University of New Hampshire

WHITTEMORE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

MGT614

"Organizational Leadership"

Spring 2003

Tuesday 5-8PM @ Rm 318 McConnell

Assoc. Professor C. K. Barnett

408 McConnell, 862-3307 or 431-5864

carole.barnett@unh.edu or http://pubpages.unh.edu/~ckb

“Draft” SYLLABUS
(final draft ready Dec. 2002)

The focus of this course is on task situations requiring understanding and skill in the following areas: (1) interpersonal and group process and (2) the management and leading of task teams--those that are prescribed and permanent as well as those that are spontaneously emergent and/or transient. The course is based on the premise that in addition to having the technical skills and capabilities required for effectively working in task-focused teams, business students also need to develop critical social skills involving group leading and process facilitating if they are to add optimal value to the organizations that will employ and develop them in the future. This advanced seminar aims to provide students with concepts and experience in facilitating group process in a way that evokes leadership behaviors on the part of all team members. In addition to coursepack readings and intensive seminar sessions, students will engage in self-assessments, film analyses, case studies, debates, simulations, role plays, and improvisations.

Seminar students will also develop: a "learning contract," 4 self-assessment memos, and a personal term project that will focus on group process and leadership experiences occurring in this course as well as in their past and/or present work environments.

Course Credit: Learning Contracts, Class Participation, and Personal Term Project

Students develop and sign individualized "learning contracts" about the total course experience during the first 3-4 weeks of the semester;

"Participation" (50% of the student’s grade) is included in the contract (with criteria derived from the syllabus and course requirements as well as uniquely created by each student); the contracts may be modified at any time during the semester, but each change has to be negotiated with the professor and then put in writing and signed by participants;

Students keep journals (i.e., logs, diaries, etc.) in which they make weekly notations about their self-assessments in the course [what they are learning or not, how they are learning it or not, what they are contributing to others’ learning and vice-versa, the quality/quantity of their participation, the participation/learning issues and/or problems they are confronting in self or others, etc.] ;

During the course, the professor keeps track of individual student’s participation levels;

At 4-week intervals (see syllabus for dates), each student writes a one-page memo to the professor, similar to a letter of recommendation that would be written for a business associate, regarding the participation grade she or he believes is currently merited and why. Also included in the letter will be a self-assessment regarding the extent to which the student has met, not yet met, or exceeded the "terms" of his or her learning contract;

A final memo is submitted to the professor at end-of-course; it is similar to a letter of recommendation that would be written for a business associate, and proposes the final participation grade and includes a detailed self-assessment of both learning and participation in the course;

The professor uses her own ratings of the student’s participation to determine a grade, then cross-validates it with the students’ one-page letters of recommendation; if there is a gap between professor’s and student’s evaluations, then a feedback session will resolve it.

The "Personal Term Project" involves students directly in the group dynamics of this seminar as well as in other social settings in which they are actively engaged (e.g., family, community, government, religious, athletic, and other social groups). By the 4th week of the course, each student will have developed a "Learning Contract" that describes the new feelings, ideas, and/or behaviors that the student wishes to (a) conceptualize, (b) practice, and (c) develop in this course. The seminar itself is a "platform" on which students will conduct their experiments in change. In part, this will be prescribed and students will pre-arrange to lead major portions of each class session. On the other hand, in part, this will be a very emergent and unpredictable phenomenon and everyone in the course needs to be alert and receptive to spontaneous opportunities for growth and development in the area of being a member of a group as well as being an influencer of the group toward its own self-leadership. Each student will contract with the professor for a unique and very specific "Personal Term Project" building from her or his "Learning Contract." It is expected that each student will need to "practice" self-understanding and skill mastery during several class sessions, not just one. These practice opportunities will be coordinated between students and the professor. For the final course "product" at the end of the semester, the student's "Personal Term Project" and "Final Learning Contract" will be integrated with a brief write-up of the student's experience, focusing on:

  1. What is different about you (emotionally, cognitively, behaviorally) as a result of engaging yourself and everyone else in the course in your personal term project?
  2. What do you think is different about us (emotionally, cognitively, behaviorally) as a result of engaging yourself and everyone else in the course in your personal term project?
  3. What do you still not understand about yourself regarding group process and the leading of self and others? What do you still not understand about others in this regard?
  4. What one or two things have you learned well enough, in this course, that you now are ready to teach it/them to others? (This means: you can conceptualize, articulate, and actualize in behavior.)

