BMA547: Trade Training is One of the 10 Largest Registered Training Organizations: Organisational Behaviour Assignment, UoT, Singapore

Assignment Details:

The cascading effect of unethical leadership

Trade training is one of the 10 largest registered training organizations in Australia and is the primary provider of vocational education and training in its state. Offering more than 330 qualifications and courses ranging from pre-vocational programs to apprenticeships and advanced diplomas, TradeTraining has approximately 26 000 students, 12 campuses, and over 1000 employees. As a state-owned enterprise, TradeTraining plays a vital role in its local economy.

TradeTraining operates under a traditional hierarchical structure. Its board of directors oversees a chief executive officer (CEO) who leads a senior management team that is responsible for a number of different divisions including corporate services, education, education support, and people and culture. The CEO’s strategic focus is on enabling TradeTraining’s 1000 staff to offer quality training opportunities to students and to provide employment-ready graduates to domestic businesses. The CEO is in a clear leadership position, with the power to allocate rewards and resources and to greatly influence the general work environment.

In 2017, TradeTraining’s annual report stated: ‘All staff members, regardless of whether they are teachers, corporate or support staff, believe in the One TradeTraining/One Team philosophy, and are focused upon the student or customer.’ However, a report issued by the state’s Integrity Commission in May 2017 made public the fact that the leadership practices of TradeTraining’s senior managers were in stark contrast to this philosophy.

The Integrity Commission’s mandate is to ensure trust in government, and one of its key objectives is to enhance ethical conduct within the government and its enterprises (such as TradeTraining). Following a complaint made in February 2016, the Commission launched a comprehensive investigation into two senior executive officers of TradeTraining.

Part 1:

Choose two of the three questions below. You must complete all parts of the chosen questions. Write your answers in the text box below.

Question 1

1. Define ‘goal setting’ and explain how it improves employee performance.
2. Explain how you did, or could have, used goal-setting and feedback to improve your teamwork experience in BUS293.

Question 2

1. Explain what is meant by ‘team effectiveness’ and identify two (2) team states that impact team effectiveness, giving an example for each of how a manager can improve them.
2. Identify and explain one (1) team design element, and discuss how this did, or did not, impact the effectiveness of your group in BUS293.

Question 3

1. Discuss two (2) potential benefits of conflict in the workplace, giving an example for each.
2. Identify and define the approaches to conflict and use one (1) to explain how a conflict situation was, or was not, effectively resolved during your teamwork experience in BUS293.

Part 2: Case Study

Use the case “The cascading effect of unethical leadership” to answer the following questions in the text box below.

Answer ALL questions.

1. Explain how a lack of ethical leadership has contributed to the current ethical climate at TradeTraining.
2. Define ‘espoused values’. Are TradeTraining’s espoused values and enacted values the same? Use examples from the case to justify your response.
3. Use the organizational socialization process to explain why Kathy might have engaged in the behavior she did.
4. Describe two strategies that could be used to change the culture at TradeTraining and give an example of how each could be implemented.