Leadership, Ethics, and Organizations

Catalog description

The reality of business life is that no person is an island—smart quantitative analysis without the support of employees, colleagues, or supervisors goes nowhere. To succeed in your career and to improve the performance of your company requires working with others effectively. The goal of LEO, therefore, is to prepare you to be an effective leader and manager of others regardless of your career path and to be a good analyst of how best to organize people. The course will accomplish these goals by focusing on three general factors that contribute to the performance of organizations—strong systems, solid leadership skills, and the ability to meet current challenges. First, what principles can you draw on to analyze and improve performance in organizations? Effective leaders understand the importance of systems for coordinating and motivating people, and organizing and distributing work. We will examine basic principles for designing effective systems. Second, do you have personal skills needed to be an effective leader? We will give you the chance to reflect on—and practice—your skills at leading others, building trust, making effective decisions, and negotiating successful outcomes. Finally, can you lead others in meeting the challenges of the global economy? We will focus on critical challenges such as developing a system for ethical decision making, harnessing the power of diversity, and staying competitive by organizing for innovation. This course is for Weekend Executive MBA students.