MANAGEMT 7086NA - Fundamentals of Leadership

Ngee Ann Academy - Quadmester 4 - 2019

"To lead is to live with danger. Although it may be exciting to think of leadership as inspiration, decisive action, and powerful rewards, leading requires taking risks that can jeopardize your career and your personal life. It requires putting yourself on the line, disturbing the status quo, and working with organizational and political conflicts. Those who choose to lead take the risks and sometimes are neutralized for doing so." Ronald A Heifitz An essential skill of leadership in our time is the ability to work with people to tackle challenges and changes which are not only technical in nature but which require people (including ourselves) to change. In Fundamentals of Leadership, we will identify the challenges of leadership in the second decade of the 21st Century. We will explore habitual responses to many modern challenges and identify why they often do not work (John Kotter, a leading scholar on Change suggests that around 75% of change initiatives fail). We will explore other responses and use the classroom to help us to understand the role of culture, systems, authority and leadership in people-based change. Positioned at the beginning of the MBA, Fundamentals of Leadership encourages you to think about the nature of what you will study over the whole Program. It also encourages you to explore and develop personal skills central to leadership. By exploring self-awareness, and developing a personal leadership philosophy students will be well placed to broaden their understanding of other individuals and social groups at work.

  • General Course Information
    Course Details
    Course Code MANAGEMT 7086NA
    Course Fundamentals of Leadership
    Coordinating Unit Adelaide Business School
    Term Quadmester 4
    Level Postgraduate Coursework
    Location/s Ngee Ann Academy
    Units 3
    Available for Study Abroad and Exchange Y
    Course Description "To lead is to live with danger. Although it may be exciting to think of leadership as inspiration, decisive action, and powerful rewards, leading requires taking risks that can jeopardize your career and your personal life. It requires putting yourself on the line, disturbing the status quo, and working with organizational and political conflicts. Those who choose to lead take the risks and sometimes are neutralized for doing so." Ronald A Heifitz

    An essential skill of leadership in our time is the ability to work with people to tackle challenges and changes which are not only technical in nature but which require people (including ourselves) to change. In Fundamentals of Leadership, we will identify the challenges of leadership in the second decade of the 21st Century. We will explore habitual responses to many modern challenges and identify why they often do not work (John Kotter, a leading scholar on Change suggests that around 75% of change initiatives fail). We will explore other responses and use the classroom to help us to understand the role of culture, systems, authority and leadership in people-based change.

    Positioned at the beginning of the MBA, Fundamentals of Leadership encourages you to think about the nature of what you will study over the whole Program. It also encourages you to explore and develop personal skills central to leadership. By exploring self-awareness, and developing a personal leadership philosophy students will be well placed to broaden their understanding of other individuals and social groups at work.
    Course Staff
    Lois Whittall, B.A. Hons, (University of Liverpool, UK), MBA (University of Adelaide), FCMA

    Office The Business School, Rm 1031, 10 Pulteney St
    Telephone: +61 417 871 218
    Email: lois.whittall@adelaide.edu.au
    Skype name: loisemma

    Lois Whittall has been an Adjunct Lecturer in the University of Adelaide’s MBA program since 1998. She has extensive experience in facilitating management education around the world - in Australia, the UK, and a wide range of Asian countries, particularly in Adelaide University’s postgraduate management program in Singapore. Currently, she teaches the core courses Fundamentals of Leadership (FOL) and Managing Contemporary Organisations in the MBA programs both on and off shore, and she teaches Organisational Behaviour, HRM and the Management of Change at undergraduate level. She also works extensively in Adelaide University’s Executive Education program running short workshops in leadership, change and appreciative inquiry. Lois has a distant background in finance and completed the Chartered Management Accounting qualification in 1982. She no longer teaches in finance.

    Lois completed Ronald Heifetz’s course at Harvard: The Art and Practice of Teaching Leadership. As well as Leadership, her research interests are Change, Appreciative Inquiry and  Social Entrepreneurship. She currently uses Action Research to explore these topics across her teaching and consulting and in the complex diverse culture of Cambodia.

