This assignment is an exercise in condensing a lot of information into a hard hitting, need to know, compact format. It is the kind of communication an executive might ask for in preparation for an important meeting or decision. The challenge is to choose that information which is the “essence” of what the executive needs to know, and conveying it via a very high fact-to-word ratio. Although the paper is short, the process of choosing what information is the most pertinent and condensing it into very little space can actually be much more difficult than writing it all out in prose.
Scenario: There has been a recent disturbance among the employees in your company that resulted from how the President of the company handled a major project to develop and market an innovative new product. Project NEXT had been in the works for several years and represented a sizeable investment in terms of dollars and manpower. Employees from all across the company had contributed in one form or another toward making the project a success because it was supposed to represent the future of the company. Unfortunately, the President learned that a competitor had beaten his company to the punch and was about to release a competing product much earlier to the market and at a lower price point. Seeing the handwriting on the wall, the President abruptly cancelled the project with a company-wide email that said: “Due to circumstances beyond our control, Project NEXT is cancelled.” Because so much blood, sweat, and tears had been expended by the employees on the project, there was a major backlash at the abrupt cancellation and perfunctory explanation.
The President was surprised at the backlash—it was just a business decision, and the right one at that. He could not understand why the employees would resent him for it. Your boss, the Vice President for Human Relations, suggested that the backlash might be due to how he handled the whole project, not just the cancellation of it. He mentioned to the President that some of the newer approaches to and theories on leadership might be worth his consideration to avoid future disgruntlement among the employees and to improve their productivity. The President said: “Give me a short rundown on these theories so I can figure out which of them I like. Maybe I’ll like all of them!”
The Vice President, knowing you recently received a Master’s Degree from the University of Arkansas that included a course on Leadership Principles, turned to you and asked you to write a two page Bullet Background Paper for the President laying out the essence of four theories/approaches of leadership: Path-Goal Theory, Leader-Member Exchange Theory, Transformational Leadership, and Authentic Leadership. He said you need to ensure the President knows the basis, or underlying assumption, of each theory/approach, the main proponents, the fundamental tenets, how it is implemented, and the important pros and cons for each theory/approach. In addition, he wants you to answer the question of whether or not any or all of the theories can be applied at the same time. The Vice President is a former Air Force Officer and directed you to use the Bullet Background Paper format found in The Tongue and Quill, which is a writing manual used to instruct members of the Air Force on how to communicate.
Format: APA format is suspended for this assignment. Instead, use the Bullet Background Paper Format found on page 224 in Chapter 16 of The Tongue and Quill, which is Air Force Handbook 33-337, and is attached to the assignment. Use only Northouse for the information on the four theories. Use the same method for citations of the Northouse text as we used for the Short Writing Assignment, adapted as follows: at the end of a bullet, or series of bullets, or section of the paper where the information comes from a section of Northouse, just put the page numbers in parentheses, like this: (101-102, 106). This will mean that the information in that bullet, series of bullets, section, or subdivision of the paper comes from pages 101 to 102, and page 106 of Northouse. There is no need for a reference list since Northouse will be the only reference. The ONLY purpose of doing this is so that I can see where you are taking your information from in case I don’t recognize it or it doesn’t seem accurate. Feel free to post questions about the format in the Open Forum so everybody can see them along with my answers. Post the questions under the thread “Q&A on Very Short Paper.” The paper is limited to two pages using this format–do NOT adapt or alter the format to squeeze more information into your paper.
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