BUSI 1323 - Leadership in Organisations

University of Greenwich (UOG)
Bachelor of Arts (Hons) Business Management (Top Up)
ASSIGNMENT / PROJECT COVER SHEET
(to be completed individually by student)
UOG ID Number 001163775-7
Course Specialization
(*Please delete whichever is not applicable)
*Marketing and Sales
Subject Code/Name BUSI 1323/ Leadership in Organisations
Assignment Title Individual Report (80%)
Lecturer/Supervisor Ms. Natasha
Word count 2401
DECLARATION
I, the above named student, confirm that by submitting, or causing the attached assignment
to be submitted, I have not plagiarized any other person’s work in this assignment and
except where appropriately acknowledged, this assignment is my own work, has been
expressed in my own words, and has not previously been submitted for assessment.
pg. 1

Table of Contents
I. Introduction........................................................................................................................................4
II. Discussion..........................................................................................................................................4
1. Leadership Self-Development.....................................................................................................4
1.1. Self-assessment based on Belbin Team Roles model....................................................4
1.2. Experiences in leadership role: Problems encountered..................................................4
1.4. Leadership improvement goals.......................................................................................6
2. Reflection on Group Work...........................................................................................................6
2.1. Leadership theories applied during Group Work..............................................................6
2.1.1. Transformational Leadership.......................................................................................6
2.1.2. Negotiations...................................................................................................................7
2.1.3. Utility Leadership...........................................................................................................7
2.2. Project Schedule...................................................................................................................8
2.2.1. Stage 1: Preparation.....................................................................................................8
2.2.2. Stage 2: Brainstorming and Planning.........................................................................9
2.2.3. Stage 3: Finalizing Project...........................................................................................9
2.2.4. Stage 4: Slides preparation..........................................................................................9
2.3. Members’ contribution levels in the group meeting sessions..........................................9
2.4. Changing motivations among members due to the work environment........................10
3. Improvement in the self-development journey........................................................................10
3.1. Achievements of the developmental goals......................................................................10
3.1.1. Communication skills..................................................................................................10
3.1.2. Emotional control.........................................................................................................11
3.1.3. New leadership skill....................................................................................................11
3.2. Leadership type I want to become....................................................................................11
III. Conclusion...................................................................................................................................11
IV. References...................................................................................................................................12
V. Appendices......................................................................................................................................13
A. Weekly Journal........................................................................................................................13
B. Table of descriptors of team members contributions.........................................................20
pg. 2

List of Figures
Figure 1: Project Schedule – Charity and Voluntary Club...................................................................7
Figure 2: Project Timeline............................................................................................................ 8
Figure 3: Takt time and Lead timFigure 3e needed in stage 2.............................................................9
pg. 3

I. Introduction
Leader has always been acknowledged as the people who are clever, wise and intelligent. From
the academic view, leadership is a long-term journey of practicing and training skills along with
the inner transformation. This reflective report will cover the leadership theories and my
experiences in the group work, to emphasize the growth, hindrances, and improvement points in
my development journey.
II. Discussion
1. Leadership Self-Development
This section will combine the analysis on my strengths and weaknesses as a leader, which will
comprise of four of the following parts. The first part is to analyze my team role based on
Belbin’s Model; the second part is to reflect to my experiences as a leader and the third part will
evaluate the problems I encountered. Finally, after a comprehensive analysis on my leadership
capacity, I will set the goals for the leadership development journey.
1.1. Self-assessment based on Belbin Team Roles model
Dr. Meredith Belbin, who is a researcher studying about team management, and his team
designed Belbin Team Roles model. Consequently, this discovery of Belbin helps people be
more understanding on their roles in a team. The model demonstrates nine roles, which include
Resource Investigator, Team worker, Coordinator, Plant, Monitor Evaluator, Specialist, Shaper,
Implementer and Completer Finisher perfectionism (Belbin | Engage and develop the talent
around you, n.d.). According to the Belin’s Team Roles test, my scores illustrated my role is to
be the “Completer”. The test analyzes the Completer as the one who follows the perfectionism
(Belbin | Engage and develop the talent around you, n.d.). Completers tend to have strong time
management skills, and they prioritize the accuracy as well as professionalism. Besides the
strengths, Completers’ weaknesses are to arouse unnecessary anxiety during the working
process. To be reflecting on my experiences in different groups, I tend to be the one who always
push the team on starting the project soon. Partially, I want my group to work professionally,
and no team members have to feel the pressure of time, as the pressure would easily
demotivate the group’s spirit during the working process.
pg. 4