    Lois has worked at Executive Director and senior management levels in a variety of public and private sector firms in roles encompassing Organisational Development, Human Resource Management and Finance.

    Lois’ last full time role was as Executive Director of an SME. In the five years before she left she worked with her team to more than double the size of the business. At present as well as teaching for the university she designs and delivers Leadership Development programs for a number of large and small firms. Her consultancy experience has been with global companies working in the oil sector, electronics, pharmaceuticals, software development, and government corporations.

    In 2005 Lois started a project in Northern Cambodia which provides resources so that young women living in remote communities can finish high school and (if they do well enough) continue with higher education. The aim is to return teachers, doctors, nurses, business people and confident young women leaders to their villages. Working with some of the world’s poorest people in a province still infested with landmines involves a lot of learning especially about culture and leadership and creates an interesting life balance.

    Course Timetable

    The full timetable of all activities for this course can be accessed from Course Planner.

  • Learning Outcomes
    Course Learning Outcomes
    Fundamentals of Leadership, positioned at the beginning of the MBA program, encourages students to explore issues and develop personal skills central to leadership.  By developing analytical skills and self-awareness, students will be well placed to broaden their understanding of others thoughout the MBA program.

    At the conclusion of this course, students should be able to:
    1 Distinguish between ‘authority’ and ‘adaptive leadership’, identify examples of ‘authority’ and ‘adaptive leadership’ and reflect on their relative effectiveness in specific contexts
    2 Identify, diagnose and analyse complicated and complex systems in the workplace and shift analytical focus from individuals towards these systems as well as separate the processes of observation and interpretation and resist quick interpretations leading to misguided actions
    3  
    Undertake a process of personal transformation through the development of a wide array of leadership skills

    4 Propose ‘safe-to-fail’ experiments designed to help understand systems, themselves, and others and guide the way towards more effective leadership
    5 Gain and develop insights on self and others in a workplace context and ask deep, probing questions and provide courageous feedback to colleagues that helps them to learn
    6 Identify, source, evaluate, interpret and analyse both primary and secondary data to inform small scale research task
    University Graduate Attributes

    This course will provide students with an opportunity to develop the Graduate Attribute(s) specified below:

    University Graduate Attribute Course Learning Outcome(s)
    Deep discipline knowledge
    • informed and infused by cutting edge research, scaffolded throughout their program of studies
    • acquired from personal interaction with research active educators, from year 1
    • accredited or validated against national or international standards (for relevant programs)
    CLO 1
    Critical thinking and problem solving
    • steeped in research methods and rigor
    • based on empirical evidence and the scientific approach to knowledge development
    • demonstrated through appropriate and relevant assessment
    CLO 1,2,5,6
    Teamwork and communication skills
    • developed from, with, and via the SGDE
    • honed through assessment and practice throughout the program of studies
    • encouraged and valued in all aspects of learning
    CLO 1,2,4,5
    Career and leadership readiness
    • technology savvy
    • professional and, where relevant, fully accredited
    • forward thinking and well informed
    • tested and validated by work based experiences
    CLO 1,2,3,4,5,6
    Intercultural and ethical competency
    • adept at operating in other cultures
    • comfortable with different nationalities and social contexts
    • able to determine and contribute to desirable social outcomes
    • demonstrated by study abroad or with an understanding of indigenous knowledges
    CLO 1,3,5
    Self-awareness and emotional intelligence
    • a capacity for self-reflection and a willingness to engage in self-appraisal
    • open to objective and constructive feedback from supervisors and peers
    • able to negotiate difficult social situations, defuse conflict and engage positively in purposeful debate
    CLO 1,2,3,4,5,6
  • Learning Resources
    Required Resources
    Text Book:
    The following two books are required reading for this course:

    Heifetz, R.A and Linsky, M., 2002 Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive through the Dangers of Leading (Boston: Harvard Business School Press,)

    Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey, 2009, Immunity to Change, How to overcome it and Unlock the potential in Yourself and your Organization, Harvard Business Review Press.

