Understanding Recruitment and Talent Management

This document discusses the importance of recruitment and talent management in organizations. It explores different leadership theories and the role of organizational culture. It also provides resources and industry insights on effective succession planning and developing leadership skills.

Running head: PEOPLE, CULTURE AND CONTEMPORARY LEADERSHIP
PEOPLE, CULTURE AND CONTEMPORARY LEADERSHIP
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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PEOPLE, CULTURE AND CONTEMPORARY LEADERSHIP
Understanding Recruitment and Talent Management
On gathering insights from lecture slides of Week 5 of my second assessment module, I
have understood that hiring talented and capable individuals draws significant criticality to the
success of organizations. However, to engage the most proficient and talented modern
organizations must first recruit them. According to Ulrich (2015), recruiting employees can be a
challenging undertaking. As per studies of authors, during recessions, organizations encounter
huge issues to successfully fill certain types of jobs. As a result, recruiters have to make
important decisions, which include whom to convey and to staff recruitment efforts. Lectures
received through this entire module have helped to understand that diverse leadership theories
have developed over the years move toward leadership from a variety of perspectives. I have
chosen leadership development as a vital theory to understand leadership and leadership
development. For example, Coles Group has initiated diversity approach in their recruitment and
selection process to strengthen transformational organizational change into the new
organizational realism (Kegan & Lahey 2016).Significantly learning about leadership
development has improved my understanding that development demands for action on several
facades, which involves behavioural skill training that can be frequently associated with
leadership development considerably easy, with recent forms of knowledge-based training in
organizational culture as well as culture-building in addition to training focused on development
of the three personal capabilities.
On the other hand, while delving into organizational culture, I have taken into
consideration that organizational culture has proven theoretically as a key factor influencing
charismatic leadership of an organization. According to Alvesson and Sveningsson (2015), as per
charismatic leadership theory, positively relate to a necessitation for social influence along with

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power intention. It is imperative to note that a robust culture exists with significant conformity
and agreement between employees on significance of values in organizations. Thus, to my
understanding, charismatic leaders have the competence to expand a level of agreement on
measured principles and norms between followers of such behavioural approach.
Online Resources
On gathering insights from my module, I have realized the importance of effective
succession of leaders to sustain organization’s efficiency. By obtaining information from several
online resources, I have recognized important factors to be considered while developing CEO
succession plan. Fundamentally, a succession plan mainly shows high formality with
documented strategy that works in correspondence to the long-term strategy of an organization.
Through explicit online research, what I have learned is that, Woolworths recent CEO succession
shows valid understanding of the complexities and nuances of the processes and procedures of
organization and precisely amalgamates with other strategies related to talent acquisition,
employee engagement as well as professional growth. Aarons et al. (2015) in their articles have
noted that prior to the identification process, it is imperative for leaders to set up a clear profile
of company’s current leadership positions. This process from primarily involves an assessment
of factors which draws success of current leaders by assessing their strengths and leadership
competencies to their specific skills and experiences. These factors should correspond to the
overall strategy and positioning of the organization in the marketplace in addition to the factors
such as recent economic conditions as well as upsetting industry developments. This factor will
successfully offer framework a benchmark for evaluation of feasible candidates in the
progression planning and will help protecting against prejudice and bias which can arise from
leader or CEO employing any candidate due to personal likeness (Lee, Chen & Lee 2015).

