Gerald W. Fry
837 PLC
Office Hours, TU, F: 2-5
Phone: 346-5053 (office)
345-4387 (home)
email: [email protected]		 Graduate Teaching Fellows:
Yaju Dharmarajah
Denise Walters
Duangsiri PLC
 Office Hours: TBA
email: .uoregon.edu



 [ Overview of course | Syllabus | Intro to Leaders ]
[ Intro to Leadership | List of Leaders ]
[ Guidelines for variousassignments | List of usefule novels ]
[ Group List with Organizations ]


This is a offering of the International Studies Program and part of its core undergraduate cirriculum.   The focus of the course is on international and cross-cultural prospectives on leadership.   The course is interdisciplinary and cross-field in approach looking at leadership in a wide array of contexts such as:
  • managing effectively non-governmental (NGOs) and private voluntary organizations (PVOs)
  • ethical and moral aspects of good leadership
  • leadership responsive to the increasingly multicultural world of the 21st century
  • meeting the many challenges of working overseas effectively in diverse cultural and organizational settings

The course will also emphasize the study approach by examining diverse types of leadership approaches (Dutch, Japanese, Buddhist, Confucian, U.S., ect.) and a wide range of actual world leaders (Nelson Mandela, U Thant, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Aung San Suu Kyi, Eva Peron, and Corazon Aquino as examples).   Finally, there will be an emphasis on gender aspects of leadership and an examination of the role that women leaders have played in recent history.


January 8: Introduction

  • Basic value premises and a normative approach to the study of leadership
  • A generic interdisciplinary approach to leadership
  • The functions of leaders
  • Genres of leaders

    Some key theoretical questions:

    Are leaders born or made? Is leadership an art or a science?
    Can leaders be trained?
    Do leaders create history or does history create leaders?


    January 14: Asian approaches to leadership

    The Buddhist leader
    Confucian and Taoist approaches to leadership

    Reading:
    Gerald Fry, Misao Makino, and Osamitsu Yamada, "Buddhist Entrepreneurship," pp. 323-338 in Amara Pongsapich, et al., Entrepreneurship and Socio-Economic Transformation in Thailand and Southeast Asia (Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University Social Research Institute and French Institute of Scientific Research for Development in Cooperation, 1994).

    Geert Hofstedte, "Virtue versus Truth," pp. 159-174 in Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997).


    January 21: Mini-presentations on inspiring world leaders

    Reading:
    Hofstedte, Chapters I and II.


    January 28: Completion of mini-presentations

    Lessons from mini-presentations. Cross-cultural challenges facing leaders of the 21st Century: The Protean ideal.

    Reading:
    Hofstedte, Chapters III, V

    Robert J. Lifton, The Protean Self in an Age of Fragmentation (New York: Basic Books, 1993), pp. 1-12.


    February 4: Leaders and followers and the world of work

    Time management. Attitudes toward and conceptions of work. National versus organizational cultures.

    Reading:
    Hofstedte, Chapter VI, Chapters VIII-X, and appendix.
    Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (New York: Harper & Row, 1990), pp. 214-240.



    February 11: Gender and leadership

    Reading:
    Hofstedte, Chapter IV
    Video on Corazon Aquino
    Panel of women leaders



    February 18: Critical viewing of film: "Gandhi"

    Complete review of Hofstedte book and turn in today.


    February 25: The leader as evaluator

    Evaluating country climates; evaluating organizations; evaluating employees, evaluating technologies; being digital; case study of the Iridium project.

    Reading:
    Nicholas Negroponte, Being Digital (New York: Knopf, 1995), pp. 184-195; 227-231.
    Iridium Background Information.


    March 4: The ethics of leadership

    Case studies of ethical dilemmas. Strategies for anticipating the future. The future executive. The sigmoid function. The Funai dilemma. Symbols of the leader in the 21st century.

    Reading:
    Gerald Fry and Clarence Thurber, "Anonymous Case Studies," pp. 95-132 in The International Education of the Development Consultant: Communicating with Peasants and Princes (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1989).


    March 11: Deadweek.

    There will be no class this week. Time should be devoted to group projects.


    Menu of Required and Optional Assignments

    Required Activities

    • Oral or written presentation on an inspiring leader (10 points) Due Date: 1/21.

    • Critical review of Hofstedte book (25 points) Due Date: 2/18.

    • Analytical study of an organization and its culture and leadership (2 to 4 person teams) (35 points) Due Date: 3/18.


    Optional Activities

    Critical review of a film dealing with leadership issues, such as "Gandhi," "War and Peace," "The Ugly American," "The Quiet American," "Evita" (10 points) Due Date: 2/26.

    Critical review of a novel dealing with leadership issues such as War and Peace (30 points); other novels, (20 points). Due Date: 3/4. A related bibliography will be posted on the Internet.

    Critique of a campus lecture dealing with leadership issues or with leadership implications (5 points each); maximum of two such critiques. Due Date: 3/18.

    A second written paper on an inspiring leader (10 points). Due Date: 3/4.

    A critique of a significant non-fiction book on leadership (25 points). Due Date: 3/4. A related bibliography is being posted on the Internet.

    A critical review of yourself as a leader/follower (10 points). What are your major strengths and weaknesses? In doing your self-assessment, please draw on the Flow and Protean readings. Due Date: 3/4.

    Learning from your peers. Review of what you have learned from 10 studies of leaders written by your class peers (15 points). Due Date: 3/18.

    Learning from your peers. Review of what you have learned from 10 reviews of books on leadership or novels related to leadership by your class peers (15 points). Due Date: 3/18.

  • Items with an asterisk are required of all students.

    You should choose activities and experiences which total 100 points. You should not normally exceed 100 points. If you do choose activities totaling 105 points, that is acceptable and the extra five points would be "bonus" if you happen to be on the borderline with respect to our evaluation of your work for this course.

    Guidelines for Oral or Written Presentation on a Leader

    For those randomly selected to do an oral presentation, guidelines are as follows:

    • Do not read papers. Having notes is fine.
    • Be careful about limiting yourself to a 3 minute mini-presentation.
    • The content of the presentation should be on:
        1) What primarily accounts for the effectiveness of this particular leader?
        2) What is the major weakness(es) of the leader?
        3) Lesson(s) to be learned.
    • Avoid detailed descriptive biographic facts.
    • Try to make your presentation as dynamic and entertaining as possible. It�s all right to use overheads, posters, or slides, but, of course, limited in number because of the time constraints involved. You want to remember to points you are making.
    • We have put a number of biographies of prominent leaders on three-day reserve for your reference. A bibliography on leaders is also being posted on the Internet.

    For those doing a written report, the same guidelines apply, except that your papers should be 350-500 words in length, covering the same substantive topics as indicated above. Written papers are due the evening of January 21.

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