LEADERSHIP, SUSTAINABILITY & GOVERNANCE

Teachers: Cource code: Teaching format: Examination:: Allocated time to study: Schedule days: Trimester:

Dr. M. van Dijke (course coordinator), Prof. Dr. M. Kaptein, Prof. Dr. H. van Oosterhout BAB22 Lectures and dilemma meetings Written exam, closed book, with open questions (75%); Participation during dilemma meetings (25%). 140 hours (5 ects) Tuesday (10 Lectures), Mon./Wed./Thurs (3 dilemma meetings see schedule) 4

Description of course content

Leadership, Governance and Sustainability (BAB22) presents an overview of theories and concepts that describe the relationships between domestic and international firms and their environment. This environment is complex and entails a wide variety of stakeholders such as governments, competitors, NGOs, shareholders, as well as employees. At the core this interplay is about sustainability and ethics of organizational conduct in all its facets. Apart from the first lecture in which the course is introduced, the lectures are organized in three clusters. In order to build an integrated understanding of these issues, the course is structured such that it starts at the micro level of analysis (Cluster 1) and proceeds via the meso (Cluster 1 and 2) to the macro level (Cluster 3. The first cluster (leadership) starts with an analysis of characteristics of individual leaders that influence their effectiveness and potential contribution to sustainable organizations. Subsequently, we treat in detail leadership processes at the interpersonal level and the level of teams and organizations as a whole. Because it is important that there are checks on the behavior of leaders, the second cluster (governance) subsequently addresses in detail various governance mechanisms that are intended to protect the interests of various stakeholders and which can thus also contribute to sustainable organizations. Finally, the third cluster (sustainability) we will discuss the functioning of organizations for from a societal and ethical point of view, as such dealing with issues of sustainability in terms of social characteristics (i.e., in relationship with ethics) and with non-social issues such as environmental issues. Each of the three lecture clusters is followed by a dilemma meeting, which centers on a topic that is directly relevant to the cluster. The dilemma meetings focus on complex managerial dilemmas in which the discussion centers around a specific case. Students are challenged to discuss the dilemma in groups of about sixty participants.

Learning objectives
After this course, you will be able to: Name and discuss leader characteristics that contribute to effective and sustainable organizations. Explain how leadership processes at the interpersonal, team, and organization level contribute to effective and sustainable organizations. Analyze models of corporate governance and explain when a specific model is suitable. Explain firm behavior in terms of relationships with stakeholders such as governments, non-governmental organizations, various types of employees, and competitors. Explain how the firms relationships with these various stakeholders relate to issues of sustainability and ethics.

The department
This course is offered by the department of Business-Society Management (B-SM). This department also offers the course Macro-economics & Institutional context, 2

Skills 3: Academic Writing & Critical Thinking, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science. In addition, the department offers various electives, such as about climate change, compliance, European business, and family business. The Master Global Business & Stakeholder Management deepens your understanding of topics that are being covered in the course Leadership, Sustainability & Governance. This Master focuses in particular on the ways in which these topics can be dealt with by managers, and studied by scientists. This requires a strong interdisciplinary and research oriented focus. In addition to teaching, the department is also very active in basic and applied scientific research. Students can participate in this research by means of studentassistantships, internships, and research for their master thesis. More information about the departments teaching and research is available on the RSM website.

Study load
Lectures: Studying literature: Preparing case for dilemma meetings: Dilemma meetings: Exam Total: 20 hours 96 hours 12 hours 9 hours 3 hours 140 hours

Rules for dilemma meetings

You must register for a specific Group using SIN-Registrations; this is possible from 30 August through 13 September at midnight. After this date, it is no longer possible to register. Without registration, you will not be allowed to attend the dilemma meetings. During a dilemma meeting, the literature and the lecture materials of the relevant cluster will be applied to concrete cases that describe actual events in international firms. Students that do not show adequate knowledge of the course material for a specific cluster during the dilemma meeting will not receive a grade. When you register for the dilemma meetings, you are obliged to attend each of the three meetings. This is necessary for the development of each individual student and also for the development of the groups discussion. For instance, when a specific argument is discussed in a dilemma meeting, it should be possible to briefly refer to this at a subsequent dilemma meeting, without going into all the details again. Hence missing a dilemma meeting, even in the case of Force Majeure, will not be accepted and students will be expelled from further participation and rewarded with an insufficient grade. Only in case of exceptional circumstances, it might be possible to catch up the missed meeting.