    Information about other reading is on MyUni and can be accessed by students enrolled in the course
    Recommended Resources
    Additional Reading and References:

    Students may wish to read more widely in specific subject areas, something that the BUSINESS SCHOOL wholeheartedly encourages. There are many general texts on management and leadership, and on managerial skills that students may find useful. Perhaps of greatest assistance though are readings from leading academic journals, current business journals and the better newspapers. Relevant journals include:
    • Academy of Management Journal (USA),
    • Academy of Management Review (USA),
    • Administrative Science Quarterly (USA),
    • Australian Journal of Public Administration,
    • California Management Review,
    • Harvard Business Review (USA),
    • Journal of Management and Organisation,
    • Journal of Conflict Resolution,
    • Journal of Management,
    • Leadership Quarterly,
    • Personnel Psychology (USA)
    Full texts of a great many of the articles that appear in these journals can be accessed via the University of Adelaide’s library databases. There are numerous references at the conclusion of each reading which will supplement your learning of particular topics. I will point out additional articles on various topics for those who are inspired to delve more deeply during the course.
    Online Learning
    Important messages, topic notes, power point slides, case studies, Discussion Boards and other materials relating to the course will be placed on MyUni throughout the course. MyUni can be found at ( www.myuni.adelaide.edu.au )
  • Learning & Teaching Activities
    Learning & Teaching Modes

    No information currently available.

    Workload

    No information currently available.

    Learning Activities Summary

    No information currently available.

  • Assessment

    The University's policy on Assessment for Coursework Programs is based on the following four principles:

    1. Assessment must encourage and reinforce learning.
    2. Assessment must enable robust and fair judgements about student performance.
    3. Assessment practices must be fair and equitable to students and give them the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned.
    4. Assessment must maintain academic standards.

    Assessment Summary

    No information currently available.

    Assessment Detail

    No information currently available.

    Submission

    No information currently available.

    Course Grading

    Grades for your performance in this course will be awarded in accordance with the following scheme:

    M10 (Coursework Mark Scheme)
    Grade Mark Description
    FNS   Fail No Submission
    F 1-49 Fail
    P 50-64 Pass
    C 65-74 Credit
    D 75-84 Distinction
    HD 85-100 High Distinction
    CN   Continuing
    NFE   No Formal Examination
    RP   Result Pending

    Further details of the grades/results can be obtained from Examinations.

    Grade Descriptors are available which provide a general guide to the standard of work that is expected at each grade level. More information at Assessment for Coursework Programs.

    Final results for this course will be made available through Access Adelaide.

  • Student Feedback

    The University places a high priority on approaches to learning and teaching that enhance the student experience. Feedback is sought from students in a variety of ways including on-going engagement with staff, the use of online discussion boards and the use of Student Experience of Learning and Teaching (SELT) surveys as well as GOS surveys and Program reviews.

    SELTs are an important source of information to inform individual teaching practice, decisions about teaching duties, and course and program curriculum design. They enable the University to assess how effectively its learning environments and teaching practices facilitate student engagement and learning outcomes. Under the current SELT Policy (http://www.adelaide.edu.au/policies/101/) course SELTs are mandated and must be conducted at the conclusion of each term/semester/trimester for every course offering. Feedback on issues raised through course SELT surveys is made available to enrolled students through various resources (e.g. MyUni). In addition aggregated course SELT data is available.

  • Student Support
  • Policies & Guidelines
  • Fraud Awareness

    Students are reminded that in order to maintain the academic integrity of all programs and courses, the university has a zero-tolerance approach to students offering money or significant value goods or services to any staff member who is involved in their teaching or assessment. Students offering lecturers or tutors or professional staff anything more than a small token of appreciation is totally unacceptable, in any circumstances. Staff members are obliged to report all such incidents to their supervisor/manager, who will refer them for action under the university's student’s disciplinary procedures.

The University of Adelaide is committed to regular reviews of the courses and programs it offers to students. The University of Adelaide therefore reserves the right to discontinue or vary programs and courses without notice. Please read the important information contained in the disclaimer.