 

 

 

Required Materials: Coursepack, Transitions by W. Bridges, Desert II Survival Simulation Booklet

Course Credit:

Factor 1 -- 50% participation


5% attendance
10% quality and quantity of journals and homework
10% readings and preparedness for class
5% active engagement in class sessions
10% 4 self-assessment memos
5% helping others learn
5% accepting others’ help in one’s own learning

In addition, students are encouraged to create and recommend additional and/or alternative criteria which will be mutually agreed upon between students and professor.

Factor 2 -- 50% personal term project

SCHEDULE

Part I. Introduction to Interpersonal and Group Dynamics

1/14      Introduction and Overview
Readings (in-class): Course Syllabus [15"]; New York Times 10/31/98 "Obituaries" [15"]
Session: Introductions to the Group

Discussion--course objectives and structures; individual objectives and learning
contracts; "participation;" and [after New York Times "Obituaries" reading,
writing, and discussion] overview of interpersonal, group, and leadership
dynamics; preview of William Bridges' book, Transitions, and its relevance
to personal change and group processes.

Homework: Work on developing first draft of "Learning Contract"

1/21 Readings due for today: Transitions by William Bridges (book); Clawson (Ch. 5 on effective
leadership); and summaries on Raoul Wallenberg, Per Anger, & Oskar Schindler

Homework: Work on "Learning Contracts"

Today's Session: Film ("Twelve Angry Men"); and analysis (integrating film and readings)

Part II. Individuals and Task Teams in Organizations

1/28 THEME: Understanding (and Learning How to Live in) Paradox

Readings due for today: Smith & Berg (on paradoxes of group life and the paradoxes of speaking
[authority, dependency, creativity, and courage])

Homework DUE TODAY: Questionnaires on "Your Philosophy of Management.," "Conflict Resolution Styles," and "Feedback Skills" (located in back of coursepack)

Work on "Learning Contracts" (as homework assignment)
Session: Short lecture; Discussion (drawing on "Twelve Angry Men," homeworks, readings)

2/4        THEME: Team Dynamics -- Industry and Military Contrasts
Readings: Manz & Neck ("Teamthink"), Freedman article on "Marine Corps"
Session: "Desert II Survival" Application and Debriefing
Assignment DUE TODAY: "Learning Contract" (first draft)

2/11      THEME: Neurotic Team Dynamics, Emotional Intelligence, and Knowledge Bases

Readings: Wetlaufer ("The team that wasn’t"); Farnham ("Are you smart enough to keep
your job?"); Stewart ("Mapping corporate brain power...")
Homework DUE TODAY: "Career Anchors" assessment (located in back of coursepack)
Session: Discussion -- integrate readings and homework
Assignment DUE TODAY: one-page memo #1 (self-assessment based on contract)

2/18      THEME: Musical Examples: Creative Team Dynamics, Emotional Intelligence, and Knowledge Bases

Readings: Murnighan & Conlon ("British String Quartet ")
Session: Short lecture; Videos [ "Orpheus Chamber Orchestra" and "Guarneri String Quartet"];
Discussion--integrate with "Career Anchors" homework and Wetlaufer reading and
discussion in last session

2/25      THEME: Industry and Sports Examples: Creative Team Dynamics, Emotional Intelligence, and Knowledge Bases

Readings: Bolman & Deal ("What makes a team work?"); Webber's HBR interview
of Red Auerbach
Session: Film ("Broadcast News"); Discussion (integrating film and readings)

