B718 – Winter 2010 – 1 of 8
B718
Leadership
Winter 2010 Course Outline
Human Resources & Management Area
DeGroote School of Business
McMaster University
COURSE OBJECTIVE
The objective of this course is to provide a thorough familiarity with the literature on leadership (both theory and
practice) as well as to take part in a transformative learning experience. Having taken this course, students will be
able to separate fad, fiction and folklore from what is actually known about leadership from years of careful
systematic research. Through developing knowledge of the established leadership literature, and applying the
models and concepts from this literature within experiential exercises, skill development exercises and the
transformative learning experience, students will become adept at analyzing, interpreting, and appropriately
responding to situations that call for leadership interventions. In addition to becoming critical consumers of the
popular press on leadership, students will gain insights into how their own leadership styles and approaches may
either facilitate or impede their leadership effectiveness.
Course Objectives are to:
 Expose students to the key concepts, approaches, models and theories of leadership
 Equip students with the basic knowledge and skills to be able to evaluate critically, in an informed way, the
popular press on leadership.
 Provide opportunities for self-assessment of leadership potential, and give direction on how the leadership
literature can be used for developing this leadership potential.
 Engage students in problem identification, critical-analytical thinking and problem solving.
 Provide opportunities for students to improve their skills in emotional intelligence, positive thinking styles, time
management, career management, stress management, communication management, conflict resolution,
decision-making management, team management, CSR management, transition management, and performance
management through on-going assessments and discussions within and across teams.
INSTRUCTOR AND CONTACT INFORMATION
Wednesdays 2:30 – 5:30pm
Dr. Teal McAteer
Instructor
Teaching Assistant
mcateer@mcmaster.ca
Office: DSB/402
Office:
Office Hours: TBA
Office Hours: TBA
Tel: (905) 525-9140 x23999
Tel: (905) 525-9140 x
Course Website: www.business.mcmaster.ca/hrlr/profs/mcateer
Class location: DSB-505
Lori Burch
Administrative Assistant
burchl@mcmaster.ca
DSB/403
Office Hours: 8:15-16:15
905-525-9140 x24434
COURSE ELEMENTS
Credit Value: 3
WebCT: No
Participation: Yes
Leadership: Yes
Ethics: Yes
Innovation: Yes
IT skills: No
Numeracy: No
Group work: Yes
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Global view: Yes
Written skills: Yes
Oral skills: Yes
B718 – Winter 2010 – 2 of 8
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course provides a critical review of key concepts, models, theories, and practitioner approaches
relating to leadership in organizations. The implications of this literature for the practice of leadership will
also be thoroughly considered. Illustrations and application of leadership principles will be demonstrated
through experiential exercises, skill development exercises, and a six-week transformative learning piece
embedded within the body of the course. Personal and professional development will form a common
theme throughout this course. A more fitting label for this course would be “Inspiring Individual
Leadership”.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
 Distinguish fiction, folklore and fads on leadership as typically portrayed in the popular press, from
what is actually known based on years of systematic research.
 Analyze, interpret and respond effectively to a situation that calls for a leadership intervention.
 Recognize leadership styles (self and others’) and know how they are likely to either facilitate or
impede leadership effectiveness.
 Identify effective leadership responses to suit varying situational circumstances.
REQUIRED COURSE MATERIALS AND READINGS
Text: Why Should Anyone Be Led by You? What it takes to be an Authentic
Leader, Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones, Harvard Business School Press, 2006
$15.90 (used)
Package of Diagnostic Self-Assessment Instruments
$135.00 complete kit
Practitioner Articles (For weekly leadership facilitations)
Provided by Professor
EVALUATION
Your evaluation in this course results from a combination of individual and group components. Your final
grade will be calculated as follows:
Components and Weights
Two Team “Workshop” Facilitations (10%+15%)
25%
Transformative Learning Experience Part 1 & 2:
Individual Leadership Development Report (15%+20%)
35%
In-class mid-term exam
15%
Individual Leadership Presentation
10%
Leader Scorecard Report
15%
Total
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100%
B718 – Winter 2010 – 3 of 8
Conversion
The scale below is used to average your performance across each component of the course.
