To complete the learning activities, please create a new thread for each theme and identify in the subject line the theme for which you are responding. Students are expected to post to each theme by Thursday and to at least two other students (across all themes) by Sunday. In responding to both the learning activities and to other students, please be sure to use the course material using in-text citations and a reference list to cite the source(s) used. Remember, an in-text citation cannot exist without having a corresponding reference list and a reference list cannot exist without having a corresponding in-text citation. Use of the course material using in-text citations and a reference list is always expected in the learning activities and good practice for the assignments in the course. To respond to Learning Activities, click on the blue hyperlink.

Learning Activity 1 – Theme 1

This week, we look at leadership from the manager’s perspective and explore the differences from looking at leadership from a leader’s perspective.  Managers focus on process, procedure, and implementation of the organization’s purpose.  A manager’s perspective is about getting the job done and keeping stability.  The leader’s mindset is about change and moving workers toward the organization’s vision.  The area of overlap comes in terms of the need to use “soft or people skills” to get their job done.  It is said that a manager motivates while a leader empowers.

In the following five quotes each leader is commenting on the perspective of a manager in an organization as opposed to a leader.  

“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”

Peter Drucker

“Leadership is working with goals and vision; management is working with objectives.”

Russell Honore

“When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.”

 Warren Buffett

“Good management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them.”

Paul Hawken

“Management is nothing more than motivating other people.”

                                                                                Lee Iacocca

Learning Activity 2 – Theme 2

The manager must be able to solve problems, communicate, and lead teams toward the completion of a task.  

 You are the manager of the northern branch of the Laurel City Bowling Alleys.  The owner, Jill Espy, has 4 other bowling alleys around town.  The average employee assigned to the concession stand of all the Laurel City Bowling Alleys lasts approximately 3 years.  However, in your branch, the average employee lasts only 8 months.  Jill is concerned about the lack of retention of concession employees especially since training new employees is costly to the company and this high turnover is costing her money that could be better spent elsewhere.

You have talked with your current concession staff and have learned that pay and scheduling may have some effect on the turnover rate.   Employees feel that the pay is low and the scheduling is erratic making it difficult to make plans outside of work.  You know that employees do not benefit from pay raises because they tend to leave before being at the alleys for a year. 

One worker indicated that many of the workers do not know how to handle difficult customers.  It makes them not want to come to work.   At the time, the focus seems to be on getting the job done rather on customer service.

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