based, it is important to provide evidence for the statements you make in all your assignments. For more details on how to do this, see the “Concreteness” criterion in each of the grading templates.


Formatting requirements

• Assessments should be produced in 12 point Times New Roman font.

• Format with 2.54cm top and bottom margins, and 3.17cm left and right margins (except for your four ALJ entries, which should be 1cm margins all around).

• When you use headings, do not indent them. Indent the first line of each paragraph and do not insert a line or any space between your paragraphs.

• To explicitly show how you are using the course concepts, print in bold the names of the concepts you apply (e.g. competing commitments, self-efficacy, or active constructive responding). Do not print in bold words and phrases for general topics covered by the course (e.g. ‘management development’, ‘communication’, or ‘coaching’).

• Ensure concepts are always applied and never listed; whenever concepts are being listed, they are not being applied.

• Write in a first person format i.e. “I …”, as you would in a diary.

• To maintain the coherence of your assessment and clarity the relationship between the different concepts, always write coherent paragraphs; do not use bullet point, tables, footnotes, or endnotes.

• Carefully observe the page limit for each assessment. Material presented beyond these limits will not be graded.

• Given all you have to accomplish in a limited space, do not provide citations or a reference list.

Submitting your assessment

• Save and submit your file in Word (not PDF) format.

• Name each file you submit using your student number, followed by a dash and then the topic of the assignment, with no dashes between these elements of the file name (e.g. z1234567–Action Learning Review, z1234567–Career Plan, z123456–Providing Feedback, z123456–Networking). Note that the latter three examples relate to three of the potential Assessment 3 – Action Learning Journal (ALJ) topics. Precise adherence to this naming standard is very important as it facilitates organising assignments and recording your grades.

• Because your instructor will be grading papers and not people, do not write your name on your paper. Instead, just insert the file name in the left-hand side of the header of each page.

• Submit your ALR and Career Plan to your instructor via email.

Course overview 11

• Make the “Subject” line of your email the name of the file you submit, in order to facilitate your graded assignment being returned to you.

• Submit your ALJ entries in one submission with four attachments of your four ALJ entries – via Moodle.

• Given the serious nature of academic integrity, such as not basing any of your work on that submitted by another student or by yourself in a previous course, be aware that your assignments will be scanned by plagiarism detection software.

Assessment 1: Action Learning Review (ALR)The purpose of an Action Learning Review (ALR) is to apply course concepts from units 1–6 to:

• analyse a specific incident that you could have handled more effectively

• logically derive from your analysis specific actions you will take to improve your management practice next time you encounter a similar event.

Your ALR will provide you with the opportunity to consider and articulate ways of integrating refined managerial skills into your daily behaviour.

Note that you can draw on concepts from several units (about three is typical) in your Action Learning Review.

Please present your ALR under the following three headings:

Specific incident: Provide a very brief description of a specific incident that you could have handled more effectively. Don’t get lost in the detail of the event. Include only as much detail as is necessary to create a platform for the analysis in the next section of your ALR.

Suggested length: Approximately 5% (i.e. 2−3 sentences)

Analysis: Explicitly draw upon relevant course concepts to illuminate why you did not think and act as effectively as you might have. Print concept names in bold font and do not provide definitions. Instead, demonstrate your understanding of relevant concepts by the way you apply them to analyse how you handled the event.

Suggested length: Approximately 45%


Improvement planning: Based on your analysis, logically derive some actions that you will take to manage similar situations more effectively.

State how you would evaluate your effectiveness at applying the steps or initiatives you identify.

Describe any obstacles that are likely to occur (e.g. emotions, lack of time, insufficient resources, unsupportive colleagues) and how you will overcome them.

Suggested length: Approximately 50%

Guidelines:• Focus on a specific incident. Without a very clearly focused beginning,

it’s virtually impossible to produce the adequately focused analysis and improvement planning section required for this assignment. ALR’s with incidents described in any more than 4–5 lines rarely, if ever, have sufficient focus to be of high quality.

