Syllabus (MGT 5531):
Leadership, Strategy, and Human Resources
Spring 2010
Lee Bolman
The course will explore challenges that senior executives face in charting a course,
marshaling people and resources, and "moving the whole herd roughly west" – typically in an
environment of rapid change, mind-boggling complexity, and pervasive ambiguity. This is hard
work, and places formidable demands on individuals' intellect, skill, stamina and character.
We will explore these issues through a series of case examples drawn from a range of
sectors, companies and industries. We will begin with post-mortems of three famous disasters:
Enron’s collapse, the tragic loss of the space shuttle Columbia, and 9/11. We hope to learn more
about why things go wrong, how leaders fail, and what we can do about it. After that, we’ll
focus primarily on success stories, trying to learn from leaders who have achieved significant
success, even though we will see many differences among them. Along the way, we will
continually ask what we can learn that applies to us and our organizations.
We hope to build on everything you've learned in the EMBA program about decision-making,
leadership, people and strategy. The themes we will explore include:
1. Sense-making: finding clarity and direction amid ambiguity and complexity
2. Doing the right thing: identifying and honoring your personal values and best
instincts, preferably with help from those around you.
3. Aligning structure, strategy and environment
4. Aligning people, purpose and culture
5. Strategies for change
Text and Readings:
Readings will include cases, articles and reading from two texts that you already know:
Bolman and Deal, Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice and Leadership
Gallos, J., Business Leadership: A Jossey-Bass Reader. San Francisco: JosseyBass,
2008.
Missed Classes
A substantial part of the learning in this course will come from discussions and activities
in class, and there is never an adequate substitute for being there. If you must miss class, please
email me in advance. You will be responsible for writing a one-page memo responding to the
study questions for each case study discussed in that class.
Grading
Grades will be based on class participation, individual case reflection papers, a final
paper, and a team case leadership task. The short case papers are listed as deliverables for
specific classes. All of the case papers will be assessed against the rubric labeled “Strategic
Leadership Assessment Criteria." Appropriate use of ideas from readings and the cases will
strengthen your paper, but the emphasis is on clarity, insight and practicality. Each assignment
will receive a grade in points. Maximum points for each assignment are as follows:
Philips/Matsushita - Columbia
Memo
10 points
Cypress/Outback Memo
10 points
Levy/Whitman Memo
10 points
VanceInfo/GE Memo
10 points
Taran Swan Memo
10 points
Team Case Discussion
40 points
Class participation
10 points
Total:
100 points
Class Leadership
Each team will be responsible for leading a class built around one of the cases. The
group’s task is to use the case as a springboard for a learning experience that is as valuable and
provocative as you can make it. This includes developing the right advance assignment, setting
the stage for discussion, developing discussion questions, and designing activities or experiences
that support the experience. If you and another team are each doing sessions in the same class,
think about any connections between the two cases that are worth exploring.
The group should be prepared to:
1 Lead the class using a series of questions, prompts, and other teaching activities (such
as video and role-plays) to engage the class in analyzing the case and developing
solutions.
2 Summarize the major insights and learning points from the discussion, and link them
to major ideas in the day’s readings that help to illuminate or interpret the case.
Teams will have 90 minutes for their class and should monitor time carefully. Each case
discussion will be followed by 15-20 minutes of class feedback. Everyone on a team does not
have to present. Teams should use their resources in the way they believe will maximize the
value of the class.
Saturday, January 16, 1 to 5: Strategy, structure, and ethics: Lessons from Enron
Readings:
Bolman and Deal, ch 19 (“Reframing Ethics and Spirit”)
Schein, “Creating and Managing a Learning Culture: the Essence of Leadership,” ch. 28
in Gallos
Batstone, “Preserving Integrity, Profitability and Soul,” ch. 36 in Gallos
Delbecq, “Nourishing the Soul of the Leader,” ch. 38 in Gallos
Study Questions:
1. What is the relationship between organizational culture and ethics?
2. What ethical lessons did Enron’s culture teach? How about the culture in your
organization?
