PROJECT 1: Personal Skills Assessment

Purpose:

The purpose of this assignment is for you to develop a clear picture of the skills that you possess right now to qualify you for likely success in the job for which you will apply.

Outcomes:

• Students will accurately assess their critical thinking skills showing areas of improvement.
• Students will be able to evaluate the skills of greater to lesser weakness so that they can improve for future work assignments or job moves.
• Students will be able to see the skill set that employers will be wanting in a career capacity.

Assignment Background:

The assignments for this class will all be related and will seek to complete a candidate portfolio that will be presented at the end of week seven. Students will be expected to present a draft of each assignment on the milestone date given. The faculty will review the draft and give feedback along with a grade for the draft. When the portfolio is submitted complete with revisions in week seven, the faculty member will grade it as a completed portfolio at which time additional points will be assessed on the quality of the portfolio and its chances for getting the job.

Assignment:

Rainbow Paints has six people retiring soon and they want to give their existing personnel first chance to fill the jobs. You are anxious to move up in the company to a management position and happily apply. The candidate portfolio, given to you by HR as a candidate, contains a series of tests which will help them in assessing what position you are best suited to fill.  It also contains a short job description for each of the positions that will open. Since you are familiar with the current job holders you are thinking, that the types of test they are you to take will not only tell HR what job is best for you, but it should tell you as well. This may give you a better idea of your chance of getting the position.

Steps for Completion of the Assignment:

Step 1. Take all the quizzes found in the list located with the chart below the paper instructions.

Step 2. Answer the implication questions using a table like the one below with the headings illustrated. You can form any table shape you want but it must have the three column headings.

Type of quiz

Quiz Taken

Implication Question Answers

Step 3. When you have completed the chart, in a 2-3-page summary explain your results and select the position you surmise will be the best fit and explain why.  

Points to be covered in the summary are:

• a general evaluation summary of the quiz results;
• the implications for the jobs available;
• the job or jobs that best fit you and why;
• The reasons why you made the selection;
• The reasons why you did not select the other jobs, and
• How your selection is best for the effectiveness of the organization.

Note: When the Instructor has graded the draft, all feedback should be acknowledged by the student and corrections applied to the final submission of the portfolio in week 7. Revisions will be part of the final grade.

Step 4: Completing the Paper 

• Read the grading rubric for the project.  Use the grading rubric while completing the project to ensure all requirements are met that will lead to the highest possible grade.  
• Third person writing is required.  Third person means that there are no words such as “I, me, my, we, or us” (first person writing), nor is there use of “you or your” (second person writing).  If uncertain how to write in the third person, view this link:  http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/first-second-and-third-person.  
• Contractions are not used in business writing, so do not use them.  

Paraphrase and do not use direct quotation marks.  Paraphrase means you do not use more than four consecutive words from a source document but put a passage from a source document into your own words and attribute the passage

• to the source document.  Not using direct quotation marks means that there should be no passages with quotation marks and instead the source material is paraphrased as stated above.  Provide the pageor paragraph number when using in-text citations.  Note that a reference within a reference list cannot exist without an associated in-text citation and vice versa.  
• You may not use books as source material.  
• You are expected to use the facts from the case scenario paired with the weekly courses readings to develop the analysis and support the reasoning.  No more than two (2) external resources can be used in completing the assignment.  The expectation is that you provide a robust use of the course readings.  If any material is used from a source document, it must be cited and referenced.  A reference within a reference list cannot exist without an associated in-text citation and vice versa.    

Step 5:  Review the Paper 

Read the paper to ensure all required elements are present.  Use the grading rubric to ensure that you gain the most points possible for this assignment. 

Proofread the paper for spelling and grammatical issues, and third person writing. 

Read the paper aloud as a first measure;

Use the spell and grammar check in Word as a second measure;

• Have someone who has excellent English skills to proofread the paper;
• Consider submitting the paper to the Effective Writing Center (EWC).  The EWC will provide 4-6 areas that may need improvement. 
• Step 6:  Submit the paper in the Assignment Folder
  (The assignment submitted to the Assignment Folder will be considered the student’s final product and therefore ready for grading by the instructor.  It is incumbent upon the student to verify the assignment is the correct submission.  No exceptions will be considered by the instructor).
  NOTE: All submitted work is to be your original work. You may not use any work from another student, the Internet or an online clearinghouse.  You are expected to understand the Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism Policy and know that it is your responsibility to learn about instructor and general academic expectations regarding proper citation of sources as specified in the syllabus and other class resources.
  Skill Assessment Chart
  Self-AwarenessAbility, Personality or PreferenceTool To Be UsedImplicationCritical Thinking SkillsAbility to recognize quantitative and verbal patterns quickly and accurately Includes ability to acquire knowledgeWatson-Glaser Critical Thinking Test