LETTER GRADE
A+
A
AB+
B
B-
PERCENT
90 - 100
85 - 89
80 - 84
75 - 79
70 - 74
65 – 69
LETTER GRADE
C+
C
CF
PERCENT
60 - 64
55 - 59
50 - 54
00 - 49
Workshop #1:Team Facilitation (Text). Each week, all students are expected to read the textbook
chapter assigned in the course schedule on page 7 of this outline. This facilitation should be delivered
utilizing a highly participative workshop style. It is to be theory-based, aimed at stimulating new
thoughts, arguments, and differing points of view on the leadership material presented in the relevant
chapter. The team’s goal will be to prepare a workshop with the ideal combination of formal delivery,
informal delivery, power point slides, experiential, Q&A, and any other presentation methodologies
aimed at increasing the audience’s understanding of factors associated with leader effectiveness/
ineffectiveness as originally suggested by the authors of the text and organizing it within the equation:
“Leader Effectiveness = leader traits + leader behaviours/styles + group member characteristics +
situational variables”. This is a leadership opportunity and is meant to be similar to an assignment given
to you by an employer with instructions to prepare a workshop for your team on material that your team is
somewhat familiar with. It therefore requires thought and creativity to take your audience beyond what is
obvious in the chapter. The workshop, while theory-based is to be motivating, engaging and practitioner
focused. The facilitation is to be 20 minutes maximum in length. Team composition and a team
facilitation schedule will be established on January 6th. The first text-based team facilitation is set for
Wednesday, January 20th to allow time for general settling-in, team organization and administration at the
front end of the course. This component will be worth 10% of your final grade.
Workshop #2: Team Facilitation (Practitioner Articles). Each week following the text-based team
delivery, another team will be responsible for organizing and facilitating a workshop based on a package
of practitioner articles which will be provided by the professor to the presenting team only, two weeks
prior to the delivery date. This is a more challenging leadership opportunity since your team is to prepare
and deliver a stimulating, thought-provoking and participative workshop on material that your audience is
not familiar with. As stated for workshop #1, your team must design and present with the ideal
combination of formal delivery, informal delivery, power point slides, experiential, Q&A, and any other
presentation methodologies aimed at increasing the audience’s understanding of factors associated with
leader effectiveness/ineffectiveness as suggested within the articles and organizing it within the equation:
“Leader Effectiveness = leader traits + leader behaviours/styles + group member characteristics +
situational variables”. It is meant to be similar to an assignment given to you by an employer with
instructions to prepare a workshop for your team on material that you team is not familiar with. The
workshop is to be motivating, engaging and practitioner focused. The facilitation is to be 30 minutes
maximum in length. Team composition and a team facilitation schedule will be established on January 6th.
The first practitioner-based team facilitation is set for Wednesday, January 20th and therefore this team
will receive their package of readings on January 6th (two weeks prior to January 20th). This component
will be worth 15% of your final grade.
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B718 – Winter 2010 – 4 of 8
Transformative Learning Experience: Individual Leadership Development Report: The purpose of
this exercise is to identify individual leadership areas requiring development and to be given the
opportunity to make changes in those areas. You are required to identify three areas of weakness as
diagnosed through completion of your Life Styles Inventory (LSI) and other supporting diagnostic results
(eg. VIA, SDS, TMI, SPR, LSI Conflict) and/or past performance appraisals indicating similar areas
requiring improvement. On February 3rd, your action plan worth 15% (8 page maximum) is due. Six
weeks later (March 17th), your reflection journal/progress summary worth 20% (10 page maximum) is
due. The total value of this Individual Leadership Development Report is 35% of your final grade.
In-class Mid-term Exam: Your professor will provide you with recent magazine articles about actual
leaders in the press. Based on the information provided to you in the articles as well as by utilizing
material covered in the course prior to the exam, you will be asked to assess the leader’s effectiveness or
ineffectiveness. This component is worth 15% of your final grade.
Leader Scorecard Report: This is an individual project and will act as your final exam. You are to select
someone from your past or present who you believe to be a leader, and in particular, someone who has
had a significant influence on your life. The project must contain a profile of the leader by providing a
brief description of his/her successes/accomplishments. The grading rubric will include the key
components: (a) the personal attributes/traits/personality characteristics that define this person as a leader;
(b) this person’s leadership style(s)/approach; (c) internal situational variables such as group/team
member characteristics, organizational culture, policies, systems, etc.; and (d) external situational
variables/circumstances that may have played some role in this person’s successes/accomplishments. It is
critical that you include throughout the paper how this person has impacted you personally and/or
professionally. It is also critical that each component of the report incorporates concepts, theories, models,
instruments utilized in the course. Demonstrate your knowledge of what you have learned for this course!
The Scorecard is not to exceed 10 pages of text, 12-font, space and a half (excluding appendices and
references). This will call for tight, disciplined writing. This component is worth 15% of your final grade.
