APPLIES TO ACADEMIC YEAR 2015/2016

GRA 8159 Leadership

Responsible for the course
Ragnhild Kvålshaugen

Department
Department of Strategy

Term
According to study plan

ECTS Credits
4

Language of instruction
English

Introduction
Leaders of organizations today face many types of challenges. These challenges include leading organizations in such a way that they are capable of coping with rapid change and the greater complexity created by globalization and increased interconnectedness between organizations, the need to understand and shape organizational cultures and to motivate employees, and the need to understand and manage politics and conflicts between individuals and organizational units to mention some of the challenges.

Learning outcome
Being a successful leader in an organization depends on one’s ability to understand, and respond effectively to, the context within which one works. In order to so, the leader needs to understand his/her leadership point of view, what the organization should do, how to lead others, and designing the right context that enable the leader and the employees to move ahead realizing the objectives of the organization.

Knowledge
The students will through the course receive guidance in creating their own, practically applicable model of leadership. This will be done by that the students receive knowledge about leading oneself as a leader, leading others, strategic thinking, designing functional organizations and managing change. Leadership is a function of all these elements taken together and these elements together produce the organization’s results.

Skills
During the course the students should become more self aware about their own leadership by clarifying their personal leadership model. Further, they should develop skills in influencing others and in strategic thinking.

Reflections
You are never the perfect leader. Therefore the leadership course emphasizes developing the students’ aptitudes of the importance of becoming reflective leadership practitioners, i.e. developing the capacity to reflect on action so as to engage in a process of continuous learning in order to improve and develop your leadership.

Prerequisites
Granted admission to the EMBA programme.

Compulsory reading
Books:
Clawson, James G. 2011. Level Three Leadership: Getting Below the Surface. 5th ed. Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River. 434 pages

Articles:
Compendium of articles (see syllabus for further details)

Recommended reading
Books:
Avolio, B. J., & F. Luthans. 2006. The High Impact Leader: Moments Matter in Accelerating Authentic Leadership Development. New York : McGraw-Hill. 273 pages
Kouzes, J. M. & B. Z. Posne. 2007. The leadership challenge. 4th ed. San Francisco. Calif. : Wiley. 375 page
Manz, Charles C. and Henry P. Sims. 2001. . The New Superleadership: Leading Others to Lead Themselves. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehle. 255 pages
Yukl, Gary. 2013. Leadership in Organizations. 7th ed. 644 pages.

Course outline
Introduction to leadership and the nature of managerial work
Self- leadership
Strategic leadership
Influencing others
Designing functional organizations
Leading change

Computer-based tools
It's learning and e-mail.

Learning process and workload
1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours.

The leadership course is designed as a combination of lectures, team presentations, exercises, case discussions and hand-ins, and reflective discussions based on your own experiences. The course requires substantial preparation and active participation in class. 8 hours of the teaching in the course will be conducted as blended learning, i.e. combines face-to-face classroom methods with computer mediated activities.

The leadership course is integrated with the strategy course.

Attendance to all sessions in the course is compulsory. If you have to miss part(s) of the course you must ask in advance for leave of absence. More than 20% absence in a course will require retaking the entire course. It's the student's own responsibility to obtain any information provided in class that is not included on the course homepage/ It's learning or other course materials

Examination
The evaluation will be based on:
30 % - reflections on your personal leadership model (written, individual)
20 % - classroom contribution (oral, individual).
50 % - case work (report and presentation) (written and oral, team)

This is a course with continuous assessment (several exam elements) and one final exam code. Each exam element will be graded using points on a scale (e.g. 0-100). The elements will be weighted together according to the information in the course description in order to calculate the final letter grade for the course.

Specific information regarding student evaluation beyond the information given in the course description will be provided in class. This information may be relevant for requirements for term papers or other hand-ins, and/or where class participation can be one of several elements of the overall evaluation
Examination code(s)
GRA 81591 - Continuous assessment; accounts for 100 % to pass the course GRA 8159, 4 ECTS credits

The course is a part of a full Executive Master of Business Administration Program and all evaluations must be passed to obtain a certificate for the degree.

Examination support materials


Re-sit examination
Re-takes are only possible at the next time a course will be held. When course evaluation consists of class participation or continuous assessment, the whole course must be re-evaluated when a student wants to retake a exam. Retake examinations entail an extra examination fee.

Additional information