7LMP Leading, Managing and Developing People

Module Overview

The main responsibility of human resource professionals and other managers within the organisation is influencing the individuals that they are in charge of through leading, managing and developing them. Leading, managing and developing people (7LMP) is a unit within the advanced CIPD level 7 module that focuses on providing the learners with education and training on the most effective approaches of handling employees through ensuring that the learners have skills in leading, managing and developing the employees within their organisations.

The module aims at providing the learners with both theoretical frameworks and practical skills that they can integrate in understanding people management and development which is a critical aspect that they need to master for effective human resource management and leadership. Learners within this course will be expected to exhibit between leadership and management skills, especially for employees within the organisational context. They will also be able to improve their ability to identify learning needs and implemented learning interventions that facilitate the development of employees within the organisation hence optimise the performance of others.

Unit Objectives

The lesson has specific objectives that it seeks to achieve. Some of the main objectives that will be achieved in the course of learning this unit include:

• Be able to understand the concept of leading and management of people

• Express an understanding of different leadership and management frameworks applicable within the context of an organisation

• Master the approaches to influence the behaviours and performance of people especially in relation to work responsibilities and duties

• Practically apply learned leadership skill to optimise the performance of people within the organisation and hence the organisation in general

• Identify factors that could affect the wellbeing of the employees and create interventions to address the issues

• Identify learning needs and develop effective learning programs that facilitate the development of the employees.

Suitability of the Unit

The unit is suitable for a diverse group of people. First the people professionals significantly need these unit to ensure that they improve their ability to influence the performance of the employees and in return boost their performance within the organisational context. 7LMP is a unit that provides the people professionals with both the theoretical frameworks that they can follow when implementing various people practices as well as the best approach to implement the strategies hence ensuring that they have more capabilities and abilities to fulfill their responsibilities within the organisational context.

The course is also applicable to the top management within the organisation. The top management makes critical strategic decisions and through coordination with the human resource professionals, they are able to set HR strategic agendas. 7LMP can improve the ability of top managers to understand the employee needs contextually hence making the process of leadership effective and hence facilitate smooth processes within the organisation. Lastly, the course is highly important to individuals looking to rise to positions of leadership in different organisations in future.

Any person seeking to manage people or currently managing people, not necessarily in a leadership position, can pursue this course to get an understanding of the skills and elements that they can improve to boost their influence on the people that they lead or manage. The unit is important in providing both theoretical frameworks and evidence-based practice that is sustainable for managing and leading people as well as developing the capabilities to optimise performance.

Key Learning Areas

This unit has three main key learning areas that summarise the learning content. While the unit is wide the content can be summarised into the following three areas:

Management and Leadership Theories

7LMP provides the opportunity for the learners to gain knowledge on various leadership and management theories that they can use in their organisations. Different organisations need different leadership skill depending on the structure, composition and level of growth.

Transformative leadership for example would be effective for a retarded organisation where the workforce need to be motivated to achieve better results and outcomes while transactional leadership is effective for a more developed organisation that needs to improve on it performance. The learners within this unit are able to be guided on differentiating the different types of leadership and management theories and how they are applicable in getting the best out of the human resource within the organisation.

Employee Continuous Professional Development

7LMP further focuses on employee development. This involves setting opportunities for the employees to raise their concerns and views through effective employee voice and ensuring that the issues that are raised by employees are effectively addressed. It also focuses on performance management where the employees are able to continuously experience a form of development training and strategies across their practice within the organisation.

The management needs to master the tools to conduct this form of development through providing employee voice, identifying learning needs and promoting training to address the learning needs that have been identified within the organisation. The unit provides the learners with the opportunity to acquire knowledge on these tools hence improve their ability to deliver on their duties and responsibilities.

Factors Affecting Employees

There are different trends within the business context that affect the wellbeing of the employees and generally their performance. Issues such as technological changes and changes in working schedules are some examples of such issues. 7LMP provides the learners with the skills and knowledge on how to effectively screen the environment to identify instances where the employees’ wellbeing is reduced by such factors and put up interventions to address these trends. This knowledge provided to HR professionals and managers is important in ensuring that they put up strategic HR practices that are effective in addressing such future threats.

Wrap Up

7LMP is an important unit for leaders within the organisational context. After completing this unit, the learners are required to complete a 4000 words written assessment. The assessment helps to determine the levels to which the learning objectives have been achieved. It also helps to gauge the ability of the learners to relate the theoretical content that they learn in class to practical situations and instances that are provided in simulated or factual case analysis that are part of the assessment.