MSLV4500 Leadership in Practice Course description

The students will practice approaches and skills that make them better equipped to fulfill the leadership role. Leadership in practice includes the role as a leader, power and influence strategies, moral leadership, conflict leadership, leadership in crisis, leadership theories and important topics like mindset, team climate, and motivation. Students will gain insight into central, international leadership literature.

The course consists of two main components: developing knowledge of leadership and awareness of the student's own conduct as a leader.

The knowledge part comprises a critical review and discussion of key topics from the syllabus applied in relation to the students' own work experiences.

Language of instruction is English. Small group discussions and written course work (including the exam) can be done in Norwegian or English.

The course content is divided into ten modules, with students’ learning supported by both live (on-campus and online) and pre-recorded lectures. Throughout the semester, students also have access to teaching assistants, who manage group and individual activities, and provide assistance with the course content.

After completing the course, the student should have the following overall learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The student has

• in-depth knowledge of ethical challenges associated with the manager role
• in-depth knowledge of conflict and conflict management
• insight into leadership theories with particular relevance to the practice of leadership

Skills

The student is capable of

• working systematically on their own leadership challenges
• communicating and cooperating in relation to the leadership role
• analysing conflicts and dealing with different types of conflicts
• facilitating learning and teambuilding

General competence

The student is capable of

• applying knowledge and skills to prepare interaction processes with colleagues and other leaders
• communicating about relevant issues and analyses in the leadership field

A significant part of the learning will take place through the students' own experiences and work experience. This will be facilitated through group work, exercises and work-related assignments. Between teaching sessions, the students will receive assignments related to the course activities.

The following coursework requirements must have been approved for the student to take the exam:

• Coursework 1: The course requires active participation. Therefore there is compulsory attendance requirement for the teaching sessions. Compulsory attendance is considered a coursework requirement and must be complied with in order to take the exam. The minimum attendance requirement is 80 %. If a student's absence exceeds 20 %, he/she must submit an alternative coursework requirement. If a student's absence exceeds 25 %, he/she loses the right to take the exam.
• Coursework 2: Students read one book from a curated list of leadership books and give a short presentation of 5-10 minutes in class about the book.

The reason why attendance is compulsory is that the student will in this way acquire competence necessary to meet the objectives of the course that he/she would be unable to acquire from solely reading the syllabus and/or taking the exam.

All required coursework must be completed and approved by the given deadline for the student to take the exam. If the coursework requirements have not been approved, the student will be given another opportunity to get the coursework approved by a given deadline.

The exam in the course is a written individual term paper that will be written over the course of the course. The term paper has a scope of 10-12 pages excl. table of contents and list of references. Font and font size: Arial/Calibri 12 points. Line spacing 1.5. The exam can be written in Norwegian or English.

Students awarded a fail grade are given one opportunity to submit an improved version of the assignment for assessment.

All aids are permitted, as long as the rules for source referencing are complied with.

Behavior analysis rests on two key assumptions: that a natural science approach to human behavior is possible and that such a science is desirable. This course presents radical behaviorism as a philosophy of science focused on behavior-environment interactions as an explanatory model. It introduces a conceptual framework that enables the prediction and influence of behavior, placing radical behaviorism within a broader historical and philosophical context and discussing its complementarity with other scientific fields, such as complexity science, network theory, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology. Core topics in psychology such as motivation, language, thinking, problem-solving, creativity, memory, and self-control are also explored. Additionally, the course extends to the understanding of the role of radical behaviorism in addressing topics such as values, freedom, and the ethics of influencing behavior.

The exam papers are assessed by one internal and one external examiner.

At least 25% of the exam papers will be assessed by two examiners. The grades awarded for the papers assessed by two examiners form the basis for determining the level for all the exam papers.

Malte Runge