ACADEMIC DISHONESTY
It is the student’s responsibility to understand what constitutes academic dishonesty. Please refer to the
University Senate Academic Integrity Policy at the following URL:
http://www.mcmaster.ca/univsec/policy/AcademicIntegrity.pdf
This policy describes the responsibilities, procedures, and guidelines for students and faculty should a
case of academic dishonesty arise. Academic dishonesty is defined as to knowingly act or fail to act in a
way which results or could result in unearned academic credit or advantage. Please refer to the policy for
a list of examples. The policy also provides faculty with procedures to follow in cases of academic
dishonesty as well as general guidelines for penalties. For further information related to the policy, please
refer to the Office of Academic Integrity at:
http://www.mcmaster.ca/academicintegrity
COPYRIGHT
McMaster University has signed a license with the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access
Copyright) which allows professors, students, and staff to make copies allowed under fair dealing. Fair
dealing with a work does not require the permission of the copyright owner or the payment of royalties as
long as the purpose for the material is private study, and that the total amount copied equals NO MORE
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B718 – Winter 2010 – 5 of 8
THAN 10 percent of a work or an entire chapter which is less than 20 percent of a work. In other words,
it is illegal to: i) copy an entire book, or ii) repeatedly copy smaller sections of a publication that
cumulatively cover over 10 percent of the total work’s content. Please refer to the following copyright
guide for further information:
http://library.mcmaster.ca/about/copying.pdf
POLICY ON MISSED MID-TERM EXAMINATIONS / TESTS
The Faculty of Business has approved the following policy:
Where students miss a regularly scheduled midterm for legitimate reasons as adjudicated by the Academic
Programs Office (APO), the weight for that test will be distributed across other evaluative components of
the course at the discretion of the instructor. Documentation explaining such an absence must be
provided to the APO within five (5) working days upon returning to school. The approved McMaster
Medical Form must be used to document absence for health related reasons. If an exam is missed without
a valid reason, students will receive a grade of Zero (0) for that component. University policy states that a
student may submit a maximum of three (3) medical certificates per year after which the student must
meet with the Director of the program. Please see the following URL for APO forms:
http://www.degroote.mcmaster.ca/UG/register.html
Students unable to write at the posted exam time due to the following reasons: religious; work-related (for
part-time students only); representing university at an academic or varsity athletic event; and conflicts
between two overlapping scheduled midterm exams, have the option of applying for special exam
arrangements. Such requests must be made to the APO at least ten (10) working days before the scheduled
exam along with acceptable documentation. There will be only one common sitting for the special exam.
Instructors cannot themselves allow students to unofficially write make-up exams/tests. Adjudication of
the request must be handled by the APO.
STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
Students with disabilities are required to inform the Centre for Student Development (CSD) of
accommodation needs for examinations on or before the last date for withdrawal from a course without
failure (please refer to official university sessional dates). Students must forward a copy of such CSD
accommodation to the instructor immediately upon receipt. If a student with a disability chooses NOT to
take advantage of a CSD accommodation and chooses to sit for a regular exam, a petition for relief may
not be filed after the examination is complete. The CSD website is:
http://csd.mcmaster.ca
RESEARCH USING HUMAN SUBJECTS
Research involving human participants is premised on a fundamental moral commitment to advancing
human welfare, knowledge and understanding. As a research intensive institution, McMaster University
shares this commitment in its promotion of responsible research. The fundamental imperative of research
involving human participation is respect for human dignity and well-being. To this end, the University
endorses the ethical principles cited in the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research
Involving Humans:
http://www.pre.ethics.gc.ca/english/policystatement/policystatement.cfm
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B718 – Winter 2010 – 6 of 8
McMaster University has mandated its Research Ethics Boards to ensure that all research investigations
involving human participants are in compliance with the Tri-Council Policy Statement. The University is
committed, through its Research Ethics Boards, to assisting the research community in identifying and
addressing ethical issues inherent in research, recognizing that all members of the University share a
commitment to maintaining the highest possible standards in research involving humans.
If you are conducting original research, it is vital that you behave in an ethical manner. For example,
everyone you speak to must be made aware of your reasons for eliciting their responses and consent to
providing information. Furthermore, you must ensure everyone understands that participation is entirely
voluntary. Please refer to the following website for more information about McMaster University’s
research ethics guidelines:
http://www.mcmaster.ca/ors/ethics
Organizations that you are working with are likely to prefer that some information be treated as
confidential. Ensure that you clarify the status of all information that you receive from your client. You
MUST respect this request and cannot present this information in class or communicate it in any form,
nor can you discuss it outside your group. Furthermore, you must continue to respect this confidentiality
even after the course is over.
