For this assignment, you will select a leader to interview from a nonprofit, for-profit, or government human services organization. You will develop interview questions designed to help you gain knowledge and insight about leadership practices based

Overview

For this assignment, you will select a leader to interview from a nonprofit, for-profit, or government human services organization. You will develop interview questions designed to help you gain knowledge and insight about leadership practices based on the experiences from someone who is actively engaged in a human service leadership role. The skills gained through selecting a person to interview, developing interview questions, conducting an interview, and evaluating the information gained from the interview will be used as part of the program evaluation you will develop and conduct in your capstone project. You will also gain real-world knowledge about how multidisciplinary and interorganizational collaboration occurs in practice.

Preparation

Choosing a Human Service Organization Leader

The ideal leader for your organization should possess professional insight into leadership and organizational effectiveness within local, state, or national for-profit, nonprofit, or governmental human services organizations. Additionally, this leader should have a strong understanding of how to foster multidisciplinary collaboration within such organizations.

You may choose a leader from an organization where you currently work or volunteer, or where you have been employed or have volunteered, or an organization similar to one you plan to create. Keep in mind that the focus of the interview and the selection of a leader will be about the leader’s skills and practices with multidisciplinary and interorganizational collaboration rather than on a particular organization or population served.

If you do not have a leader readily available to you, you may choose to reach out to a leader in an organization from the following list:

• American Red Cross (local chapter).
• Aurora Healthcare, Kaiser Permanente Healthcare, or other similar large state or regional health care system, social services, or mental health program.
• Catholic Community Services (local chapter).
• Department of Army, Navy, or Air Force social services or mental health program.
• Local foodbank.
• Lutheran Social Services (local chapter).
• State or county social services program.
• State or county mental health program.
• State or county public health or prevention program.
• Veterans Administration social services or mental health program.
• Veterans Administration veteran centers.

Choosing a Theoretical Approach

After the interview has been conducted, utilize the leader’s interview responses as a basis to determine their leadership style through the lens of one or more theoretical approaches.

The provided course resources offer insights into various leadership theories and styles, or alternatively, you can explore additional leadership theoretical approaches based on information obtained through library research.

Leadership Theories

Some prominent leadership theories are listed below and each emphasizes different leadership aspects:

• Great Man Theory.
• Trait Theory.
• Contingency Theory.
• Situational Theory.
• Behavioral Theory.
• Participative Theory.
• Transactional Theory.
• Transformational Theory.

Leadership Styles

Leadership styles, on the other hand, are more concrete and offer a set of behaviors or approaches that leaders can adopt. There are a numerous leadership styles and each one reflects different beliefs about the role of a leader and how they should interact with their team. Common leadership styles include:

• Authoritarian (Autocratic) Leadership.
• Democratic (Participative) Leadership.
• Laissez-faire (Delegative) Leadership.
• Transactional (Managerial) Leadership.
• Transformational (Visionary) Leadership.

Instructions

After identifying a human services leader from an organization that would be engaged in multidisciplinary and interorganizational community interactions, schedule time with the leader, and conduct a 20–30 minute interview. For this assignment, complete the following:

• Analyze peer-reviewed research on multidisciplinary collaboration.
  • What can support or hinder multidisciplinary collaboration?
  • How might multidisciplinary collaboration vary based on whether the collaborators work within the same organization (such as a hospital) or in different organizations (requiring interorganizational collaboration)?
• Discuss multidisciplinary collaboration practices to be considered to assess leadership skills.
  • Identify, by name, a specific human services organization that engages in multidisciplinary collaboration.
  • Identify the type of organization (nonprofit, for-profit, government) and the services the organization provides.
  • Identify the leader or person who facilitates coordination of the program or services.
  • How does the organization collaborate with other organizations or other service providers, and what services do the other organizations provide?
  • How does the leader of the organization or person tasked with facilitating the coordination manage that?
• Develop interview questions to assess how the leader established relationships with other organizations and other leadership professionals.
  • Use the research literature you read to help you develop 7–8 questions for your interview.
    • Include a question about their leadership style. (Please note that they may not use the terminology “leadership style,” but you should gather enough detail to identify their leadership style.)
    • Include a question about how multidisciplinary collaboration influences their organization’s services.
    • Include at least one question about their strategies for fostering collaboration.
    • Include at least one question about how they manage diversity in the organization.
      • For each question, explain:
        • Why are you asking each question?
        • How is that question relevant?
        • What is the research to support the relevance?
  • Evaluate key takeaway points or themes from the leader’s responses to the interview questions (preliminary data analysis).
  • Support the evaluation with relevant research that is related to theme development.
  • Assess strengths and challenges of the questions and responses.
  • Recommend modifications to the interview questions, if appropriate, based on the interview.
• Based on the interview responses, analyze the leader’s leadership style for facilitating multidisciplinary and interorganizational collaboration.
  • Which theoretical model would you identify as their leadership style? Explain the identified model based on interview responses and literature.
  • How might collaboration strategies differ if they had a different leadership style?

Additional Requirements

Your assignment should also meet the following requirements:

• Written communication:
  • Convey purpose, in an appropriate tone and style, incorporating supporting evidence and adhering to organizational, professional, and scholarly writing standards.
  • Apply APA style and formatting to scholarly writing.
  • Note: Transcribe your 20–30 minute interview. Include the transcription and recording as part of your assessment submission.
    • To record your interview you may choose to use Kaltura or similar software. Refer to Using Kaltura for more information about this courseroom tool. If you require the use of assistive technology or alternative communication methods to participate in these activities, please contact DisabilityServices@Capella.edu to request accommodations.
• References: Include at least two references per page.
  • The course resources may be used as some of your reference sources.
  • Be sure to find, evaluate, and discuss relevant academic, scholarly, peer-reviewed sources for your assessment using the Reviewing the Literature Campus page.
• APA formatting: Headings that define the sections of the paper, resources, and citations are formatted according to APA style and formatting. See the Advanced Doctoral Learners section of the Writing Center for guidance.
• Length of paper: 4–6 typed, double-spaced pages, excluding the cover page and references.
• Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12-point.

ePortfolio

You may choose to save your coursework to your ePortfolio as you complete iterations of your work for your final assignment.

Review the Leadership Interview: Facilitating Multi-disciplinary Collaboration for Effective Human Services Delivery rubric before submission.

Competencies Measured

By successfully completing this assignment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:

• Competency 3: Describe collaboration strategies that leaders can use to build effective multidisciplinary collaboration. 
  • Analyze peer-reviewed research on multidisciplinary collaboration. 
  • Discuss multidisciplinary collaboration practices to be considered to assess leadership skills. 
  • Develop interview questions to assess how the leader established relationships with other organizations and other leadership professionals. 
  • Analyze the leader’s leadership style for facilitating multidisciplinary and interorganizational collaboration. 
• Competency 5: Synthesize scholarly sources and evidence to support credible, compelling arguments. 
  • Convey purpose, in an appropriate tone and style, incorporating supporting evidence and adhering to organizational, professional, and scholarly writing standards. 
  • Apply APA style and formatting to scholarly writing