Leadership Skills SMO 652

Please Note: You are responsible for reading and following the instructions in this syllabus.

Class Times: Monday April 30 through Friday May 4, 2012 in Business 4-09 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

1. “Policy about course outlines can be found in Section 23.4(2) of the University Calendar.” Specifically, "At the beginning of each course, instructors are required by GFC to provide a course outline which must include the following: (1) a statement of the course objectives and general content; (2) a list of the required textbooks and other major course materials; (3) an indication of how and when students have access to the instructor; (4) the distribution of weight between term work and final examination; (5) identification of all course activities worth 10% or more of the overall course mark; (6) whether marks are given for class participation and other in-class activities as well as the weight of such participation; (7) dates of any examination and course assignments with a weight of 10% or more of the overall course mark; (8) the manner in which the official University grading system is to be implemented in that particular course or section, i.e., whether a particular distribution is to be used to determine grades, or whether there are absolute measures or marks which will determine them, or whether a combination of the two will be used. Instructors should refer to the University of Alberta Marking and Grading Guidelines.

2. From the University of Alberta Libraries website "Imagine that you were about to get surgery and just as you were going under, you discovered that your surgeon had cheated throughout his/her university career. Would you feel betrayed? What if it was your lawyer? Your accountant? Your child's teacher? All the above scenarios are reflective of a concept called academic integrity. As the above examples illustrate, academic integrity not only affects the climate at the university but it can also affect every other area of your life." http://www.library.ualberta.ca/guides/plagiarism/academic/index.cfm

The Centre for Academic Integrity at Duke University defines academic integrity "as a commitment, even in the face of adversity, to five fundamental values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility. From these values flow principles of behaviour that enable academic communities to translate ideals into action." http://www.academicintegrity.org/fundamental.asp

From General Faculties Council: “The University of Alberta is committed to the highest standards of academic integrity and honesty. Students are expected to be familiar with these standards regarding academic honesty and to uphold the policies of the University in this respect. Students are particularly urged to familiarize themselves with the provisions of the Code of Student Behaviour (online at www.ualberta.ca/secretariat/appeals.htm) and avoid any behaviour which could potentially result in suspicions of cheating, plagiarism, misrepresentation of facts and/or participation in an offence. Academic dishonesty is a serious offence and can result in suspension or expulsion from the University.”

3. The University of Alberta Code of Student Behaviour (online at http://www.ualberta.ca/~unisecr/policy/sec30.html) specifies in Section 30.3.4 Inappropriate Behaviour towards Members of the University Community, subsection 30.3.4(1) Disruption, paragraph 30.3.4(1)a that "No Student shall disrupt a Class in such a way that interferes with the normal process of the session or the learning of other Students." Under Section 30.4.3 Levels of Sanction, subsection 30.4.3(1) Minor Sanctions, paragraph 30.4.3(1)a "Instructors have the authority to dismiss a Student from Class for no more than 3 hours of Class time for Disruption of a Class. In cases where a single class meeting is longer than 3 hours the student may be excluded from that entire class."

4. Students may wish to view past blank copies of SCHEDULED FINAL EXAMS for this course by visiting the SU Exam Registry in person, at 0-26 Students Union Building (SUB), or online at http://www.su.ualberta.ca/services/infolink/exam/

Audio or video recording of lectures, labs, seminars or any other teaching environment by students is allowed only with the prior written consent of the instructor or as a part of an approved accommodation plan. Recorded material is to be used solely for personal study, and is not to be used or distributed for any other purpose without prior written consent from the instructor.

In the School of Business course calendar the course is described as: “The purpose of this course is to increase the student's understanding of leadership roles and skill in exercising those roles. These include team building, mentoring, managing conflict, delegating, managing participative decision making, creative problem solving, and time and stress management.” This purpose will be achieved by discussion, writing, case analyses, and by experiential exercises and role plays.

The course text is Level Three Leadership: Getting below the surface, 5th edition, by James G. Clawson, Prentice Hall, 2012. The text is available at the University of Alberta bookstore. It is also available online from a variety of sellers. It may also be available from CourseSmart e-Textbooks, see www.coursesmart.com.

There may be copies of the Fourth and Fifth editions of the textbook either in the bookstore, Subtitles, or for sale by students. The chapter titles and order are the same between the fourth and fifth editions.

The author's webpage is located at: http://faculty.darden.edu/clawsonj/

Many of the course readings are selected from the Fast Company magazine and are available on the www.fastcompany.com website. The purpose of these articles is to supplement the discussion of leaders and leadership by examining examples from the popular management press. Think of these as leadership cases. There is no readings binder. Students should access the articles online via this course syllabus and read online or print to read later.

