There are four parts to the complete portfolio. The portfolio is about how people are managed and how they

lead. It also gives you an opportunity to understand yourself, and so helps you understand how you should
manage people.
Each Portfolio Assignment should be viewed from an academic perspective. You should consider each part of
the assessment not from an intuitive, that is a personal viewpoint, but by explaining, and referring to, the
theory you have met during the course of formal lectures and your personal reading of the literature
recommended. Above all it is what the literature tells you about effective personal or people management
practices that you should report on. In essence, make sure that you use appropriate theory supported by full
academic references. If you do not follow this advice you will either achieve a poor result or fail the
module.
The portfolio is split into for parts called Assignments. Portfolio Assignment 1 is about how people manage
themselves and interact with others; Portfolio Assignment 2 is about how people are led and how theory can
help us understand the leadership process; Portfolio Assignment 3 is about the factors which influence upon
how people are led, the personal values of people (leaders) and how organisational culture can, and does,
affect leadership; Portfolio Assignment 4 concerns approaches to the management of change.
As well as the core text: Whetten, D.A. and Cameron, K.S. (2011, 8th Edn.), Developing Management Skills.
Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, supported by Mullins, L.J. (2010, 9th edn.) Management and
Organisational Behaviour. Harlow: Pearson Education and also Senior, B. and Swailes, S. (2010, 3rd edn.)
Organizational Change. Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall. ( both available as an ‘e’ book via the
Learning and Information Centre’s electronic database) you may wish to refer to the following texts for
guidance:
Arnold, J. Silvester, J. Patterson, F. Robertson, I. Cooper, C. and Burnes, B. (2005, 4th Edn.) Work
Psychology: Understanding Human Behaviour in the Workplace, Harlow: Pearson Education (available as an ‘e’
book), Cottrell, S. (2008) The Study Skills Handbook. 3rd Edn. Palgrave MacMillan or Pedler, M. Burgoyne
(2006) A manager’s guide to self development. McGraw-Hill. These texts are available in the University
Learning Centres.
Portfolio Assignment 1
How and who we work for can impact upon our health, well-being and thus, in general our lives. Consider the
following information, freely available from the Health and Safety Executive accessed from the HSE website on
18 September 2012 at: <http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/dayslost.htm>
The latest information from the UK Government’s Labour Force Survey for 2010/11 shows:
– Around 26.4 million working days were lost in total, 22.1 million due to work-related illness and 4.4
million due to workplace injuries.
– On average, each person suffering took around 15 days off work, 19 days for ill health and 7.2 days
for injuries on average.
– The number of working days lost has fallen over the past decade.
– Stress, depression or anxiety and musculoskeletal disorders accounted for the majority of days lost
due to work-related ill health, 10.8 and 7.6 million days respectively.
– The average days lost per case for stress, depression or anxiety (27 days) was higher than for
musculoskeletal disorders (15 days).
Clearly there is a business argument to take stress very seriously and thus managers need to consider how
they manage themselves and those who work for them.
Question1 – We know what the effects of stress are from the Health and Safety Executives research but what is
stress exactly?
Question 2 – Discuss, using ideas from the general model of stress, the causes (sources) of stress and thus
how stress can be managed in the work place. In your response you must make reference to how the various
causes of stress can be categorised.
Question 3 – Referring to the mini case study below discuss the types of stressors which are negatively
affecting Jane and how the organisations management might improve her situation and thus reduce her stress
levels.
Consider the day in the life of an office worker. She works for a small haulage company which employs 80
people. It has a warehouse, 50 lorries of various sizes and functions, ranging from vans with tail-lifts for
delivering light weight parcels and other goods, tipper trucks for working on building sites, ‘flat-bed’
lorries with cranes for delivering heavy goods such as pallets of bricks to building sites and articulated
trucks which carry palletised loads.
Jane’s job is simple, she receives telephone and email messages from potential clients who want to know the
cost of transporting an item from ‘A’ to ‘B’ and at what cost. She passes the request on to a colleague who
does the costing and then contacts the enquirer with the information they have requested.
Jane is conscientious, diligent and bright. She left school five years ago with seven GCSEs at grade ‘B’ and
was thinking of going on to sixth form to study A levels but family circumstance did not permit. She has
been doing the same job in the same business since leaving school. Her office is like many offices that you
one would work, it is bright and airy and until nine months ago she was reasonably content, although not
fulfilled. Her old boss left the company and she was given a new supervisor. She now dreads coming to work.
She never feels as though she does things right. Although not always criticised for her work Jane senses
that what she does is not satisfactory in the eyes of her boss, for example, if she does more than her
defined role she is admonished for ‘exceeding her authority’. Jane does not know, from one day to the next
how her supervisor will react to her. She wants to leave the company but in the current economic situation
there is no where to go to. Work is affecting her well-being.
Portfolio Assignment 2
Rensis Likert’s ‘Behavioural Approach’ to leadership is very appealing by suggesting how people should be
led; one could say it is too simple.
1. Discuss, referring to appropriate theory, how Likert conducted his research, you must identify the
criteria he used during his investigation.
2. Further discuss what he meant by supportive relationships and supportive behaviour and the role it
plays in effective leadership ?
3. In what way does Likert suggest that employees (team members) can be encouraged to achieve high level
goals?
4. In what way does Likert suggest that the end result variables of an organisation, such as the
organisation’s productivity, costs, scrap materials created etc. can be positively impacted upon?
Portfolio Assignment 3
1. John Gardener (1990) On Leadership, New York Press, wrote, “In this country [USA – author’s words] –
and in most democracies-power has such a bad name that many people persuade themselves they want nothing to
do with it.” Discuss, with relevance to appropriate theory whether managers should develop an understanding
of and a competence in building a power base within an organisation.
2. There are many sources of power. In terms of success, in Western cultures people favour and foster
personal and dispositional (she achieved what he has done because she was the brightest) as opposed to
Chinese cultures which favour situationally centred (he was promoted because he knew lots of people in the
headquarters) explanations of success. If this type of logic is taken further, in to the realms of managing
organisations, then one could consider whether managers should explore and develop an understanding of
‘Personal’ as opposed to ‘Positional Power’. Discuss, with reference to relevant theory the issues and the
pros and cons of these two very different types of power.
Gretton, cited in Mullins (2010, p. 683), suggests that, “Today’s leaders understand that you have to give up
control to get results. That’s what all the talk of empowerment is about”. Define what is meant by
empowerment and explain how empowerment differs from delegation. Using appropriate theory examine why it is
important in the 21st century why leaders, at all levels in the organisation, need to empower their staff.
Portfolio Assignment 4
This final part of your portfolio addresses change management and culture. In your response to the following
questions you must refer to appropriate theory.
1. Identify the types of managerial tools which can be used to bring about organisational change.
2. As a more readily accessible but perceived measure of an organisation’s health, researchers have
started to investigate ‘Organisational Climate’. Explain what is meant be this term and what it means in
terms of the organisation. What sort of characteristics might be the sign of a healthy organisation?
3. Following along from the above question, explain and discuss the general principles which management
might adhere to when trying to bring about change within an organisation
Tutor comment:
Any statement you make in the course of answering the above questions should be substantiated in some way by
referencing articles, texts and peer reviewed journals, thus demonstrating that you have an understanding of
the theoretical concepts, which underpin people management practices. If you quote from an academic source
you must reference your statement using the Harvard System of Referencing.
In all of the portfolio assignments you must discuss and reference theory. Marks are awarded for the quality
and range of your academic references.

