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Prior Learning Petition for BUS3010 Fundamentals of Management and Leadership

Name:

Date submitted:

List the supporting documents that have been attached to this Course Petition. (DCP and resume are required. You should provide additional documentation specific to your learning.)

• Degree completion plan. attached

• Résumé: attached

• Completion certificates related to strategic management from APICS, Lean, and DFT.

• Completion certificates from Covey Seven Habits, Zenger Miller Frontline Leadership, Core Skills, and a strategy document related to the facilities I managed.

Please tell us why you should be granted credit for BUS3010 Fundamentals of Management and Leadership.

I have worked for almost 20 years in management and leadership roles at successful multinational corporations such as X1, X2, and X3. I have held positions of Materials Manager, Director of Materials, and have managed and led organizations with as many as 18 direct reports and several hundred overall personnel. I have participated in several company sponsored leadership training programs such as Company Core Skills, Structured Panel Interviewing, Zenger Miller Frontline Leadership, and Steven Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Successful People. The training and experience I have had in management and leadership have enabled me to have a very successful career in manufacturing management. I have also demonstrated, through my increasing levels of responsibility, that I possess effective leadership and management skills.

How does your knowledge and your experiences in this area enhance your personal and organizational effectiveness in your chosen field of study.

In order to effectively lead and manage an organization it is critical to understand what management is, what leadership is, and how to apply those principles to the organization you’re leading. As a leader of a functional group within a large organization I am required to understand the corporate goals and initiatives that are set, know how to translate those goals into functional activities for my organization, how to implement those goals at the tactical level, and how to help, coach, and mentor my reports. I also have to deal with personality and performance issues, as well as establish the tone for the organization.

Summary of Competency Learning

|Course Competencies for BUS3010: |Answer the 2 basic questions (see Guide to Writing a Successful Petition). |Documentation |

|Fundamentals of Management and Leadership |What do you know | |

| |What have you done with this knowledge. | |

| | | |

| | | |

|Competency 1: Flexibly adopt strategies |Learner Analysis: | |

|that integrate leadership and management as |I have learned over the years a variety of business and manufacturing strategies. Some of these have come | |

|appropriate in specific |through training, such as Demand Flow Technology training, APICS (Association of Purchasing and Inventory |APICS Basics of Supply Chain Management|

|situations. |Control Specialists) training, Lean training, and Material Requirements Planning training associated with our | |

| |ERP software (SAP, Symix, Avalon, etc.). I have also learned many business and manufacturing strategies at | |

| |companies where I worked; when they would adopt various strategies I would go through the appropriate training. |APICS Execution and Control |

| |Sometimes these strategies conflicted with each other, such as Lean conflicting with MRP (Material Requirements | |

| |Planning), and as a manager and leader I had to determine which of these strategies we were to pursue in my area|Lean |

| |and what priority to give them. Sometimes my strategies were set by those above me in a detailed manner, and I | |

| |needed to be flexible in what I had my group pursue as well as show managerial leadership in rallying my team to|DFT Advanced Mixed Model |

| |achieve the established objectives. | |

| | |DFT Business Strategies |

| |Specifically, at Kimball I was Director of Materials for the Casegoods Division, responsible for the material | |

| |functions at 5 plants. We pursued different manufacturing strategies at these plants based on the goals of the |DFT Demand Based |

| |facilities, so I had to align the strategies of the materials area I managed to the manufacturing strategies and| |

| |capabilities of each facility. For example, at one facility I had my team pursue an MRP (Material Requirements | |

| |Planning) strategy because it best suited our goals and the nature of the manufacturing process at that | |

| |facility. At another facility I had my team pursue a DFT (Demand Flow Technology) strategy where MRP was never | |

| |used; this suited that facility because it was a component plant making generic parts to be consumed at the | |

| |plant that produced the configured product. I had to be flexible enough to lead both organizations in their | |

| |strategies based on what the senior management of the corporation decided to pursue at a plant specific level. | |

| |For documentation I have included completion certificates related to strategic management from APICS, Lean, and | |

