GBUS 8704

Course Description

The premise of this course is that students can learn a great deal about leadership by studying the leadership of others. Values and ethics as essential elements of leadership are the central focus. The course will provide students with examples and models of ways in which leaders have incorporated ethics and values into many definitions of leadership. Students will have the opportunity to reflect on their own values and ethics as well as examine and build upon their own definition of leadership. Each session will be devoted to a different leader, focusing on their background, context, and type of leadership they displayed. Insights from these leaders and an array of readings on leadership will be used to foster reflection on what makes a great leader. The majority of leaders chosen for study, although familiar, are not business entrepreneurs or leaders of large corporations. The idea is to think more broadly about what makes great leadership by looking at a series of figures who offer a range of approaches to leadership and the value systems that can underlie it. Some leaders covered in past courses were Sir Ernest Shackleton, George Patton, Chairman Mao, Oscar Schindler, Mahatma Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mustafa Ataturk, Al Groh, Cynthia Cooper, Ann Fudge, and Muhammad Yunus. Our focus will be on these leaders, their stories, and how they connect values and leadership, but at the end of each study students will connect the discussions back to the present and their challenges as future leaders.