The easiest way to get the Harvard Business Review articles is through the University of Alberta Library. The link below is directly to the University Library log-in for the Business Source Complete database. As you would be accessing the database from off campus, you would need to sign-in with your University CCID and Password when prompted. If you click the "Web Access" link at the top of the page (and sign in) you should go straight to the Business Source Complete database.

The back of the text has a number of exercises which can be done on an individual basis. I particularly suggest you look at the "Survey of Managerial Style" on page 384, "Balancing Your Life" on page 405, and "Leadership Steps Assessment" on page 413.

The appendix to the text offers a brief description of several leadership theories.

This is an MBA course that will be run as a seminar. The course components are designed to encourage you to come to class, to share your thoughts with others, and to learn from a variety of sources and methods. To achieve the maximum benefits from this course the student needs an open mind, the willingness to prepare seriously for class, to attend class and participate with the objective of learning as much as possible, and to work with the professor and other students in the class as colleagues.

My course activity goals are for you to: read all materials assigned before class; come to class and actively participate and discuss the topic under consideration; and to think and write about what we’ve covered.

1. Communication Skills - Oral -- the student will have the opportunity to speak to the rest of the class and participate with others.

2. Critical Thinking -- Students will be exposed to issues and ideas from the business press and this will help to develop their ability to analyze problems, situations and issues in a clear-minded, rigorous intellectual manner.

3. Ethical Awareness -- Students will develop a high degree of awareness of ethical concepts and issues in the world of business and will begin to learn to develop strategies to both recognize and deal with ethical problems.

4. Global Awareness -- Students will develop an awareness of the global community in which business operates and how management and business operations are likely to vary between countries and cultures.

5. Information Literacy -- Students will read articles from the business press and learn to extract the key lessons from those articles.

6. Practical Experience -- Students will develop the ability to apply academic knowledge to their own real-world work situations.

7. Teamwork -- Students will have the opportunity to work in a team and apply group concepts and techniques of leadership and conflict resolution toward the effective functioning of the team.

8. Leadership Skills -- Students will be encouraged to develop an understanding of leadership roles and skills and how leadership methods may change depending on organizational circumstances.

There are several components to the determination of the course grade in SMO 652.

1. Participation 27%. Each of the first nine course sessions in which the student is engaged and positively participating with the class and the material for all of the class time is worth 3 percent. Participation involves learning from others and helping others to learn what you know. Comments made serve to drive the discussion forward. There is no evaluation out of 3 -- a student present and participating for the whole class receives full marks for that class. A student who is disruptive in a class session will receive a participation grade of zero for that session.

2. Midterm Test 18%. Students will write an exam the last hour of class on Wednesday that covers material up to and including Chapter 13 and associated articles from the course. The test will consist of multiple choice questions that cover classes, articles, text chapters and videos. The test is meant to cover the range of material presented in the course and to encourage attendance in class, participation in class, and the studying and reading of course materials. Expect a question or two for each article and video, a question for most class activities, and about five to seven questions per chapter.

3. Leadership Case Presentation Worth from 0% to 35%. This is your chance to help teach your colleagues about an important facet of leadership and to bring to the class connections between leadership concepts and practice.

Choose the weight you would like for your presentation and let me know at the end of meeting 8. If the weight is zero you do not have to make a presentation.

Your project membership is your choice. A project may be presented by any number of students from two to six. The presentation time allocated is five minutes per member. Projects are presented in meeting 9.

Should you form a group of two or more, PLEASE DO meet and work together as a team on the project so that you may benefit from each other's input. This takes longer and doesn't seem as efficient, but will be more fun and interesting for you. PLEASE DON'T decide quickly on a topic and then immediately break the task into chunks to be assembled just before the team project is to be presented. This increases efficiency but is less likely to be effective, or fun. In your text page 292 effective teams are noted to have seven characteristics: Shared leadership, team accountability, distinctive purpose, shared work, open-ended meetings, collective measures, and real work. You should try to use these principles to guide your work for this presentation.

See the Presentation Rubric at the end of this online syllabus for grading guidelines.

Each team will choose a movie (e.g. Ocean's Eleven, 300, Forrest Gump, and so on) or a T.V. series (Seinfeld, The Office, and so on). Given that choice, the title of that group's presentation is: "ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW ABOUT LEADERSHIP I LEARNED FROM ___________________" where the blank is filled in with that group's media choice. During your presentation you need to show selected clips from your media choice, and then analyze those clips using leadership concepts from the SMO652 text and/or articles.

There will not be duplication of media choice, so let me know as soon as you can what media you have chosen.

Presentation criteria are: Presentation Skills and Interest; Content and Key Learning Points (what the class should learn and take away from the case presentation); Quality of Thought and Argument; and Timing. Each criterion is equally weighted and will be graded out of 30.

Presentation Skills and Interest is judged on how well the material is presented. Can any supporting video be seen? Are slides able to be read? Do the presenters speak clearly and with enough volume to be heard? Do the presenters speak in a way that generates interest in the material by the viewer? Is the content presented in a creative way? At the end of the presentation does the viewer wish to see more? Note that the quality of any media clips used is not being evaluated, as long as the clips may be seen and heard.

Content and Key Learning Points is about the breadth of the coverage on the topic. Does the group cover important and useful leadership concepts and ideas? Does the group make it clear to the viewer what they have been taught by the presentation? Usually a viewer can only take away three or four main points from a presentation. Were there three or four main points? Were these made clear to the viewer and why they are important?

Quality of Thought and Argument is about depth of the coverage of the topic. Did the group accurately understand and use leadership concepts and ideas from the text and classes? Did the group do a fairly surface treatment of the leadership concepts and ideas as it applies to their case, or did they give some depth and subtlety of coverage? Were the points made about leadership useful, practical, and important?

The Timing grade is calculated as the percentage of assigned time used. For example, a group of four has an assigned time of 20 minutes. The presentation grade is calculated as the number of seconds over or under the allocation of 1200 seconds subtracted from 1200, divided by 1200, times five. For example, a group using 18 of 20 minutes of assigned time has used 90% of their time and therefore receives a timing grade of 4.5 out of 5. A group using 23 minutes of 20 minutes of assigned time receives a timing grade of 4.25 out of 5.

4. Final Exam Worth From 20% to 55%. Students will write during the last class session an individual closed book exam that covers all material from the course. The test will consist of multiple choice questions that cover classes, articles, text chapters, videos, and presentations viewed in class. The test is meant to cover the range of material presented in the course and to encourage attendance in class, participation in class, and the studying and reading of course materials. Expect a question or two for each article and video, a question for most class activities, and about five to seven questions per chapter.

Your grade will be based partly on your absolute performance in the class and partly based on your performance relative to the other students in the class. Differences in absolute marks between the top of the class and the bottom can be small because MBA students are talented and perform well. The University of Alberta recommends for 600-level courses a mean grade of 3.33, or "B+". In general, grades will be assigned based on university guidelines. Grades below C+ are failures at the Master's level and are given when there are significant problems with that student's performance in the class. A passing grade in this course is 70%.

The absolute minimum readings to be completed before the first class are the articles assigned for meetings 1 and 2. Take notes, especially on the articles, as we will discuss these in class. Students are very strongly encouraged to read further into the text and the assigned articles. It would not be wrong to have read the entire text and set of articles before classes begin, and then to review the required chapters and articles before the session in which they are assigned, in order to think again about the chapter and article concepts.

The basic instructions for HBR are as follows: Navigate to library.ualberta.ca, Click on Journals, Click on the first letter in the title (H for Harvard Business Review), Scroll down to Harvard Business Review, Click University of Alberta Access: 1922-, Click one of the options under 'get it online full text'.

You will then be taken to the ezproxy login screen where you must enter your student ID and Login code (Same as for beartracks and ULearn). Once you login the simply navigate to the issue in question and download the PDF. A similar process can be used for most other major academic journals, provided the U of A is subscribed to online access.

At our first meeting expect the classroom to be set up in six pods of five to six students each. There will be a playing card with your name on it acting as a place card indicating which table has been randomly assigned to you. Seating will change for each class session, usually on a random basis.

You may have your laptops, cell phones, and Blackberries with you. Laptop e-mail, texting, tweeting, and Internet access via iPod touch, Blackberry, or similar device is not allowed in the classroom. Your cell phone may be on vibrate and calls received may be taken in the hallway. Laptops may only be open in class when you are using yours to access electronic versions of the SMO652 course text and articles. No email, no Facebook, no texting, no Twitter, no Internet access.

Eating hot food in class is not allowed. Not even at lunchtime! Hot food in class changes the atmosphere from one of professional MBA-level work to that of a lunchroom, which it isn't.

