MAN 5157 Mindful Leadership - In a Digital Time

MAN 5157 Mindful Leadership - In a Digital Time

Course code: 
MAN 5157
Department: 
Leadership and Organizational Behaviour
Credits: 
15
Course coordinator: 
Donatella De Paoli
Course name in Norwegian: 
Tilstedeværende ledelse - i en digital tid
Product category: 
Executive
Portfolio: 
Executive Master of Management
Semester: 
2020 Autumn
Active status: 
Active
Level of study: 
Master
Teaching language: 
Norwegian
Course type: 
One semester
Introduction

In a digital time people become more important. This is a leadership program meant to prepare and develop participants’ competence and insight to lead. The program will make the participants conscious about both the opportunities and challenges that communication technology brings, but also provide new insights about leadership in general in a digital time. There has never been more limitless communication, as the same time that both leaders and employees experience less contact with each other, decreased engagement to the community, less time for tasks requiring concentration, inefficient meetings, more distractions and stress. The program will develop the participants’ ability to lead better and more effective both in the digital space and physical space.

The leadership program will consist of both a digital platform with different thematic units and 3 physical face-to-face seminars. The most most important themes in the program are; work, organization and leadership in a digitalized work day, digital communication technology and leadership, communication in the digital and physical space, new leadership perspectives adapted to the digital era, aesthetic embodied leadership, meaningful meeting places and offices, arts-based methods and more.

The three physical seminars with traditional lectures and group work are aobut these themes;

  1. What new cooperation and leadership challenges do digital communication technology bring? Which new leadership opportunities are there in digital technology and virtual teams? What new leadership perspectives and theories are relevant?          
  2. How can leaders communicate better with inspiration and learning from leadership and acting techniques from the theatre, storytelling from film and the selection of meaningful places and spaces to meet?
  3. How can leaders create connection, good emotional contact and trust with mindful, aesthetic and emotional embodied leadership?

The program will both contain an intellectual knowledge dimension with the participants’ reading and elaborating academic research and theories, as well as a practice dimension with participants’ doing exercises, reflecting of what they are learning through task and group work, practicing in their job and writing about it, documenting the process by taking pictures, filming and more.  The program is in its nature inspired by newer pedagogical approaches based on digital learning platforms, but will also use insights and techniques from research about digital leadership. The program Mindful leadership (in a digital time) is in its content and format based on participants’ being involved and co-producing in the learning process by actively sharing and participating both in the class room and in the digital space. This form of shared, network based, sharing, co-producing pedagogics places the participants in the center with the academic teacher as coach and adviser in the learning process, just like many practice leadership in a digital time.

Learning outcomes - Knowledge
  • Deep knowledge in psychological and sociological organizational research about work and leadership in a digital time
  • Advanced knowledge about the challenges and opportunities that virtual team and digital leadership are bringing
  • Insight in newer leadership research about aesthetic leadership, embodied leadership and arts-based methods
  • Research based knowledge about theatre techniques and storytelling to use in leadership and organizations
  • Advanced knowledge about the importance of places, offices and aesthetics for communication and leadership in a digital time
Learning outcomes - Skills
  • To be able to document and be reflected about own work day and leadership in a digital time.
  • To be able to communicate and lead effectively in the digital and virtual space.
  • To choose the right digital platforms for communication and leadership.
  • To be able to choose the right places and work- and meeting spaces most suitable for different tasks and leadership.
  • To be able to use leadership approaches and techniques for communication from theatres.
  • To be able to develop an effective story about oneself as a leader or the organization based on established storytelling principles.
General Competence
  • To develop an open and knowledge based approach to the use of digital versus physical traditional communication and leadership platforms
  • To embrace an explorative approach to the use of alternative methods in leadership, such as aesthetics, art and arts-based methods
  • To have a conscious attitude to what kind of ethical dilemmas in the digital workday in the use of new methods
Course content

1. Psychological and sociological organizational research about work and leadership in a digital time.

2. Organizational leadership research about virtual teams and leadership in a digital time.

3. Leadership research based on humanistic perspectives like aesthetic, embodied leadership and arts-based perspectives and arts-based methods.

4. Organizational research about storytelling in leadership and organizations.

5. Architectural and organisational research about the importance of offices, places and spaces for communication and leadership.

Teaching and learning activities

The course use Insendi as a digital learning platform.

The course is conducted over one semester, with 2 physical seminars at BI of 2 days (beginning and end) and 1 seminar abroad of 3 days. A total of approx. 150 resource hours.

Project tutorials differ in each Executive Master of Management course or programme. It will consist of personal tutorials and tutorials given in class. Generally the students may expect consulting tutorials, not evaluating tutorials. The total hours of tutorials offered is estimated to 2 hours per term paper.

Please note that while attendance is not compulsory in all courses and programmes, it is the student's own responsibility to obtain any information provided in class that is not included on the course homepage/ itslearning or other course materials.

The students are evaluated through an individual term paper, counting 60% of the total grade and a 72 hours individual home exam counting 40%. The home exam may be written in groups of maximum three persons. All evaluations must be passed to obtain a certificate for the course. 

The term paper is included in the degree’s independent work of degree, cf national regulation on requirements for master’s degree, equivalent to 18 ECTS credits per. programme. For the Executive Master of Management degree, the independent work of degree represents the sum of term papers from three programmes.

Software tools
Software defined under the section "Teaching and learning activities".
Qualifications

Bachelor degree, corresponding to 180 credits from an accredited university, university college or similar educational institution
The applicant must be at least 25 years of age and at least four years of work experience. For applicants who have already completed a master’s degree, three years of work experience are required.

Covid-19

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there may be deviations in teaching and learning activities as well as exams, compared with what is described in this course description.

Assessments
Assessments
Exam category: 
Submission
Form of assessment: 
Written submission
Weight: 
40
Grouping: 
Group/Individual (1 - 3)
Duration: 
72 Hour(s)
Comment: 
72 hours Group home exam, counts 40% of the final grade.
Exam code: 
MAN 51571
Grading scale: 
ECTS
Resit: 
Examination when next scheduled course
Exam category: 
Submission
Form of assessment: 
Written submission
Weight: 
60
Grouping: 
Individual
Duration: 
1 Semester(s)
Comment: 
Individual term paper, counts 60% of then final grade.
Exam code: 
MAN 51572
Grading scale: 
ECTS
Resit: 
Examination when next scheduled course
Type of Assessment: 
Ordinary examination
All exams must be passed to get a grade in this course.
Total weight: 
100
Student workload
ActivityDurationComment
Teaching
75 Hour(s)
Prepare for teaching
75 Hour(s)
Student's own work with learning resources
250 Hour(s)
Self study, term paper and exam
Sum workload: 
400

A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 15 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of at least 400 hours.