Contact
Questions, remarks, and suggestions can be addressed to the course coordinator, Marius van Dijke (mvandijke@rsm.nl). Questions about the course content and literature can be addressed to the teachers during the lectures. The student-assistants Alex Kortekaas and Corona Meerman will answer questions at the discussion board and can be reached via email: lsg@rsm.nl. The administrative office of the department Business-Society Management can be reached at Telephone number 0104081923. Teachers and staff do not have specific contact hours.

Literature
On Blackboard you can find an online reader with links to scientific articles that should be read before each lecture. You can access these articles from the computers at the university or from your homes if you install the EUR VPN connection. A document is posted on Blackboard under Course Information that explains how you can establish such a connection.

Assessment and examinations

The exam is closed book and consists of 27 multiple choice and 5 open ended questions. Of your total grade 75% is a function of your exam grade. Statistical analysis of the exam may result in one or more questions being removed, which will affect the grading norm. The three dilemma meetings together are the input of 25% of your total grade. This 25% is based on the quality of the students contribution to the discussion. Attendance and studying the required literature are necessary conditions to obtain a grade. During the dilemma meetings, you will start with a 6 if you have fulfilled the necessary preconditions. You can earn extra points by engaging in the discussion. If you choose not to participate in the dilemma meetings, your maximum grade is a 7,5 (out of 10). Your final grade is a weighted average of your grade for the exam (75%) and for the dilemma meetings (25%). There is no minimum grade required for each of the two individual parts that make up the final grade. Once you have obtained a grade for the dilemma meetings, this will be your final grade. Hence, you cannot improve your grade for the dilemma meetings by participating again in a subsequent year. .

Examination Dates
Final Examination: Monday, 5 December, 2011 9:30-12:30 Re-sit Examination: Wednesday, 27 June, 2012 09:30-12:30 Registration via Osiris required. You can register from 35 to 7 days before the examination.

Exam perusal
Place and time of possibilities to view your exam afterwards will be communicated via Blackboard and SIN-Online. 4

Exam preparation
You will need to study all articles in the Literature section on Blackboard. Furthermore, all lecture content is exam material. The cases and videos that you have to prepare for the dilemma meetings will not be asked for in the exam, unless otherwise noted.

Students retaking the course

Students who are retaking the course, must participate in both the dilemma meetings and the final exam. The examination for re-takers is thus based on the content and conditions that apply to the current academic year (2011-2012), which is substantially different from last year. Grades obtained in previous academic years are not valid anymore.

Organization of lectures
Date / time Theme / place I: Introduction and 30-08: overview 13.00-14.45 M2-03 II: 06-09 13.00-14.45 LB-107 III: 13-09 13.00-14.45 LB-107 IV: 20-09 13.00-14.45 M1-12 V: 27-09 13.00-14.45 LB-107 VI: 04-10-09 13.00-14.45 LB-107 VII: 11-10 13.00-14.45 LB-107 The leader as a person Teacher M. van Dijke Literature Articles in online reader on Blackboard

M. van Dijke

Articles in online reader on Blackboard

Team leadership

M. van Dijke

Articles in online reader on Blackboard

Organizational leadership

M. van Dijke

Articles in online reader on Blackboard

Corporate governance: H. van Oosterhout Articles in online reader The separation of on Blackboard ownership and control in publicly listed firms The corporate H. van Oosterhout Articles in online reader governance of other on Blackboard forms of enterprise organizations Corporate governance H. van Oosterhout Articles in online reader and the protection of on Blackboard stakeholder interests

