Modern Leadership in a Professional Association

You are an organizational development (OD) professional with expertise on leaderless groups and movements. You belong to the Organizational Development Professional Association (ODPA), a multinational organization, where the membership has declined steadily for the past five years. ODPA’s board of directors (Board) conducted a member satisfaction survey last month and the results arrived with startling findings:

• More than half of ODPA members question the relevance of ODPA in light of the current environment
• Sixty-five percent of ODPA members are independent contractors or work for companies of fewer than 10 people
• More than 30% of members received advanced degrees 30 years ago or longer, more than 50% between 10 years and 29 years ago, and fewer than 10% graduated within the last nine years.
• Fewer than 5% of the members could name one ODPA Board member

In light of the survey data results, the ODPA executive director (Director) has called to ask If you can help. The Director, located in Toronto, Canada, is concerned that the Board is out of touch with current organizational environments, OD trends, and escalating challenges for organizational development professionals. The current seven Board members are geographically distributed in Australia, England, Germany, Japan, and the United States. The Board holds an annual meeting in Toronto and quarterly web-based conference meetings.

The Director wants to “educate” the Board as a necessary step to raise a sense of urgency about the organization. Otherwise, the Director fears ODPA may not be sustainable. The Director’s assessment is that the Board:

• Does not fully appreciate its leadership role
• Has not embraced workforce demographic changes that impact membership
• Cannot make sense of classical versus autonomist leadership or traditional versus evolved leadership theory
• Does not understand leadership discourses of modern times.

The Director wants you to facilitate a Board discussion using the survey results as catalyst to discuss organizational risks. The director is asking you to develop a draft of the meeting plan including:

1. Purpose of the meeting (remember your audience)
2. Attendees and roles (assess the leader/follower roles of all of those in attendance, including you. Make and record assumptions as needed. Support your assessment with scholarly sources).
3. Schedule, location, and setting (provide reasoned choices with support)
4. Pre-reading material (Identify material that attendees should review ahead of the meeting; make and record assumptions as needed)
5. Historical overview of the leadership field of study from 1920 to present (two to three pages)

• Include an original graphic element (less than one-half page within body of the report; unlimited space in appendices)
• Explanation of modern leadership with relevance to the situation (three to four pages)

• Include an original graphic element (less than one-half page within body of the report; unlimited space in Appendices)
• Critical analysis of a current leadership book and specific relevance to the situation (use one of Western’s (2013) four critical inquiry frames) (four to five pages)
• Facilitation questions (design inquiry to draw attendees into a relevant discussion).

Requirements:

• Ten to 12 pages not including the required title and reference pages and appendices
• Management report style (see the ToolKit in the Module folder for an example)
• Headings and sub-headings used to advance comprehension and clarify the flow of the document
• A minimum of two original graphics (figures or tables) demonstrating analytic thought
• Appendices that contain larger amounts of data and analytic tools; formatted according to APA standards
• Ten to 12 scholarly sources in addition to any of the course required or recommended readings you decide to use.
• A current leadership book of your choosing (this is a book you will choose in Module 1 Portfolio Project Milestone option 1. See the full description of that assignment in the Module 1 folder.