module specification

This module provides students with an understanding to both traditional and contemporary theories of leadership. It examines how cumulative knowledge of leadership theory, from Trait to more recent Authentic approaches, can contribute to leading and managing business organisations. Through the use of self-report questionnaires students will be helped to identify their leadership style and preferences.  With a thorough grounding in normative theory the focus of the module then turns to leader behaviours including hubristic leadership and the use of  power, politics and conflict.

Power, politics and conflict in organisations can either increase productivity and efficiency or reduce them substantially. Political processes can determine organisational existence and strategic direction. For instance, restructuring can be stimulated either by internal political struggles or by external market conditions, and in the process the lives and careers of employees can be altered, not always positively, which can give rise to an unfolding processes of dysfunctional conflict.  
Understanding the impact of leaders’ behaviour on others, particularly in terms of power, politics and conflict is crucial to understanding how to manage and lead an organisation to success.The need for power (nPow- identified by McClelland) is often accompanied by political tactics, such as forming coalitions to increase the likelihood of achieving a goal beyond the grasp of the leader alone. In such circumstances uncertainty reduction (goal setting) and open communication (with peers, superiors and subordinates) are examples of how the impact of strategic change can be managed on a day-to-day basis.

Students on this module will have opportunities to enhance their goal setting and communication skills, developed earlier, and to develop key skills such as negotiation and persuasion as a means of dealing with conflict and morale issues  that can arise when managing and leading people.     

  
The  module aims to:
1. Develop students understanding of leadership theory;
2. Help students to identify their own leadership styles and preferences;
3. Develop students understanding of, and ability to manage, power, politics and conflict in organisations.
4. Provide students with opportunities to develop their negotiation and persuasion skills.

There are four main themes

Leadership theory: the first part of this module is devoted to exploring leadership theory- what it is, how it helps to provide a framework for leading organisations, the difference between transformational and transactional leadership styles; the influence of situational variables on leadership style; the development of students’ own leadership style.
Fairhurst’s (2007) discursive approach to leadership will be discussed.  LO1

Power, Politics and Conflict: the idea of the ‘transformational’ leader is extremely popular without apparent understanding of its susceptibility to the ‘dark side’ which can manifest itself in issues of power, politics and conflict. The second main theme of this module provides students with an understanding of the nature, sources and consequences of power and its use, how it can lead to both macro and micro organisational politics and to dysfunctional conflict. Students will be introduced to strategies that offset negative organisational power and politics, for instance using path-goal theory.  LO2

Leading:  and the importance of ‘vision’. Leading the organisation or unit to success is the third theme in this module. Its focus is on the impact of leading behaviour on followers, groups and teams. The role of emotional intelligence in leading (see Mullins,(2010, 9th edn, Ch 10).  LO3

Negotiating and Persuasion: are among the skills that are crucial for managing and leading in all organisations. This element of the module
focuses on the development of these skills LO4

This module ask students to discuss their leadership style, hence the scope for PDP and reflexivity.  The module provides 3-hour face-to-face contact per week which will be utilised in a variety of approaches including, lectures, tutorials, workshops, flipped classrooms, guided learning and discussion groups.
Learning activities will be supported by multimedia, including videos, self-administered questionnaires, student centred discussions, guest speakers and virtual lectures.  A strong student-centred focus means that concepts of action and experiential learning will be emphasised and students will be encouraged to focus on their own creative experience and observers of leadership. 
Weblearn:  will be used for the distribution of module material and it will also be used as an interactive mechanism between students and tutors, for example, to direct students to particular readings or to provide news about the module or the module content. It will also be used for the timely provision of generic feedback following formative assessment.

These learning outcomes are based on the integration of the Quality Assurance Agency for higher education (QAA) subject benchmark statement requirements and the CMI requirements.

On successful completion of this module students will be able to:

LO1:   analyse traditional and contemporary approaches to leadership
           and discuss how these can be combined and adapted to enhance
           leadership in organisations; students will have a thorough grounding in
           leadership theory, commencing with the Trait approach through to George’s
           more recent Authentic’  approach as well as an introduction to Fairhurst’s
           (2007) Discursive Leadership; in addition, they will undertake a series of
           self-assessment questionnaires to determine their own leadership style and
           preference, and how they can be adapted to meet changing needs; students
           will be able to evaluate how a leader supports and develops understanding
           of the organisations’ strategy.  

LO2:   discuss the impact of power, politics and conflict on organisations
           and employees;  students will have an opportunity to learn how power works
           in organisations and to examine some of the political tactics employed in
           various situations ; the difference between constructive dissent and
           confrontational conflict and how both can be handled to best effect.

LO3:  building on the work in LO1 and LO2 students will have a sound
           understanding of  what ‘being a leader’ means in behavioural terms as
           opposed to the position of leadership; students will focus on the impact of
           leader behaviour on followers and teams; they will understand how values
           drive behaviours, the impact of organisational culture, how trust is deployed,
           built or destroyed and its impact on performance; 

LO4:   understand the role of negotiation and persuasion strategies and the need
           for both these essential skills; students will have opportunities to develop
           both these skills and be able to demonstrate their competence on
           successful  completion of this module.

In describing the assessment strategy, describe how:

There are three formal assessment points which are designed to enhance students learning.

The first is a group presentation where students can demonstrate their understanding of leadership theory and how the combination of several theories
can help to provide a deeper understanding of organisational leadership. Having completed self-administered questionnaires on their leadership styles and preferences, this presentation will expect students to evaluate their style against theory. For instance, how does an autocratic style fit with George’s theory of authentic leadership?

The second assessment is an individual coursework consisting of 2,500 words on the critical analysis of the roles of power, politics and conflict in a case study.

The third assessment is also a group presentation designed to illustrate leader behaviours employed to resolve an organisational issue.  
   
Formative assessment and feedforward will support students in developing for summative assessments.  The timely provision of feedback will comply with university policy.

Textbooks:

Core Textbooks:
Northouse, P. (2013) Leadership: Theory and Practice, (6th edn). London: Sage
Mullins, L.J. (2010) Management and Organisational Behaviour. (9th Edn) Harlow: Pearson Education.
Wagner, J.A. & Hollenbeck, J.R. (2015) Organisational Behaviour: Securing Competitive Advantage. Oxon: Routledge.

Additional Textbooks :
Fairhurst, G.T. (2007) Discursive Leadership: in conversation with leadership psychology. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Gill, R. (2006),  Theory and Practice of Leadership. London: Sage  
Grint. K. (2010) Leadreship: a very short introduction. Oxford:  OUP.
Grint, K. (2000) The Arts of Leadership. Oxford: OUP.
Kouzes, J.M., and Posner, B.Z. (2008) The Leadership Challenge, (4th edn). San Francisco: Jossey Bass
Pedlar, M., Burgoyne, J., and Boydell, T. (2004) A Manager’s Guide to Leadership. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill.
Sadler-Smith, E. (2016) Hubris in business and management research: a 30-year review of studies. In: Garrard, P and Robinson, G (eds) The intoxication of Power: Interdisciplinary Insights. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan pp.39-74. 
Sadler-Smith, E, Akstinaite, V., Robinson, G. and Wray, T. (2016) Hubristic leadership: A review.  Leadership (0) 1-24.

Journals:
Leadership
The Leadership Quarterly

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