• Focus on concepts. Strive to demonstrate your sound grasp of every concept you use by showing (i) in your analysis section, exactly what the concept reveals about why you did not act as effectively as you might have, and (ii) in your improvement planning section, precisely what you will do (not just remember or keep in mind) to apply the concept to act more effectively in future.

• Focus on you! Strong ALRs focus on events that you, rather than other people, could have handled better. While it may be relevant to analyse the actions and reactions of others in the situation, focus as much as possible on how you contributed to the challenges you encountered (including ways you might have not brought out the best in others), followed by concrete plans to act more constructively next time you encounter a similar predicament.

• Make your improvement planning section SMART+. That is:

Specific about what you will do address the issues identified in your analysis

Measurable, by having clear indicators of the effectiveness of your initiative(s)

Achievable, given your available resources, constraints, and other priorities

Relevant to your goals, values, and priorities

Time-bound, by stating precisely when you intend to take your initiative(s)

Course overview 13

Challenging, given your habits, skills, and situational constraints

Positively framed in terms of what you plan to do, rather than what you plan to stop doing.

For instance, “To improve my way of responding whenever someone disputes a statement I have made, I will pause, remind myself of the importance of understanding their different perspective, and then ask them a question to help me understand how they see the issue.” Note that, depending on the habits and skills of the person who set this goal, this example succinctly meets all seven SMART+ criteria.

• In ensuring that your improvement plan is SMART+, avoid spelling this out in the form: “My plan is specific because …” Your plan will be SMART+ if it makes explicit precisely what you plan to do, when, etc.

• Be coherent, succinct, and logical. Your review should have a coherent argument or set of points that you develop across no more than three double-spaced pages.

• The recommendations in your improvement planning section should all logically follow from your analysis. Similarly, the issues raised in your analysis should all be addressed by specific steps in your improvement plan.

• Thus:

– Avoid detailed descriptions and narratives that contain little application of relevant concepts.

– Avoid using the Action Learning Review as a place to explore your feelings about work. This kind of exploration is a useful exercise that you can do at another time.

– Avoid listing concepts within a sentence. Only use a concept when applying it to make an analytical point about the event or when providing the conceptual basis for an improvement step.

– Whenever you use a course concept to make a point, provide concrete evidence that you accurately understand the concept.

Grading criteria: Your ALR will be graded according to the criteria detailed in Appendix 1.


Assessment 2: Career PlanTo fully understand the terminology in the following assessment instructions, you will need to read Unit 10.

Outline a career goal that you will attempt to attain over the next 1 to 7 year period – you decide the time frame for your plan. Then evaluate the fit of your goal with your career preferences and outline three discrete skill development plans that will help you to attain your career goal.

Please present your plan under the following four major headings:

Career goals and milestones

• The overall goal(s) for your career at the end of the plan period.

• The milestones that you will reach as you progress towards realising your career goals.

Continuity and fit

• The fit or misfit between:

– your career preferences and your career as it is now

– your career preferences and your planned career, given what you are able to learn by researching your likely future career environment

– your career preferences and an alternative career option you considered. Briefly note why it is not targeted aspiration.

• You don’t need to address all your career preferences in each of these analyses. You do need to build a compelling case for why your career goal represents a good fit with your career preferences and a higher degree of fit than the alternative career option you considered.

Skill development plans

• Outline three SMART+ skill development goals and related plans, each focused on cultivating a specific skill that will help you attain your overall career goal. At least two of your three plans should focus on developing skills covered by this course. All three plans should feature your explicit application of a range of course concepts to execute your plans effectively.

• Ensure that you explain how building your three targeted skills will support your career development.

• Explicitly outline what will indicate the extent to which you are successful at attaining your three skill development goals.

• Discuss the major obstacles or sources of resistance to implementing each plan, as well as the steps you will take to address them and build your commitment to implementing each skill development plan.

This section should comprise at least 60–75% of the page limit.

Course overview 15

Why bother?• Conclude with a brief statement of why you are excited by the prospect

of realising your overall career goal (if you do not feel excited, recraft an alternate plan that is more aligned with your career preferences).

