DPLS 700su08 Leadership Theory
DPLS 700 - Leadership Theory
Summer 2008 3 Credits
Professor: Dr. Shann Ferch
Office Hours: By Appointment
Class days: 6:00-10:00 pm, Thurs., plus 1 Fri.
Class Dates: June 26, July 3, 10, 17, 24, 31, Aug 1
email: ferch@gonzaga.edu
School and Department Theme Statement:
The Doctoral Program in Leadership Studies and the School of Professional Studies at Gonzaga University seek to build "people for others," people able to define their own sense of identity, live within a moral framework, and articulate and advance social justice.
Course Overview:
The search for a way of understanding and engaging leadership on personal, organizational, and global levels is both elusive and complex. Yet, when individual people, families, organizations, or nations find the resonance that true leadership brings, they are imbued with a sense of joy, and a form of will and fulfillment that is inviolable. This class focuses primarily on a rich and multi-faceted understanding of leadership, emergent leadership theory and practice, and the formulation of one’s own personal stance on the theory and practice of leadership.
Course Objectives and Goals:
This course promotes the understanding of:
1. two predominant underlying philosophies of leadership (Nietzsche’s will to power and Frankl’s will to meaning);
2. emergent leadership theories (such as transformational leadership, relational leadership, appreciative inquiry, and servant-leadership);
3. general principles of leadership theory and practice;
4. dialogue and experiential-based learnings regarding leadership;
5. the use of films to encounter leadership in the moment;
6. the development of a personal leadership stance on the theory and practice of leadership
7. the understanding of the self in relation to leadership theory and practice.
Texts for the Course:All About Love: New Visions
by bell hooks
Man’s Search for Ultimate Meaning
by Victor E. Frankl
The Will to Meaning: Foundations and Applications of Logotherapy
by Victor E. Frankl
The Will to Power
by Friedrich Nietzsche (translated by Kaufman)
Leadership: Theory and Practice
by Peter G. Northouse (the most recent edition)
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High
by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler, Stephen R. Covey
Traditional Classics on Leadership
by J. Thomas Wren (Editor), Douglas A. Hicks (Editor), Terry L. Price(Editor)
Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry (2nd edition)
by Sue Annis Hammond
To the Wedding
by John Berger
Practicing Servant-Leadership: Succeeding Through Trust, Bravery, and Forgiveness
by Larry C. Spears (Editor), Michele Lawrence(Editor)
Why I Wake Early: New Poems
by Mary Oliver
Thirst: Poems
by Mary Oliver
Learning Activities and Evaluation:
Grades will be based on:
40% Personal leadership paper: due the final class
The paper is graded with regard to three equally-weighted elements:
Creativity--writing style, writing voice, arrangement of thoughts and arguments, etc.
Construction--structure, grammar, clarity, simplicity, etc.
Critical Thought--depth, skill of argument, density of critical judgment, etc.
Doctoral level work is of highest quality both in content and presentation. Grades are assigned as follows:
A 95-100% B+ 85-89% C+ 70-74%
A- 90-94% B 80-84% C Not acceptable at Ph. D. level
B- 75-79%
Assignments to be handed in at the end of the course:
1) The Personal Leadership Paper
Write a 20-page paper (16-17 pages of text; 3-4 pages of references), of publishable quality in a peer-reviewed journal of leadership and organizational theory and practice, in which you frame a leadership problem (personal, organizational, or global) through self-responsibility. Choose one of the emergent theories of leadership as a backbone of the paper (appreciative inquiry, relational leadership, servant-leadership, transformational leadership, etc.), and draw upon both Nietzsche and Frankl. Include in the paper a life-affirming stance that answers to the cynicism, hypocrisy, and nihilism of the contemporary age. Also include a self-assessment of two of your leadership weaknesses; to do this, ask key loved ones, mentors, and colleagues what they view as your primary relational weaknesses, engage in forgiveness-asking with at least one person regarding one of your weaknesses, and speak to the insights you gained from the process. Seamlessly embed your self-assessment and the insights from your forgiveness-asking, into the larger paper. Generally, the paper should have 2 to 5 citations per paragraph in order to provide a scholarly and critically rich foundation for the vision you put forward in the paper.
2) Final Presentation:In the final class you will present a symbolic personal integration of your learnings from the class, and specifically the Personal Leadership Paper. This will include an assignment you are to complete anytime during the semester, in which you will spend 1 hour in silence for the purpose of: 1) self-reflection 2) listening to God as you perceive God and 3) seeking to understand your personal relationship to leadership. This 1 hour alone and in silence, plus an integration of how course assignments, readings, and conversations deepened your personal understanding of leadership. Bring one physical object that symbolizes your learnings, and discuss it in class (5 to 10 minutes).
Schedule of Class Topics and Reading Assignments:
Session Topic Reading Completed
1 a. Knowing one another
b. Introduction to course
2 a. Above and below the line Frankl & Nietzsche
b. Transformational Leadership Northouse
c. All About Love, bell hooks hooks
3 a. Relational Leadership Wren, Hicks, & Price
b. Crucial Conversations, Patterson et al. Patterson et al.
4 a. Positive sentiment override; 4 horsemen
b. Appreciative Inquiry, Sue Hammond Hammond
c. To the Wedding, John Berger Berger
5 a. The 10 Characteristics
b. Servant Leadership Spears & Lawrence
c. Why I Wake Early, Mary Oliver Oliver
6 a. Inventory: end & instrumental value
b. MLK’s servant leadership
c. Thirst, Mary Oliver Oliver
7 a. Personal Leadership Paper due
b. present a symbol: your personal leadership stance
*** Note: have books in bold above read for the class session in which they are listed; often we will have a dialogue on the particular book listed. Books in the far right column are to be read as overall background for your own leadership theory and practice library.
** this class has been taught in accordance with the Gonzaga U. Fair Process Manual**
