Leadership Specialization

Course Description:

This course is designed to introduce students to the fundamental key concepts, theories and best practices of the holistic and triple-bottom-line approach to leading organizations sustainably.  This course will focus on complexity of organization decision making and the impact these decisions make to society, the environment, individuals, and public stakeholders. Furthermore, students will understand how managers and leaders use qualitative skills to create value in a complex organization (e.g., how managers use heuristics to derive knowledge based on both quantitative and non-quantitative information). Topics covered include moving from data to information to knowledge to action; leadership reasoning skills  such as reasoning from context cues, reasoning from competing knowledge sources (e.g., competing stakeholder expectations), reasoning from qualitative information; and persuasive skills. Students will be exposed to general management and organizational theories, articles on the various types of organizational issues, and leadership styles and practices. The context of all the discussions will revolve around how sustainable leadership practices can help organizations be centres of sustainable operations.

Prerequisites:

None

Learning Objectives:

By the end of the course, the students will have competently demonstrated their ability to:

• Understand various management and organizational theories
• Understand various leadership styles and leadership can be sustainable
• Devise an organizational strategy that takes into account
  • leadership in various forms
  • management of stakeholder expectations, needs and wants
  • sustainable business practices
• Understand the legal and ethical implications of all leadership, management, and organizational actions.

BUSI 6994 introduces you to the key theories and practices of Organizational Complexity and gives you an understanding of the principles used to develop and move forward leadership initiatives in today’s complex organizations. The course unfolds across three modules with a number of lessons within each module. Module 1 introduces complexity theory to students and quickly moves them into seeing how complexity becomes real in an organization via our sense making about risk in real time. Complexity theory in organizations requires that the students understand movement and change in an organization especially in terms of day-to-day change and fluidity.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand organizations as complex entities that require carefully considered methods of stakeholder engagement.
• Understand contemporary theories and models of organizational complexity and the role of leadership in fostering appropriate organizational adaptation.
• Describe and apply organizational complexity theory to analyze and assess the consequences of complex organizational change and to determine effective adaptation.
• Diagnose the need for complex change in an organization and persuade stakeholders to support and implement appropriate change initiatives.
• Identify how to apply strategies to lead complex initiatives at the individual, team and organizational levels.

Leadership is one of the most studied topics in the management discipline. Despite this, there are few absolutes, although successive waves of research have suggested different prescriptive approaches. This course is rooted in the view that while much of what constitutes effective leadership is constant, its implementation can and should vary, depending on context. Therefore, following two content modules on leader traits and behaviors, the course will cover four context modules on follower and organizational characteristics that could significantly impact leader performance. This approach will enable students to explore how to apply sound leadership principles within different contexts. The course will entail online discussions of readings and cases, two individual case assignments, a team live case project, intensive session activities, and a final case exam.

Prerequisites - None

Learning Objectives

This course is intended to develop or enhance the student’s:

• Understanding of the fundamental elements of good leadership.
• Understanding of the importance of context as an important co-determinant of leader effectiveness.
• Ability to identify and address salient follower and organizational characteristics in a variety of leadership situations
• Ability to lead effective strategic initiatives in different contexts, including program conceptualization, design, and implementation.
  

BUSI 6997 introduces students to the key theories and practices of Organizational Change and gives students an understanding of the principles used to develop and apply change strategies in today’s organizations. The course unfolds across three modules with several lessons within each module. The overarching goal of this course is the focus on evolving management practices within today’s diverse environment. Students will be introduced to three areas in change leadership theory that are being called for in more recent years, adaptability, innovation, and inclusion.   Then in modules two and three, students will explore a variety of change tools and strategies and apply them to practical applications in the workplace.

Module Focus

Module 1 introduces change leadership theory to students and quickly moves them into seeing how adaptability, innovation, and inclusion are critical skills to manage real time change in organizations today. Change theory in organizations requires that the students understand the internal and external forces that act as drivers for change and the context of leading responsibly. Students will develop leadership competencies using current organizational change peer-reviewed sources, videos, and exercises.

Module 2 moves the students toward understanding how leaders become progress makers and the introduction of strategies to apply in real-time organizational change. Students review progress maker theory and develop exploration and refinement skills to navigate contemporary organizational change contexts. This block will also include work with analytical frameworks for planning and implementing complex and inclusive change initiatives.

Module 3 is a tools-focused block that introduces students to a set of planning tactics and implementation methods for moving change initiatives forward in an organization. This block also builds the students adaptability and innovation skills as they must seek, nurture and evaluate actionable ideas for sustainable change.

The Intensive sessions for BUSI 6997 focus on developing the student’s capacity to manage common organizational change challenges effectively and on integrating the course learning outcomes into the students’ everyday managerial practice.  The intensive sessions emphasize peer learning via a variety of group analytical exercise and development of persuasive initiatives.