SYLLABUS

M&IS 34165, SECTION 001, CALL # 10802

DYNAMICS OF LEADERSHIP

SPRING 2009

KENT STATE UNIVERSITY

Kent, Ohio

PROFESSOR: Mr. David Lee Baker

ROOM: 108, College of Business Administration Building (COBA)

CLASS TIMES:  MONDAYS/WEDNESDAYS, 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

OFFICE HOURS: WEDNESDAYS, 12:15 – 2:15 PM and FRIDAYS, 2:00 – 5:00 PM

College of Business Administration, Room # A417, Fourth Floor, North End of the Building, in the Annex (across from copy room, near the elevator & small foyer)

E-MAIL: dlbaker1@gmail.com   

PROFESSOR’S PHONE: 330-672-1153, extension 1 (Voice Mail is 24/7)

DEPARTMENT OFFICE PHONE: 330-672-2750 (Pam Silliman, Senior Secretary)

DEPARTMENT FAX: 330-672-2953

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This is an upper-level course designed to give the student practical experience in Leadership Principles. The prerequisite for this course is Principles of Management course, M&IS 21463.  You must have taken that class prior to being registered in this Dynamics of Leadership course.

The principal method of instruction is casework along with lecture and examination.  You will                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     form a team during our first class session. This team will be yours for the remainder of the semester. You need to be an active member of the team during group projects and casework. The team (as a group) has the prerogative of dismissing you from their group if you do not support it by active attendance, work, and participation. Teams discuss this with me.  It will be extremely difficult for you to secure another team to join as the semester progresses.  At the end of the semester, there will be a peer review by your teammates, which may seriously affect your grade.

At this level of your college career, there should be no prodding by professors to get you to do the work on a daily basis.  This class will be run much like a graduate class. However, if the professor sees people not prepared, reading the cases for the first time in class, and holding up their teams, it is possible that your professor may revert to more classical teaching methods, as distasteful as they may be, to make sure that all students are fully prepared for each class activity.

OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE: This course is specifically intended to:

1.     Introduce you to various leadership models and help you develop your own definition of what it means to be a leader.

2.     Introduce you to the related elements of any leadership situation: personal characteristics, strategic thinking, influencing others, designing effective organizations, and managing change.

3.     Enable you to clarify your semiconscious values, assumptions, beliefs, and expectations about what it means to be an effective leader and to explore the functionality of those beliefs.

4.     Expose you to many excellent authors, both current and historical, who have made significant contributions to the subject of leadership.

5.     Assist you to develop skills in influencing others, whether or not you have positional authority.

6.     Cause you to reflect on and anticipate places in which (and methods in which) you will develop and extend your leadership abilities during your career and lifetime.

7.     Help you to learn practical skills about leadership through experiential exercises.

8.     Make it possible for you to anticipate and plan your leadership role within the business world.

9.     Prepare you to be a leader in society.

REQUIRED TEXTS:

There are two texts required:

1.     Baker, David Lee, ed., Leadership, New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin (Primis), Inc., 1^st edition, 2006, paperback, 504 pages, ISBN 0390735884, note that this is a brand new text and is only available through our local bookstores, unavailable online or from the publisher.  

(Hereinafter referred to as “T”, for Textbook).

2.     Clawson, James G., Practical Problems in Organizations: Cases in Leadership, Organizational Behavior, and Human Resources, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1^st edition, 2003, paperback, 468 pages, ISBN 0130083895, currently this text is out of print but the local bookstores do have some in both used and new versions.  May be online as well.

(Hereinafter referred to as “C”, for Casebook).

ASSIGNMENTS, PROJECTS, AND EXAMS

Your professor has given you, on the following spreadsheet, a proposed listing of the topics and chapters to be covered in each session.  This is a breakdown of how these will each work:

1.     Participation/Attendance (Both Team and Individual): There are two components to this grade. The first, worth 100 points, is an individual award determined by your unique participation in all class activities (predominantly classroom case discussions; see the next section for complete details on this).  The second part is an evaluation of each member of your team and his or her contributions to the overall team effort, by your teammates of you. This is valued at 50 points.  The total then for this overall specific portion of the grade is 150 points.

2.     Written Case Analyses (Team): For team projects on Case Analyses: You are to prepare each case individually and be prepared to discuss with your team and in our larger classroom session. Participation will be graded by both your teammates and by your professor.

Collectively, your team must hand in three separate cases, completely analyzed and typed according to the guidelines set forth in the class. All case questions must be answered as well. Note, this is not in outline format, but descriptive paragraphs using the outline ideas presented in class. You must use the long-cycle method on this part. This counts 300 points total, at 100 points for the each of the three cases.  One of these may be handled entirely as an in-class discussion, if there is active class discussion.  If so, this will be previously announced in class. 

3.     Book/Movie Reviews (Team): This is a very important part of the class. There are so many excellent books on the market in leadership that it would be impossible to read them all. Also, there are many good leadership movies as well.  On movies, you will prepare a report and select various clips or segments to show the class, which demonstrates the leadership principles, or lack thereof, to the class. Thus, we can greatly further our collective knowledge here by preparing report(s) on assigned book(s) (or chapters of books) and/or movies and distributing copies to your classmates. You will do this as a team and make a 15-minute team presentation on one or two books during the semester. You have some free rein here.  Your classmates will grade you on this one. This is worth 150 points towards your grade and in the team projects you, as an individual, will get the same grade that your team gets; in other words, everyone gets the same team score on this item. 

4.     Chapter (Textbook) Presentations (Team): This is another very essential portion of the class. While there are many great leadership textbooks on the market, it would be wonderful to have a smattering of them presented appropriately in our class, for all to learn well from. Thus, we will help each other by preparing report(s) on assigned book(s) (or chapters of books), mostly from our own Leadership Textbook answering questions from your audience, and distributing copies of Powerpoint Slides to your classmates. You will do this as a team and make an intelligent presentation on at least one textbook chapter during this semester. You have up to 1-¼-hour for this presentation.  You have some free rein here.  Your classmates will grade you on this, too. This is worth 200 points towards your grade and in the team projects you, as an individual, will get the same grade that your entire team gets; in other words, everyone gets the same team score on this item.  There may be individual book/chapter review tasks as well.

5.     Midterm Exam (Individual): This will be predominantly a multiple-choice test on terms, definitions, and understanding of the subject matter that will be held on the examination date. It will be a blue book type exam, and all work will be done in the classroom, closed book, individually. This will count 100 points towards your final grade and there may perhaps be 5-10 bonus points available.  You will have one hour and fifteen minutes for this exam.  There will be lecture preceding/subsequent to this exam. 

6.     Project (Team): There is a possible team project that will be due by Wednesday, May 6^th, based on the criteria to be determined. This should be not less than five (5) and not more than ten (10) typewritten pages, double-spaced, with appropriate margins (1”), footnotes and references, according to proper publication style guides.  Type font must be 11 points or larger.  This is worth 100 points towards your grade.  We will discuss this early on this term.

7.     Final Exam (Individual): This is a multiple-choice exam to be held on the examination date. It will be a blue book type exam, and all work will be done in the classroom, closed book, individually. This counts 100 points towards your final grade and there might be 5-10 bonus points available.  It will be comprehensive in nature as it will likely include everything covered during this semester.  You will have two hours and fifteen minutes for this exam.

PARTICIPATION/ATTENDANCE:

For each class session (this applies particularly to the case discussion sessions) it is expected that:

1.      Students will be prepared.  For a theory session this would mean that the student has read the assigned chapter(s) and is familiar with the concepts and the tools contained within the readings.  For a case study session it means having read and analyzed the case and coming to class with a prepared set of personal notes that contains your best thoughts on the subject.  Study questions are given to highlight the key issues and to guide your analyses.  Should students be unprepared for class, written assignments and/or quizzes based upon chapters or cases will be assigned on the spot.

2.      Students will be active participants in class.  In theory sessions this would mean that students answer questions offered by the professor, ask their own questions, and volunteer insights or experiences about that particular topic(s).  Students may be called upon to speak about an issue.  During case analysis sessions, it means that you contribute your own ideas as well as building upon, agreeing with, or disagreeing with ideas and opinions expressed by your classmates.  You may be called upon to present your analysis or to lead a particular discussion.  You cannot be an active participant unless you are always fully prepared for each and every class.

Credit for participation will be earned as follows:

Session Contributor = 1 Point.  When you contribute your understanding (either voluntarily or when prompted by your professor), or pose interesting, thought-provoking questions, you gain one point for each session.  You don’t, however, gain multiple points, just one point maximum per class, in order to give everyone an opportunity to participate.  You should be ready and try to contribute then in every single class.

Prepared Student = 0 Points.  Completing your assigned work by the indicated date in this syllabus is a requirement and not a source of credit.  You will only receive points here for participation in class.

Unprepared Student = -1 Point.  Students are expected to have completed the assigned work prior to attending each class.  If you are called upon and found to be unprepared, a point shall be subtracted from your overall participation score.  Should you find that you have an honest, unexpected emergency (please see the section entitled: “Students’ Absences, Missed Classes/Exams” on pages 6-7, below) that precludes you from completing your assignments, then please see me prior to class, and if I agree that you had a valid excuse, I may then exempt you from receiving the unprepared student deduction for that day’s class only. 

Point System and Scoring for Participation/Attendance Points:

There are 16 weeks during this semester.  We have 12 class case meetings (on most Wednesdays during our term.  Some sessions may be excluded for obvious reasons (these will be pointed out by your professor in advance of each session).  Generally, every session that involves a case discussion will have available participation points.  Therefore, there are a total of 18 sessions at which you should be expected to participate.  A score of 10+ would thus be considered excellent (or “A”) work then.  Other grades follow in similar fashion on this grading scale.  Below is a spreadsheet showing your potential percentage score. 

TESTS:

There will be two exams; a mid-term and a final.  All tests and other items will occur in class, unless otherwise mentioned or announced.  Study guides will be provided at least one week before all exams.  The final exam will be comprehensive, however, the emphasis is on the last half.

OFFICE HOURS:  

Office hours for the semester will be held (tentatively) according to the schedule on page one of this syllabus.  Should those dates/times not work for your own calendar please call me to suggest alternative times.  It is best to call first for an appointment before just stopping by as I may be with other students or faculty and there could be a bit of a wait.  I prefer calls.  Leave a message if you must.  I check voice mail several times throughout the day but e-mail much less often.  If you are having problems in the course, please see me immediately; don’t wait until semester end.

GRADING:

There will be a total of 1,000 points available to determine your grade. The criteria for grading is divided as follows

1.     Participation/Attendance: 150 points       See Syllabus Calendar (This is total for both parts)

2.     Written Case Analyses:     300 points       See Syllabus Calendar

3.     Book/Movie Review(s):    150 points       See Syllabus Calendar

4.     Chapter Presentation(s):    200 points       See Syllabus Calendar

5.     Midterm Exam:                 100 points       March 11^th, In Class, 11:00 a.m.

6.     Team Project:                    TBD                May 6^th, Due No Later Than 11:00 a.m., In Class

7.     Final Exam:                       100 points       May 11^th, 10:00 – 12:15 p.m.; Note Time Change!

Total:                                       1,000 points

To determine your overall percentage course grade, divide your total earned points by ten (10), and then use the following chart to ascertain your corresponding final, course letter grade:

A         100.00 – 90.00 points

B         89.99 – 80.00

C         79.99 – 70.00

D         69.99 – 60.00

F          59.99 and Below

CLASSROOM DECORUM:

So as not to disturb classmates, your professor expects that there will be no reading or talking during lectures, as well as no eating or chewing gum in class.  Cell phones, pagers and beepers must be turned off upon entering the classroom.  If a student’s device rings during class or an exam the professor reserves the right to ask that student to leave the room for the remainder of that class period.  Please don’t let it happen a second time as other actions may be necessary.  This is in accordance with the University policy on disruptions in the classroom.