Let me know when you will miss part of a class session. Sometimes seating arrangements need to be adjusted.

Leadership Case Presentation Grading Rubric

Course: SMO 652 Spring 2012 Project Topic: ________________________________

Task Description: Class members will select a movie or TV series, consider it a video case, and analyze it for leadership lessons. Each group will present to the class their findings on "What can this case teach us about leadership in organizations?" Show how the use of leadership concepts allows you to see different things about your case. Make sure that your presentation teaches your class colleagues about an important facet of organizational leadership in your case and that brings to the class connections between leadership concepts and practice. Be interesting and engaging and use your presentation time effectively. Show several clips from your video case in your analysis. The title of your presentation is "All I really need to know about leadership I learned from ..." (insert the name of your media choice).

Scale Levels

Criteria	10	15	20	25	30	Points
Presentation Skills and Interest (25%)	Presenters lack energy and enthusiasm for their topic, slides used are confusing or unreadable, media used is irrelevant	Overhead slides are presented in a straightforward way with bullet points read out while the presenter looks at the screen	Presenters make some eye contact with the audience, show limited interest in their topic, media used are tangentially relevant to the topic	Volume, interest, and energy are good, with eye contact and engagement with the audience. Slides and other media are relevant and understandable	Presenters are engaged in their topic, articulate well and speak loudly enough to be heard. Supporting media and slides are relevant and useful in the analysis and teaching of the leadership and reframing concepts covered	____
Content and Key Learning Points -- Breadth (25%)	There is no content on the topic of leadership in organizations. Presentation time used is descriptive of a person or case but no points are made.	One or two points about leadership are made. The take-away point is somewhat clear and its relevance is hinted at.	A few leadership concepts are discussed and their usefulness and relevance are examined in a fairly simple or straightforward way	The group covers important and useful leadership concepts and ideas. It is made clear to the audience what they have been taught and why it is important to them in their lives and work. The number of learning points covered may be too few or too many.	The group covers important and useful leadership concepts and ideas. It is made totally clear to the audience through example and story what they have been taught and why it is important to them in their lives and work. The number of learning points covered is appropriate to the presentation time.	____
Quality of Thought and Argument -- Depth (25%)	There is no depth of thought or argument. The presentation is simple description from secondary sources. Leadership concepts are not used.	Leadership concepts used are simple, with little reliance on theory and/or academic concepts. The presentation could have been prepared before the course as it is uninformed by the course material.	The group uses leadership concepts in an accurate manner and shows that they have grasped and can use the concepts in the analysis of their case. Media used show the leadership concept in action.	The group uses leadership concepts in both an accurate and rich manner and shows that they have grasped and can use the concepts with some depth in the analysis of their case. Concepts are used analytically to help us better understand characters in the media choice.	The group demonstrates that they fully understand leadership concepts and ideas from the course and are able to accurately use them to analyze their case with both depth and subtlety. The learning points made are thought-provoking, useful, practical and important.	____
Timing (25%)	Allocated time is five minutes per group member. Presenter(s) will report at the end of their presentation their time taken.					____
					Total---->	____

Grade	Descriptor	Point Value	University Guideline for a 600-level course
A+	Excellent	4.0	15
A	Excellent	4.0	15
A-	Excellent	3.7	15
B+	Good	3.3	17
B	Good	3.0	16
B-	Satisfactory	2.7	10
C+	Satisfactory	2.3	7
C	Failure	2.0	2
C-	Failure	1.7	1
D+	Failure	1.3	0
D	Failure	1.0	1
F	Failure	0	1