1.2. Experiences in leadership role: Problems encountered
To evaluate my leadership skills from the recent past, I will tell about the problems that I
encountered and the solutions that I applied. Then, based on the theories learned during the
Leadership module, I will analyze the efficiency of those solutions.
1.2.1.Lack of Emotional Control
Emotional Control is one of the vital skills in the Communication Skillset, which used to be one
of my weaknesses. In the “Marketing Management” module, I had a group assignment was to
create a Marketing Plan for a Startup Company. For the working process to be more efficient, I
believe that ideas for the plan should be consistent among all members in the group. Therefore,
we decided to have a face-to-face meeting to discuss about the ideas. On the day of the group
meeting, I encountered to a conflict with one member in my group. Specifically was she was
working on another subject during the group meeting, and I was frustrated when I knew that. I
decided to have a private conversation with her after the meeting finished. However, during the
conversation, my tone of voice sounded irritated with her and my words did not contribute to her
future improvement. As a result, that discourages her and the relationship between me, as a
leader, and she, as a team member, could not be maintained.
1.2.2. Miscommunication with the team members
I think the conflict in the group occurs when the goals of the members in the group could not
correlate with each other. Therefore, that cause several issues in the team such as the
investment of time and attempts that some group members make are too little. This also
happens for me in the “Capstone Industry Project” module, and during the working process, the
followers were not much proactive. At the near-end stage of group project, when I was
assigning the tasks through Messenger in my group to do the Gantt chart, I accidentally
complained that I had been doing so much work for the team. My tone of voice was unpleasant
and my stressfulness was shown clearly through the words I used. Which had caused the
miscommunication in the group, and the members said that I was being a little furious towards
them. I could realize their unpleasant feeling as well through their words.
1.3. Evaluation on my performance as a leader in the past
To evaluate both of two problems that I had encountered, I could claim that they are strongly
relevant to my strongest weakness, Interpersonal Communication Skill. In addition, in week 7 of
pg. 5

this module, I was required to take the “Interpersonal Communication Skills Test” on the UoG
Moodle. My score was 54 per 100, which was considered average communication skills. In
week 8 of the module, I took the test again and my result had an increase, it was 69 per 100.
Experiences from being leaders managing the team to achieve good scores on the project had
helped me a lots in discovering my weaknesses and searching for improvement.
1.4. Leadership improvement goals
According to the “Leadership Development” lecture in the module, self-development path is
correlated with the leadership development path (Emery, 2021). Therefore, I would mainly
concentrate on improving the following goals:
 Improve my communication skill
 Acquire new leadership skills and always aim to the efficiency
 Practice controlling my emotion.
2. Reflection on Group Work
In this section, there are four parts. Firstly, I will refer to the “leadership theories” that we had
been using during the group work; secondly, I will illustrate the “project schedule”, so the third
part, it would be more obvious when I analyze the “members’ contribution level”. The final part is
my evaluation on the “changing goals” of group members due to the work environment.
2.1. Leadership theories applied during Group Work
During the “Leadership in Organization” module, three main theories had been applied as the
basis knowledge for the leader, and the tools to enhance the productivity and efficiency for the
team members. Three theories, which will be illustrated below, include “Transformational
Leadership”, “Negotiations”, and “Utility Leadership”.
2.1.1.Transformational Leadership
As a leader, I could aware that my team members have high capacity and responsibility, which
would make it possible for the implementation of “Transformational Leadership” theory.
Furthermore, this module is about “Leadership Development in Organization”, so the
responsibility of the leader is to facilitate and reinforce development among individuals in the
group throughout teamwork process. The theory of the “Transformational Leadership” illustrates
the leaders who focus on influencing the followers and encourage them to show the potential
pg. 6