Deliverables:
None
Saturday, January 23, 8 to noon: Strategy and structure in a turbulent world: Columbia &
Philips vs. Matsushita
The cases this week present two variations on a basic question: how do we keep up with a
world that keeps changing on us, particularly if the way we’ve been doing business
doesn’t seem to be working as well as it should.
Bolman and Deal, Chapter 9.
Ashkenas, et al., “The Boundaryless Organization: Rising to the Challenges of Global
Leadership,” (chapter 15 in Gallos)
Heifetz & Linsky, “A Survival Guide for Leaders” (ch. 35 in Gallos)
Kotter, “Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail” (chapter 29 in Gallos)
Case A: Phillips vs. Matsushita – A New Century, A New Round [9-302-049]
1. How did Philips become the leading consumer electronics company in the post war
era?
2. How did Matsushita overtake Philips?
3. How would you assess the changes each company has made to align strategy,
structure, people, and the market?
4. What recommendations would you make to Gerald Kleisterlee? To Kunio Nakamura?
Case B: Columbia's Final Mission [Multimedia Case, 9-305-032]
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Study questions:
1. How would you characterize NASA’s culture? What were its strengths and
weaknesses?
2. How did the history of the space shuttle program shape people’s behavior during the
first eight days of the mission?
3. How would you describe NASA’s response to the foam strike in comparison to its
response to the Apollo 13 incident? How does it compare to the Challenger accident in
1986?
4. What differences do you see in the behavior of managers vs. engineers?
5. Putting yourself in the shoes of the manager or engineer whom you followed in the
multimedia case, consider the following questions:
What prior assumptions and beliefs shaped how you thought and acted during the
Columbia mission?
What pressures affected your actions? Where did they come from?
How did NASA’s culture influence how you thought and acted?
If you had been in that person’s shoes during the mission, would you have acted
differently? Why, or why not?
Deliverable (individual): 1-2 page memo on the questions:
1. Based on the cases we examine today, what are the most significant impediments to
organizations’ ability to adapt to changing circumstances?
2. As a leader, what are the most important things you can do to ensure that your
organization can make the changes it needs to?
Saturday, February 6, 1 to 5: Entrepreneurs as Organization Builders
Review chapters 6, 7 in Reframing Organizations
Goleman, et al., “Primal Leadership: the Hidden Power of Emotional Intelligence,”
(chapter 2 in Gallos)
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Kouzes & Posner, “The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership”
Case A: Cypress Semiconductor: Vision, values and killer software [Stanford HR-8A,
available from HBS]
Study questions:
1. What are T.J. Rodgers' leadership strengths and weaknesses? Would you want to
work for him? Why or why not?
2. How do leadership, culture, and strategy align (or not) at Cypress Semiconductor?
Case B: Outback Steakhouse, Inc.
1. What are the leadership strengths and weaknesses of Outback’s founding troika?
Would you want to work for them? Why or why not?
2. How do leadership, culture, and strategy align (or not) at Outback?
Deliverable (individual): One-page memo on the questions:
What are the most critical success factors for the founders at Cypress and at Outback?
What can you learn from them?
Saturday, February 20, 1 to 5: Leader as Change Agent
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Review: Chapters 17 & 18, "Leadership," and “Reframing Change” in Bolman and Deal,
Reframing Organizations
Watkins, “The First Ninety Days of Leadership,” (chapter 21 in Gallos)
Case A: Meg Whitman at eBay (A)
[HBS #9-401-024]
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Study Questions:
1. What was the situation that Whitman came into at eBay? What challenges did she
face? Why did eBay need her?
2. How did she get started? What were her objectives? What did she accomplish?
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3. What was distinctive about Whitman’s approach to the situation at eBay? How did
she deal with resistance?
4. What can we learn (to do or not to do) from Whitman’s thought processes and her
approach to leading change?