| |DFT. | |

|Competency 2: Reflect on your personal and |Learner Analysis: | |

|interpersonal skills relative to the |I have learned through experience and a variety of training including Zenger Miller Frontline Leadership | |

|fundamentals of management and |training, Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, and Core Skills Training, how to manage and lead an |Seven Habits Certificate |

|leadership. |organization effectively. I have also learned through work experience how to manage processes, programs, and | |

| |projects. |Zenger Miller Certificate |

| | | |

| |I have had between 3 and 18 direct reports, and over 200 indirect reports. I had to lead them to achieve the |Casegood Business Units – Material |

| |organizational goals that were set, as well as deal with personality issues and co-worker problems. Most |Strategies Presentation |

| |importantly, I set the tone through my leadership on how they were to work, achieve their goals, and interact | |

| |with each other. |Core Skills completion certificate |

| | | |

| |I have found the keys to being an effective manager and leader is to first understand the overall direction that| |

| |is being set by the company, the strategies it intends to pursue, and the results it hopes to achieve. Once | |

| |that is understood you have to determine how the area you manage can contribute to those goals and strategies. | |

| |You must make sure you have alignment with the large aims of the organization before you set the goals for your | |

| |area. Then you determine the goals, strategies, and metrics for the organization you manage. Secondly, you | |

| |must lead those who report to you by example. You will set the tone for the department; how they interact with | |

| |each other, how they treat their internal and external customers, how they will treat suppliers. If you act | |

| |with honesty, integrity, and fairly at all times then the whole department will take their cue from you. | |

| | | |

| |For documentation I have included completion certificates from Covey Seven Habits, Zenger Miller Frontline | |

| |Leadership, Core Skills, and a strategy document related to the facilities I managed. | |

| | | |

|Competency 3: Use systems theory to |Learner Analysis: | |

|understand organizational impact. |Systems Theory, which in a business application is evaluating the interrelationships between elements of the | |

| |system rather than each element separately, is a process that I learned in my career in order to gauge the |Casegoods Business Unit Materials |

| |effectiveness of an organization. We used this type of evaluation technique to understand how elements of the |Management Presentation |

| |organization that we, as senior managers, were responsible for. We gauged how these organizational elements | |

| |interacted with each other and how those interactions affected the overall performance of the organization. | |

| | | |

| |For example, as senior management we would look at the functionality and interactions between different | |

| |functional areas to understand and evaluate how they impacted the organization and how they could be improved. | |

| |We would evaluate the interaction and relationship between two functional areas, such as product design and | |

| |manufacturing engineering. Are they both providing a competitive advantage to the company by their interactions| |

| |and by functioning together for the best interest of the organization? When I worked as a Director of Materials| |

| |at Kimball International we would review on a quarterly basis the organizational impact of the functioning | |

| |between the various departments. We would address shortcomings, identify best practices, and take actions to | |

| |improve the overall performance of our division. | |

| | | |

| |For documentation I have included the organizational structure and personnel evaluations for an organization I | |

| |managed. | |

|Competency 4: Apply critical thinking |Learner Analysis: | |

|skills. |In the management roles I have had I learned a great deal about critical thinking and how to apply it in my | |

| |everyday work. I have been trained in Creative Problem Solving, which uses critical thinking skills to solve |Creative Problem Solving Certificate |

| |company problems and challenges. | |

| | |Daily Demand Variations Effect on Lead |

| |I have used critical thinking skills to resolve significant issues at companies I have worked for. For example,|times presentation |

| |I have attached a power point presentation showing how I used critical thinking skills to present the need for | |

| |smoothing days within our planning horizon; a complex problem not faced everyday, but something that must be |Mid Continent Materials Focused |

| |understood and managed in order for a facility to perform. In the scenario shown in the power point, we |Presentation |

| |operated with a 7 day lead time to the customer, in this case our corporate shipping / installation | |

| |organization. By the end of a month we could roll up the total number of order “sums” (an order unit we | |

| |measured) and see that our pace of orders was under the total number of sums available; so the perception was | |

| |that the plant should have shipped all orders on time. But the reality was that the order pattern in the daily | |

| |demand would cause orders to move out because on any particular day orders could consume several days of | |

