Week 3 Discussion – Due

Jul 29, 2020 11:59 PMMCJ6405 Organizational Leadership SU01

Scenario

The discussion assignment provides a forum for discussing relevant topics for this week on the basis of the course competencies covered.

For this assignment, make sure you post your initial response to the Discussion Area by the due date assigned.

To support your work, use your course and text readings and also use the South University Online Library. As in all assignments, cite your sources in your work and provide references for the citations in APA format.

Start reviewing and responding to the postings of your classmates as early in the week as possible. Respond to at least two of your classmates’ initial postings. Participate in the discussion by asking a question, providing a statement of clarification, providing a point of view with a rationale, challenging an aspect of the discussion, or indicating a relationship between two or more lines of reasoning in the discussion. Cite sources in your responses to other classmates. Complete your participation for this assignment bythe end of the week.

Scenario

You are the chief prosecutor heading an office with a number of assistant prosecutors, support staff, including paralegals and interns. Your paralegals are well-trained in legal research and in building databases for trials. You have to compile data on cases relating to the death penalty as part of a new tracking program that has been implemented by the state’s attorney general’s office. This is an unfunded mandate that does not provide any additional funds or resources to your office to establish a database. The project requires that you analyze cases prosecuted by your office over the previous 50 years, focusing on issues of racial and economic disparity.

Your assistant prosecutors seem to feel that data collection is mechanical work, fit only for fresh interns. However, you view it as an activity that is too important to delegate to your part-time interns or your paralegals without strong supervision.

Therefore, you decide to assign this duty to two of your senior prosecutors. They will have to devote 50 percent of their time to building the new database and performing the required analysis. You have chosen two prosecutors with the most experience prosecuting capital cases, knowing that they will be most familiar with the data. However, neither prosecutor has a strong background in data collection or computer-based statistical analysis. Both have expressed reservations about overseeing the project.

• Which strategies do you think are most effective for influencing employees to undertake new tasks? Why? Assess the advantages and disadvantages of these strategies in the context of this scenario.
• Should you use rational persuasion or the tactic of exchange strategy to influence the attorneys you selected for creating and maintaining the new database? Why? Explain how you might combine both, if necessary, to achieve the desired objective.
• What are the inspirational appeals you could make to the attorneys? Explain. Will inspirational appeals work better than pressure tactics? Why?
• As a leader, was it appropriate for you to select the two attorneys who would be assigned to this project? Would it have been better to request volunteers? Do you think this would lessen the need to persuade employees to take on this additional responsibility? Would the use of the paralegals change the dynamic as well as the work assignments?
• How much credence should leaders give to employees’ expressions of concern over assigned tasks? Under what circumstances might it be inappropriate for a leader to continue to apply persuasion tactics with employees who appear resistant to performing certain tasks?
• Which combination of the various proactive influence tactics would be most successful in influencing the staff? Why?

Support your responses with adequate research and supporting data. Review and comment on the submissions of at least two of your classmates by the end of the week.

Cite any sources using APA format on a separate page. Let’s learn how to cite sources using APA guidelines.

Week 3 DiscussionDiscussion Topic Due July 29 at 11:59 PM