  Wonderlic Personnel TestIs cognitive ability a strength or an area to be supplemented with the help of others? What type of job suits my analytical ability?Emotional IntelligenceAbility to recognize emotions of others and self to use information productivelyMSCIETDo I understand and use emotion to make effective decisions? Can I relate to people well because I can read their emotional state?Cultural IntelligenceAbility to function well in the context of differencesCultural Quotient Scale (CQS)Am I aware of important cultural differences? Do I act in ways that show I value those differences?Personality TraitsPersonality characteristics that remain stable over one’s lifeBig Five InventoryWhat are my dominant personality traits? How do I maximize my traits to best fit with others?Personal PreferencesPreference for direction of energy, decision making, information acquisition, and orientation to outside world.Myers-Briggs Type IndicatorHow do I like to work with others and process information? What do I look like in others to complement my preferences? How will I best act in team situations?Personal ValuesPreference for desirable ends or goals and the process for attaining them?Rokeach Values Checklist
  Hogan MPV ScaleWhat do I value most and seek in others?  What will I not bend or compromise on? What to me is non-negotiable?Career OrientationPreference for particular types of work environments and occupationsHolland Occupational Preference ScaleWhat occupational elements are most important to me? With what types of people will I thrive?

Adapted From Table 1.3 page 29 Baldwin, Timothy T., Bommer. William H., Rubin, Robert S., Managing Organizational Behavior: what Great Managers Know & Do, 2013 McGraw-Hill Irwin, New York NY

Assessment Links:

Critical Thinking – Wonderlic Test;Wonderlic

Emotional IQ Test- Emotional Intelligence Test

Cultural Quotient – Linn Vandyne Test

Cultural Intelligence Test

Personality Tests -Big Five Inventory – Big Five Test

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator –Jung Typology Test

Rokeach Values Checklist – Rokeach Survey

Determine Your Core Values

Holland Occupational Preference Scale- Holland Preference Scale

Note: in the instance where two links are provided only use one. The second is there should you have difficulty accessing the other.

Candidate Positions:

Position 1: Sales Director Middle East

Location: Morocco

Answers to: Executive Sales Director, Asia Division 

Rainbow Paint’s Asia Division will be opening its first Middle East location in Morocco in the next 12 months. A Sales Director will be needed to head up this new division. A team of local salespeople will need to be recruited, hired, and trained by this manager. It is expected that this sales team may be largely men, young and English Speaking. You know little about this new job, but you have been a member of many new project teams. Most of which have been successful.

Position 2:  Director of North American Residential Sales

Location: Headquarters, Detroit Michigan

Answers to: VP of Headquarter Operations 

Residential paints have been the backbone Rainbow Paint sales since its inception. Residential sales in North America are still strong but sales seem to be running flat in the last two years and you have heard that the current Director is being pushed into retirement so that new ideas can come to the sales force. The North American sales director’s position while located in headquarters, interfaces will the rest of the company globally. It requires a great deal of virtual work coordinating with all other departments and divisions. The current North American sales team is highly diverse and has predominantly women who are “high-flyers”. This is a high-profile position.

Position 3:  VP of Headquarter Operations

Location: Headquarters, Detroit Michigan

Answers to: President and CEO

The Headquarters houses R&D, HR, IT, Purchasing, and Finance. Each of these departments has its own “subculture”, and each department is distinct from each other. The young, youthful subculture of IT often clashes with the conservative subculture of the Finance department, for example. Many of the members of the Finance and HR teams are baby boomers and are near retirement. This leader oversees the smooth operation of all these departments and ensures the coordination of these departments with each other and with each of the four geographic divisions across the world.

Position 4:  Assistant Director Human Resources North American Division

Location: Chicago, Illinois

Answers to: Director of Human Resources, North American Division  

In this position you would assist the Director in HR. This division is seen as the “flagship” by all other divisions because it creates all the policy and sources

employees from all divisions of Rainbow Paints. This Executive Director has the “ear” of the CEO and spends a lot of time with the executive staff. This leader is faced with spearheading the future direction of HR and is challenged with filling openings throughout the United States and Canada caused by fast growth and a retiring Baby Boomer population. You have heard that this director is a Type A personality and can be very demanding. This Director has his finger on everything and is vying for the CEO position should it become vacant in the future.

Position 5:  Director of Production Europe

Location: Headquarters, Wiesbaden, Germany

Answers to: VP of Headquarter Operations  

This leader oversees the day-to-day operations of the residential paints production department. This leader is expected to aid in strategic planning with the executive team. This person is expected to bring a conservative approach to the strategic planning table, to balance out the high-risk tolerance of the rest of the leadership at Rainbow. A “big picture” perspective is needed here. It is rumored that this position may merge with commercial paints production due to low sales in Europe.