Job Application Plan: Steps to Prepare for a Dream Job

This report discusses the steps to prepare for a dream job, specifically for the role of Director Consumer Experience at Mater. It covers background information about the employing organization, comparison of key selection criteria with leadership theory and formal health leadership frameworks, and proposed career pathway. The report also includes a summary of exceptional consumer experience and references.

Running head: JOB APPLICATION PLAN
Job Application Plan
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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Executive summary
The main purpose of this report is to understand actions that need to be taken after seeing an
advertisement for a dream job. The study covers a stepwise discussion to identify the areas of
improvement for the learner to become a “Director Consumer Experience” in future. The
discussion assumes the role of a ‘Health Manager’ for the learner. The report is actually a set of
information to know about the prior to interview stages.

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Table of Contents
Part 1:-.............................................................................................................................................3
a) Background information about the employing organization...................................................3
b) An explanation about how the key selection criteria for the role compare with what you
have learned from leadership theory, formal health leadership frameworks, and strategic
management.................................................................................................................................4
c) Responses to two of the selection criteria on best practice as described in the academic
literature.....................................................................................................................................12
d) A proposed career pathway for the role you have chosen.....................................................16
Part 2:-...........................................................................................................................................18
Question-2: 'What does Exceptional Consumer Experience mean to you?'..............................19
References......................................................................................................................................20

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Part 1:-
a) Background information about the employing organization.
It is important to know a bit about the company an individual is planning to apply for. It
gives an understanding of the mission, vision, and values of the organization. An understanding
of vision, mission, and values are important to align practices as per organizational norms. It is to
be noted that there is an ample number of reasons that cause employee turnover. An unawareness
with visions, values, and mission is one of those. Until and unless an employee is not sure of the
end goal of the company, the person will just serve the financial needs. An employee who is not
informed on these factors may find some rules and policies as unbearable. There will be no
motivation in him to get an inspiration for work towards attaining the end goal of the company.
Instead, that particular employee or more of the same type would get engaged in searching for
better options. They will do this until they reach their maximum age limit for a career set up.
They are bound to be satisfied at this point in time as they have arrived at their maximum age
limit for keep experimenting with jobs. At this point in time, they will do their best to be satisfied
with the perks and benefits, and the work environment that they receive.
With regard to stated facts in the aforesaid section, it appears to be an important task to
know about the employer to whom an employee is applying for. The employer in concern for
this task is “Mater”. Mater health is based in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The employer
dramatically moved from just operating as a hospital facility to a foundation comprising of
hospitals, pathology, and pharmacy businesses, health centers, a world-class medical research
institute, and a nationally recognized and Registered Training Organization (Mater.org.au, 2018).
With all these setups there is one ultimate goal, which is to attract, recruit, and retain exceptional
people to provide exceptional care to not just patients but also the community by being careful

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towards its environmental impact. Mater is one of the best healthcare options for patients in
Queensland. The company supports its mission, vision, and values with innovation to discover,
improve, adapt to emerging and existing technologies and strategies. Consequently, Mater is well
engaged in developing a healthy community. The mission is “to providing health care services
through a sincere commitment to their core values of Mercy, Care, Dignity, Commitment, and
Quality” (Mater.org.au, 2018). Mater is a not-for-profit ministry committed to adapt to a holistic
approach to be prepared to respond to ever-changing needs of the community. Mater is
continually in practice and efforts to improve its treatment standards, knowledge and skills
management, understanding of different diseases, and management of resources.
The main purpose of this task is to understand how a job application plan is prepared.
Specifically, the report intends to shed light on things to consider while applying for a job.
b) An explanation about how the key selection criteria for the role compare with what you
have learned from leadership theory, formal health leadership frameworks, and strategic
management.
The key section criteria for the post of Director Consumer Experience in Mater are:
 The applicant must have relevant experience in change management and project
management skills in a complex and challenging working environment
 The person must also be able to drive an exceptional consumer experience
Considering the above two factors of the selection criteria, it looks evident that the requirements
can also be understood with the help of concepts, theories, and frameworks of leadership.
Concept:-