Guidelines:• Strong skill development plans feature in-depth application of:

– goal infrastructure to support the implementation of your plan. – relevant self-management concepts e.g. incentive structure,

competing commitments, time-management, mindset, resilience, positivity, self-efficacy, psychological flexibility, etc.

– communication concepts e.g. empathy, active inquiry, giving and receiving feedback, listening blocks, active constructive responding, productive conversations, etc.

• Demonstrate your application of relevant concepts, rather than just announce a plan to apply them.

• Only mention concepts when you specifically apply them in articulating your development plans.

• Make sure that your skill development plans are firmly focused on:

– developing your managerial skills (e.g. at networking), rather than your social resources (i.e. your network) or the skills of others

– crafting a developmental routine (e.g. peer coaching, action learning cycle) that will make you, for instance, a better delegator or networker, rather than merely reporting the steps you will go through in delegating or networking

• Focus on initiatives you will undertake to develop your managerial effectiveness, rather than on initiatives you have undertaken.

Grading Criteria: Your career plan will be graded according to the criteria detailed in Appendix 2, so refer to this when writing and refining your career plan.


Assessment 3: Four Action Learning Journal (ALJ) entries

This is your opportunity to showcase your learning from the application of key concepts during the course.

Instructions: Write four 1-page action learning journal entries that document your learning from deliberately applying course concepts to address four of the following nine managerial challenges. Each journal entry should address a different challenge.

• Building my competence at mindful learning

• Managing my stressors

• Making good use of feedback

• Helping employees to learn and improve their performance

• Fostering team performance

• Acting ethically

• Providing feedback

• Increasing engagement

• Networking

• Negotiating

In each of your four journal entries, address the following topics under the four headings that appear in bold below.

Action: Precisely what you did (and why) to intentionally apply a relevant concept to address the particular managerial challenge you chose to tackle.

• In addressing why you did what you did, you might briefly explain the rationale for your concept application.

• Note that you cannot write the Action section without first deliberately applying one of the course concepts.

Result: What resulted from your concept application for you and/or others.

• Your observations here could encompass your thoughts, feelings and/or actions, the reactions of others, and/or the extent of your progress in attaining your objectives.

Just report the effects of your concept application, rather than interpreting them. Given that this section is purely descriptive, it will be much shorter than the following two sections.

Course overview 17

Insights: What you learned from applying the course concept.

• What played out as you intended? What surprising outcomes occurred? What were you able to achieve?

• What did you learn about yourself and about the course concept?

In this section, showcase your ability to apply a range of concepts to interpret and learn from the Results of your Action.

Next Steps: What you plan to do in future, based on this action learning experiment, to continue improving your managerial practice.

• Outline how and why you will continue your skill development process.

• Ensure your plan is SMART+.

• Briefly mention a major challenge you anticipate to implementing your plan and how you will address it.

In developing this action plan, explicitly apply and discuss relevant self-management, communication, and/or ethics concepts. Remember that while self-management concepts are the explicit focus of Unit 2, they also appear in many other units.

Guidelines • Given that your Action Learning Journal entries are reports of your

learning from deliberately applying relevant concepts throughout the duration of this course, you are strongly encouraged to begin deliberately experimenting with applying course concepts and taking notes on your action learning experiences as soon as possible (i.e. within the first couple of weeks of beginning this course).

• In addressing the “Coherence” criterion in the Assessment 3 grading template (in Appendix 3), there should be a clear flow running through your Action (what you did), Results (what happened from doing it), Insights (what you learned from what you did) to your Next steps (how you will build upon what you learned to continue your skill development in this area).

• Remember that your journal entries should not be a discussion of how you would apply a concept. Rather, they are to offer your analysis of what happened when you actually did apply a course concept and then how you would apply a range of concepts to further improve that application.

• Remember to submit your ALJ entries in one submission with four attachments of your four ALJ entries – via Moodle.


