This course provided me with the opportunity for a structured exploration of critical concepts of leadership, specifically what leaders can do to influence their followers in the workplace. The readings provided me with a strong grounding in the key material on workplace motivation, and from there I was able to apply my knowledge of research methods to determine the best way to solve a problem. I think that overall this was a highly valuable course for me, one that will give me the tools to be a better leader for a long time to come.
The capstone project ties together what I have learned about motivation, and how leaders can influence motivation, into a project that will add value to the overall study of workplace motivation. There are really two elements to this learning. The first is the understanding of fundamental principles that I acquired, and the second is the understanding of how to research in a given area to determine what has been learned at the scholarly level, and what gaps might exist in that level that require further study.

I see my capstone as contributing to my study in psychology in a significant way. Psychology can be applied in a number of different ways, and workplace psychology is definitely one of the bigger ones. Leadership studies has incorporated some psychological concepts, but could stand to build in more of this line of study. For me, the capstone represented an opportunity to take my knowledge and psychology and apply it to an area where it has not been fully applied. This creates a synergistic learning experience, because ideas are being applied to different fields of study in new and exciting ways, where there is a genuine complementary nature.

My capstone study is about trying to determine how leaders can influence workplace morale. The study is designed in a way that will cut out some of the industry-specific and firm-specific factors, by interviewing subjects from a wide range of industries, as well as...…would be engaged by the material, and the ideas that are presented. I felt like there would naturally be a link between psychology and leadership, so the fact that this link exists does not surprise me, but I am impressed with the depth of this link. I think going through this course has taught me to appreciate how different bodies of knowledge can each contribute to excellence. If you just know which material to pull from a field of study, and think about how it can be applied to the challenging real world problems that we face, I believe that there is a tremendous opportunity to take this knowledge and put it to great use in the world.

I am grateful for having the opportunity to learn these things, and to put the different ideas together. I would love to continue learning about the links between the field of psychology and business excellence, and I genuinely hope that I will have the possibility to do so in the…