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First and foremost, the concept of leadership helps to understand that leadership and
management are two distinct terms portraying the different work responsibilities. Leadership can
be said to be a part of the management. However, management on its own is a vast concept,
which leaders can only and effectively maintain by using suitable tools and framework for
distinguished circumstances. Leadership is like one of the characteristic features of management.
Leadership and management at some point in time and it then becomes difficult to differentiate
the two terms (Al-Haddad & Kotnour, 2015). For example, at workplaces such as in the
healthcare sector, there are different kinds of power, which impact or have the potential to affect
the operations. These are (Jávor & Jancsics, 2016):
 Legitimate power
 Coercive power
 Reward power
 Expert power
 Referent power
These powers convey or denote the different strategies, which must be adapted to create
motivating factors for employees, empower their performances, and impact the operational
outcomes. On comparing these benefits with the mission, vision, and values of Mater, the
following facts could be drawn (Olsen et al., 2014):
Power What is it Fulfillment of Job-
Related Criteria
Legitimate It is the power that managers
get from their position. In an
organization, there are in
This will have a positive
impact on complex tasks
handled in organizations

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general three layers of
management namely supervisor
managers, line-managers and
top-managers. With this power,
they can control the workforce
as per their desire till the line
they are allowed to expand to.
such as change
management and project
management. Moreover,
the long-term impact will
be over the operational
outcomes measured in
terms of customer
satisfaction.
Coercive This is specific with managers
using which they can force one
or a few employees or a group
of employees to behave and
work as instructed.
The force may cause some
attrition and the rate may
go up; however, the power
is required in a situation
when employees are taking
the undue advantage of
their position in the
company. A coercive may
be required to reduce the
number of employees
acting as resistant to a
change process.
Reward This is one of the powers that
managers use especially when
employee motivation is low.
Rewards can be of two
kinds such as intrinsic and
extrinsic. It depends on the

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circumstances the manager
is into and his or her
leadership traits that what
rewarding approach the
manager adapt to.
Irrespective of the
rewarding approach the
manager adapt to will
possibly have an impact on
the operational outcomes
provided that employees'
needs are clear to the
manager. One of the
selection criteria for the
chosen post in this report is
to be able to deliver the
“exceptional consumer
experience”. Nonetheless,
the reward power can act as
motivating factors for
employees and the end
result should also be a
much better and an

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improved customer service.
Expert Employees have a certain
perception with their managers
due to a fact that managers are
serving one of the highest
positions in the company.
Such managers will be able
to inspire the work of
employees for a fact that
employees start respecting
their managers and consider
them as their role model in
the company.
Referent This is one of the most
important powers in an
organizational setting. It helps
managers to improve their
interpersonal skills to be able
to collaborate with employees.
A collaboration between
employees and managers
with the help of this power
if possible would impact
the work efficiency of
employees, which
ultimately would speed up
the work and also the
quality in service. These
impacts are in line with
three selection criteria
being set by the “Mater” for
the post of “Director
Consumer Experience”. An
improved, motivated, and

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efficient workforce is an
asset to organizations in
projects like change
management and project
management.
Table 1: Powers in an Organizational Setting and Fulfillment of Selection Criteria
(Source: created by author)
Leadership Theories:-
The section discusses the different leadership theories and tries to identify whether there
is any compatibility between the selection criteria for the chosen job role and the leadership
theories.
Behavioral Theory
The theory says that leaders are made, they are not born. It happens when managers at
different levels in an organization have different traits and behaviors that are essential to lead the
team and set examples for others (Landis, Hill & Harvey, 2014). Drawing on what the theory
states, this can be said that contemporary managers must have a hunger for developing and
attaining the leadership skills in them. This would not just help them in their professional career
but would also produce excellent results for employers that they serve. The selection criteria
from the frame of the behavioral theory can be considered as justifying because those criterions
require an exceptional output from the applicant. Change management, project management, and
a high-quality customer service would require managers those who are desirous towards a

