BCOM 4300: Depictions of Leadership Communication Application Activity 10 points
Goals: Identify leadership communication depictions in popular media. Assess portrayals of good, bad, and average leaders’ behaviors, traits, abilities, and skills as communicators. Help you review concepts as preparation for exam 1.
Part 1: Worth up to 7 points
1. Select ONE movie or documentary, ONE podcast series, TWO episodes of a TV show,
OR ONE book/series. Your selection should feature leadership communication skills in its contents. Watch, listen or read your selection (if choosing a book, reread specific sections you plan to pull from).
Few tips: take notes; rewatch/reread key scenes; and include specific references in step 2. Some of these movies or shows may be available through the UTD Library to stream. Both podcasts are free to download. Below is a list of possibilities, but you can stray from this list.
a. Examples movies: Parasite, The Wolf of Wall Street, Office Space, Jerry McGuire, or The Devil Wears Prada. The Inventor: Out for Blood is a documentary good for thinking about communication ethics.
b. Example podcast series:
WeCrashed: The Rise and Fall of WeWork
(6 episodes) or
The Dropout
(about Elizabeth Homes and Theranos; 6 episodes). Note: These would be a good option if you want to listen to something while driving or doing errands. It’s more content time-wise but easy to process while doing other things.
c. Example TV shows: The Office, Superstore, Park & Recreation, Schitt’s Creek, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, etc.
d. Example literature: Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling), Hunger Games (Susanne Collins),
Bartleby, the Scrivener
(Herman Melville; short story).
2. Write a 450-600 word (minimum) Executive Summary/External Recommendation and post it to the class Leadership Activity Part 1 discussion board. Post as a discussion post, not a word document to the discussion board. Please write on the following:
a. [Try to keep this section brief, the focus should fall on leadership analysis (part 2)] Explain what you watched/listened to (if tv show, include the episode titles) & describe the character(s) and the scenario. Remember, not everyone has consumed this piece of media, so explain it as if someone has never seen or heard what you are talking about.
b. [This should be your longest portion of the post] Provide your analysis of one person/character’s leadership (could be multiple people if you want to compare them) using at least 4 concepts we’ve learned so far in reading or in class. In this section, support your analysis with examples from the media text (i.e., if you say XXX follows a Theory X philosophy, you need to give an example of how you know that). Sample questions/topics (you are not required to answer these):
i. How did the leader view leadership (chapter 1)? What leadership attributes did you see and how did those people communicate (chapter 1)?
ii. Of the six leadership traits, which ones were lacking and how does that contribute to unethical communication (chapter 2)?
iii. What leadership philosophies or styles did you notice; did they “work” for good communication (chapter 3)? What were the followers’ styles (ch 3)?
iv. Did you notice task or relationship leadership or a combination; did that help the leadership reach their communication goals (chapter 4)?
c. Then include three “do” or “don’t” bullet points for application to real-life leadership communication. (Example: three bullet points that identify positive leadership
communication traits or three things we should learn not to do based on this example)
Tips/Reminders for Both Parts:
· Writing matters here, both in your original post and response posts. Use Grammarly. Having writing, grammatical sentence structure, or punctuation errors will lower your grade.
· No late work accepted.
Worth up to 7 points. Part 1, Leadership Activity
BCOM 4300
Excellent
Good
OK
Poor
Score
Organization –1 point
Clear and appropriate beginning, development, and conclusion. Paragraphs and transitions are clear and appropriate.
Mostly clear and appropriate beginning, development, and conclusion. Paragraphs and transitions are mostly clear and appropriate.
Adequate beginning, development, and conclusion. Adequate paragraph structure/flow and transitions.
Organizational structure and paragraphing have serious and persistent errors.
Writing—2 points
No major errors in word selection, sentence structure, spelling, capitalization, or punctuation.
A few errors in word selection, sentence structure, spelling, capitalization, or punctuation.
Multiple errors in word selection, sentence structure, spelling, punctuation and/or capitalization.
Serious and persistent errors in word selection, sentence structure, spelling, punctuation and/or capitalization.
Support of arguments—2 points
Arguments well supported.
Arguments well supported.
Arguments supported to some degree.
Arguments minimally or not supported.
Content—2 points
Required content included and complete
Nearly all required content included and complete
Some of required content included
Required content minimally or not included or complete
Total:
7
Worth up to 3 points. Part 2, Leadership Activity. Each response post worth up to 1.5 points.
BCOM 4300
Excellent
Good
Poor
Score
Organization –5 point
All required content included and clearly organized. Response meets length requirements.
Some required content included and somewhat organized. Response meets length requirements.
All required content included and clearly organized. Response meets length requirements.
Writing—1 point
No major errors in word selection, sentence structure, spelling, capitalization, or punctuation.
A few errors in word selection, sentence structure, spelling, capitalization, or punctuation.
Serious and persistent errors in word selection, sentence structure, spelling, punctuation and/or capitalization.
Total
1.5 per post