SYLLABUS:

While this is intended to be a reasonably strict overview of this course it is not a contract.  Things happen; accidents, emergencies, weather conditions, catastrophes, and the like, and this syllabus is therefore tentative.  As leaders you need to be flexible to change and understanding of that dynamic.  Your professor will always give you as much lead time as possible on all changes, so that you have ample time to prepare, generally no less than one or two weeks.

STUDENTS’ ABSENCES, MISSED ACTIVITIES/CLASSES/EXAMS, ETC.:

Along the same line as things that can happen above, your professor realizes that circumstances may occur in your schedule as well that could preclude your attendance for class activities; such as work commitments and travel out of town, family emergencies/events, accidents, etc.  Advance notice to me will most always be required.  Then notify your team captain.  The only exceptions to this notice are serious illness or death in your immediate family.  Makeups will be available for the two exams only.  If the item you may miss is a team commitment, then your team should help carry your weight.  You will need to provide written proof of any absence to be excused, usually in the form of an original doctor’s note or hospital bill.  It is not realistic to come to me after the exam or event and explain a situation, other than a dire emergency, and expect to have a makeup exam.  You (or your representatives) will need to notify me within 48 hours of a missed activity.

PRESENTATION SKILLS:

The ability to properly present topics of importance to your classmates, colleagues, clients, stakeholders, and supervisors is essential in both life and the business world.  It is possible that, shall time permit, we will do some exercises in this vital area.  You will each be expected to present to the class, both individually and within teams, sometime during this semester.  Please contact me early on in this course should you have any concerns about presenting in class.

REGULAR LOGGING ONTO FLASHLINE WEBSITE:

You will need to regularly and often log onto and read all entries in FlashLine, My Courses, Dynamics of Leadership.  It is expected that you will log onto this site and pay attention to all new items posted at least twice a week, no later than 9:30 a.m. on Class Days.  A major portion of your participation and attendance points comes from both this activity and classroom attendance and participation in all scheduled class activities.  In order to save paper and avoid killing more trees, many of the items that you will need to read for this course will be posted there, instead of handing them out in class.  Many of these will be in PDF Format (Adobe Acrobat Reader).  You may print them out from the website if you so choose.  It will be imperative for you to have Adobe on your home (or office) computer(s).  This is available from a free download from their site.  Some files will be in Powerpoint, Word, and/or Excel format, and it is also good to have these software items on your computer(s); or at the very least have access to them on another computer.  Note that most (if not all) KSU computer labs have these programs and you may avail yourself of them in their labs.  The College of Business (2^nd floor) has a computer lab that is open every day during the semester.  If you are having problems accessing the FlashLine Website please see me immediately.  Do not wait until the end of the term to explain difficulties.

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.

Students have the responsibility to ensure that 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 until Friday, January 30, 2009 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.

B.     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.   In addition, it is considered to be cheating when one cooperates with someone else in any such misrepresentation.  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.

C.    For Fall Semester 2008, the course withdrawal deadline is Sunday, April 5^th, 2009

D.    University policy 3342-3-18 requires that students with disabilities be provided reasonable accommodations to ensure their equal access 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 Disability Services (contact 330-672-3391 or visit www.registrars.kent.edu/disability for more information on registration procedures).  Should this apply to you, your professor wishes that you so inform him on the first day that you attend his class.  Please do not wait until exam time to provide this information, as that does not allow ample preparation time.  Thank you.

Below is the tentative class schedule for our first fourteen class meetings.  Future agendas will be handed out usually on a monthly basis, one or two weeks prior to the first calendar day of each month.  Should you have conflicts or other concerns and wish to see any portion of the schedule ahead of time please visit with your professor.

Please note that Monday, January 19^th, 2009 is Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, a Legal Holiday, and there will be NO CLASS on that day.  Our first meeting will be that Weds.

Also there will be NO CLASS on February 21^st in lieu of our Rec Center Activity.