abilities; this type of leadership aims to create effective and valuable learning environment for
the subordinates as well (University Of Greenwich, 2021).
2.1.2.Negotiations
What considerably stimulates the progress in a team would be the negotiations as the leader
implemented to set the project schedule and assign tasks for individuals. Which enhance the
productivity and efficiency of the project. According to the lecture “Negotiations” in the module,
Negotiations refer to the process of changing from both sides, and the term should be
acknowledged as the type of exchanging of benefits, which would lead to win-win results
(University Of Greenwich, 2021).
2.1.3. Utility Leadership
“Utility Leadership” is defined as the type aims to the efficiency and productivity among
subordinates (University Of Greenwich, 2021). Coupled with that, the leader needs to set clear
vision for the project and share common goals with the followers (Gerstberger and Gromala,
2010). Then, followers would perceive the appreciation and encouragement from the leader,
which would enhance the efficiency in the followers’ workflow. Thus, the implementation of
“Utility Leadership” from the initial stage of the project would support the group members in
managing their schedule and tasks. The below figure is the project schedule that I created to
manage the time during the project, which is also an example of setting vision and clear goals to
lead the team.
pg. 7

Figure 1: Project Schedule – Charity and Voluntary Club
2.2. Project Schedule
The project of our group is about “Volunteer and Charity Club” with the goals are to increase the
engagement of ERC students into the school’s activities. The project timeline includes four
stages, which are “Preparation”, “Brainstorming and Planning”, “Finalizing Project”, and “Slides
Preparation”.
Figure 2: Project Timeline
To explain for the project timeline, sub-parts below will illustrate a much more comprehensive
view emphasizing the essence and the role of each stage.
pg. 8

2.2.1.Stage 1: Preparation
In stage 1, the group was discussing about the goals to ensure that all the group members
would be willing to contribute to the group work. Moreover, the group would start preparing for
the project by looking through the requirements of the project. To manage the working time,
before proceeding on the stage 2, leader estimated the working time of the group using two
theories, “takt time” and “lead time”, and the result was shown in the picture below.
Figure 3: Takt time and Lead-time needed in stage 2
2.2.2.Stage 2: Brainstorming and Planning
In this stage, the group beginned to discuss about the keystakeholders, vision, resources and
opportunities, barriers of the project. After the group had accomplished all those tasks, as the
group had planned before, the group could proceed to plan the survey form.
2.2.3.Stage 3: Finalizing Project
In this stage, the group discussed about the data types that would be needed in the survey
form. Then the group had approximately 2 weeks to prepare survey questions and put the
questions in one docs file. Then, as the project required to sell ideas to two different
stakeholders, leader had divided the team into two groups and assigned each group one
stakeholder to sell idea.
2.2.4.Stage 4: Slides preparation
pg. 9

Proceeding on this stage, the group had accomplished all the ideas planning parts, and
beginned to prepare slides for the proposal. Leader assigned one member whom was proficient
in making and designing slides to manage this stage. That member would have to decide the
concept of the slides, then check the quality as well as the appropriate of other members’ slides.
2.3. Members’ contribution levels in the group meeting sessions
Throughout the project, the group had five group meeting sessions. Before every meeting,
leader assigned tasks for individuals to prepare for the upcoming meeting session, which would
increase the effectiveness and utilize the available time of the members. In all the meeting
sessions, most of the group members illustrate professional work and behavior. Notably, two
members in the group are considerably knowledgeable; they demonstrated professionalism
throughout the project. In addition, these two members have gained extensive experiences in
the field of coordinating and organizing a voluntary club. Although other members do not have
many experiences in the field, they were dedicated to develop and improve the quality of the
project.
2.4. Changing motivations among members due to the work
environment
As mentioned in “week 3” of “reflective journal”, my motivation in the project was to encourage
the professionalism in teamwork. Comparing with other members’ motivations, the common
motivation was to pass the course. However, according to my experiences in the group, I could
emphasize that the members’ behaviors were opposed to those personal motivations. As
mentioned above, all of the team members had shown dedication and made large contribution
to the group work. Furthermore, as a leader, the requirement for the project being practical and
detailed were gladly embraced and effectively progressed by the group. Thus, I could claim that
motivations of individuals could be changed if they perceived certain amount of encouragement
and worked in a professional environment.
3. Improvement in the self-development journey
In this section, I will mention and analysis my achievement on the goals that I have set. Then,
based on my improvement and objectives, I will set the leadership type that I aim to proceed on
the development for that type in a long-term journey.
pg. 10