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continuous learning strategy. A continuous learning would not just help to develop skills but also
to be motivated in complex and challenging situations, and encourage towards looking for the
options (Hornstein, 2015).
Situational Theory
The theory encourages managers to adapt to different situations by deploying different
practices. Some of the examples of situations are (Latham, 2014):
 When a group or few groups have a low understanding of the mission, vision, and values
of an organization
 When there is no leadership approach being adopted from managers
 When few employees need to be sent to the consultation
It is to be noted that there are very rare leaders in Australia. It means that managers in Australia
lack the leadership skills in them. They do not have the infrastructure to be explored to a wide
array of skills and strategy making (Amanchukwu, Stanley & Ololube, 2015). The highlighted
situation indicates the fact that Australia needs leaders. On a similar note, “Mate” also needs
leaders to be able to tackle challenging tasks and improve its service quality. In the light of the
“Situational Theory”, it looks evident that criterions set for the position in “Mate” is
appropriately correct. Hence, a person well versed with the skills needed to deal with complex
tasks like change management and project management is the best fit for "Director Consumer
Experience". This is exactly what the theory suggests that is to deal with different situations with
distinguished strategies and capabilities.
Charismatic or transformational Theory

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The theory says that leaders must be able to work according to the vision of the company.
In addition, they should also be able to articulate the vision to employees (Day et al., 2014). This
is perhaps a very challenging task and requires an extensive strategic planning and the
implementation. Training and development, feedback sessions, performance appraisal, quality
management, and cost analysis are a few examples of strategies and implementation. The theory
says that managers should also be able to collaborate their understanding and practices with
groups. Such managers will get huge respect to form their employees.
In the frame of the theory, few points are worth noting that are following and articulating
the vision of the company. Notably, change processes and other projects do happen only when
there is a sign of threat to the operation from either internal or external environment. In either of
the cases, the day-to-day operation will be hampered leading to an overall impact on the
company’s vision.
Leadership Frameworks:-
Leadership Qualities Framework
According to the “Leadership Qualities Framework”, personal qualities are important to
setting the direction and delivering services. It means that personal qualities are of huge
importance in preparing the platform and guiding the operation (Jeon et al., 2015). The key
selection criteria for the position of the “Director Consumer Experience” is also on a similar
track to this theory. The criteria expect and ask the applicant to be equipped with skills and ideas
to work in a complex environment and be able to commence projects, and change processes
effectively.
Competing Values Framework

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The framework is being developed and designed by Quinn in 1988 (Sasaki et al., 2017).
The framework has two opposing dimensions like effectiveness vs. stability, and effectiveness
criteria vs. criteria that aims at differentiation, rivalry, and external orientation. The framework
thus generates the need of leadership skills, traits, and behaviors in managers, so that, they could
draw upon the theory and make an ideal selection of two competing dimensions (Sasaki et al.,
2017). Therefore, change management can be a need in some circumstances like an increasingly
growing market competition and emerging technological trends. In all these and the likes of
situations, it is required to conduct an audit of operations and of the market to identify and
generate enough evidence on the problem areas. The next stage is generally a change
management approach, which is taken in response to the external pressure. Hence, these findings
are also in line to the criterions required for the chosen designation in “Mater”.
c) Responses to two of the selection criteria on best practice as described in the academic
literature.
Key Selection Criteria 1:-
Since the required applicant would be serving in the company as the "Director Consumer
Experience", it is important to understand why the selection criteria are set as such as in the
context of the “Mater”. Project and change management related discussions and practices are
now increasingly growing across organizations and industries. Change and so a project is an
inevitable fact these days (Verhulst & Lambrechts, 2015). If this is not applied appropriately
when it is needed, the existing companies and new entrants will take the advantage of. This will
have an impact on the market shares of the concerned company. Hence, to bring stability to the
operation and to attain a sustainable business, it is important to identify the business needs and
projects needed to attain those. However, a project requires a thorough and extensive output from

