Land

MAN W385: Leading the Organization #72045

Summer Session 2007

Wednesday 6:00 – 9:15, UTC 3.130

Instructor: Dr. Doug Dierking

Office: CBA 2.204 Home Phone: (512) 258-0967

Phone: (512) 471-9441 Cell Phone: (512) 740-7475

E-mail: Doug.Dierking@mccombs.utexas.edu

Office Hours: Wednesday 5-6; or by appointment.

COURSE OVERVIEW, OBJECTIVES AND LEARNING PHILOSOPHY

Course Overview

The purpose of this course is to enhance your understanding the interaction of leadership and follower behavior in organizations in order to assist in your development as an effective organizational leader. Many business school courses teach you to manage information, money, and other material organizational resources. All of those skills will help you become a better manager however, it is your “people skills” that will ultimately have the most impact on your success as a leader. This course will examine the interaction between leadership behaviors and motivation, communication, establishing and growing the organizational culture, managing change, decision making, and group/team dynamics. Lectures, cases and discussions will focus on the challenges and demands faced by leaders with a consistent emphasis on leading for organizational effectiveness.

Course Objectives

At the conclusion of this course, you should:

1. Understand recent conceptualizations of leadership.

2. Have enhanced critical thinking skills. In particular, you should be able to analyze under which conditions specific leadership practices will be most appropriate and effective in setting and reaching a firm’s strategic objectives and enhancing long-term performance.

3. Be able to apply your knowledge of effective leadership behaviors in entrepreneurial/intrapreneurial settings.

Learning Philosophy

My learning philosophy can be summed up as follows: Theory informs Practice. In short, this means that students learn best when they understand the underlying theoretical...