• Please name each file using one of the following 10 possible file names:

z1234567-Sustaining a routine to improve a managerial skill

z1234567-Making good use of feedback

z1234567-Helping employees to learn and improve their performance

z1234567-Fostering team performance

z1234567-Acting ethically

z1234567-Providing feedback

z1234567-Increasing engagement

z1234567-Networking

z1234567-Negotiating

… where “z1234567” is replaced with your student number. Even the slightest variation from this naming standard (e.g. insertion of a space) impedes processing your ALJs, so your careful attention to it will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your cooperation with this administrative imperative.

Grading criteria:Your Action Learning Journal (ALJ) entries will be graded according to the criteria detailed in Appendix 3.

Course overview 19

Learning resources and support

Learning resourcesYou have five major resources to help you learn:

1. A mandatory introductory teleconference. There will be a required teleconference during Week 0. Your instructor will contact you with details about how to book in your time slot for this important introduction to your colleagues, your instructor, and this course.

2. The course units and readings. The calendar at the beginning of this overview indicates the units you need to have worked through prior to each of the two workshops. You will do much of your learning by thoughtfully working through the exercises and activities in these units before each of the two workshops.

3. Your colleagues, friends, and family. People within your professional and personal life will provide you with many opportunities to practise applying course concepts, before attending the workshops.

4. Your instructor. Your instructor will support your learning by facilitating your two weekend workshops, answering your questions and providing you with feedback on your assignments. The workshops include experiential learning activities that will illustrate and reinforce the conceptual content of the course.

5. Your classmates. They will be an invaluable source of learning for you through sharing their experience and perspectives from different jobs and industries.

The course overview, units, and readings can be found on the course website under “Course materials”. The course materials are PDF files that allow you to access the course units in the same visual format contained in the course material binders. The online files contain links to facilitate faster navigation through each unit; for example, the contents page has links to each major unit heading.

Articles to which the AGSM MBA Programs do not have copyright are not included as online documents.


eLearning support

To log in to the course website:

• Go to https://moodle.telt.unsw.edu.au/

• Then, enter your zNumber and your zPass to access Moodle

• Under ‘Course Overview,’ click over your Managerial Skills class and this will take you to the course Homepage.

Should you have any difficulties accessing your course online, please contact the eLearning support below:

For login issuesUNSW IT Service Centre

Hours: Monday to Friday: 8.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m. Saturday and Sunday: 11.00 a.m. to 2.00 p.m.Email: [email protected]: Internal – x51333 External – +61 2 9385 1333

For assistance in using Moodle, including how to upload assessments.The AGSM eLearning Coordinator

Hours: Monday to Friday: 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m.Email: [email protected]: Internal – x19541 External – 02 9931 9541 International – +61 2 9931 9541

For help with technical issues and problems.External TELT Service Centre.

Hours: Monday to Friday: 7.30 a.m. to 9.30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday: 8.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.Email: [email protected] Phone: Internal – x53331 External – 02 9385 3331 International – +61 2 9385 3331

Course overview 21

AGSM MBA Programs contact details

Student ExperienceIf you have any administrative queries, they should be addressed to Student Experience.

Student Experience AGSM MBA Programs Australian School of Business UNSW SYDNEY NSW 2052

Tel: +61 2 9931 9400 Fax: +61 2 9931 9205 Email: [email protected]

Additional student resources and support

The University and the Australian School of Business provide a wide range of support services for students, including:

• AGSM manual: Managing Your Learning.

• ASB Education Development Unit (EDU). (www.business.unsw.edu.au/edu) Academic writing, study skills, and maths support specifically for ASB, AGSM and MBT students. Services include workshops, online and printed resources, and individual consultations. EDU Office: Room GO7, Ground Floor, ASB Building (opposite Student Centre); Ph: +61 2 9385 5584; Email: [email protected]

• UNSW Learning Centre. (www.lc.unsw.edu.au) Academic skills support services, including workshops and resources for all UNSW students. See website for details.