3/4        THEME: Basics of Change Management for Individuals and Teams

Readings: Schein ("Initiating and managing change" in Process Consultation, Volume II)

             Session: Discussion: change agent/leader skills, personal assessments

Session: Film ("Saul Alinsky – Rules for Radicals ") and Discussion (integrating film and readings)

Part III. Leadership in Top Teams

3/11      THEME: Relationship between Leadership and Values

Readings: Profiles of "leaders" -- Newt Gingrich (former Republican U.S. Senate Leader)
Steve Forbes (Forbes publisher and Former Candidate for U.S. Presidency),
Jerry Levin (Time Warner), Robert Haas (Levi Strauss)
Session: Discussion and formal, written analysis of above leaders

             Assignment DUE TODAY: one-page memo #2 (self-assessment)

3/18      NO CLASSES -- SPRING BREAK

3/25      THEME: The Leader as Coach

Readings: Tichy & DeRose (Pepsi’s Roger Enrico), Sherman ("Tomorrow’s Leaders");
Tichy's interview with Larry Bossidy "CEO as Coach"); Waldroop & Butler's
"Executive as Coach"
Session: Film ("Wall Street") and Discussion (integrating film and readings)

4/1 – 4/8            THEME: Developing the Leader-Teacher

Readings: Steckler & Fondas ("Building Team Leader Effectiveness--Diagnostic Tool");
"Tichy & Cohen's "Teachable Point of View" handout from The Leadership
Engine (book); Barnett & Tichy ("Rapid Cycle CEO Development")
Session: Discussion (incorporating last week's movie); lecture on developing your
teachable point of view

4/15      THEME: The New Order and Its Demands on Leadership: Motivation through
                           "Stewardship" and Collaboration, not "Celebrity" and Heroic Journeys

Readings: Farkas & De Backer ("5 Ways to Lead"), Sherman & Katzenbach
("Wanted: Company Change Agents"); Pollock ("Hello, What's-His-Name" on the
"new" style of CEO; and from The Psychodynamics of Leadership
(Klein, Gabelnick, and Herr, Editors, 1998)--chapters by Krantz ("anxiety and
the new order"); and Gabelnick ("myths we lead by")

Homework: Work (hard) on your project
Session: Discussion, application

4/22      THEME: Relationship between Leadership and Spirituality

Readings: Business Week ("Companies Hit the Road Less Traveled"),
Liebner & Jackson ("Zen and the Art of Teamwork"), Tom Brown's chapters on
"Greatness" and "Frontiers" (from his book, Anatomy of Fire)
Homework: Work (harder) on your project and on your memo on participating/learning
Session: Film ("Citizen Kane"), Analysis, and Integration with readings

             Assignment DUE TODAY: one-page memo #3 (self-assessment)

4/29      THEME: A Live Model of 21st Century Leading and Following

Readings: on Andy Grove [former CEO of Intel] ("Managing and Careers," Grove's
December 1994 Internet Memo on the defective Pentium chip,
a 3/27/98 New York Times article on Groves' resignation,
and a 4/8/98 Business Week article on his "new learning curve";
on Motorola ("Importing Enthusiasm");

on Boeing (top teams, bottom teams, and leadership)
Homework: Work (yourself into a frenzy) on project

Session: Assignment DUE TODAY: one-page memo on "Leader Effectiveness"
(see Mainiero & Tromley application--back of coursepack)

                          Discussion and application focused on "Leader Effectiveness"

 

Part IV. Teamship and Leaderwork
in an Individual’s "Career"

5/6        THEME: How "Talking" and "Listening" Facilitate Working through the
Paradoxical Nature of Team Work and Interaction

Readings: Donnellon ("Listening to Teams--Advice to Managers" )

             Session: Discussion, Application, Final Integration,
and Course Wrap-up including Teacher & Course Evaluations

 

SELF-ASSESSMENT MEMO #4, "FINAL" LEARNING CONTRACT, AND

FINAL REPORT ON YOUR PERSONAL TERM PROJECT:

DUE in Room 441 McConnell by 12 noon on: Monday 5/15th

 

 


REFERENCES AND RESOURCES

Films

Broadcast News. 1987. 20th Century Fox (Producer), James L. Brooks (Director).

