Leadership, Influence, and Power

Course Facilitator: Venkat R. Krishnan

Great Lakes Institute of Management, 2011-2012

Required Texts:

• O'Toole, J. (1999). Leadership A to Z: A guide for the appropriately ambitious. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

• Pfeffer, J. (2010). Power: Why some people have it and others don't. New York: HarperBusiness.

Overview

Those who are successful in life are those who are skilled in getting their things done smartly. This course is designed to help enhance your implementation skills and reduce the knowing-doing gap. An MBA who only knows how to decide the best course of action will be an ineffective manager, since manager's job primarily involves getting things done and not just knowing. Doing a detailed analysis and arriving at the best business strategy is of no use unless one has the skill to implement that strategy. Implementing things in an organization or getting things done requires influencing others.

Success in every walk of life depends the most on how well you can influence others -- whether it is in a job interview, implementing your pet idea in an organization, negotiating for things like grades and benefits, or generally creating a favorable impression in others about yourself. Instead of merely complaining about or putting up with current state of affairs, you will be able to actually do something to take care of your interests if you are good at influencing. Rather than be naive and assume that your excellent performance will be automatically recognized and rewarded, you could learn to manage corporate politics and to use specific strategies to better achieve your goals.

This course also provides an in-depth look at transformational leadership -- the mutually stimulating relationship between leader and follower that raises both of them to higher levels of human conduct and ethical aspiration. It will help you as a leader, to enhance and effectively use your power not only in achieving your goals, but also in enabling others to lift themselves into their better selves.

After completing this course you should:

1. Have an understanding of how leadership, influence, and power are related to various facets of organizational life at the individual, group and macro levels.

2. Be able to enhance your power in organizations, tap different sources of power, and effectively use power to achieve your objectives and to help elevate others to higher levels of motivation and morality.

3. Have the capacity to perceive clearly the various tactics that others use to influence you in order to achieve their objectives.

Pedagogy

The learning method that we will use will be one of interactive discussion that evolves out of questions and answers drawn from a thorough reading of the assigned materials for every session. Skimming through the readings in a superficial manner will not help in this regard. It is expected that you will come fully prepared to every session to engage in a fruitful discussion. My role in this interaction is that of a guide and facilitator, inserting useful additional material at times, but seldom interpreting the readings for you or lecturing about them.

Course readings. This is a reading-intensive course. You can attend a session only if you complete all the readings assigned for that session.

Class attendance. 100% attendance in all sessions is required.

Grading

25% Readings Completion. You should come to class fully prepared with each session's prescribed readings completed (prepared means being capable of making a presentation in class on any section). The depth of your understanding of the required readings will be the basis of evaluation.

25% Preparedness for Class. After completing the required readings, you are expected to reflect on them, drawing from your personal experience or from other available information. You should come to class fully prepared to raise points for discussion. The extent to which your preparedness enhances class learning and fun will be the basis of evaluation.

10% Case Study. Write a real-life case on one human being influencing one or more other human beings.

30% Empowerment Project. Teams of students will do a leadership experiential project designed to help a set of relatively powerless people in an assigned village in acquiring and using power. Effectiveness in transferring course learning to real-life situation will be the basis of evaluation. Each team will submit through e-mail an interim update on the project work by the end of the day of Session 20 in text or HTML format, and a final term paper by the end of the next term in RTF or HTML format.

10% End-Term Exam. This will be an essay-type closed-book exam.

Time Line

[01]

O'Toole. Training [276-279]; Memorandum on appropriate ambition [1-6]; X-Factor [314-317].

Bies, R. J. (1996). "Down and out" in D.C.: How Georgetown M.B.A. students learn about leadership through service to others. Journal of Business Ethics, 15 (1), 103-110.

Pfeffer Introduction: Be prepared for power.

[02]

O'Toole. Definition of leadership [68]; Followership [109-111]; Needs of followers [192-193].

Pfeffer Ch. 1. It takes more than performance.

Jordan, C. H., & Zanna, M. P. (1999). Appendix: How to read a journal article in social psychology. In R. F. Baumeister (Ed.), The self in social psychology (pp. 461-470). Philadelphia: Psychology Press.

[03]

O'Toole. Changing oneself [36-37]; Listening [173-174]; Resilience [238-239].

Pfeffer Ch. 2. The personal qualities that bring influence.

House, R. J., Spangler, W. D., & Woycke, J. (1991). Personality and charisma in the U.S. presidency: A psychological theory of leader effectiveness. Administrative Science Quarterly, 36 (3), 364-396.

[04]

O'Toole. Power! [217-219]; Lenin, Hitler, et alia [170-172]; Dunlap, "Chainsaw" Al [80-82].

Pfeffer Ch. 3. Choosing where to start.

[05]

O'Toole. You, the leader [320-321]; Why leaders won't lead [310-312]; ABB's benchstrength [8-14].

Pfeffer Ch. 4. Getting in: Standing out and breaking some rules.

van Knippenberg, B., & van Knippenberg, D. (2005). Leader self-sacrifice and leadership effectiveness: The moderating role of leader prototypicality. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90 (1), 25-37.

QUIZ 1.

[06]

O'Toole. Muddled teams [187-190]; Early wins [84-85]; Fear and failure [104-106].

Kiran Bedi Case.

[07]

O'Toole. Perspectives [214-216]; Differences [78-79]; How to create followers [145-147].