VII: 01-11 13.00-14.45 LB-107 IX: 08-11 13.00-14.45 LB-107 X: 15-11 13.00-14.45 LB-107

Ethics

M. Kaptein

Articles in online reader on Blackboard

Sustainability

M. Kaptein

Articles in online reader on Blackboard

Integrity and compliance management

M. Kaptein

Articles in online reader on Blackboard

Detailed lecture content

Lecture 2: The leader as a person The literature offers dozens of definitions of leadership that each emphasize a different aspect of this complex topic. In this introductory lecture, we will, first of all, discuss what leadership is, based on these various definitions and a brief overview of the large variety of approaches to the study of leadership that have surfaced over the past century. Subsequently, we will address in detail approaches to the study of leadership that focus on characteristics of the individual leader. This can be stable, dispositional constructs (e.g., personality dimensions) or stable abilities (e.g., intelligence). On the other hand, many characteristics that make effective leaders can to some extent be learned. Our focus will be on the state of the art of empirical research and theory building, which will be applied to general leadership issues and more specifically to issues of sustainable organizations. Lecture 3: Team leadership Although various characteristics distinguish between different types of leaders (and between leaders who vary in effectiveness), leadership is a process that takes place between leaders and followers. In this class, we will treat in detail how leaders can influence the individuals and teams they lead by using various instruments such as instruments based on social exchange processes and charisma. However, individuals and teams also determine to a large extent who will be an effective leader. We will thus also explore the identity processes that make groups structure themselves into hierarchical units, and that form opportunities and boundary conditions for leaders to effectively influence the teams they lead. Lecture 4: Organizational leadership Leadership at the level of the organization involves a number of elements that set it apart from team leadership. For instance, at the organizational level, leaders are responsible for the development and implementation of the organizations strategy, in order to shape the future and development of the organization as a whole. Organizational level leaders interact less with the employees at the work floor. However, they do need specific leadership skills to effectively lead higher level executives towards the goals of the organization. This offers organizational level leaders more freedom, but also more responsibilities than employees lower in the hierarchy.

Lecture 5: Corporate governance: The separation of ownership and control in publicly listed firms The main difference between firms and markets is that within markets decisions are made only when everyone agrees to it, whereas within firms decisions are made by top managers in hierarchical and unilateral fashion. Although the fact that top managers lead the firm obviously has its advantages, it also raises the problem that they can lead the firm for their own benefit rather than for the benefit of the firm and its shareholders. This so-called agency problem is most acute within publicly listed firms, where managers make virtually all decisions and dispersed shareholders only passively face their consequences. In this lecture we will discuss the following questions: What is corporate governance? What are agency problems? What is the main corporate governance challenge for publicly listed firms? What is the separation of ownership and control? Which corporate governance practices help to remedy the impact of agency problems in publicly listed firms? Lecture 6: The corporate governance of other forms of enterprise organizations Even casual observation shows that not only publicly listed firms exist, but that many different forms of enterprise organization also exist, most of which have no separation of ownership and control to begin with. This does not mean that these firms do not face any corporate governance challenges. It only means that they do not face the same challenges that publicly listed firms face. In this lecture we will first try to explain why so many different forms of enterprise organizations exist to begin with, after which we will focus on the specific governance challenges that some of these forms of enterprise organization face. We will look at the role of ownership in these organizational forms more specifically. In this lecture we will discuss the following questions: What is ownership? What are the costs and benefits of ownership? Why do we see so many different forms of enterprise organization? What are the specific corporate governance challenges of these forms? Lecture 7: Corporate governance and the protection of stakeholder interests Corporate governance is not just about owners, but also about other stakeholders both inside and outside the firm. In modern capitalist economies it is widely accepted that firms ought to be run in the interests of its owners, but this does not mean that stakeholder interests do not count at all. In this lecture we will discuss the corporate governance role of stakeholders both inside and outside the firm and discuss the following questions: What is a stakeholder? Are there different kinds of stakeholders? What is the corporate governance role of stakeholders? Do existing corporate governance practices designed to protect shareholder interests also protect the interests of (external) stakeholders? Are there differences between related stakeholders and third party stakeholders? Lecture 8: Ethics The functioning of an organization can not only be studied from the perspective of effectiveness and efficiency but also from the perspective of ethics. Ethics deals with issues from the perspective of what is good and bad, moral and immoral. In this lecture, the three main ethics theories are discussed. These theories are consequential ethics, deontological ethics and virtue ethics. Lecture 9: Sustainability Sustainability is relevant for organizations from an ethical and economics perspective. The sustainability of an organization can be defined as the creation of a balance 7