Case B: Paul Levy Taking Charge of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
(multimedia case)
Paul Levy: Taking Charge of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (A) (print case)
“Paul Levy” is an unusual, but very interesting case. It’s a story about a new manager as
he takes on a very challenging set of circumstances. It is told primarily through a series
of video-taped interviews with Levy, plus some supporting material, all on an interactive
cd-rom.
1. What was the situation Levy inherited at BIDMC? What challenges did he face?
Why had previous turnaround efforts failed?
2. How did Levy get started in his new job? What were his objectives? What did he
accomplish?
–Before he started? On his first day? His first week?
3. What was distinctive about the way Levy went about formulating, announcing, and
implementing the recovery plan? How did he overcome resistance?
4. What can we learn (to do or not to do) from Levy’s thought processes and his
approach to leading change?
Deliverable (individual): Short paper (1-2 pages) on:
Use the experience of both Levy and Whitman to develop your list of the most important
rules for what works, and what doesn’t work, for change agents who come into an
organization from the outside.
Saturday, March 6, 1 to 5: People and Strategy
We examine two companies that both depend on finding and retaining talent to fuel
growth, but are at very different places in the corporate life-cycle. VanceInfo is a
realtively small, young, fast-growing company that struggles to develop the disciplines
and infrastructure it needs to keep moving forward. GE is one of the world's largest and
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most successful firms, with elaborate and sophisticated people-management and peopledevelopment systems that evolved over many decades.
Liu et al., “The value of human resource management for organizational performance.”
[HBS BH255-PDF-ENG]
Case A: Scaling: How China-Based VanceInfo Grows Big Fast [HBS HR34]
1. From its start in 1995, VanceInfo has grown very fast. In a highly-competitive, talentdependent industry, what has enabled them to find enough of the people they need to
keep growing?
2. What are the strengths and weaknesses of their system for recruiting, retaining and
developing people? Given that talent shortages are a critical barrier to growth, what do
they need to do now to improve their HRM philosophy and practices?
Case B: GE’s Talent Machine: the Making of a CEO [HBS 9-304-049]
1. Most companies have difficulty producing enough strong candidates for senior
management, but GE has been unusually successful. What philosophy, policy and
practices have made GE, as The Economist put it, “easily the world’s best machine for
churning out corporate talent?”
2. How generalizable are GE’s HR policies and practices? How transferable across
cultures? Across industries? Across companies? What could your workplace learn from
GE?
3. As Jeff Immelt, is it time to tune up, or overhaul GE’s management development
practices? What would you do about proposals to change the vitality curve, MBA and
international recruitment, and the executive bands?
4. What are the factors that make talent management so important to GE’s success?
What lessons do you take from the case and how could you apply them in your workplace
or career?
Deliverable (individual): 1-2 page memo on the questions:
1. What could VanceInfo learn from GE?
2. What could your organization learn from GE?
Saturday, March 27, 1 to 5: Intrapreneurship and Dreams – Taran Swan at Nickolodeon
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Latin America
We’ve looked primarily at chief executives, but most of us are still somewhere in the
middle. In our final class, we’ll look at the opportunities for strategic leadership and
effective people management at the middle. Taran Swan wanted and got the challenging
assignment of taking an established brand – Nickolodeon– to a new market. We’ll study
what she did and how she did it to see what we can learn.
Readings:
Kotter, “What Leaders Really Do” (chapter 1 in Gallos)
George, “Leadership is Authenticity” (chapter 8 in Gallos)
Case: Taran Swan at Nickelodeon Latin America (A)
Study questions:
1. What grade would you give Taran Swan for her leadership of the Nick Latin America
initiative?
2. How would you describe her leadership approach?
3. What does she do best? What, if any, weaknesses do you see?
4. What are the most important challenges she faces at the end of the case? What
should she do about them? Should she appoint someone as interim director?
Deliverable (1-2 page memo):
1. What can you learn from Taran Swan?
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