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B718 – Winter 2010 – 7 of 8
B718 - Leadership Winter 2010 Course Schedule
DATE
Jan. 6
Jan. 13
Jan. 20
LEADERSHIP CORE CONCEPT
Course Overview
“Leading through Traditional and
Contemporary Schools of
Thought”
“Leading through Vision,
Direction & Purpose”
Part 1: Current Thinking Styles,
Virtues & Values
‘’Leading through Vision,
Direction & Purpose ‘’
Part 2 : Desired State
TEXT
INTRO. QS
FACILITATION:
DR MCATEER
CH. 1 QS
FACILITATION:
DR MCATEER
CH. 2 QS
FACILITATION:
PRACTITIONER ARTICLES
FACILITATION: DR. MCATEER
FACILITATION: DR. MCATEER
MONA KHAVARI
FACILITATION: ____________
____________
CH. 3 QS
Jan. 27
“Leading through Coaching”
FACILTATION:
FACILITATION: ____________
____________
Feb. 3
“Leading through
Communication and Conflict”
LSI Action Plan Due (15%)
(Transformative Learning
Experience Part 1)
Feb. 10
In-class Mid-term Test (15%)
____________
Feb. 24
“Leadership in Action”
Mar. 3
“Leading through Synergistic
Decision-Making & Team
Building”
CH. 5 QS
FACILITATION:
____________
“Leading through Team
Assessment & Re-Building”
CH. 6 QS
Mar.10
FACILITATION: ____________
“Leading through Corporate
Social Responsibility”
LSI Progress Summary Due
(20%)
(Transformative Learning
Experience Part 2)
FACILITATION:
DECISION-MAKING
FACILITATION: ____________
FACILITATION: ____________
____________
CH. 7 QS
FACILITATION:
“Leading through Change”
Apr. 7
TEAM MANAGEMENT
(GSI)
CSR
MANAGEMENT
FACILITATION: ____________
TRANSITION
MANAGEMENT
____________
FACILITATION:
MANAGEMENT
(TORNADO
SIMULATION)
FACILITATION: ____________
____________
Mar. 31
MANAGEMENT
CONFLICT
MANAGEMENT
(LSI CONFLICT)
GUEST SPEAKERS
CH. 8&9 QS
Mar. 24
TIME MANAGEMENT
(TMI)
STRESS MANAGEMENT
(SPR)
Reading Week (No Classes)
Feb. 17
Mar. 17
THINKING STYLES
(LSI – SELF & OTHER)
(VIA: VIRTUES IN
ACTION)
MCQUAIG SELFDEVELOPMENT SURVEY
(SDS) LED BY KYLE
SALEM
COMMUNICATION
CH. 4 QS
FACILITATION:
SKILL
DEVELOPMENT
Individual Leadership
Presentation (10%)
“Leading through
Assessment/Results”
Leader Scorecard (15%)
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B718 – Winter 2010 – 8 of 8
ABOUT YOUR INSTRUCTOR
Dr. Teal McAteer is a business consultant who specializes in the areas of strategic human resource
management, motivation, career planning and development, change, stress and time management, and
health and wellness. She counsels on an individual basis and consults to a variety of organizations. She
teaches undergraduate and graduate level courses in organizational behaviour, human resource
management, leadership, organizational and individual level change, and business ethics. Dr. McAteer
also teaches within the Director’s College, a joint program of McMaster University and the Conference
Board of Canada.
Dr. McAteer received her Bachelor of Commerce from Queen’s University, and a Masters in
Industrial Relations and Ph.D. in Business from the University of Toronto. Her work experience includes
human resource management functions with Shell Canada Limited and Domtar Incorporated, employee
benefits consulting with Johnson & Higgins Willis Faber Limited, and relocation counselling with Peat
Marwick Thorne. Currently, Dr. McAteer maintains her own consulting practice offering a wide variety
of services in the HRM field.
Given her continued research interests in transformative learning experiences, the relationship
between stress and health, the importance of maintaining strong self-efficacy, the power of
productive/healthy versus unproductive/unhealthy thinking styles, and stress management strategies - Dr.
McAteer is familiar with both the theory and practice of creating a healthy and motivated company team.
Dr. McAteer comes to you as a true practising professional. Her experience and approach to
simplifying training concepts generates a productive learning environment.
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