Crafting a Job Application Plan: Director Consumer Experience Role

This document presents a comprehensive job application plan for a Director of Consumer Experience position at Mater Health. It includes background research on the organization, an analysis of key selection criteria in relation to leadership theories and strategic management, and draft responses to selection criteria based on academic literature. The plan also proposes a career pathway for the role and offers a detailed response to a question relevant to the job advertisement. The analysis incorporates various leadership concepts, such as different types of power (legitimate, coercive, reward, expert, and referent), and discusses the applicability of behavioral, situational, and transformational leadership theories. The document emphasizes the importance of aligning personal skills and experiences with the organization's mission, vision, and values to demonstrate a strong fit for the role. Desklib provides various study tools and solved assignments for students.

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