Meeting	Date	Time	Text Chapters	Readings, Cases, and Notes
1	Monday April 30	8:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon	Chapter 1: The Leadership Point of View Chapter 2: The Diamond Model of Leadership in Organizations	Make sure you click on "Print this article", even if reading online, so you get the whole article in one go instead of page by page. Each article is meant to illustrate or be used as a case for the chapter concepts to which it is attached. When reading a particular article, consider it in the context of the chapter. Boring (Chapter 1) http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/35/gaulier.html Putting Winds in Their Sails (Chapter 2) http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/73/womanship.html
2	Monday April 30	1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.	Chapter 3: Levels of Leadership Chapter 4: The Changing Context of Leadership Chapter 5: Strategic Frames	I Can Only Compete Through My Crew (Chapter 3) http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/40/wf_walker.html The Faces and Voices of Google (Chapter 5) http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/123/google.html
3	Tuesday May 1	8:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon	Chapter 6: Ethical Dimensions of Leadership Chapter 7: Innovation and Level Three Leadership Chapter 8: Personal, Workgroup, and Organizational Charters	We’ve Taken the Greed out of Sports (Chapter 6) http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/40/wf_jernigan.html IDEO's David Kelley on 'Design Thinking' (Chapter 7) http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/132/a-designer-takes-on-his-biggest-challenge-ever.html IDEO Shopping Cart Video from 2001 will be shown. See the book "The Art of Innovation" by Tom Kelley if you are interested (not required).
4	Tuesday May 1	1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.	Chapter 9: Self-Leadership Chapter 10: A Leader’s Guide to Why People Behave the Way They Do Chapter 11: The REB Model	Leadership Lessons of a Rock Climber (Chapter 9) http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/rockclimber.html How to Lead Now (Chapter 10) http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/73/leadnow.html Generational Divide Slide
5	Wednesday May 2	8:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon	Chapter 12: Leadership and Intelligence Chapter 13: Resonance, Leadership, and the Purpose of Life Chapter 14: The Global Business Leader	Weird Science (Chapter 12) http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/105/open_food-cantu.html Use Chapter 12 concepts to examine the IQ, EQ, SQ, and CQ of Homaro Cantu of the "Weird Science" article. What Should I Do with my Life? (Chapter 13) http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/66/mylife.html For further reading (not required), see the associated book "What Should I do with my Life: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question" by Po Bronson (2002) The Seven Ages of the Leader (Chapter 13) by Warren Bennis, Harvard Business Review, January 2004, Vol. 82, Issue 1. http://login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=11800949&site=ehost-live&scope=site Powerpoint: Resonance/Flow (This powerpoint will be used in class). BMW: Driven by Design (Chapter 14) http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/62/bmw.html
6	Wednesday May 2	1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.	Chapter 15: Power and Leadership: Leading Others Chapter 16: The Historical Strength and Modern Appeal of Level One Leadership Chapter 17: The Challenges of Level Two Leadership Chapter 18: The Focus and Impact of Level Three Leadership Test 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.	Marcus Buckingham Thinks Your Boss Has an Attitude Problem (Chapter 15) http://www.fastcompany.com/online/49/buckingham.html For further reading (not required), see the associated book "First, Break all the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently" by Marcus Buckingham (1999) See also (not required) the second book in the series, "Now, Discover Your Strengths" (2001). The Clear Leader (Chapter 15) http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/92/clear-leader.html The Clear Leader article is based on the third book in the Marcus Buckingham series. The book (not required) is "The One Thing you need to know ... About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success" (2005). The recent fourth book in the series, 2007, is "Go Put Your Strengths to Work : Six Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance" (not required for this course)
7	Thursday May 3	8:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon	Chapter 19: Six Steps to Effective Leadership Chapter 20: The Language of Leadership Chapter 21: Leading Teams	The Agenda: Grassroots Leadership (The U.S.S. Benfold and its captain, Mike Abrashoff) (Chapter 19) http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/23/grassroots.html ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ For further reading (not required), see the associated book "It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy" by D. Michael Abrashoff (2002) and his follow-up book "Get Your Ship Together: How Great Leaders Inspire Ownership From the Ground Up" (2004). And now he speaks about what he's learned in six years of speaking about leadership in his latest book "It's Our Ship" (2008). Also see Mike Abrashoff's "Grassroots Leadership" consulting business website at: http://www.grassrootsleadership.com/ 10 Principles of Grassroots Leadership Go to Youtube and search on "Abrashoff" for at least one video clip of Mike Abrashoff speaking about his leadership. Leadership's Online Labs (Chapter 21) Harvard Business Review, May 2008, Volume 86 Issue 5, by Byron Reeves, Thomas Malone, and Tony O'Driscoll. http://login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=31729880&site=ehost-live&scope=site
8	Thursday May 3	1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.	Chapter 22: Leading Organizational Design Chapter 23: Human Resource Management Systems Chapter 24: Leading Change Chapter 25: Conclusion	The Fabric of Creativity (Chapter 22) http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/89/open_gore.html Why We Hate HR (Chapter 23) http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/97/open_hr.html Change or Die (Chapter 24) http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/94/open_change-or-die.html Powerpoint: Change Process
9	Friday May 4	8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.		Finish any material as required Project Presentations Application of Course Concepts to Simulated Situations
10	Friday May 4	Start your exam anytime between 1:30 and 2:30 p.m.		Two hour Multiple Choice Final Exam held in class