| |capacity. So for any particular month you could have the order sums under the available capacity and still be | |

| |forced to delay orders due to the pattern the orders came in at. Therefore, if the daily demand fluctuates, as | |

| |it did in this case, you need to maintain an amount of smoothing days to compensate for the daily demand | |

| |variations and still have the available sums match the scheduled capacity. I used critical thinking skills, | |

| |technical knowledge of the subject matter, and leadership abilities to put this presentation together and show | |

| |leaders from other functional areas why we needed to maintain smoothing days in our schedule. | |

| | | |

| |I have also attached a power point presentation detailing the “focused factory” approach I designed to | |

| |completely revamp and improve the materials function of another company I worked for. In this scenario, the | |

| |company’s inventory was excessive and inaccurate due to the way they managed their work in process and raw | |

| |material inventories in their ERP system and physically. This presentation, and these changes, required | |

| |critical thinking in order to understand the challenges faced and create an effective solution, as well as | |

| |leadership ability to convince the team members of the need to change and the benefits if we do change. | |

|Competency 5: Communicate effectively. |Learner Analysis: | |

| | | |

| |In the various leadership roles I have held the need to communicate effectively is critical. I learned | |

| |communication skills through writing courses I had previously taken in college, as well as watching effective |Casegoods ’07 Offsite presentation |

| |communicators and learning from them. | |

| | | |

| |In my leadership roles I have had to present updates and strategy documents to senior leadership, subordinates, | |

| |and peers. The objective in these communications was to update the status of the organization, highlight | |

| |problems, and persuade the group to adopt the solution that I was presenting. I also believe I am an effective | |

| |writer from a business standpoint; I am able to present my ideas and solutions in a logical and effective | |

| |manner, and lead the reader through the issues and solutions in a very straightforward manner. I have included | |

| |a power point presentation (casegoods 07 offsite.ppt) as an example of my communication skills in a business | |

| |environment. This presentation is a summation of the plants I managed the materials function in, their metrics,| |

| |and an evaluation of the issues and opportunities facing each plant. I have also included a copy of a paper I | |

| |did this past quarter at Capella (cicchettiu10a1bus3020.doc). This paper is a business strategy proposal for a | |

| |company I worked for to enter the on-line marketplace. I believe both of these papers, as well as this | |

| |petition, show my ability to communicate effectively in a business environment. | |

| | | |

Faculty Review:

|BUS3010 Fundamentals of Management and Leadership |Demonstration of competencies |

| |(Please check one) |

| |1 |2 |3 |4 |Rationale |

|Competency 1: Flexibly adopt strategies that integrate leadership and |x | | | | |

|management as appropriate in specific | | | | | |

|situations. | | | | | |

|Competency 2: Reflect on your personal and interpersonal skills relative |x | | | | |

|to the fundamentals of management and | | | | | |

|leadership. | | | | | |

|Competency 3: Use systems theory to understand organizational impact. |x | | | | |

|Competency 4: Apply critical thinking skills. |x | | | | |

|Competency 5: Communicate effectively. |x | | | | |

Disposition:

x - Recommend granting credit

- Do not recommend granting credit

- Need more information

Additional Comments: XXX did a fabulous job describing how his learning through experience meets or exceeds the competency criteria. Congratulations and best wishes.

Reviewer, PhD Core Faculty Business

Faculty Representative(s) Signature and date (can be electronic signature)

Appendix

*Examples of Sources of Experiential Evidence (Note: These are simply ideas. Some types of evidence will be more appropriate to the course than others )

• Original essay, report, annotated bibliography, evaluation report, case study, research report, concept map

• Analyzed examples of problems and solutions, strategies for approaching problems

• Rating scales, simulation exercises, role plays, critical incident case studies

• Business reports, letters, articles

• Models, diagrams, concept maps, case studies with commentaries

• Examples of product, artwork, blueprints, models

• Personal journals or journal overviews, records of debriefing sessions, transcripts of peer discussion, book reviews, analysis of issues

• Business plan, project management plan, management reports, budgets, records

• Certificates

• Letters from colleagues, faculty, supervisors, or experts verifying accomplishment

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