Northern Arizona University Honors Program

University Honors Program Spring 2003

Honors 191: Section 3 (SLN 10750)

Seminar in Critical Reading and Writing II

Leadership Theory and Practice

Instructor: Bruce Fox, Ph.D.

Office Hours: Open door and by appointment

Class Meeting Time: TuTh 9:35am-10:50am

Phone/Office: 523.6636/Room 107 Cowden Hall

e-mail: Bruce.Fox@nau.edu

Course Prerequisites: Admission to the Honors Program. See also number 1 below, under “Course Requirements.”

Course Description:

HONORS 191 is a reading- and writing-intensive course designed to introduce you to a liberal studies education. An important part of this education is your acquisition of specific skills: close reading, analytical writing, cogent speaking, attentive listening, and critical thinking. The readings for HONORS191, as well as the written work required of you, have been chosen and arranged in to make possible your attainment as well as perfection of these skills, within a learning environment that encourages your understanding and appreciation of some key issues that rest at the heart of a liberal studies education. This semester, your instructors come from a variety of departments. Your instructors will choose specific texts for their sections of HONORS 191 and will help you to define and explore these key issues in a manner that reflects their unique training, specialties, and perspectives.

HONORS 191 differs from 190 in the following ways: you will have fewer informal assignments to complete; you will complete a research project or paper; and the content and theme(s) of the course will depend upon your individual instructor’s selection of reading materials.

This specific section will focus on the concept of “Leadership” and will provide the opportunity for students to learn and explore the concept of leadership, including its theoretical foundations, definitions of leadership, leadership styles, the traits of leaders, and the roles and responsibilities of leaders in historical and contemporary contexts. In- and out-of-class activities, lectures, discussions, and presentations will focus on identifying, assessing, and evaluating leadership styles, group dynamics, values, and ethics. In addition to the subject matter content, this course will emphasize the liberal studies essential skills of effective writing, critical reading, effective oral communication (including effective listening), and ethical reasoning.

General Course Requirements:

The following requirements represent minimal standards in each section of HONORS 191. Individual professors may, and most likely will, include more writing, reading, and participation requirements than are listed here. Note also that your individual instructor will provide guidelines for informal writing, formal writing, portfolios, and class participation.

HON 190 and HON191 may be taken in any order. (a) If you are enrolled in HON190 as your first freshman Honors course, you must take the English Composition Exam in order to pass this course. If you do not pass the English Composition Placement Exam, you must take ENG 205 co-registered with HON191. (b) If you are enrolled in HON 191 as your first freshman Honors course, you must take the English Composition exam in order to pass this course. If you do not pass the English Composition Placement Exam, you must take ENG 205 co-registered with HON 190. All students in all sections of HON 191 will complete, at a minimum, the following assignments:

1. A minimum of 10 pages of informal writing.

2. A total of 15-25 pages of formal writing, a portion of which will include a research assignment.

3. A “Writing Portfolio” that you will submit, at the end of the semester, consisting of a selection of written work that includes (a) 10 pages of your best, revised informal writing assignments, (b) 1 copy of your best formal paper, and (c) a 1-2 page “self statement.”

4. A 3-5 page annotated bibliography.

5. Your thoughtful and intelligent participation in all class discussions.

Tentative Schedule

Day	Date	Topic	Reading
Tu	Jan 14	Introduction	Wren : 1-8, 25-33
Th	Jan 16	Leadership self-assessment	Day : Preface, Chapters 1, 2, and 3
Tu	Jan 21	Defining leadership	Wren : 11-24, 37-46 ; Day : Appendix 3 and 4
Th	Jan 23	Ethical context of leadership	Wren : 481-508 ; Day : Chapters 25 and 31, Time « Person of the Year «  article*
Tu	Jan 28	Ethical context of leadership	Ipsaro : Introduction and Chapter 10 ; Day : Chapters 32 and 33
Th	Jan 30	Historical perspectives	Wren : 47-77
Tu	Feb 4	Historical perspectives	Day : Chapters 7, 9, and 10
Th	Feb 6	Modern perspectives	Wren : 81-99,114-124
Tu	Feb 11	Modern perspectives	Day : Chapter 29
Th	Feb 13	Communication skills and leadership	Wren : 379-388, 428-431 ;
Tu	Feb 18	Communication skills and leadership
Th	Feb 20	Basic leadership skills	Rifles ; Wren : 125-148
Tu	Feb 25	Basic leadership skills
Th	Feb 27	Advanced leadership skills	Eagle
Tu	Mar 4	Advanced leadership skills
Th	Mar 6	Diversity in leadership	Ipsaro : rest
Tu	Mar 11	Diversity in leadership	Wren : 168-182
Th	Mar 13	Diversity in leadership
Tu	Mar 18	Spring Break	Clancy, Tolstoy, Tan
Th	Mar 20	Spring Break	Cornwell, P., Dickens, Shelley
Tu	Mar 25	Gender in leadership	Medea ; Tannen
Th	Mar 27	Gender in leadership	Wren : 149-167
Tu	April 1	Gender in leadership
Th	April 3	Followership	Wren : 183-204
Tu	April 8	Group processes	Wren : 353-374
Th	April 10	Group processes
Tu	April 15	NO CLASS
Th	April 17	Motivation, satisfaction, and performance	Wren : 325-338
Tu	April 22	Situational leadership	Wren : 100-107
Th	April 24	Contingency leadership
Tu	April 29	Transformational leadership
Th	May 2	Assessing leadership