• Library training and search support services. http://info.library.unsw.edu.au

• UNSW IT Service Desk. Technical support for problems logging in to websites, downloading documents etc. Library, Level 2; Ph: +61 2 9385 1333; Website www.its.unsw.edu.au/support/support_home.html


mailto:studentexperience%40agsm.edu.au?subject=

www.business.unsw.edu.au/edu

www.lc.unsw.edu.au

http://info.library.unsw.edu.au

www.its.unsw.edu.au/support/support_home.html

• UNSW Counselling Service. (www.counselling.unsw.edu.au) Free, confidential service for problems of a personal or academic nature, and workshops on study issues such as ‘Coping With Stress’ and ‘Procrastination’. Office: Level 2, Quadrangle East Wing; Ph: +61 2 9385 5418.

• Student Equity & Disabilities Unit. (http://www.studentequity.unsw.edu.au) Advice regarding equity and diversity issues, and support for students who have a disability or disadvantage that interferes with their learning. Office: Ground Floor, John Goodsell Building; Ph: +61 2 9385 4734.

Course overview 23

www.counselling.unsw.edu.au

http://www.studentequity.unsw.edu.au

Course leader

Peter Heslin

Peter Heslin is an Associate Professor in the School of Management at the Australian School of Business. He received his Ph.D. in Organisational Behavior and Human Resource Management from the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. From 2003–2010 he worked as an Assistant Professor at the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

A former consultant at KPMG Australia with expertise in the dynamics of change, Peter has developed and taught MBA courses on skills for managing people, managerial skills, organisational behaviour, leading organisational change, and managing across cultures. Peter has consulted in these areas to corporations including BHPB, Citibank, Ensco, IBM, KPMG, Oracle, Procter & Gamble, Westpac, and Zurich Insurance. Peter’s consulting engagements and executive teaching address issues including cultivating adaptability for career success, performance management to drive behavioural change, effectively utilising upward feedback for executive development and navigating career transitions.

Peter has authored or co-authored over a dozen related articles published in leading journals such as Applied Psychology: An International Review, Leadership Excellence, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, Journal of Organizational Behavior, and Personnel Psychology. He also serves on the editorial review board of six prestigious academic journals.

Peter is the course leader for Managerial Skills. He also teaches on the AGSM FTMBA Foundations of Management program and in the AGSM EMBA Strategic Management Year. He was elected the 2013–2014 Chair for the Academy of Management Careers Division. In 2012, together with Geoff Mortimore, he won the C. Jackson Grayson Endowed Faculty Innovation Award for excellence and creativity in teaching.

Tel: 02 9385 7147 Email: [email protected]


mailto:heslin%40unsw.edu.au%20?subject=

Other course contributors• Dan Caprar, PhD(Iowa), MBA(Iowa), MA(Babes-Bolyai),

BSc(Babes-Bolyai).

• Julie Cogin, PhD(UNSW), MCom, Grad Dip Ed, BBus.

• Catherine Collins, PhD(UNSW), B.A.(Wollongong).

• Geoff Mortimore, MA(Oxford), BPhil(Oxford), BSc(ANU).

• Wendy Grusin, DPsych(Macquarie), BSc Hons (UNSW), B.A.(Natal).

• Denise Weinreis, MScCoachPsych(Sydney), MInts(Sydney), GradDip(Jansen Newman Institute), B.S.(Kansas State).

Course overview 25

References

Bennis, W. 1993, An invented life: Reflections on leadership and change, Basic Books.

Boston Consulting Group 2007, 2020 Vision, The Manager of the 21st Century, Innovation and Business Skills Australia.

Kolb, D. A. 1984, Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

Lewin, K. 1946, ‘Action research and minority problems’, Journal of Social Issues, vol. 2, pp. 34–46.

Locke, E. A. & Latham, G. P. 2012, A theory of goal setting and task performance, 2nd edition, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

Mintzberg, H. 2003, ‘The manager’s job: Folklore and fact’, Harvard Business Review, OnPoint Enhanced Edition, Nov, pp.1–15.

Torbert, W. & Associates, 2004, Action inquiry: The secret of timely and transforming leadership, San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.


Appendices

Appendix 1 Action Learning Review (ALR) Grading Template

Appendix 2 Career Plan Grading Template

Appendix 3 Action Learning Journal (ALJ) Grading Template

Course overview 27

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