Pfeffer Ch. 6. Building efficient and effective social networks.

Den Hartog, D. N., De Hoogh, A. H. B., & Keegan, A. E. (2007). The interactive effects of belongingness and charisma on helping and compliance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92 (4), 1131-1139.

[08]

O'Toole. Reframing [232-235]; Questions (Asking of) [224-227]; Paradoxes [200-201].

Schrank, R. (1994). Two women, three men on a raft. Harvard Business Review, 72 (3), 68-71,74,76-80.

Heflick, N. A., & Goldenberg, J.L. (2009). Objectifying Sarah Palin: Evidence that objectification causes women to be perceived as less competent and less fully human. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45 (3), 598-601.

[09]

O'Toole. Communication [43-45]; Sound bites [250-253]; Symbolism [254-255].

Pfeffer Ch. 7. Acting and speaking with power.

Emrich, C. G., Brower, H. H., Feldman, J. M., & Garland, H. (2001). Images in words: Presidential rhetoric, charisma, and greatness. Administrative Science Quarterly, 46 (3), 527-560.

[10]

O'Toole. Generosity [114-116]; Repetition, repetition, repetition... [236-237]; Contradictions, anyone? [53-54].

Bono, J. E., & Ilies, R. (2006). Charisma, positive emotions and mood contagion.Leadership Quarterly, 17 (4), 317-334.

Clark, T. & Greatbatch, D. (2011). Audience perceptions of charismatic and non-charismatic oratory: The case of management gurus. Leadership Quarterly, 22 (1), 22-32.

QUIZ 2.

[11]

O'Toole. Trust [291-293]; Expectations, Management of [99-102]; Hope [140-141].

Pfeffer Ch. 8. Building a reputation: Perception is reality.

Leary, M. R. (1996). Self-presentation: Impression management and interpersonal behavior.Boulder, CO: Westview. [Preface & Ch. 1]

[12]

O'Toole. Commitment [40-42]; Conviction [61-62]; Energy [92-95].

Buss, A. H., & Briggs, S. R. (1984). Drama and the self in social interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47 (6), 1310-1324.

Viswanathan, V. (2003, January 20). Naidu and the art of selling. Business World, 22 (34), p. 12.

[13]

O'Toole. Engaging the middle [96-98]; Delegation [69-70]; Vision [300-304].

Pfeffer Ch. 9. Overcoming opposition and setbacks.

Mudhrâ-Râkshasa (Chânakya case) [Lal, P. (1964). The Signet Ring of Rakshasa by Vishakadatta. In Great Sanskrit plays (in new English transcreations) (pp. 189-252). Norfolk, CT: New Directions Books (James Laughlin).]

[14]

O'Toole. Focus [107-108]; Details [75-77]; Purpose [220-222].

Pfeffer Ch. 10. The price of power.

Sardar Patel Case.

[15]

O'Toole. Transforming leadership [280-285]; Transformations, continued (and continual) [286-290]; Brownian motivation [23-27].

Bligh, M. C., & Kohles, J.C. (2009). The enduring allure of charisma: How Barack Obama won the historic 2008 presidential election. Leadership Quarterly, 20 (3), 483-492.

Simola, S. K., Barling, J., & Turner, N. (2010). Transformational leadership and leader moral orientation: Contrasting an ethic of justice and an ethic of care. Leadership Quarterly, 21 (1), 179-188.

QUIZ 3.

[16]

Pfeffer Ch. 11. How -- and why -- people lose power.

Weed, F. J. (1993). The MADD queen: Charisma and the founder of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Leadership Quarterly, 4 (3/4), 329-346.

[17]

O'Toole. Controlling [55-57]; Effectiveness [86-88]; Second acts [244-246].

Brown, M. E., & Trevino, L.K. (2009). Leader–follower values congruence: Are socialized charismatic leaders better able to achieve it? Journal of Applied Psychology, 94 (2), 478-490.

Trice, H. M. & Beyer, J. M. (1986). Charisma and its routinization in two social movement organizations. Research in Organizational Behavior, 8, 113-164.

[18]

O'Toole. Change: The task of leadership (or is it?) [32-35]; Management of change (vs. strategic leadership) [176-180]; Iteration and institutionalization [154-156].

Pfeffer Ch. 12. Power dynamics: Good for organizations, good for you?

Beyer, J. M., & Browning, L. D. (1999). Transforming an industry in crisis: Charisma, routinization, and supportive cultural leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 10 (3), 483-520.

[19]

O'Toole. Apologia [17-19]; Perfection [206-207]; Townsend, Robert [272- 275].

Fu, P. P., Tsui, A. S., Liu, J., & Li, L. (2010). Pursuit of whose happiness? Executive leaders' transformational behaviors and personal values. Administrative Science Quarterly, 55 (2), 222-254.

Bligh, M. C., & Robinson, J. L. (2010). Was Gandhi "charismatic"? Exploring the rhetorical leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. Leadership Quarterly, 21 (5), 844-855.

O'Toole. Metrics I (evaluating individual leadership) [181-184]; Teaching [258-259]; Zenith [324-325].

Pfeffer Ch. 13. It's easier than you think.

Kark, R., Shamir, B., & Chen, G. (2003). The two faces of transformational leadership: Empowerment and dependency. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88 (2), 246-255.

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