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Hi Everyone.

We are in the process of redesigning our curriculum for management
majors here in the College of Business at Northern Illinois University.
We are attacking this issue from a number of directions, so I thought it
might be useful to seek input from the members of this list.

Assume that we have two upper-level UG courses to design around the
following set of topics. The courses should focus on both conveying
theoretical/conceptual information as well as developing
skills/competencies.

Leadership
Management
Decision Making
Conflict and Negotiation

My question is this: How would you suggest grouping these topics into
two courses, given that there can be considerable overlap among them?

If you have specific courses at your school that already cover these
topics and you wouldn't mind sharing course/syllabus information, we
would love to see it. Any other thoughts you might have on how to cover
this material with undergraduates is welcome as well.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Courtney Hunt
Assistant Professor of Management
Northern Illinois University
M60CXH1@wpo.cso.niu.edu

Courtney:
I have a publication coming out in the April issue of Quality Progress
http://qualityprogress.asq.org/ called How to Build a Curriculum that Meets
the Wants and Needs of Your Customers. It uses a series of Matrices and CQI
Tools and Techniques. If you want the step-by-step workshop manual, send me
a self-addressed label and a $3.50 stamp and I'll get one to you ASAP.

Most sincerely yours,
Bob Cornesky
1003 Ravenswood Drive
Anderson, SC 29625
Email: tqm1bob@aol.com
PH: 864-231-9780
Fax: 864-224-2436

Courtney,

Me, I'd group them as follows: Management and Leadership, and Decision
Making and Conflict and Negotiation.

My reason for doing this is:

Management and Leadership do, as you say, have significant overlaps but
grouping them together allows these to be concentrated on without such
confounds as the other two might bring. It also allows you to highlight the
generic or core competencies required of leaders and managers without having
to contextualise them at the same time. That is something that can happen as
and when participants apply the competencies on the job. What you can
concentrate on is what the competencies are and how they can be applied (and
thereby contextualised).

Decision making/Conflict and Negotiation. If you mix these subjects with the
above subjects you may be tempted to concentrate only on the human
dimensions of conflicts and decisions. But, as any manager knows, there are
just as many conflicts arising when it comes to seeking and using resources
(time, materiel and money) which also require negotiations and decision
making. Here I'm talking with my project manager hat on so forgive me if it
looks like I'm taking a very wide view of these - because I am, just as
every manager does.

I hope this helps you apply your leadership and management skills in the
identification of the conflicts between resources and being able to
negotiate a decision about which to use and how to use them. :-)

Phil Rutherford
robnphil@ozemail.com.au
----- Original Message -----

> Leadership
> Management
> Decision Making
> Conflict and Negotiation
>
> My question is this: How would you suggest grouping these topics into
> two courses, given that there can be considerable overlap among them?
>
> If you have specific courses at your school that already cover these
> topics and you wouldn't mind sharing course/syllabus information, we
> would love to see it. Any other thoughts you might have on how to cover
> this material with undergraduates is welcome as well.

> Courtney Hunt
> Northern Illinois University
> M60CXH1@wpo.cso.niu.edu

From: Beryl Harman [mailto:harman_beryl@dau.mil]

Courtney, from my perspective it is better to group (1)
leadership,management and decision-making in one course. Then continue with
(2) management, decision-making and conflict and negotiation in another.
The reason being they are two different perspectives.

Under leadership you can then address the differences between leadership and
management. The skills associated with strategic management and
organization (teaming) and critical thinking. There should also be an
emphasis on leadership traits, mentoring, coaching, advocacy and
empowerment.

Under Conflict and Negotiation, you can now address the managers role in
dealing with conflict, Thomas-Kilmann in terms of conflict methods, use
different instruments to get people to understand how they have different
needs, how values play a role, how to deal with conflict, how to reach
consensus and synergy, what roles people play in the conflict process and
how conflict is both positive and negative as it addresses decision-making.
You can also address Alternate Disputes Resolution, mediation,
arbitration,ombudsmen. There is a course we are involved in here called
Beyond Conflict which is centered around Firo Element B. This is a great
tool for getting people to understand their needs and how they are
interacting with other people.

Hope this helps

Dr. Beryl Harman

---------------original message--------------
.....
Assume that we have two upper-level UG courses to design around the
following set of topics. The courses should focus on both conveying
theoretical/conceptual information as well as developing
skills/competencies.
Leadership
Management
Decision Making
Conflict and Negotiation
My question is this: How would you suggest grouping these topics into
two courses, given that there can be considerable overlap among them?
If you have specific courses at your school that already cover these
topics and you wouldn't mind sharing course/syllabus information, we
would love to see it. Any other thoughts you might have on how to cover
this material with undergraduates is welcome as well.
Courtney Hunt
M60CXH1@wpo.cso.niu.edu

Courtney,
You might want to look at Wilson's Task Cycle Theory [list editor: Wilson,
C. (1988). Task cycle theory: A learning-based view of organization
behavior. Psychology and productivity (P. Whitney & R.B. Ochsman, Eds.), pp.
159-177. Plenum Publishing Corporation. Also see:
http://www.cwginc.com/task.htm ] for guidance as to what skills should be
addressed as management and as leadership skills. In brief, the management
skills are making goals clear and important, planning and problem solving,
facilitating the work of others, obtaining and providing feedback,
exercising positive control, reinforcing good performance. The leadership
skills are visioning, sensing the environment, gaining commitment,
monitoring personal impact, driving for success, and recognizing change.

I have done some preliminary research and it appears that leadership builds
on effective management. The converse was however not supported. The sample
sizes for this data are too small to call these results anything but
preliminary. The model does, however, provide some guidance as to what
should be included in courses on management and leadership.

Frank Shipper, Ph.D.
Professor of Management
Perdue School of Business
Salisbury State University
Salisbury, MD 21801
Phone: (410) 543-6333
FAX: (410) 546-6208
E-mail: fmshipper@ssu.edu
Home Page: http://perdue.ssu.edu/~fmshippe/home/welcome.htm

---------------original message--------------
.....
Assume that we have two upper-level UG courses to design around the
following set of topics. The courses should focus on both conveying
theoretical/conceptual information as well as developing
skills/competencies.
Leadership
Management
Decision Making
Conflict and Negotiation
My question is this: How would you suggest grouping these topics into
two courses, given that there can be considerable overlap among them?
If you have specific courses at your school that already cover these
topics and you wouldn't mind sharing course/syllabus information, we
would love to see it. Any other thoughts you might have on how to cover
this material with undergraduates is welcome as well.
Courtney Hunt
M60CXH1@wpo.cso.niu.edu