Time article available at :

http://www.time.com/time/personoftheyear/2002/

II. COURSE OBJECTIVES

Upon the successful completion of this course, students will have the knowledge and skills to effectively:

A. Describe alternative leadership theories and definitions, and critically evaluate their validity and applicability across alternative contexts;

B. Identify key traits frequently associated with effective leaders;

C. Analyze the role of traits, behavior, gender, and ethnicity in facilitating leadership;

D. Understand the influence of followers on the process of leadership, and identify and describe the characteristics of effective followers, including appropriate examples;

E. Define and recognize ethical dilemmas in leadership decision-making, and apply ethical principles to decision-making;

F. Define and describe the responsibilities of leaders and followers;

G. Assess your own personal leadership style and skills;

H. Understand the process of active listening;

I. Critically evaluate academic texts;

J. Prepare a well reasoned and supported argument in support of a well crafted thesis, using appropriate literature and logic; and

K. Develop an individual leadership philosophy.

III. UNIT STRUCTURE AND APPROACH

In this course we will use a combination of lectures, discussions, readings, guest and student presentations to explore the issues and topics raised in the course. You can maximize your return on your educational investment by carefully reading the assignments prior to class, completing assignments on time, attending class on a regular basis, and fully participating in discussions. A fundamental principle of the course will be respectful communication. This does not mean that you cannot disagree with a point made by another person or brought up in the text. What it does mean is that you must listen carefully and completely to others in the class and respond directly, carefully, and professionally. Excessive sarcasm, “put-downs”, and ridicule will not be tolerated. You must frame your comments in terms of the points of the discussion, and raise your concerns and issues based on your readings, and careful thought. Such phrases as “I don’t like this” or “I disagree” serve as the place to START the conversation, not to end one.

IV. TEXTS

A. Cornwell, Bernard. 1999. Sharpe’s Rifles. [Rifles]

B. Cornwell, Bernard. 1999. Sharpe’s Eagle. [Eagle]

C. Day, Robert A. 1998. How to Write & Publish a Scientific Paper. Oryx Press. Phoenix, AZ [Day]

D. Euripides. 2000. Medea. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, UK. [Medea]

E. Ipsaro, Anthony J. 1997. White Men, Women & Minorities in the Changing Work Force. Meridian Associates. Denver, CO [Ipsaro]

F. Tannen, Deborah. 2001. Talking 9 to 5 Women and Men at Work. Quill. New York, NY [Tannen]

G. Wren, J. Thomas. 1995. The Leader’s Companion: Insights on Leadership Through the Ages. The Free Press. New York, New York. [Wren]

H. Note: BOLD text refers to reading assignments on schedule

V. EVALUATION METHODS, ASSIGNMENT VALUE, AND DUE DATES

Student learning outcomes will be evaluated using five different methods:

· Resume (5 points)

· Sharpe’s review (25 points)

· Guest presentation synthesis (25 points)

· Class presentation (10 points)

· Literature review (20 points)

· Formal writing assignments (70 points)

· Outline of final paper (20 points)

· Annotated bibliography (30 points)

· Final paper (60 points)

· Portfolio (40 points)

· Grading scale:

o 270-300 points: A

o 240-269 points: B

o 210-239 points: C

o 180-209 points: D

o less than 180 points: F

Assignments are due at 9:35 AM on the assigned due date (see attached schedule of due dates), unless otherwise specified. Without a medical or other good excuse approved beforehand by me, late assignments will either assessed a penalty or not accepted, at my discretion. Assignments must be neat and complete. Assignments must be titled and dated. Your response to an assignment must be understandable without the prompts contained in the assignment itself. All assignments must be “keyboarded” with reasonable margins and a font size no small than 10 point. Neatly staple assignments, if you use multiple pages. Make sure your name is on all pages, and please place page numbers on all pages (except page 1). In most jobs, you will be judged by the quality of the product you produce; your job now is to produce high quality work for this course. Failure to follow these guidelines will result in grade penalties.

