Week 5 – Final Paper

Comparing and Contrasting Dark and Light Leaders

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

Prior to beginning work on this assignment, review all previous chapters of your Meeting the Ethical Challenges of Leadership: Casting Light or Shadow course text.

Throughout this course, you have studied both dark and light leadership theories. Now is the time to put that information to work by comparing and contrasting two prominent leaders from history, one a light (ethical) leader, the other a dark (unethical) leader. The point of this entire course is to provide you with enough education to compare and contrast dark and light leadership styles. By choosing real-world leaders from history you will develop a better understanding of why ethical leadership is so important to organizational success.

In your paper,

• Identify two leaders from history, one dark (unethical) and one light (ethical).
• Prepare a brief biography for each leader, focusing primarily on the event that makes them stand out in history.
• Describe the leadership style the individual uses most and why.
• Define the leadership style used by this leader.
• Explain how the leader demonstrates this leadership style.
• Analyze the particular act or behavior that makes this leader ethical or unethical.
• Describe the effects the leader may have had on the organization they led.
• Explain in first person the most important lesson you have learned from this course and how you can use this information in future situations.

The Comparing and Contrasting Dark and Light Leaders paper

• Must be five to seven 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 eight scholarly 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.