Citizen Kane. 1941. RKO Radio Pictures (Producer), Orson Welles (Director).

Twelve Angry Men. 1957. United Artists (Producer), Sidney Lumet (Director).

Wall Street. 1987. 20th Century Fox (Producer), Oliver Stone (Director).

Orpheus in the Real World. 1996. PBS, Allen Miller (Executive Producer).

The Guarneri String Quartet. 1998. PBS.

The Life and Times of Saul Alinsky, 1999, PBS.

Readings (not including classroom handouts)

Anger, Per. 1998. Write-up from http://www.raoul-wallenberg.com.

Auerbach, Red. (See: Webber, Alan).

Barnett, C.K., & Tichy, N.M. 2000. Rapid Cycle CEO Development: How New Leaders Learn to Take Charge. Organizational Dynamics (in press).

Bolman, L.G., & Deal, T.E., 1992. What makes a team work? Organizational Dynamics, Autumn: 34-44.

Bridges, W. G. 1980. Transitions--Making sense of life's changes. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Brown, T. The Anatomy of Fire. Chaplet 5.3 "Greatness," Chaplet 6.4, "Frontiers." http://www.mgeneral.com/4-ebook/97-ebook.

Business Week. 1995. Companies hit the road less traveled--can spirituality enlighten the bottm line? June 5, 1995, <aol://1722:bw>.

Clawson, J. G. 1999. Level Three Leadership--Getting Below the Surface. Chapter 5: "Six Steps to Effective Leadership." Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Donnellon, A. 1996. Team Talk. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press: 215-256.

Farnham, A. 1996. Are you smart enough to keep your job? Fortune, January 15, <http://pathfinder.com/@@JMJMw0EG5gAAQItj/fortune/fortune.html>.

Freedman, D.H. 1998. "Corps values." From: wysiwyug://72/http://wwwinc.com/incmagazine/archives/04980541.html. [This is an article on the U.S. Marines.]

Gingrich, Newt. Article appearing in The Boston Globe, as follows:

             Shribman, D.M. 1998. Á rebel gets consumed by the forces of his own rebellion," The Boston Globe Online, November 7, 1998.

Grove, A. 1994. Personal communication: 12/2/94 email message. [There are two other articles on Andy Grove and their citations are as follows, below.]

"Intel's Chief Steps Down after 11 Years," by Steve Lohr, The New York Times, 3/27/98.
"Andy Grove Talks about His New Learning Curve," 4/13/98, Business Week.

Grove, A. 1995. From the front: A high-tech CEO updates his views on managing and careers. Fortune, September 18, <http://pathfinder.com/@@JMJMw0EG5gAAQItj/fortune/fortune.html>.

Klein, E.B., Gabelnick, F., & Herr, P. (Eds.). 1998. The Psychodynamics of Leadership. Madison, CT: Psychosocial Press.

Knowles, M. S. 1986. Using Learning Contracts. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Lieber, R., & Jackson, P. 1995. Zen and the art of teamwork. Fortune, December 25, <http://pathfinder.com/@@JMJMw0EG5gAAQItj/fortune/fortune.html>.

Manz, C.C. & Neck, C. R. 1997. Teamthink: beyond the groupthink syndrome in self-managing work teams. Team Performance Management, 3(1): 18-31.

Murnighan, J.K., & Conlon, D.E. 1991. The dynamics of intense work groups: A study of British string quartets. Administrative Science Quarterly, 36: 165-186.

Newsweek. 1996. Great expectations. January 8: 24-33.

New York Times, October 31, 1998, "Obituaries."

