DDBA 8581 · Week 2

DDBA 8581 Week 2 role profile example

Succession Planning: A Survival Tool of the Fittest Walden University Free custom sample in 24 to 48h

Job descriptions list duties, and duties are the part of a role that transfers easily. The second week's role profile goes after the harder layer. A completed profile takes one position and records what it really decides, how far into the future each one reaches, and who would notice a wrong call, then argues that successor readiness should be judged against that record.

What this page holds

Decisions, not duties: the Week 2 DDBA 8581 role profile records what one position actually decides and argues that readiness is measured there. Searches like "ddba 8581 week 2 assignment example", "ddba8581 week 2 sample" and "ddba 8581 week 2 example" land here.

What a finished DDBA 8581 Week 2 role profile looks like

Five to six pages built around a decision log. The profile opens with the role's formal description in a paragraph, then sets it aside. The log that follows lists eight to fifteen recurring decisions, such as approving credit above a threshold, choosing which orders slip when capacity runs short, or deciding when a supplier dispute goes to legal. For each it records frequency, the time horizon the decision commits the organization to, what information the holder draws on, and how long before an error would surface. The prose places the log in a debate. Jaques argued that the time span of a role's longest decisions defines its level; critics question how reliably that span can be measured. Mintzberg's decisional roles provide a second lens. The profile closes by naming which decisions no one else currently makes.

How a DDBA 8581 Week 2 example is structured

Formal description, decision log, lenses, contest, exposure. The formal description appears only to be contrasted with what follows, since the distance between the two is the profile's first finding. The log is assembled from observation, interviews or published role studies, and each entry is a decision rather than an activity: reviewing reports is an activity, choosing which account gets the discount is a decision. Two lenses then organize the log, the time horizon each decision reaches and the type of decision it is. The contest section weighs Jaques's claim that horizon defines level against the measurement critique and says what the log itself suggests. The exposure paragraph closes the profile by marking the decisions that would go unmade, or be made by someone unprepared, on the day the holder left.

The formal description, then the gap

The official duties appear briefly so the reader can see how little of the role they capture. That contrast is the profile's opening finding and sets up everything the log adds.

Decisions, not activities

Each log entry names a choice the holder makes: which order slips, which supplier gets escalated, which exception gets approved. Activities such as reviewing or coordinating are converted into the decisions they serve or left out.

How far each decision reaches

A pricing exception commits the organization for a quarter; a staffing model for years. Recording the horizon of each decision shows where the role's weight actually sits and which choices a successor would struggle with first.

Jaques and his critics

The claim that decision horizon defines a role's level is tested against the log instead of being assumed. The profile says whether its own evidence supports the claim, and where measurement of the span proved uncertain.

Decisions with no second holder

The closing paragraph marks the entries nobody else currently makes. Those become the starting list for the capability work in the weeks that follow.

Where marks go in DDBA 8581 Week 2

The log carries most of the grade, and entries are read one at a time for whether they are genuinely decisions. A profile listing attends meetings or manages the team has described activity and receives little for it. Credit rises with the specificity of each entry: a threshold, a trade-off, a named consequence. The time-horizon column earns its own share when it is estimated with a reason and not guessed. Literature engagement is judged by whether the Jaques debate is used on the log or summarized beside it, and a profile concluding that its own evidence cuts against the theory can score very well. The exposure paragraph matters most in the context of the whole course, since every later assignment depends on knowing which decisions have no second holder.

Get a DDBA 8581 Week 2 example written to your instructions

The role profile works from the assignment sheet, its rubric, and the position your section wants profiled, or from a case describing one. A finished decision log with its horizon column and the Jaques discussion is written within 24 to 48 hours, and the first costs nothing. Roles are described by function, so no individual appears.

DDBA 8581 Week 2 questions, answered

How are the decisions identified?

Observation and interviews with the holder or peers work best where access exists, described at the level of role rather than person. Published role studies and case materials serve when access does not. Some sections supply a case with enough detail to build the log. Whichever source you use, say how the decisions were identified, since a reader needs to judge whether the list is complete.

Is Jaques's framework required?

Not always, but time span of discretion is one of the few theories that measures a role by its decisions, which makes it a natural fit. Mintzberg's decisional roles work as an alternative or a complement. If your readings emphasize another framework, use it as the organizing lens and cite Jaques as the contrasting account, so the profile still engages a debate.

Which role should the profile cover?

One whose departure would leave decisions unmade, not only tasks undone. Technical specialists, plant or site leaders, and senior account holders often make better subjects than executives, because their decisions are less documented and less visible. Your section may assign a level. Choose a role you can describe in detail without drawing on confidential information about any individual.