3.1. Achievements of the developmental goals
3.1.1.Communication skills
For the communication skills, I aimed to practice on several areas in the skillset whenever I had
group discussions. Those areas comprise of information clarification, active listening and
logically arrange sentences and words. After the project, I took the “Communication Skill” test
again, and my result was 69 per 100. In fact, this result illustrates my improvement and my
attempt as the first time I took the test, my result was 54 per 100.
pg. 11

3.1.2.Emotional control
For the emotional control, the result was clearly shown through the time of a conflict that I had
with two group members. I perceived the solution at the time the conflict occurred was to stay
quiet for a short moment. In my case, I could be aware of the importance of “emotional control”
was to remain good relationship with others. Additionally, aggressiveness could not solve the
conflict that we had so the most critical and realistic thing was to eliminate those negative
feelings.
3.1.3. New leadership skill
I have been able to acquire new skill about maintaining work efficiency, which are utility-oriented
behavior and transformational leadership. I only practiced the “Utility Leadership” during group
project by creating “project schedule”, “group meeting and tasks” to arrange the time of the
project and leader could easily manage the amount of group tasks.
3.2. Leadership type I want to become
After all, the leadership type that I have always attempted to become is the “Democratic
leadership”. This leadership type creates opportunities for the subordinates to show their
abilities by allowing them to present their ideas for the project, but the final decision will be
made by the leader (Braden Becker, 2020). The process of leadership development is a long-
term journey, and I aspire to remain the usual leadership style, as my objective is still to express
my value, create the benefits for my followers, so followers’ growth will derive from doing the
project.
III. Conclusion
In conclusion, my experiences in the past have been the fundamental knowledge and supported
me in the performance as a leader in this project. One more determinant factor that assisted in
the successfulness of the project is the professionalism and large contribution from the group
members. In future group work, I will utilize more leadership theories I have learnt from this
module to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness. That will be the fundamental knowledge for
my performances in the future jobs.
pg. 12

IV. References
1. Belbin | Engage and develop the talent around you. “The Nine Belbin Team Roles.”
Belbin, www.belbin.com/about/belbin-team-roles. Accessed 16 Apr. 2021.
2. Braden Becker (2020). The 8 Most Common Leadership Styles & How to Find Your
Own. [online] Hubspot.com. Available at: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/leadership-
styles [Accessed 21 Apr. 2021].
3. Emery, C n.d, Week 29: Leadership Development, lecture notes, Leadership in
Organization BUSI 1323, University Of Greenwich, delivered 9th April 2021.
4. Gerstberger, R.L. and Gromala, K.A. (2010). How effective is utility leadership?
American Water Works Association, [online] 102(1), pp.46, 47, 48. Available at:
https://awwa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/j.1551-8833.2010.tb10025.x
[Accessed 21 Apr. 2021].
5. Mahsud, R., Yukl, G. and Prussia, G. (2010). Leader empathy, ethical leadership, and
relations-oriented behaviors as antecedents of leader-member exchange quality. ed.
[online] : Journal of Managerial Psychology, pp.561, 562, 563. Available at:
file:///C:/Users/Admin/Downloads/leader%20empathy.pdf [Accessed 19 Apr. 2021].
6. University Of Greenwich, n.d, Week 22: Authentic, Ethical, and Pro-social Leadership,
lecture notes, Leadership in Organization BUSI 1323, University Of Greenwich,
delivered Mar 19 2021
7. University Of Greenwich, n.d, Week 21: Transformational and Transactional Leadership,
lecture notes, Leadership in Organization BUSI 1323, University of Greenwich, delivered
12th March 2021.
8. University Of Greenwich, n.d, Week 24: Negotiaion, lecture notes, Leadership in
Organization BUSI 1323, Univeristy Of Greenwich, delivered 26th March 2021.
pg. 13