Orwell, G. 1964. Shooting an elephant. In W.G. Bennis, E.H. Schein, D.E. Berlew, & F.I. Steele (Eds.) Interpersonal Dynamics--Essays and Readings on Human Interaction. Homewood, IL: Dorsey Press.

Pollock, E.J. 1999. Hello, "What's-his-name and what it all means." Wall Street Journal. Source: http://interactive.wsj.com. [This is an article on the changing nature of the CEO as icon.]

Schein, E.H. 1987. Initiating and managing change. In Process Consultation, Volume II: 92-114.

Schindler, Oskar. 1998. Write-up from http://www.us-israel.org.

Sherman, S. 1995. How tomorrow’s leaders are learning their stuff. Fortune, November 27, <http://pathfinder.com/@@JMJMw0EG5gAAQItj/fortune/fortune.html>.

Sherman, S., & Katzenbach, J. 19965. Wanted: company change agents. Fortune, December 25, <http://pathfinder.com/@@JMJMw0EG5gAAQItj/fortune/fortune.html>.

Smith, K.W., & Berg, D.N. 1987. Defining paradox. In Paradoxes of group life--Understanding conflict, paralysis, and movement in group dynamics: 1-3. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Smith, K.W., & Berg, D.N. 1987. Tracing the roots of paradoxical thought . In Paradoxes of group life--Understanding conflict, paralysis, and movement in group dynamics: 4-18. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Smith, K.W., & Berg, D.N. 1987. Paradoxes of speaking: authority, dependency, creativity, and courage. In Paradoxes of group life--Understanding conflict, paralysis, and movement in group dynamics: 131-151. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Steckler, N., & Fondas, N. 1995. Building team leader effectiveness: A diagnostic tool. Organizational Dynamics¸Winter: 20-35.

Stewart, T.A. 1995. The leading edge--mapping corporate brainpower. Fortune, October 30, <http://pathfinder.com/@@JMJMw0EG5gAAQItj/fortune/fortune.html>.

Tichy, N.M. & Charan, R. 1995. The CEO as coach: Interview with Allied Signal's Larry Bossidy. HBR, Mar-Apr.: 68-78.

Tichy, N.M., & Cohen, E. 1998. The Leadership Engine. Your teachable point of view (pp. 274-299) New York, NY: Harper-Collins.

Tichy, N., & DeRose, C. 1995. Roger Enrico’s master class. Fortune, November 27, <http://pathfinder.com/@@JMJMw0EG5gAAQItj/fortune/fortune.html>.

Waldroop, J., & Butler, T. 1996. The executive as coach. Harvard Business Review, November-December: 111-117. HBR, Mar-April: 2-6.

Wallenberg, Raoul. 1998. "Memorial" ceremony write-ups, U.S. government stamps, history from http://www.raoul-wallenberg.com.

Webber, A.M. 1987. Red Auerbach on management. Harvard Business Review, March-April.

Wetlaufer, S. 1994. The team that wasn’t. Harvard Business Review, November-December: 22-38.

Applications

"Desert II Survival Situation." 1988. Plymouth, MI: Human Synergistics International

"Understanding Your Philosophy of Management." 1994. In L. A. Mainiero & C.L. Tromley (Eds.) Developing managerial skills in organizational behavior, second edition: 27-33. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

"Developing Conflict Resolution Skills." 1994. In L. A. Mainiero & C.L. Tromley (Eds.) Developing managerial skills in organizational behavior, second edition: 59-64. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

"Feedback Skills Self-assessment." 1994. In L. A. Mainiero & C.L. Tromley (Eds.) Developing managerial skills in organizational behavior, second edition:125-129. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

"Career Anchors." 1994. In L. A. Mainiero & C.L. Tromley (Eds.) Developing managerial skills in organizational behavior, second edition:401-409. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

"Memo: Practicing Effective Leadership." 1994. In L. A. Mainiero & C.L. Tromley (Eds.) Developing managerial skills in organizational behavior, second edition: 474-475. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.