DUE DATES (TENTATIVE)

Assignment Date Due

Resume January 16

Formal #1 January 28

Literature Review January 30

Formal #2 February 6

Outline February 13

Formal #3 February 20

Sharpe’s Review March 11

Guest presentation review April 22 (tentative)

Annotated Bibliography and Final paper TBA

Portfolio May 6

VII. DESCRIPTION OF ASSIGNMENTS

• Resume: please submit two copies of a one-page professional resume with a picture of yourself

• Sharpe’s Review: in a carefully crafted essay, respond to the following prompts based on your reading of the books Sharpe’s Rifles and Sharpe’s Eagle. Your essay should be comprehensive and integrated, and not just a set of unconnected responses to these prompts. Cite passages from the texts, as appropriate. Explicitly link your response to classroom discussions and other readings.
• Describe two key leadership situations faced by Richard Sharpe in these books, using at least one example from each text.
• What strengths did Richard Sharpe bring to these situations?
• What were Richard Sharpe’s leadership weaknesses with respect to these situations?
• How do you think the character grew in terms of leadership? Explain and justify your response.

Maximum length: 600 words

• Guest Presentation Review: I plan to have a variety of guest presenters during the course. Each presenter will be asked to address the following six points:
• Who has been the most effective leader you have been associated with in your professional career?
• Describe the leadership situation.
• Why do you feel this leader was effective?
• What traits did this person have that allowed her to be effective?
• When or in what context do you feel this leader’s style would not work? Explain.
• Who has been the poorest leader you have been associated with in your professional career? Why? Explain.

Your assignment is to synthesize these responses into a coherent and comprehensive essay that addresses the following questions:

• What common traits did successful leaders exhibit? Explain.
• What traits appeared to be situational? Explain.
• What common traits did unsuccessful leaders exhibit? Explain.
• Compare and contrast the traits of the successful and unsuccessful leaders. How did the leadership context influence these traits?
• Your response must also reference course readings and classroom discussions.

· Literature Review Assignment

• Objectives:

· To provide a structured opportunity for students to begin to investigate the current literature in the fields of leadership,

• To provide an opportunity for students to begin to critically read and ANALYZE professionally written works, and to improve their writing skills,
• To provide an opportunity for students to synthesize their knowledge and evaluation skills with respect to professional literature.
• Description:
• Each student will prepare a critical evaluation of one piece of professional literature that directly addresses leadership, focused on the topic of your choice.
• For this exercise professional literature includes journal articles and research papers.

· Selected works must be peer-reviewed or of equivalent quality published after 1995. Do NOT use articles included in the course readings.

• Please ask the instructor to review your choice before you start work on this assignment
• Each review should address the following issues:
• Content analysis (75 percent)

• Discuss how clearly the author(s) present(s) the problem statement. If no such statement clearly exists, what appears as the goal(s) of the work? Support your conclusions.
• To what extent does the work achieve its stated or implied goal(s)? Explain and justify.
• Discuss how well the author describes the research methods used and the conclusions made. Explain and justify.
• Discuss how well the research results support the conclusions made. Explain and justify.

• In addition, you must include a clear and concise summary of the article.

· Format and style analysis (25 percent)

· Discuss the article in terms of the quality of the writing and its readability. To do this, you should address the following issues:

· How well does the title indicate and/or describe the material presented in the work? Explain and justify.

· How well is the work organized? Does it present the information in a clear and logical sequence? Do the sections of the work make sense as presented? Are paragraphs placed and structured well? Explain and justify.

· Are the results clearly presented, i.e. are they clearly described in the text? Explain and justify.

· Does the work include tables and figures to support the results? If so, do the tables and figures present the information clearly and effectively? Explain and justify.

o Format:

· Total length must not exceed 500-600 words of double spaced text. You must type or word-process these assignments. No handwritten submissions will be accepted.

· Each paper should contain a complete citation of the work under review, in the proper format. Provide a copy of the article with your review.

· Conciseness in your writing is essential for achieving the desired output within the word limit. Choose your words carefully, edit sentences ruthlessly to delete extraneous words and phrases, and use the active voice as much as possible.

o Audience:

You work for a forestry organization (public or private sector), and you have just found what you think may be an important article in the area of leadership. Unfortunately, your schedule does not permit you the luxury of reading and analyzing this article. Instead, you have asked your capable staff assistant, a student in a well-respected Honors program, to read and review this article and present the result to you in a well-crafted memorandum, with the elements and format described above. Please neatly staple together your work. And please remember that another term for an unsigned memorandum is “scratch paper.” The instructor does not consider scratch paper as meeting any of the requirements of the assignment.

VIII. COURSE POLICIES: attached