MGT 540 - Leadership Lessons from the Arts & Humanities

This course draws heavily on the arts and literature to uncover important lessons for leadership in today’s modern organizations. Throughout the course we will address such issues as: the roles of vertical and shared leadership; the role of perceptions; the role of power; the importance of culture; the importance of socialization; the importance of managing conflict; and the importance of managing change.  Most class sessions will be comprised of reviewing and discussing the leadership lessons derived from four components: (1) a film that will be viewed prior to the class session; (2) a couple of professional articles or book chapters; (3) a couple of short stories; and (4) artistic works.   Beyond the course materials and class discussions, your project for the course will be the analysis of the leadership of a team in organization.  You will need to negotiate access for this purpose so you will want to initiate the search for a suitable team very early and should ideally have a team identified before the beginning of the course.  Throughout the course you will be provided with several "tools" to assist you in your leadership analysis project.