RECENT ASSIGNMENT

ASSESSMENT TASK 3: RECOGNISE AND APPRECIATE EMOTIONAL STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
Instructions to students
This activity will demonstrate your ability in being able to recognise and respond to the emotional state of your co-workers and being able to assess emotional cues as well. This is a group activity and you will be required to work in small groups.
3.1. Read the three scenarios, discuss in small groups and write a report explaining what do you consider to be the emotion cues of your co-workers, how would you respond to the emotional state and what would happen if the emotional state is not assessed and addressed. Your report must be professionally prepared with a title “Emotional states of co-workers and ability to assess emotional cues”. Please ensure that your assessor can observe your interaction in the group which will form part of this assessment task. (Guide: Min of 1,000 words).
Scenario 1: Feeling “down”
You are part of a team of 20 employees in a large office environment. You have noticed over the weeks that one of your co-workers who has been previously been very social, very talkative and contributed at meetings become very quiet and distracted. You asked your co-worker if everything was okay as you noticed that there may be something bothering your co-worker. Your co-worker however said everything was fine and not to worry. You are however still worried as you know that usually your co-worker would say “Good Morning” and “Goodbye” to everyone every day. She always had a story to tell and you could hear her laughter during the day. You know that there is something not quite right with your co-worker and are very concerned about her.
Scenario 2: Worry or insecurity
You are a manager at a manufacturing plant. There has been rumours that the business had a change of ownership and the new owners are looking at downsizing which might lead to some staff losing their jobs. Your staff are nervous at the change and the feeling of loss of control has triggered nervousness and insecurity at work. You have noticed that this has led to low staff morale with loss of employee’s self-confidence. As you walk around the factory, you notice employees are more interested in discussing the issue then working which in turn has had an impact on productivity.
Scenario 3: Anger
Mary works for a project management company and is part of a large project management team of 20 employees. The project team meets on a weekly basis for a project brief. Due to project timelines, the project manager has informed everyone to be on time for the weekly meetings so that the meetings can finish on time. Mary however is always late to meetings and seems annoyed at having to attend the meetings. At the meetings Mary appears to be excessively critical of other team members, abrupt and dismissive when asked to take on responsibilities. Mary also does not respond to emails and seems cynical and sarcastic about the team being able to meet project deadlines. It almost seems that Mary is trying to sabotage the efforts of the team members.
3.2. Refer to the scenario below and complete activity. (Guide: 150 words)
Scenario
You are the Centre Manager at Bounce Fitness at the Sydney Centre. Refer to the Bounce Fitness website. This is the most busiest centre and you are responsible for all the staff working different shifts. The customers are highly demanding wanting the centre to be opened on time. You find that there are customer complaints (refer to the website for and review the complaints) from Head Office Cairns about your staff not arriving on time. You find some of the staff have families and they may be dropping their children off to day care and sometimes delayed. They are highly emotional when they arrive as they have annoyed customers abusing them for arriving late. You have several other staff with varying emotions you have to deal with. You however have to make daily decisions to ensure the centre runs smoothly.
When making decisions it is important to take into account others emotions. Refer to the diagram below and describe the diagram in your own words as to how you can as a leader have a positive impact on others at Bounce Fitness
ASSESSMENT TASK 4: PROMOTE THE DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IN OTHERS
4.1. Read the scenario below, discuss in your groups and provide answers as per the instructions. You must participate in group activities as your interaction in groups will form part of your assessment. Your assessor will observe your ability to work as part of a team. (Guide: 500 words)
Scenario
John was in a hurry to catch a plane to attend a meeting in another city. He had some unfinished work which was due on Friday at the Board meeting. He went into his manager, Shawn’s office to discuss the possibility of his manager finishing off his project. Shawn was not in the office and John being in a hurry could not wait to discuss the project with Shawn. He scribbled some notes on a “Post-it” note and stuck it to the pile of papers and left it on Shawn’s desk where he could see it and not miss it. When Shawn returned, he was unhappy to see the pile of work as Shawn himself had to complete his report for Friday’s Board meeting. Also as John was in a hurry, his scribbled note was not readable and Shawn was getting stressed over it. Shawn felt under pressure and disillusioned as John was always giving Shawn last minute work and not giving Shawn an opportunity to express his feelings. Shawn had enough and decided he would continue and finish his work for Friday’s Board meeting and if he had time he would try and attend to John’s request.
a) Explain what opportunity John could give Shawn to express his thoughts and feelings.
b) What effect do you think John’s behavior could have on Shawn and others in the workplace?
c) Discuss in your group if you have ever worked for someone like John who is not clear about what is expected of you? To develop greater competencies in others, explain how John could ensure his goals and expectations are very carefully spelled out.
4.2. Read the scenario below and complete the task.
Scenario
Peter is a Project Manager of a large project. One of his team members resigned half way through the project and Peter had to hire a new team member to join his project group. Whilst the new team member is highly skilled he is feeling stressed trying to keep up with the project team as he is new and came into the project half way through. Instead of getting upset and angry at the new team member, the project group slowed down their project and took time aside to explain and work with the new team member. This in turn led to the new team members morale being boosted and his performance increased and a stable and happy project team.
a) Refer to the scenario above and explain the dynamics of the team and explain the leadership style of Peter. (200 words)
b) Explain why it is important to encourage others to develop their own emotional intelligence to build productive relationships to increase workplace productivity. (Guide 150 words)
4.3. One of the best ways managers can help its employees develop their emotional intelligence is to lead by example. Therefore, it is important to start by making sure that as a manager you lead with emotional intelligence which means staying aware of your own thoughts, feelings, and managing them, so that you affect others in the workplace positively.
Refer to the strategies managers can use to encourage a positive emotional climate in the workplace and give an example of how each strategy can be used in the workplace. (Guide: 500 words)
Communicate the Benefits
Develop Self-Awareness
Strengthen Communication
Build Optimism
Encourage Healthy Conflict
Set Specific Learning Goals
4.4. Refer to the scenario in point 4.3 again. A good manager can recongise the strengths of workgroups members to ensure team objectives are achieved. Give five (5) examples of how a manager can utilise the strengths of his workgroups to achieve workplace outcomes. (Guide: 450 to 500 words).