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On the other hand, succession is clearly important at the senior level, but it is also
decisive for middle management. Extensive online research of various articles, blogs and
articles, has enhanced my knowledge regarding succession process. As a result, I have
understood that there is a statistically advanced chance of overlooking any important and
proficient employee below the level of top management as there are basically more of those
people. Thus, identifying critical positions in middle management and further broaden
succession planning to them these vital positions.
Industry Speaker on Organizational Culture
Being a student of Kaplan University, I have understood that Kaplan provides substantial
opportunity for its students by proficiently inviting good industry speakers who aid students in
widening their knowledge by relating theory to practice in the real world. Several industry
speakers have focused in innovation, organizational culture, and leadership with their significant
experiences working across industries. For example, I have gathered information that disruptive
or breakthrough innovation may seem undemanding for companies like Apple or Google.
Several industry speakers have proficiently shed light on the struggle which most organizations
tend to create an environment which generates sustainable innovation and further reveals the way
any organizations can cultivate culture which stimulates new philosophy, customer focus,
experimentation, unremitting improvement as well as business expansion (Dragoni et al. 2014). .
Cultural pattern of organization is recognized as an intangible element which tends to focus on
workspace of the organization. It is recognized as a vital element which can draw variance to the
personality of individuals. These differences make them people diverse, distinctive and
eventually develop likeness or aversions within an individual to the other. According to Muscalu
(2014), organization’s culture is a set of values, standards, beliefs, primary assumptions,

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approaches in addition to behaviours, almost like an accepted approach of being an employee of
the company. Moreover, organizational culture relentlessly surrounds every individual which
tend to impact people’s work strategies and the way they interact with each other as well as their
teams (Noe et al. 2017). Drawing relevance to current contemporary cultures in organizations
with increasing number of employees with diverse cultures, it is important for contemporary
leaders to help teams understand differentiations amongst team members and offer strategies to
mitigate any misunderstandings and conflict within the organization.
In-Class activities
My instructor throughout the course of this module has set up range of in-class activities
where we as students had to participate in the learning process. The learning process included
team building skills, communication skills, confidence development, public speaking skills and
critical thinking skills. However, I showed my inclination towards Promotion debate where I
participated as an initiative individual and shed light on good communication skills and high
confidence. During this class activity we had a good debate and I was an active participant the
most of it from our side and we were on the side of PROMOTING AN INSIDER.
Through the activity, I have understood that developing internal talent that has a balance
to employee key management positions is typically seen as a prudent way of resolving abrupt or
organized development and change. According to Alvesson and Sveningsson (2015), efficiently
promoting from within the organization provides insiders with a number of avenues which
include actual ideas and knowledge of the operations, policies, regulations, culture and clients of
organizations. These factors tend to facilitate them to rapidlyaugment their operations and attain
improved position to influence the top and bottom lines. The debate has thrown light on several

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important aspects of promoting insiders within the organization. At this juncture, it is important
to note many examples of organizations which that have significantly dependent on a promotion
from within policy. For example, one of the most well-known companies amongst them is the
Coles group. Reports of Kegan and Lahey (2016) have revealed that for many years, Coles
Group mostly rely on exclusive employment of senior ranks by promoting internals. Such a
recruitment process worked in amalgamation when competition did not have any international
presence. However, by delving substantial resources I have gained the insights that when agile
competitors aim to develop improved products and services in addition to aggressive marketing
techniques which fall into dismals trait, specifically when company encounters severe loss and
employee attrition.
Assessment Feedback
In the Assessment 1, I had focused on performance related, culture based and
engagement related initiatives. However, my subject coordinator highlighted several areas where
I could enhance my knowledge especially regarding critical thinking, communication which are
highly important for becoming an effective leader. Delving into various resources from my
library and gathering insights from lectures, I have understood that critical thinking
fundamentally enables an individual to perceive situations ardently and efficiently all probable
solutions prior to make any ultimate decision. Lee, Chen and Lee (2015) have noted that critical
thinking is identified as a form of in-depth analysis whereby it involves rational analysis thus
permitting decision makers to amalgamate knowledge and investigation. Moreover, effective
contemporary leaders have focused on a critical thinking course in which the whole workforce
can be involved. However, for leaders employees who are involved in the process, greater