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employees and the management to efficiently deal with its different stages. Mir & Pinnington
(2014) opines that project management skills in managers are critical for the successful
accomplishment of a project.
According to Lock (2017), project management is important to establish a strategic
alignment between different business domains in a company such as human resource
management (HRM), operations, admin and the information technology (IT) team. If a
collaboration between these different entities is not established, there will be as according to
Svejvig & Andersen (2015) a lack of coordination between these domains resulting in numerous
troubles. This would affect the internal communication, which is necessary to respond to
unexpected needs during the project. For example, there may be an internet connection issue in
one of the business branches of "Mater". If it stays for a few minutes or hours, this will have an
influence on the day-to-day operation of “Mater”. Indeed, this would be a troublesome situation
for the company considering that number of patients seeking a quality treatment is growing and
that a reputation buildup is important to attract many of such patients (Kerzner, 2017). The
required applicant for the post of ‘Director Consumer Experience' if can make strategies and
establish an effective linkage between each of the business domains, there would be relatively
less communication gap. This will also positively impact the efficiency of handling projects and
delivering on time.
Project management is important as it drives the leadership in managers. Serra & Kunc
(2015) states that a leadership approach for dealing with a project is necessary to influence the
performance. It helps to understand the situation and provides the ability to deal with it with
strategies that are relevant and feasible with the project budget and the timeline.

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Project management as understood by Joslin & Müller (2015) is important to put focus
and clearly identify objectives. Change management, which is a part of project management
requires a few things for its effective commencement those are:
 A greater population of employees supporting the change than opposing it
 Clear vision, mission, goal, and objectives with the change process
 A strategic approach towards the commencement
These all requisite elements of a change process cannot be achieved until accompanied by a
leader who is focused on goals and objectives.
Project management is important to ensure a quality control. As observed by Hornstein
(2015), project management is a good asset to ensure the quality work because it helps to divide
tasks into phases and create ample amount of time for the team to examine and test the outputs at
different phases in a project work.
Todorović et al., (2015) opines that project management teaches ways to identify and
manage probable and potential risks. Nevertheless, the healthcare sector is full of risks such as
the failure of pieces of equipment and the availability of hazardous substances on premises. Such
risks and the likes of must be identified and treated with effective measures to avoid any
unexpected consequences.
Project management in the opinion of Too & Weaver (2014) teaches ways to identify the
best team to deal with a project. “Mater”, which has constantly worked towards improving its
service excellence, it must have project managers that are capable in identifying the best talent
for the project. In addition, project managers should also be able to identify and escalate those
that lack professional and interpersonal skills to the concerned department.

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Key Selection Criteria 2:-
Wegner & Koetz (2016) opines that a strengthening of governance mechanism could
positively impact the firm’s performance. This would require an understanding of strategies that
would help to strengthen the governance mechanism such as external and internal. Now, the
different structure would require a distinguished approach for each one of them. The needs of
different governance structures will be different and so the management strategies. A low
employee satisfaction would require the management to address the issue with strategies such as
coaching to identify the reasons for dissatisfaction, needs assessment to identify the needs for
training and so on. On the other hand, an increasingly growing carbon footprint would certainly
create the necessity to use a low-energy consuming lighting and cooling system, the use of
renewable energy resources and so.
According to Sánchez (2015), project management is a traditional yet a growing concept
across industries for its ability to teach managers a wide variety of ways to deal with a number of
different issues. Such issues could have their association with both internal and external
governance structure. The management must be able to identify the needs to conduct an audit of
the organization and the market to identify internal and external needs.
Gould, Gallagher & Allen (2016) states that leaders must be able to track factors causing
a declining business to be able to identify the areas of improvement and propose relevant
strategies to deal with those. For example, if sales are declining, there must be reasons for it like
ineffective communication skills in sales executives, a lack of coordination between sales
executives and the management, and so. A good acquaintance with the management skills will
help in situations like such to identify steps to follow to control the rising challenge.

