BAD 64158 Fall 2008 Smas

SYLLABUS

B AD 64158-001

LEADERSHIP / MANAGERIAL ASSESSMENTS

CALL NUMBER 13470

PROFESSOR: JIM SMAS A415

FALL 2008

CLASS MEETING TIME:  MW: 12:30 – 1:45 PM

ROOM:   BSA 206

HOURS: MW 11:00 – 12:00 AM

3:00 - 3:30 PM

E – MAIL:      mjsmas@.kent.edu

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

There is nothing more eye opening for the new manager than to find out in his/her first job that nothing they learned in school seems to apply or even work in their new environment. They seem to be at a loss why they are ineffective at leading or managing people in their organizations. What is troubling them is a distinct lack of skills, not theory! Until this course, you probably had little in the way of a skills-based course designed to change your behavior towards people, groups, and organizations.

This course is designed more like a practicum:  like a course in sculpting than art history and appreciation; more like court room practices than contract law; more like teaching techniques than educational philosophy; more like broadcast techniques than a history of mass communications. In brief, it is an attempt to teach a set of skills grounded in behavioral science theory and research that are essential for a successful career in management.

Your instructor, for many years in his own business, has facilitated change among managers and supervisors in major industrial settings. He has taught over 3000 supervisors and over 300 practicing managers over a ten year consulting practice. He has seen the benefits directly of skill-based learning and has saved many jobs in the long run. Bad bosses make for bad environments and loss of morale and productivity. Be a bad boss and you will join the NFL, which in the imitable words of one sports color commentator means, Not for Long!!

So welcome to the most fun you probably will have as a student here or anywhere else. This is a course that will present many new perspectives and opportunities for you to grow and learn. I have had people come back and tell me that they learned more in this course to prepare them for the real world than in any other course they have taken here or anywhere else. This is the real deal.

Too many courses assume the translation from learning to application is not problematic. They ignore the dictum of Will Rogers who said “Common sense ain’t necessarily common practice.” So while most of this material might seem to be common sense, trust me that it is not common practice!! After all if it was, why did I make so much money for ten years facilitating common sense?

This course will use theory, case studies, role plays, skits, student presentations, food fights and a great new simulation to get total involvement and immersion of the student in the learning of skills. Welcome to chaos!

REQUIRED TEXT AND MATERIALS:

David A. Whetten and Kim S. Cameron, Developing Management Skills,   7e, Pearson / Prentice Hall, 2005.

ISBN: 0-13-174742-8

REQUIREMENTS FOR GRADING:

1. Team Skit                                                                                                 150 points

• Based on assigned skill chapter, role play, demo etc.

2. Personal Bio                                                                                             50

3. Mid Term Exam                                                                                      100

4. Interim Project                                                                                        150

5. Journal                                                                                                     150

6. Participation                                                                                            150

7. Final Project                                                                                            150

8. Final Exam                                                                                               100

Total Semester Points                                                                           1000 points

GRADING:

I will use plus / minus grading this semester. Thus the grading for the course is as follows:

925 – 1000 POINTS            A

891 – 924                              A- –

860 – 890                              B+

825 – 859                              B

791 – 824                              B-

760 – 790      C+

725 – 759      C

691 – 724      C-

<690               D

<590               F

According to new University Guidelines the grades are converted to your grade point average by the following rules:

A   = 4.0

A- = 3.7

B+ = 3.3

B   = 3.0

B- = 2.7

C+ = 2.3

C   = 2.0

C- = 1.7

D+ = 1.3

D    = 1.0.

F    = 0.0

EXAMS:

There are two exams: a mid-term and a final. They will be a combination of essay and multiple choice or true / false questions. They will cover all material presented up to the exam including in-class exercises and role plays.

INTERIM PROJECT

Pick a skill or series of skills from the material in the book. Then research material on the skill and write a 10 page paper on the skill or behavior you chose. Find books or movies about the skill and report your findings. How does the movie or book portray the skill, as a strength,  or as a weakness.

TEAM SKITS:

There will be ten teams for this course. Each team will have the opportunity to develop a SKIT covering an assigned skill. This presentation should not be a power-point presentation on the theoretical material. It should be a creative demonstration of the skill under investigation. You can do a role play, do a skit, conduct a panel discussion, or act out a scenario demonstrating the skill under question. This is a very important part of the course, do not take this lightly. I can give you some ideas for your individual presentations based on past experiences.

JOURNAL:

If we consider this course to be behavioral laboratory, then you must have a lab notebook to record and reflect on all the data you are accumulating. Thus, I will ask that you keep a bound journal in which you will record all your assessment scores and reflections on the results. You will also record all assigned exercises in the journal.  This is to encourage constant journaling and reflection which is a key to behavior change. Crashing and burning the journal in last week of class is a useless activity. This will also be the basis of your final strategic plan for your self. You should use the date accumulated in your journal as the basis of your final report.

PARTICIPATION:

It is extremely important in this course that you come to class prepared and participate in every discussion in a helpful and facilitative way. I will make assessments of how well you are doing this and determine a participation grade by session throughout the semester.           

FINAL PROJECT

Write a strategic plan for your life. Use the findings in your journal to review your strengths and weaknesses, and identify the opportunities and threats facing you in your future. How will you address these? What are the alternatives you see in the future, what criteria will you use to decide your course? What action plans will you set in motion for the decision you have made. What conting4ency plans do you need to assure a successful and happy life? This is a serious project, and should be 10 – 15 pages in length.

The Following Policies Apply to All Students in this Course

A.   Students attending the course who do not have the proper prerequisite risk being deregistered from the class.

B.   Students have responsibility to ensure they are properly enrolled in classes.  You are advised to review your official class schedule (using Student Tools/Flashfast) during the first two weeks of the semester to ensure you are properly enrolled in this class and section.  Should you find an error in your class schedule, you have Sunday, September 7, 2008 to correct the error with your advising office.  If registration errors are not corrected by this date and you continue to attend and participate in classes for which you are not officially enrolled, you are advised now that you will not receive a grade at the conclusion of the semester for any class in which you are not properly registered.

C.   Academic Honesty:  Cheating means to misrepresent the source, nature, or other conditions of your academic work (e.g., tests, papers, projects, assignments) so as to get undeserved credit.  The use of the intellectual property of others without giving them appropriate credit is a serious academic offense.  It is the University's policy that cheating or plagiarism result in receiving a failing grade for the work or course.  Repeat offenses result in dismissal from the University.

D.  For Fall 2008, the course withdrawal deadline is Sunday, November 2, 2008.Withdrawal before the deadline results in a "W" on the official transcript; after the deadline a grade must be calculated and reported.

E.   Students with disabilities:  University policy 3342-3-18 requires that students with disabilities be provided

reasonable accommodations to ensure their equal access course content.  If you have a documented disability and require accommodations, please contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester to make arrangements for necessary classroom adjustments.  Please note, you must first verify your eligibility for these through the Student Accessibility Services (contact 330-672-3391 or visit www.registrars.kent.edu/disability  for more information on registration procedures).

LEADERSHIP AND MANAGERIAL ASSESSMENT

B AD 64158-001

Class Assignment and Content by Date

The following assignments are due on the day listed for the assignment.