Important requirements

Mode of Working: Individual
Presentation Format: This module is assessed with a portfolio, which is progressively built as the module
develops, week by week. The portfolio, presented as one document, consists of four Portfolio Assignments.
Each Portfolio Assignment is equally weighted. You must pass each Portfolio Assignment to achieve an overall
pass in this module.
Submitting your portfolio: You should prepare your portfolio as one document which includes the four
assignment parts.
Portfolio format:
? Front page/cover ( for the individual portfolio ): the front page of the portfolio should include
your student number. Always state the question relating to the portfolio assignment you are addressing –
this facilitates rebuilding of the portfolio should it be split apart during marking.
? Index page
? Main portfolio sections – clearly labelled and written in essay format.
? References and Bibliography
? Appendices (unless an appendix adds significantly to the understanding of your portfolio then the
appendix section should not be included. In general appendices should be kept to a minimum.

Assessment limits: Each individual portfolio assignment should be written single-sided and word-processed,
1.5 line spacing and with margins set at 2.5 centimetres on each side of the page. Pages should be numbered.
Each individual portfolio assignment is allowed 1,000 words, not including tables. You should draw on
materials from academic texts, peer reviewed journal articles and other relevant academic source. Your work
should be referenced using the Harvard System..
Submitting your portfolio for marking: Portfolios will be submitted electronically Note you should only
submit one document which contains the four parts of the portfolio. Simply uploading your work does not make
it visible to the person who will mark it. After you have uploaded your work you must then ‘submit’.
Submission of a hard copy is not required and will not be graded.
Note:

Always keep a copy of your work and a file of working papers (e.g. copied journal articles) and early drafts
of your work. There may be circumstances where it is difficult to arrive at a grade for your work and you may
be asked to bring this file along with you and meet with your tutor to answer questions on your submission

Academic misconduct: your portfolio submission may be subjected to a check for plagiarism

The following detail is important when:
• Preparing for your assessment
• Checking your work before submission
• When interpreting your grade and feedback after marking. (Note that your work will not be returned
to you so always keep a copy of your work for this purpose.)

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Is able to demonstrate and understanding and awareness of the concepts of managing self, and is able
to explain and apply the fundamentals of theory which underpin the management of self.
Is able to identify and explain, the concepts of leading and managing others in respect of current and key
theories of leadership and management.
Is able to explain and discuss theories which impact upon the moral and ethical approaches and stances to the
management of people.
Is able to explain some of the basic theoretical constructs of managing change in the workplace.

Assessment Criteria (Insert detail)

Using information: Identify and assess relevant academic literature to support analysis and to inform
discussion

Analysis: Discuss the use of argument, models, evidence and techniques in the development of theory and
practice.

Critical thinking: Objectively assess the relative contribution of different analytical approaches and
theoretical perspectives.

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