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Director
Manager
Senior Manager
Deputy Director
d) A proposed career pathway for the role you have chosen.
Figure 1: Career Pathway
(Source: created by author)
Personal SWOT analysis
Strengths: I am very strong in communication. I also do not find any difficulties coordinating
with team leads and staffs. I am also good at overseeing how different teams are performing.
Weaknesses: I generally get stuck in a challenging situation. It takes time to actually arrive at a
decision. The decision-making process is one area where I need to work hard to attain higher
positions in healthcare settings.
Opportunities: I do know that there is a lack of effective leaders in the healthcare setting in
Australia. A lack of an appropriate infrastructure is being felt like one of the reasons for the fact.

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The demand factor for a quality treatment is growing with passing days. However, the supply of
qualified professionals such as the ‘Director Consumer Experience' is very minimal. In these
circumstances, professionals with excellent managerial skills and proven track records might
succeed in notching higher designated positions in the healthcare setting.
Threats: A lack of infrastructure in the healthcare setting is appearing to be the only threat that
might prevent managers from using quality resources and exploring a wide array of strategies to
treat the distinguished situation.
Development of experience, knowledge, and skills
The posted advertisement for the designation of “Director Consumer Experience” in
“Mater” requires a few quality skills from applicants. Those are project management skills,
experiences of handling change processes in a complex environment and ability to identify
strategies to deal with a distinguished situation. Since the learner has come across a few areas of
improvement in him while operating as the ‘Health Manager’, there is a need to plan strategies to
rectify the weakness and develop more skills to be suitable for the post.
Objectives Tasks Success
Criteria
Time Frame Resources
1. Decision-
making
Supervising or
managing a
number of tasks
as this
introduces to the
diverse range of
Ability to handle
projects in a
critical and
complex
environment
2 yrs. from now
onwards
Senior managers
could help with
their experience.
Apart from this,
website and
journal articles

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issues. These
issues will
provide
opportunities to
learn different
things.
would also be a
handful.
2. Overseeing
capabilities
To oversee a
number of
projects to get
acquaintance
with the kinds of
challenges
Effective
handling of
projects and
project-related
barriers
3 yrs. from the
current time
Referring to
article resources
and taking help
of seniors
3. A very sound
acquaintance
with different
business
domains
It means
understanding
different
operations like
marketing,
finance, human
resources etc.
Ability to
understand
challenges that
different
hierarchical
departments face
and their
probable
solutions
3-4 yrs. Working
collaboratively
with marketing,
financial and
other teams to
know about
challenges and
their appropriate
solutions
Table 2: Action Plan
(Source: created by author)

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Part 2:-
Question-2: 'What does Exceptional Consumer Experience mean to you?'
Exceptional consumer experience means that one need to go above and beyond what the
organization and its members expect. In such a situation, there will be the need to go an extra
mile in answering the question. It means that the applicant if recruited needs to give an extra
effort to his work and prove that the trust, which the management has in him, is true and of the
highest degree. The applicant needs to take the interviewer into confidence by giving a
confirmation to a fact that if recruited, the management would perhaps have the best experience
they could ever imagine of. Some practical words could also be communicated as if I am asked
to deal with a problem, I would remain calm and composed while searching for the solution. It
also needs to be communicated that in case the learner is not able to handle a problem, the
management holds all rights to escort the learner to the concerned person who can help to deal
with the problem. The leaner must also ensure that the learner would behave normally with the
concerned department in case there are rising complaints from customers. However, the learner
will give extra efforts in the finding of the root causes.

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