LEADERSHIP

The course is delivered within the Global Accounting and Finance master’s degree programme. Leadership represents an important social process that influences the effectiveness of corporate decisions. In the recent years, the changes that organizations are facing are increasingly questioning the effective methods for applying leadership. In the firm environments increasingly characterized by flat structures that promote empowerment processes, in which the work is carried out by adopting agile, team and project-based organizational solutions, the ability of leading people has become paramount to attain business performance. The course aims to provide the student with the knowledge for analyzing and understanding the leadership process from an organizational perspective and with the ability of interpreting those behaviors associated with an effective leadership in the business context.

Through the attendance of classes, the individual and group activities assignments proposed during the course, as well as through the individual study, the student will acquire the following knowledge and understanding skills:
Knowledge and understanding: to learn the basic definition of the concept and components of the leadership process and how leadership differs from management; to understand the differences among the theoretical approaches to leadership and how they have evolved over time; to become aware of the different leadership styles that can be adopted to build a resonant relationship with the followers; to understand the principles of ethical leadership.
Application of knowledge and understanding: to evaluate the different leadership’s theoretical frameworks considering their implication on group and corporate decision making; to compare the different behaviors that pertain to different leadership styles and to identify the contextual factors that lead to adopt specific solutions; to practice leadership’s behaviors in simulated and real-life contexts.
Ability to formulate judgements: to analyze and critically evaluate the contextual factors that influence the adoption of the leadership behaviors; to become aware of the personal leaderships styles and understand how to choose the most appropriate behaviors according to the characteristics of the situations.

There are not specific prerequisites. The course is addressed to students enrolled in Master’s degree courses (second order cycle).

The course will address the following topics.

In the first part of the course, the issue of leadership will be discussed considering different perspectives and adopting an evolutionary approach. The course will provide the knowledge to understand how the changes occurred in the organizational and technological context have led to the transition to different models of leadership, up to considering the emerging models.
- Introduction to leadership: What is leadership and why study it
- The evolution of leadership theory

In the second part of the course, the issue of leadership will be addressed considering the main organizational processes and the related behaviors through which leadership can be effectively manifested:
- Resonant leadership styles
- Self-leadership
- Inspirational leadership: Elaborating and communicating a compelling vision
- Aggregating leadership: Creating a sense of belonging to the team
- Supportive leadership: Developing followers
- Participative leadership: Promoting a democratic decision-making process
- Demanding leadership: Setting challenging goals
- Directive leadership: Providing clear direction in emergency times

Mandatory readings are listed below:
- Materials of the course
- Collins J. and Porras J.I., 1996. Building your company’s vision. Harvard Business Review. September-October, 65-77.
- Kotter, J.P., 2001. What leaders really do. Harvard Business Review.

The materials of the course will be available in the Moodle space of the course and consist of:
- pdf presentations discussed during the class sessions;
- journaling guidelines and template;
- personal development plan guidelines and template;
- peer-coaching guidelines and template:
- group project and peer evaluation templates.

Suggested readings:
- Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R.E., McKee, A., 2013. Primal leadership. Unleashing the power of emotional intelligence. Harvard Business Review, Boston MA. Part I, Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Written exam and assessment of the individual and group assignments. Due to the experiential learning approach which characterizes the course, students are encouraged to attend the classes.

Students’ final grade in this course will be based on the following weighting:
• 50% written exam
• 50% assignments activities during the course. For students attending the classes the assignments will be carried out during the course, whereas for students who are not able to attend classes, the assignment is a written essay on a specific issue addressed during the course and defined in advance with the instructor, thus students are invited to contact the instructor to define the topic that they wish to address in the leadership essay. Guidelines for the assignments are provided in the Moodle page of the course.

With regard the final grade:
A. scores 18-22 age will be assigned if the student shows:
- sufficient knowledge and comprehension with reference to the program;
- sufficient ability to analyse and interpret leadership behaviours, making independent judgments;
- sufficient communication skills, especially in relation to the use of the specific language related to the leadership field.
B. scores 23-26 will be assigned if the student shows:
- fair knowledge and comprehension with reference to the program;
- fair ability to analyse and interpret leadership behaviours, making independent judgments;
- fair communication skills, especially in relation to the use of the specific language related to the leadership field.
C. scores 27-30 range will be awarded if the student shows:
- good knowledge and comprehension with reference to the program;
- good ability to analyse and interpret leadership behaviours, making independent judgments;
- good communication skills, especially in relation to the use of the specific language related to the leadership field.
D. honours will be awarded in the presence of excellent knowledge, comprehension and judgement skills of the leadership process and behavioural styles.

Written exam and assessment of the individual and group assignments. Due to the experiential learning approach which characterizes the course, students are encouraged to attend the classes. The assessment process will be different for attending and non-attending students.

The course will engage students adopting the following learning methods:
- in-class lessons;
- presentation and discussion of video-clips that introduce or exemplify the topics of the course;
- presentation and discussion in the classroom of case studies illustrating the behaviors associated with leadership;
- role-playing games and simulations;
- role modeling and executives invited speakers who will report cases and examples of the leadership process;
- assignments to be carried out in small groups or individually that allow students to bring the concepts learned back to practice. Students will be involved in techniques which will support them during their learning path, such as multi-rater assessment of their leadership styles, journaling to improve their capacity of self-reflection on their learning experience, peer-coaching with other members of the class

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Questo insegnamento tratta argomenti connessi alla macroarea "Capitale umano, salute, educazione" e concorre alla realizzazione dei relativi obiettivi ONU dell'Agenda 2030 per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile