7AATC510 Leadership Ethics: in a new key
Credits: 40
Module tutor: Professor Clemens Sedmak
Assessment: 2 x 5,000-word essays (each worth 50% of the module mark)
Teaching pattern: TBC
This module will provide students with a new approach towards leadership ethics. The approach will be a problem- and skill-oriented approach working with key concepts and key theories. Through lectures, students will be introduced to the key concepts of the debate. Students will be encouraged to engage in informed debates. They will also be directed in reading assignments. Some time will be assigned to discussion in class. The interactive nature of this method of teaching will require a flexible approach to the amount of material covered in any single lecture. The module is built on three strands:
I) Thinking: Strategies for Intellectual Growth
One of the main ambitions of the module is to encourage students to think effectively and creatively. This strand will focus on the following questions: What does it mean to think? Which are the different ways of formulating questions, approaching problems, finding solutions? What can leaders learn from “the best examples” of brilliant thinking? How is it possible to become better in “the art of thinking”? The module will deal with ways of exploration, analysis and argument, intellectual development and the management of intellectual growth. The module will be dedicated to improving the seven basic “noetic skills”: 1) reflecting, 2) remembering, 3) understanding and interpreting, 4) justifying and constructing arguments, 5) analyzing and judging, 6) deciding and making decision, 7) creativity and imagination.
II) Robust Concern: Caring, Commitments, and Responsibility
The second strand of the module is constituted by questions of responsibility; this section will devoted to reflecting upon the emotional dimension of leadership. The basic assumptions here are that successful leadership requires embracing and developing love as “a robust concern” as well as the vision of leadership as a commitment and a way of caring and engagement. The module in this section will concentrate on the theories and practices of responsibility, generativity, care, commitment and love. Within this strand, seven basic “commitment skills” will be identified and promoted: 1) caring and concern; 2) emotional skills and management of feelings; 3) virtue literacy and being skilled in virtues; 4) presence, awareness, attention, attentiveness; 5) acceptance and benevolence; 6) alter-focused skills; 7) expressing and communicating
III) Growing: Self Renewal and Self-Management
The third strand of the module will be dedicated to the development of leaders’ ability to grow. Effective leadership means constant self-development – the module is committed to teaching students ways of navigating personal growth. By mastering techniques from various traditions, including religious and spiritual ones, students will be more able to learn about themselves through the cultivation of introspection and a culture of interiority. Within this strand the students will learn and practice the following seven basic “growth skills”: 1) Navigating interiority and navigating growth; 2) cultivating interiority; 3) learning how to learn (“deep learning”); 4) learning how to unlearn; 5) Self management; 6) mental health and affirming reality; 7) developing a vision.
Module aims
The module aims to introduce students to key perspectives, issues and academic debates pertaining to the theory and practice of Leadership and Ethical Leadership.
It is designed to develop wisdom, insight and critical understanding, commensurate with Masters Level study, by exploring in-depth three inter-related themes:
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Thinking and the Art of Intellectual Growth
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Robust Concern and Responsibility
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Personal Development and Self Management
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of this module, students will be able to identify, analyse and assess the theory and practice of Leadership Ethics in the light of
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Insights from the philosophical tradition (Greek philosophy, Stoic Philosophy, Patristic Thinking, Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy, Enlightenment, Modernity)
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Insights from various religious and spiritual traditions (Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism)
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Contemporary approaches to leadership issues and leadership ethics
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theories of character formation, personal growth and personal ethics (ethics of the “examined life”)
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theories of an ethics of leadership and an ethics of community
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theories of an ethics of institutions and institutional justice
Preliminary reading
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The leadership mystique. An user's manual for the human enterprise. Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries. London: Financial Times Prentice Hall (2001).
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Business leadership and culture. National management styles in the global economy. Björn Bjerke. Paperback ed. Cheltenham [u.a.]: Edward Elgar (2001).
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Ethical business leadership. Balancing theory and practice. Sherwin Klein. New York [u.a.]: Lang (2002).
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The emergence of leadership. Linking self-organization and ethics. Douglas Griffin. London [u.a.]: Routledge (2002).
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Ethics, the heart of leadership. Ed. by Joanne B. Ciulla. 2. ed. Westport, Conn. [u.a.]: Praeger (2004).
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Leadership can be taught. A bold approach for a complex world. Sharon Daloz Parks. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press (2005).
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Leadership and management in the 21st century. Business challenges of the future. Ed. by Cary L. Cooper. Oxford [u.a.]: Oxford Univ. Press 2005.