V. Appendices
A. Weekly Journal
Stage 1: Reflection on past experiences and role models
Week 1: Reflection on the Past Experiences
Date: Feb 26, 2021
- When I was still a freshman in the University, I had a chance to be a leader for my group. At
first, I still had not recognized my ability to be a leader; I just assumed that my contribution was
much more than anybody in the group was. The reason was that I did not believe in my
capacity. Although my contribution in the group could be seemed as leader’s job. For instance, I
tried to make the structure more organized, which would make the assignment understandable
and readable. Moreover, I believe that professionalism should always be a priority. Therefore, at
that time, I always tried to discover a way to make the group work more professional, and I
encouraged every member in the group to be like that.
-Stereotype of Leader I used to have was:
Leaders rarely make mistakes because their understanding about the world was huge.
Therefore, I used to avoid the leadership role, as I am not the type of person who can
understand everything like everyone else. In addition, I was not so confident to take the role of
leadership.
Week 2: Self-assessment and Goals setting
Date: Mar 5, 2021
Self-assessment based on Belbin Team Role Models
Today, the group had a meeting to research for the project as well as verify requirements of the
project.
I took the Belbin Team Role test, and the result I got is the “Completer/ Finisher”.
According to the analysis posted of Belbin Team Role Models test, the recognizing features of
“Completer/ Finisher” contain the following characteristics: Painstaking, orderly, conscientious,
anxious. For positive qualities of this working type, these people are able to follow-through the
tasks. It seems like they always take responsibilities of their seriously.
The reasons explaining for me always seriously take full responsibilities of my job is that I have
always searched for the interesting part and usefulness part in every subject I have learnt. I
realized that only when you have interest in what you are doing, you would seriously take full
responsibility of your job. Furthermore, I have a deep understanding of the consequences, what
I would be missing and the people might be influenced by my irresponsibility.
Self-development goals
pg. 14

Improve my communication skill
Acquire new leadership skills to help the group work more efficiently.
Practice controlling my emotion.
come transformational leader - able to inspire people.
According to the image above about the communication skillset, I am confident to claim that I
achieved 50% of the skillset, including emotional control, active listening, non-verbal
communication, friendliness, confidence, empathy, open-mindedness, respect.
Needed to improve in the following criterias:
Clarity and Concision
Feedback
Picking the right medium
One more criteria that affects me dramatically (not shown in the image):
Arrange sentences logically and to be appropriate for the situation.
pg. 15

Stage 2: Reflection on group work
Analyzing based on Group Project timeline
Phase 1: Preparation
In this phase, the group is discussing and finalizing the working style for group work.
Week 3: Common Goals Set-up for the Group
Date: Mar 12, 2021
My goal is to encourage the professionalism in teamwork.
In the discussion with the group, all members agree on the goal “pass the module”.
Phase 2: Brainstorming and Planning
In this phase, the group starts brainstorming the idea for the group project: Strategy to improve
students’ experiences in ERC. Then, the group will start planning and discussing the key points
for the strategy.
Reflection of each member’s performance at the second phase of the project
Week 4: Competency-based assessment
Date: Mar 16, 2021
pg. 16

Group meeting – session 2
Discussion points:
Resources and opportunities for the project
Finalize the main points in strategy – Discuss based on 5W1H (what, where, when, why, who,
how)
Date: Mar 19, 2021
Theory approach:
Today, I had a chance to approach to the concept of being an Ethical and Authentic Leader
My lecturer, which is Ms. Nat, assigned for my class the reading task. The article’s topic is
“Leader empathy, ethical leadership, and relations-oriented behaviors as antecedents of leader-
member exchange quality”.
Below are my notes jotted from the article:
“The practical implication is that leader empathy and ethical leadership should be included in
leadership selection and development programs.”
“Leader-member exchange (LMX) theory suggests that a leader will develop an exchange
relationship over time with each subordinate (cấp dưới)”
Exchange relationship is when “a leader interacts with each subordinate and the role of the
subordinate is negotiated.”
In the view of “high exchange relationship”, leaders are required to provide goals as well as
results that could encourage the subordinate’s working spirit. Such as “interesting tasks,
additional responsibilities, more rewards”. For the subordinate, the commitment to working and
being loyal to the leader is required as one of the parts of this exchange relationship.
The article also mentioned to the “low-quality exchange relationship”. This relationship makes
me remember of the “transactional leadership” type. Subordinates only need to accomplish
“formal requirements” in the job; in this case, the leader will not offer the benefits as well as
extra rewards for their staff.
To think of my current experiences in working as a group, my group is at the “low-quality
relationship”. Therefore, my question is “will the work efficiency be affected if I remain this type
of relationship in the group?”
After the class, I had a meeting with the leadership group:
Group meeting – Session 3
Discussion points:
Keystakeholder of the project?
Barriers for change
Survey goals
pg. 17

