Leadership, Influence, and Power

 

Course Facilitator: Venkat R. Krishnan

Great Lakes Institute of Management, Oct-Dec 2008

 

Required Texts:

 

Overview

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 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. Attending a session without completing the readings assigned for that session will result in the student being asked to withdraw from the course.

Class attendance. 100% attendance in all sessions is required. When you miss a session or a part of it for whatever reason, you should complete a catch-up assignment before coming to the following session. In addition, 5 percentage points per session missed will be deducted from your total score in the course.

 

Grading

5% Preparedness for class. 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 and being able to raise points for discussion). The depth of your understanding of the required readings and the extent to which your preparedness enhances class learning and fun will be the basis of evaluation.

5% Resume Submission. Choose two organizations significantly different from each other that you would like to join. Prepare two different versions of your resume for those two organizations and submit as two separate PDF files by the end of the day of Session 14. For each version, also submit a summary of the unique features of the organization and the people who will be reading your resume, in not more than 200 words, in HTML or text format.

60% Quizzes (4 Quizzes carrying equal weight). The quizzes will have multiple-choice questions from prescribed readings, lecture material, class discussions, and everything that takes place in class.

30% Empowerment Project. Each student will do a live project designed to help a set of relatively powerless people in acquiring and using power. Effectiveness in transferring course learning to real-life situation will be the basis of evaluation. Each student will submit through e-mail an update on the project work by 30 Nov, 31 Dec, and 31 Jan in text or HTML format, and a final term paper by 28 Feb 2009 in RTF or OpenOffice native format.

 

 

Time Line

 

[01]

O'Toole. Training [276-279]; Memorandum on appropriate ambition [1-6]; X-Factor [314-317]; You, the leader [320-321]; Why leaders won't lead [310-312].

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 Ch. 1. Decisions and implementation.

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.

 

[02]

O'Toole. Definition of leadership [68]; Followership [109-111]; Needs of followers [192-193]; Power! [217-219]; Lenin, Hitler, et alia [170-172].

Pfeffer Ch. 2. When is power used?

Cherulnik, P. D., Donley, K. A., Wiewel, T. S. R., & Miller, S. R. (2001). Charisma is contagious: The effect of leaders' charisma on observers' affect. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 31 (10), 2149-2159.

 

[03]

O'Toole. Transforming leadership [280-285]; Transformations, continued (and continual) [286-290]; Brownian motivation [23-27]; Vision [300-304]; How to create followers [145-147].

Pfeffer Ch. 3. Diagnosing power and dependence.

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.

 

[04]

O'Toole. Trust [291-293]; Commitment [40-42]; Conviction [61-62]; Expectations, Management of [99-102]; Hope [140-141].

Pfeffer Ch. 4. Where does power come from?

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.

 

QUIZ 1.

 

[05]

Pfeffer Ch. 5. Resources, allies, and the new golden rule.

God in everything. Vivekananda, 2, 144-154.

Pruzan, P., & Mikkelsen, K. P. (2007). Leading with wisdom: Spiritual-based leadership in business. New Delhi: Sage Response. Introduction: Spirituality as the basis of leadership (pp. 20-31); Janiece Webb, Senior Vice President, Motorola USA (pp. 37-44); A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, President of India (pp. 363-372).

 

[06]

Pfeffer Ch. 6. Location in the communication network.

Bono, J. E., & Anderson, M. H. (2005). The advice and influence networks of transformational leaders. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90 (6),1306-1314.

Kiran Bedi Case.

 

[07]

O'Toole. Dunlap, "Chainsaw" Al [80-82]; Muddled teams [187-190]; Early wins [84-85]; Effectiveness [86-88]; Fear and failure [104-106].

Pfeffer Ch. 7. Formal authority, reputation, and performance.

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

 

[08]

O'Toole. Energy [92-95]; ABB's benchstrength [8-14]; Focus [107-108]; Details [75-77]; Purpose [220-222].

Pfeffer Ch. 8. The importance of being in the right unit.

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 2.

 

[09]

O'Toole. Changing oneself [36-37]; Listening [173-174]; Resilience [238-239]; Perspectives [214-216]; Differences [78-79].

Pfeffer Ch. 9. Individual attributes as sources of power.

Barbuto Jr., J. E., & Burbach, M. E. (2006). The emotional intelligence of transformational leaders: A field study of elected officials. Journal of Social Psychology, 146 (1), 51-64.

 

[10]

O'Toole. Engaging the middle [96-98]; Questions (Asking of) [224-227]; Reframing [232-235]; Delegation [69-70]; Paradoxes [200-201].

Pfeffer Ch. 10. Framing: How we look at things affects how they look.

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

 

[11]

O'Toole. Apologia [17-19]; Ego [89-91]; Controlling [55-57]; Perks [212-213]; Knowing when to leave [164-165].

Pfeffer Ch. 11. Interpersonal influence.

Sardar Patel Case.

 

[12]

Pfeffer Ch. 12. Timing is (almost) everything.

Pfeffer Ch. 13. The politics of information and analysis.

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).]

 

QUIZ 3.

 

[13]

O'Toole. Generosity [114-116]; Change: The task of leadership (or is it?) [32-35]; Management of change (vs. strategic leadership) [176-180]; Iteration and institutionalization [154-156]; Second acts [244-246].

Pfeffer Ch. 14. Changing the structure to consolidate power.

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

 

[14]

O'Toole. Communication [43-45]; Sound bites [250-253]; Symbolism [254-255]; Repetition, repetition, repetition... [236-237]; Contradictions, anyone? [53-54].

Pfeffer Ch. 15. Symbolic action: Language, ceremonies, and settings.

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.

 

[15]

Pfeffer Ch. 16. Even the mighty fall: How power is lost.

Pfeffer Ch. 17. Managing political dynamics productively.

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

 

[16]

O'Toole. Perfection [206-207]; Metrics I (evaluating individual leadership) [181-184]; Townsend, Robert [272- 275]; Teaching [258-259]; Zenith [324-325].

Pfeffer Ch. 18. Managing with power.

Practical Vedanta: Part 1. Vivekananda, 2, 291-308.

 

QUIZ 4.

 

 

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