Assignment Paper

Your Portfolio Project synthesizes information gathered from an interview you will conduct with a manager of your choosing, the knowledge you have gained in this course, and your own experience to create a research and reflection paper.

Portfolio Project Milestone (Option #1) Interview Subject, Summary of Theories, and Outline
Your Portfolio Project Milestone must be submitted before midnight on Sunday during Week 4. (ATTACHED FOR YOUR REVIEW)

Portfolio Project Interview (275 points—Submitted in Week 8)

Choose a manager to interview with whom you are familiar—ideally, someone whom you admire and aspire to emulate. Ask him or her for some time—perhaps you can sit down for coffee—during which you can describe your course learning objectives and discuss what you have so far taken away from the class (in brief). Ask the manager what insights he or she has to offer to you at this point in your career.

****MAKE NOTES THAT ONE WOULD TAKE IF THEY ARE BEING INTERVIEWED****

The goal of the interview is to gain insight into what makes a good manager from the perspective of someone in a management position. Some topics to touch on in the interview could include the following:

How did your interviewee come to be a manager (i.e., what career path he or she follow)?
Has your interviewee found that professional certifications, volunteering, and continued education are important factors to career development?
What has surprised your interviewee most about what it means to be an effective leader (as opposed to the popular view of what a successful leader is and/or does)?
What roles are played by managerial goals, objectives, decision making, and communication on the job?
How does the interviewee handle change management at his or her organization, and what specific challenges has he or she encountered?
What advice does your interviewee offer to someone in your position in regards to your short- and long-term goals?
At the close of the interview, be sure to thank your interviewee for his or her time and assistance.

Research and Reflection Paper
In the next phase, ruminate on what you learned in your interview—especially anything that helped you gain a deeper insight into the topics you studied in the course—and write a research and reflection paper in which you draw upon learning shared with your instructor and colleagues, your individual learning, and knowledge you have gained from the interview to demonstrate a more in-depth understanding of the foundational principles of management. In your paper, go beyond recitation of memorized facts or regurgitation of information; strive to synthesize the most important topics of management (i.e., leadership, personality, motivation, decision making, communication, and the importance of good management to yourself and to society) into a hybrid research and reflection paper.

Your paper should integrate responses to each of the following questions in a well-organized and coherent paper:

Discuss the leadership precepts your interviewee imparted to you (or what can you glean on the topic as a result of your interview).
Describe how the leadership precepts dovetail with one or more of the modern theories of leadership.
Explain how the personalities of workers, colleagues, managers, and subordinates impact your performance in, and experience of, the workplace.
Explain how the personalities of workers, colleagues, managers, and subordinates interact with one or more leadership models to create the most effective work environment.
Describe one or two tenets of motivation theory have you taken away from the course, in light of your interview, the leadership model(s) you have discussed, and your own personality.
Discuss how your understandings of motivation theories impact your conceptions of the best practices when it comes to making decisions and communicating at work. Based on your interview and on learning from this course, summarize what it takes to be an effective employee, a successful manager, and an exemplary citizen of society.
Your well-written paper should meet the following requirements:

Be 8-10 pages in length.
Be formatted according to the CSU-Global Guide to Writing and APA. (https://csuglobal.libguides.com/writingcenter/apa_resources)
Cite at least five scholarly sources, at least one of which is not provided in, or linked from, the course, to support your assertions and strengthen your arguments. The CSU-Global Library (Links to an external site.) is a great place to find these sources.
Refer to the Portfolio Project rubric below for grading criteria. Please proofread your paper to ensure the sentences, paragraphs, and ideas flow well and are logical, concise, and grammatically error-free.