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number of solutions tend to arise (McCleskey 2014). Thus, to my understanding, critical thinking
can be of great advantage to a workplace that consists of staff belonging to diverse backgrounds.
On the other hand, the most important mechanism which contemporary leaders tend to
possess is communication. Delving into several references have enhanced my understanding
which helped me to recognize that effective communication ensures consideration. However,
communication does not show correspondence to simple dissemination of information and
messages or emails. Authors have noted that communication primarily refers to two-way
interaction in addition to the ability for the leader to listen is important. Moreover, contemporary
leaders should develop active listening instead of being unresponsive and showing indifference
while others speak. Furthermore, a simple but highly successful way to apply active listening is
to gather mental notes while others are speaking or communicating. To my understanding,
eventually, contemporary leader can turn into very skilful and proficient at this skill and others
will become aware of that the leader is in reality paying attention. Thus, acting responsive to
others, even if final decisions are not effective as has been initially requested.
Psychometric Test
On gathering insights of effective leadership techniques and cultural patterns in
organizations, I have realized the understanding of role of effective leaders. As a result, I have
taken a psychometric test to understand my abilities and competence of gaining leadership skills
in the future. Psychometric tests are identified as standard as well as scientific method used in
order to quantify mental capabilities and behavioural patterns of individuals. According to
authors, Psychometric tests are primarily designed in order to determine suitability of individuals
for the specific role on the basis of the necessary personality distinctiveness and aptitude in

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addition to cognitive abilities. By performing psychometric test, as a student, I have been able to
develop an in-depth understanding of employee leadership approaches, preferences, abilities,
competencies in addition to stress management. Critical evaluation of my test results, I
understood my privateness personality is quite low with a score of 0.7 which often makes me
conceal significant things about my life. I believe to develop as an effective leader I must
develop characteristics to share critical events of my private life to help my superordinates
realize criticalities of life. However, on the other hand, by critically assessing my score of
vigilance with 1.6, I require to develop my skill of supervision must be developed so that I do not
miss out any case of unethical practice in my organization and further create a balanced approach
amongst all. Furthermore, my dominance score of 3.2 has made me take into consideration that
to be efficient leader, I must develop greater degree of assertiveness while dealing with
employees belonging to diverse backgrounds. On the other hand, with a highs score of 3.2 in
social boldness I have developed substantial social boldness which will aid me to reflect my
confidence in front of others. For contemporary leaders, it is highly important to reflect
confidence and assertiveness to gather trust of all employees and contemporaries.
Conclusion
From the reflective piece of people, culture and contemporary leadership which has been
thoroughly discussed in my Assessment 2 module, I have gained insights that important features
of organizational culture are reflected in the representation of factors depends on the precedence
in the organizational culture of authority, role, behaviour or traits. By delving into online
resources, attending seminars of renowned industry speakers, conducting psychometric tests,
theories and in-class activities I have realized the importance of organizational culture have the

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propensity to constitute features depending on the kind of performance, type of ownership, their
position in the industry or in the society.

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References
Aarons, G.A., Ehrhart, M.G., Farahnak, L.R. & Hurlburt, M.S., 2015. Leadership and
organizational change for implementation (LOCI): a randomized mixed method pilot study of a
leadership and organization development intervention for evidence-based practice
implementation. Implementation Science, 10(1), p.11.
Alvesson, M. & Sveningsson, S., 2015. Changing organizational culture: Cultural change work
in progress. Routledge.
Dragoni, L., Oh, I.S., Tesluk, P.E., Moore, O.A., VanKatwyk, P. & Hazucha, J., 2014.
Developing leaders’ strategic thinking through global work experience: The moderating role of
cultural distance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(5), p.867.
Kegan, R. & Lahey, L.L., 2016. An everyone culture: Becoming a deliberately developmental
organization. Harvard Business Review Press.
Lee, W.I., Chen, C.C. & Lee, C.C., 2015, August. The relationship between internal marketing
orientation, employee commitment, charismatic leadership and performance. In Proceedings of
the 17th International Conference on Electronic Commerce 2015 (p. 1). ACM.
McCleskey, J.A., 2014. Situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and leadership
development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), p.117.
Muscalu, E., 2014. Organizational culture change in the organization. Land Forces Academy
Review, 19(4), p.392.

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Noe, R.A., Hollenbeck, J.R., Gerhart, B. & Wright, P.M., 2017. Human resource management:
Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Ulrich, D., 2015. From war for talent to victory through organization. Strategic HR
Review, 14(1/2), pp.8-12.
Western, S., 2019. Leadership: A critical text. SAGE Publications Limited.