Survey structure
Follow-up:
Assign tasks: do survey questions
One member did not attend the meeting, so as a leader, I needed to recorded “Meeting
Minutes”.
During the meeting, most of the members were confused about the concepts of key
stakeholder, how to create the key stakeholders map. However, we still discussed and figured
out the method later.
What surprised me the most was all members were supporting each other. In addition, people
clarified the concept with each other to make sure every member understand the concept
clearly.
Week 5: Levels of Contribution of each member
Date: Mar 26, 2021
Each member does the task “Shared Leadership Scale”. Results are as following:
- Nguyệt- (2), (3), (5), (6), (7), (9),(10)
- Đạt: 1,2,3,5,6,7,9,10
- Châu: 2,5,6,7,9,10
- An: 2,3,6,10
pg. 18

Phase 3: Finalizing Project
Week 6: Self-reflection
Date: Mar 30, 2021
Group meeting – session 4:
Discussion points:
Analyze survey questions of each member.
Choose appropriate and detailed survey questions (matching with the goals)
Follow-up:
After finalizing the survey form, each member will deliver survey. Duration: 1 week.
Preparing slides (slide 1 - > 4) for the proposal.
Date: April 2, 2021
http://www.leadershipframing.com/testresult.php
I took the Communication Style test, and my result was “Expressive”.
Question asked by Ms. Nat: Do you want to be a leader?
This course we learned about: leader, leadership behavior, leadership development
Phase 4: PowerPoint Preparation
In this phase, the group focuses on preparing the slides for the upcoming presentation. The
group is planning to spend 1 day before presentation day on doing the rehearsal.
Week 7: Leadership Goals
Date: April 8, 2021
Group meeting – session 5:
Discussion points:
Brainstorming methods for proposing idea to the Dean – group 1: Tâm, Tín, Đạt
Brainstorm one volunteer program + methods for proposing idea to sponsor: Nguyệt, Châu, An.
Date: April 9, 2021
Tuesday
pg. 19

Define “Leadership development” assignment that could help the team.
Take the “Interpersonal Communication Skills Test”.
14th of April, I take the “Interpersonnal Communication Skills Test” again:
Week 8
Date: Mar 12, 2021
Rehearse for presentation day
pg. 20

B. Table of descriptors of team members contributions
Name Your evaluation of your
and colleagues’
engagement with the
team
What activities have you or your
colleague undertook to contribute
to the project
- Nguyen Thi
Thanh Tam
- Nguyen Sy Tin
10 The members had shown their
dedication in the group project,
and had been taking initiative
to work on the project. The
members did group tasks in a
very detailed way, and
accomplished on time. The
members attended all group
meeting sessions, and
contributed many potential
ideas for the group project.
Furthermore, team members
also showed respect and was
dedicated to support every
member in the group.
Ly Minh Chau 8 Firstly, the member attended
all group meeting sessions.
The member also showed
respect to other members. This
member showed good
pg. 21

cooperation with other
members. However, member
had not shown any
improvement throughout the
project. Member did not pay
much contribution to in the
“Brainstorming and Planning”
stage. In addition, the team
member did not finish most of
group tasks.
- Nguyen Ngoc
Truong An
- Nguyen Tien
Dat
8 These members attended all
group meeting sessions, and
accomplished all group tasks
on time. For the group tasks,
members accomplished them
in a detailed way and showed
general understanding of the
project. These members had
shown respect and interest in
the group project. In addition,
the members remained focus
during the group meeting and
sometimes requested for
details clarification.
pg. 22