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IEMS 344: Leading Organizations and Teams


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Description

In this class, a combination of theory and practice are leveraged to help students develop their leadership skill-set so that they can become more effective leaders of teams and organizations. In particular, fundamental tools and concepts from the behavioral and social sciences are studied that will help students’ to analyze organizational dynamics and to take robust action. In addition, students explore their own “leadership brand” and begin to answer the question of what type of leader they aspire to become so that they can thoughtfully and deliberately manage their careers.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

  • Students will be able to analyze new organizational situations using Bolman and Deal’s 4 leadership frameworks
  • Students will be able to apply lessons learned from improvisational theater to develop their Affiliative Leadership Style
  • Students will be able to craft a personal development plan based on data that they gather regarding their leadership strengths
  • Students will be able to identify the escalation of commitment when it happens in organizations and also implement strategies to mitigate it from occurring
  • Students will be able to make optimal leadership decisions by avoiding common decision-making biases, such as confirmation bias, availability bias and overconfidence
  • Students will be able to persuade and influence others to adopt their point of view by leveraging procedural and interpersonal influence tactics
  • Students will be able to identify three levels of organizational culture and analyze an organization’s culture
  • Students will be able to create a team charter when they lead teams
  • Students will be able to identify the most common pitfalls and process losses to impede team dynamics and performance
  • Students will be able to develop an effective change management plan by choosing appropriate tactics at the right time and to be used with the “correct constituents

TOPICS

  • Leadership Frameworks
  • Leadership Styles
  • Ethical Imperatives of Leadership
  • Team Leadership
  • Decision Making Biases
  • Persuasion and Influence Tactics
  • Executing Strategic Change
  • Organizational Culture
  • Personal Vision of Leadership

MATERIALS

Course Readings: Many of the readings can be accessed directly through Course Reserves through the Course Canvas site. Additionally some of the readings are posted on Canvas in a folder labeled “readings”, and some readings have a direct link in Canvas.  However, HBR does not allow articles to be posted on Course Reserves and you will need to access those articles through EBSCO

Course Text:  Strengths finder 2.0 (by Tom Rath) – This book can be purchased at Norris or online through Amazon or Barnes and Noble.  (It is also available locally at many Barnes and Noble stores.)

Course Simulation Materials:  A few leadership simulations will be used in this course.  The fee for all of the simulations will be approximately $30.