Leadership in Complex EnvironmentsLaajuus (5 cr)

Objective

This course is designed to provide an introduction to leadership in volatile, unknown, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environments, the impact of VUCA environments on uncertainty and anxiety, and actions leaders can take to reduce uncertainty and support employee psychological safety.

Emphasis in the course is on the practice of leadership. The course will examine topics such as: developing leadership skills, creating a vision, setting the tone, handling conflict, overcoming obstacles, and addressing ethics in leadership. Attention will be given to helping students to understand and improve their own leadership performance. This course is intended to provide you with different perspectives on leadership and the ways in which the concept of “Leadership” differs from that of “Management”. The emphasis of the course will be on case studies which will allow us to examine leadership through the conceptual lenses supplied by the assigned readings. The emphasis will be on looking at management (broadly defined) and organizations as complex socio-technical systems.

The main goal for this course is to provide students with an understanding of the theory and concepts underlying the practice of leadership. A secondary goal for this course is for students to develop the basic decision-making skills associated with leadership. In order to facilitate these goals, students will be exposed to a variety of information and experience through readings and business cases.
The course suits well for students who want to further deepen their understanding of leadership, and especially in complex operating environments.

After completing of the course, the students will
• gain an awareness of their own leadership philosophy, traits, skills, and behaviors.
• gain through real-world observation exercises an understanding of the fundamental ways leadership is practiced in on-going organizations.
• gain through reflection and action activities an understanding and appreciation for ways to improve what they do as leaders
• be able to study and review longer academic research incorporating writing skills
• demonstrate an ability to engage in discussions of leadership issues
• recognize the importance of ethics in the decision making process.
• demonstrate an understanding of diversity, the global marketplace, and related workforce issues

Content

• leadership framework
• values and beliefs
• volatile, unknown, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environments
• leadership and uncertainty
• leadership and psychological safety
• leadership and psychological resilience
• performance coaching
• challenging and facilitating
• effective feedback