Instructor:                         Daniel Barbee

Office Hours:                    10 - 12 TR
                                         3:15 - 3:45 TR
                                         For Graduate students, by Appointment

Office:                               Business Administration Bldg. #118A

Office Telephone:              910-521-6637 or 521-6531

E-mail:                               daniel.barbee@uncp.Edu
Home:                                dbarbee@ac.net

Class Meeting:                    6:30 - 9:30 W

Location:                             222, BA Building

Course Objectives: This course has two basic objectives:

1. To facilitate your further leadership development by exposure to the models, ideas, insights and research results from traditional research literature, modern leadership writings, and classic literature and films.

2. To enable you to learn more about yourself as a leader by critical assessment, reflective activities, and dialogue on a variety of leadership topics.

Course Philosophy

There are exciting and challenging times for leaders and aspiring leaders alike. Perhaps more than at virtually any prior point, effective leadership holds the promise of enormous social, political, and economic benefit--generally improvements in the quality of life around the world. Those who believe they are or have been ethical, valuable leaders and those who believe they offer sound and sage advice to leaders seem to be generating a near explosion of literature, training programs, and commentaries. Yet the secular performance of many social, political, and economic institutions seems to be adrift--clearly suggesting that we may not yet have located and put into workable form even the existing leadership knowledge.

These are limitations to be transcended by those who are willing to commit first to learning and then to practicing leadership. I believe that leadership is very risky business and also very difficult. My view is that each individual is the ultimate test of leadership and that one's own life really is a leadership portrait that can dim or become brighter with the passage of time and every effort to lead.

Course Plan

This seminar emphasizes the leadership of organizations--corporations, agencies, and others--but it is also centered on the larger, inclusive, phenomenon of leadership in a variety of organizational and social settings.

This course is a seminar--and therefore has the following characteristics: It is a group of advanced students who meet regularly with the professor to develop and exchange ideas to assess and discuss the application of those ideas in real professional and personal settings. As a seminar, our class will rely less on lectures by the professor and instead on the contributions made by the advanced students who populate the class.

The course plan is designed to facilitate a true seminar atmosphere--one of mutual gain through sharing, dialogue, and constructive criticism. Civility is essential, and it is the responsibility of each student to be fully committed to the seminar as a mutual-gain enterprise.

Leadership is a subject fraught with controversy, and at times it is likely to be the case that some of our materials, activities, and discussions will stir our passions and emotions. I believe that leadership is a form of human activity laden with values, conflicts, and ethical crucibles (meaning tests or trials). To raise these considerations is an essential component of the course plan. At the same time, I plan for us to be as objective and analytically elegant as we can be so as to facilitate our capacity for drawing reasonable inferences from the course context and to build on these inferences to create a useful and reliable set of logically-linked generalizations--a model--to use for our own guidance.

Texts/Materials

The course requires one text and a selected set of humanities-based cases.

Text: Jon Pierce and John Newstrom, editors, LEADERS AND THE LEADERSHIP PROCESS: READINGS, SELF ASSESSMENTS AND APPLICATIONS ( BURR RIDGE: AUSTEN PRESS, 1995).

Cases: 1. Mahatma Gandhi

2. Lord of the Flies

3. The Prince

4. Henry V

5. Norma Rae

6. Gandhi

7. Lord of the Flies (1989 version)

Classic Leadership Cases, Hartwick Humanities in Management Institute, Hartwick College, 1997.

General Comments of the Course

The seminar is comprised of five related components: First, the initial component of the seminar is based on the idea that we can progress efficiently through much of the traditional literature during approximately 50 - 60% of the course. This component of the course, in the classes, will consist primarily of a brief framing or overview lecture (by the professor) followed by a presentation and student-led discussion of the readings on the topic assigned.

The second component of the course consists of examinations and critical analysis of leadership cases (and films) drawn from classical works in the humanities. The same approach will be followed as with the traditional and recent research and theoretical literature.

The third component of the course emphasizes your reading and derivative summary of insights and lessons-learned from the leadership literature that is less pure research and often targeted to the general audience or popular market. These summaries will be linked (by you) to the traditional research on leadership.

The fourth component of this seminar is the student presentation of a short (10-12 pages--about 2500 words) research-based essays. More later on this and suitable topics.

The fifth component of the course is self-assessment, which will consist of your assessment in the form of a leadership journal and several brief self-assessments which I will provide.

Course Requirements and Grades

1. Two developmental essay exams #1 10%

(Outside exams) #2 10%

2. Book Summary & Presentations 10%

3. Research-Based Essay 30%

4. Leadership Journal 20%

5. Class Contribution/Participation 20%

Total for Grade 100%

Grades

Letter grades are assigned on a ten-point scale according to the weights shown. Please read the UNCP Catalog for more information on these grades, and on graduate grading policies at UNCP. Additionally, graduate grading will be discussed in class:

A = 90 - 100

B = 80 - 89

C = 70 - 79

F = 69 or less

Course Policies

Academic Dishonesty: My policy is the same as that found in the UNCP Academic Honor Code, effective August 22, 1988: "Students have the responsibility to know and observe the UNCP

Academic Honor Code. This code forbids cheating, plagiarism, abuse of academic materials, fabrication, or falsification of information, and complicity in academic dishonesty. Any special requirements or permission regarding academic honesty in this course will be provided to students in writing at the beginning of the course, and are binding on the students. Academic evaluations in this course include a judgement that the student's work is free from academic dishonesty of any type; and grades in this course therefore shall be and will be adversely affected by academic dishonesty.

Students who violate the code can be dismissed from the University. The normal penalty for a first offense is a F in the course. Standards of academic honor will be enforced in this course. Students are expected to report cases of academic dishonesty to the instructor." Section VI.

All work which you submit must be in your words except for carefully referenced quotations or credits. No strings of quotations or paraphrased meaning are permitted. Plagiarism is intellectual dishonesty and will not be tolerated.

Instructor's Attendance Policy

Attendance will be monitored each class period; however, no grade credit will be given for attendance and no specific penalty will be assessed for missing class. Frequent absence is likely to result in the student's falling behind and not knowing about information addressed in class. A single missed class represents a significant amount the class time for the course. Chronic absenteeism or tardiness adversely affects performance, grades, and demonstrates less than acceptable commitment to graduate education.

Instructor Assistance

I am available during office hours and by appointment, and at other times in an emergency. If you experience difficulty, or would just like to discuss class materials, careers, the program, etc. , I am always pleased to help you or be a good listener. Problems can only be resolved if you tell me about them.

COURSE SCHEDULE

NOTE: The following schedule of topics and assignment is for guidance and pacing. Adjustments in it may be made at the discretion of the instructor. Additional readings may be assigned for depth and perspective.

DATE TOPICS MATERIALS

Aug 22 Course Overview Syllabus

29 Part 1 Bolman/Deal (B/D)

SEPT 5 Part 2/3 (B/D)

12 Continued

19 Part 4/5 (B/D)
 

26 Continued
 

OCT 3 Part 6 (B/D)
 

10 Part 6 (B/D)

Developmental Exam #1
 

17 Holiday
 

24 Parts I & II Senge (S)
 

31 Parts III & IV (S)
 

NOV 7 Parts IV & V (S)
 

14 Continued

Developmental Exam #2
 

21 Presentations
 

28-29 Holiday
 

DEC 5 Presentations

Papers Due

12 FINAL EXAM
 
 
 

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