Reflections of Week 3 in LDR 711

The class week at the University of Phoenix Online starts on Tuesday and ends on Monday. Most assignments are due on Mondays as are our reflections of how the readings and discussions have influenced us and our thinking in the past week. Below is mine for Week 3.

This week I concentrated on reading the journal articles in the electronic reserve readings. The two that caught my attention most significantly were "Effects of transformational leadership and organizational position on knowledge management" by C.B. Crawford and "A Historiometric Examination of Machiavellianism and a New Taxonomy of Leadership" by Katrina Bedell, Samuel Hunter, Amanda Angie, & Andrew Vert. I liked "Effects of transformational leadership and organizational position on knowledge management" because in my new position at Sutter Health, I have been exposed to the concept of "knowledge management" for the first time (well, perhaps not the concept, but certainly the term) and am learning that the main part of my job is knowledge management on a system-wide scale. This is because my new position involves building, launching and running the new employee portal (intranet) across a system of 26 hospitals and 14+ medical foundations/medical groups/IPAs. This article has helped me to move forward on deciding on a possible topic for my dissertation.I liked "A Historiometric Examination of Machiavellianism and a New Taxonomy of Leadership" for several reasons:

1. I am a student of history and enjoy reading about the ancient (1513 A.D.) concepts of leadership and attaining power
2. My husband has been encouraging me to read “The Prince” by Nicolo Machiavelli and I just haven’t had the time. I think, after reading this article, I will make the time during a vacation I am taking in July.
3. On the first day of my new job, I attended a meeting where the “taxonomy” of the employee portal was being discussed. I had never heard this term before and had to ask my new supervisor to explain it. Taxonomy has to do with how things are named and what those names mean to people who may visit our web sites. Then, I turn around and find the word in an article I’m supposed to read for class. It was just very timely to see.

I have enjoyed the readings this week and am looking forward to next week’s readings as well. I find it exciting to find ideas for my own dissertation, which at this point in the game seems like a monumental task, and finding information that is both relevant to my current job and to my interest in history. I was also amused that "A Historiometric Examination of Machiavellianism and a New Taxonomy of Leadership" contained the oldest reference citation I have seen so far – 1513 A.D.!