between the interests and expectations of stakeholders. What can be defined as a balance depends on the definition of what an organization is. In this lecture some models will be discussed of how to define an organization and what this implies for the sustainability of an organization. Lecture 10: Integrity and compliance management Integrity and compliance management are two approaches that organizations can have in implementing ethics and sustainability within the organization. Integrity management is focused on the intrinsic motives of leaders and followers (valuesbased). Compliance management is focused on the extrinsic motives of leaders and followers (command-and-control based). In this lecture, both approaches are presented.

Organization of dilemma meetings

Everybody participates in three dilemma meetings of three hours each. Groups will be 50-60 persons in size. Group Time Week numbers Location 1 16:00-18:45 Wednesday, week 38 G3-21 1 11:00-13:45 Wednesday, week 42 T3-25 1 9:00-11:45 Thursday, week 45 T3-16 2 16:00-18:45 Wednesday, week 38 G3-41 2 11:00-13:45 Wednesday, week 42 T3-10 2 9:00-11:45 Thursday, week 45 G3-46 3 16:00-18:45 Wednesday, week 38 G3-46 3 11:00-13:45 Wednesday, week 42 G2-26 3 9:00-11:45 Thursday, week 45 G2-21 4 15:00-17:45 Monday, weeks 39 & 42 T3-25 4 13:00-15:45 Thursday, week 45 G3-46 5 15:00-17:45 Monday, weeks 39 & 42 wk. 39: G2-21, wk. 42: T3-17 5 13:00-15:45 Thursday, week 45 G3-41 6 15:00-17:45 Monday, weeks 39 & 42 wk. 39: G2-46, wk. 42: T3-10 6 13:00-15:45 Thursday, week 45 G3-26

Dilemma meeting 1: Leadership

Cases to study Will be announced via Blackboard

Required reading Lecture contents of the leadership cluster and literature associated with the lectures of this cluster, additional cases and literature to be announced on Blackboard Lecture contents of the corporate governance cluster and literature associated with the lectures of this cluster, additional cases and literature to be announced on Blackboard Lecture contents of the sustainability cluster and literature associated with the 8

Dilemma meeting 2: Corporate governance Dilemma meeting 3:

Will be announced via Blackboard

Will be announced via Blackboard

Ethics and sustainability

lectures of this cluster, additional cases and literature to be announced on Blackboard

Evaluation
To guard the standards and quality of the teaching, after each trimester all courses are evaluated. Evaluation is done online, via the website of an independent company. At the end of the trimester, but before the start of the examination week, you will receive the first questionnaire with items about the trimester, the teachers, the organization of the course, etc. Directly after the exam, you will receive a second questionnaire with questions about the exam. Responding will take you no more than 10 minutes. We would very much appreciate it if every student participates in the evaluation. RSM finds the students ideas about the teaching highly important. The results will be discussed with the teachers and also partly communicated to the students via Blackboard.

In closing
As teachers, we hope that you will participate in the lectures and dilemma meetings with great pleasure and that you will learn important insights and skills to be used in your future job. If you have complaints or suggestions for improvement of the lectures, the literature, or the dilemma meetings, we are happy to listen.