Week 1 – Assignment

Dark Leadership Theory

[WLOs: 1, 2, 3] [CLOs: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Prior to beginning work on this assignment, read Chapters 1 and 2 of your Meeting the Ethical Challenges of Leadership: Casting Light or Shadow course text.

Leadership is a complex topic. Up until now, the majority of your studies have focused on ethical leadership forms, but ethical leadership is only one part of a much larger leadership picture. There is also a dark side to leadership and to truly understand the ethical side of leadership, you need to understand the dark side.

In your paper,

• Summarize your impressions of the different dark leadership theories.
• Discuss why leaders cast shadow instead of light.
• Describe ethical dilemmas that you have encountered as a leader or a follower.
  • Explain ways that you have resolved these dilemmas.
• Explain your thoughts about this week’s reading, and what you learned that will transfer to future ethical decisions.
• Describe your thoughts and observations about the moral choices made by a public figure and how these choices fit the lesson.

The Dark Leadership Theory paper

• Must be three to four double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages and formatted according to APA Style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s APA Style (Links to an external site.) resource.
• Must include a separate title page with the following:
  • Title of paper
  • Student’s name
  • Course name and number
  • Instructor’s name
  • Date submitted
• For further assistance with the formatting and the title page, refer to APA Formatting for Word 2013 (Links to an external site.).
• Must utilize academic voice. See the Academic Voice (Links to an external site.) resource for additional guidance.
• Must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper.
  • For assistance on writing Introductions & Conclusions (Links to an external site.) as well as Writing a Thesis Statement (Links to an external site.), refer to the Ashford Writing Center resources.
• Must use at least three scholarly , peer-reviewed, or credible sources in addition to the course text.
  • The Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.
  • To assist you in completing the research required for this assignment, view this Ashford University Library Quick ‘n’ Dirty (Links to an external site.) tutorial, which introduces the Ashford University Library and the research process, and provides some library search tips.
• Must document any information used from sources in APA Style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s APA: Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.) guide.
• Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA Style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. See the APA: Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.) resource in the Ashford Writing Center for specifications.

Carefully review the Grading Rubric (Links to an external site.) for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.