Introduction The purpose of this coursework is two-fold.

Firstly, it is intended to develop an ability to search the academic literature, read and think critically, and write a short discursive piece. This will in turn help you with the academic programme at postgraduate level. Secondly, the coursework requires you to delve deeply into a contemporary issue confronting human relations in the context of project management. The coursework is worth a third of the marks in this 15-credit core unit. Therefore, you are expected to expend 50 hours worth of personal effort in delivering this coursework. Please read the instructions found in this coursework brief carefully. Detailed Instructions You are required to produce a critical review of the following theme: Coursework theme: Authentic Leadership and Project Management Your critical review must be based on a peer-reviewed academic journal article of your choice. You are required to read extensively around the coursework theme and identify a particular article that has inspired you to write this critical review. The review must be word processed, and MUST NOT exceed a single page of A4, using the Arial font, minimum of 11 point in single line spacing, and margins of a minimum of 2 cm all around. You are also required to include the list of bibliographic references cited in your critical review on page 2. Therefore, your submission must not exceed 2 pages, otherwise you will get zero for this coursework. Also, do not continue your critical review on to the second page. Guidance on How to Construct a Critical Review Your critical review must be related to the above theme, i.e. Authentic Leadership and Project Management. You must select a peer-reviewed journal paper that relates to a particular aspect of authentic leadership, and relate this to the field of project management. There are many ways of achieving this. However, it is important that you read more than one peerreviewed journal article on the theme before making a choice on which article to focus on for your critical review. It is expected that you must familiarise yourself with the concept of authentic leadership what this means, why this is important, and what has already been written about this before you can make a judgement as to which article you choose for the purpose of constructing your critical review. It is suggested that you choose an article that has really inspired you to think about authentic leadership in the context of project management. What is a peer-reviewed academic journal? You can find quite a detailed explanation of what peer review is and what it means to a lay person here: http://boingboing.net/2011/04/22/meet-science-what-is.html Moreover, you should be able find detailed information about any academic journal on the homepage of the journals website. The peer-review process (if there is one) is normally explained in the Instructions for Authors or equivalent. Periodic guidance will be provided on a needs

basis and during the formal session in Week 4. The paper selected must be critically reviewed using appropriate sources and logical argument. Students are advised to focus on appraising the subject matter when constructing the critical review, and not to state their personal views or opinions and to avoid writing in the first person. There is generic advice on library and study skills found on Blackboard 9 (see Learning Resources). Please consult this before beginning your assignment. Typically, when writing a critical review of this nature, you are advised to consider the following questions (not exhaustively): What is the chosen peer-reviewed academic journal article about? What is/are the central argument(s)? How have the author(s) derived their arguments? What methods were used, and how have the methods influenced the strength of the argument(s)? To what extent is/are the argument(s) persuasive? How does the chosen article contribute to our collective understanding of the coursework theme? What are the implications of the argument(s) found in the chosen article, especially for the theory and practice of project management? What are the limitations of the chosen article? Where are the weak points? What are the implications of these? Thinking through these questions might help you to focus in reading the literature. Care should be taken when searching the literature and selecting peer-reviewed journal articles, in that the articles you read must be of sufficient substance. A common flaw is that students select journalistic pieces. Journalistic pieces or light weight unreferenced material will not be accepted. It must be reiterated that students will need to undertake significant library work in order to select suitable material.