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2019/2020  MA-MMBAO3032U  Reflexive Leadership

English Title
Reflexive Leadership

Course information
Language English
Course ECTS 3 ECTS
Type Mandatory
Level Part Time Master
Duration One Semester
Start time of the course Autumn, Spring
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Study board
Study Board for Master of Business Administration
Course coordinator
  • Jesper Rangvid - Department of Finance (FI)
Main academic disciplines
  • Management
Teaching methods
  • Face-to-face teaching
Last updated on 06-05-2020

Relevant links
Learning objectives
To pass the course, the student should
  • Describe a practical leadership challenge in their own organization/leadership system
  • Discuss their own position and role in the challenge
  • Utilize concepts, theories and models from the course literature either (1) to design experiments to explore and develop their own framing of the challenge and of relationships central to the challenge or - if no experiments will be designed nor implemented - (2) to reflect critically on own leadership in the organization/leadership system.
  • Critically reflect on their own role in the outcome of these experiments (if experiments are implemented), including how their own framing of the situation reflexively shapes it, or - if experiments are not implemented, but only designed - critically reflect on, design and motivate experiments that would be possible to implement to know more about own leadership practice.
  • Describe their own process of learning through reflection and active experiments, using models and theories for reflection from the course literature.
Examination
Reflexive Leadership:
Exam ECTS 3
Examination form Home assignment - written product
Individual or group exam Individual exam
Size of written product Max. 5 pages
Assignment type Report
Duration Written product to be submitted on specified date and time.
Grading scale Pass / Fail
Examiner(s) One internal examiner
Exam period Summer and Winter
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
A written case assignment based on a case or a subject chosen by the teacher. The assignment must be formulated and given to the students at least nine days prior to the expiration of the deadline. It should be max 5 pages long and submitted to CBS Digital Exam.
Description of the exam procedure

The course will have a written exam and the student should write an assignment of max  five (5) pages.

 

There will be three different opportunities regarding the content of the assignment:

 

1.Doing experiments on own leadership challenges:

·       Design and implement experiments to understand own leadership practice and test own assumptions about own leadership

·       To the assignment should be appended material or references from at least two reflective sessions (i.e. two pairs of pre-session descriptions, online sessions, and post-session action plans) selected by the student and evidencing challenges to and potential developments of their own understanding of the challenge.

 

2.Designing experiments on own leadership practice:

·       Design and motivate experiments that could be implemented to understand own leadership practice and test own assumptions about own leadership

·       To the assignment should be appended material from at least two reflective sessions (i.e. two pairs of pre-session descriptions, online sessions, and post-session action plans) selected by the student and evidencing challenges to and potential developments of their own understanding of the challenge.

 

3.Reflecting on own leadership practice:

·       Using literature from the course critically to reflect on own leadership practice and how to use tools, concepts and perspectives to test own assumptions about own leadership practice.

·       To the assignment should be appended material or references from at least two reflective sessions (i.e. two pairs of pre-session descriptions, online sessions, and post-session action plans) selected by the student.

 

 
Course content, structure and pedagogical approach
Course content, structure and pedagogical approach

The course consists of 3 face-to-face reflective sessions and 3 online reflective sessions / 6 sessions (a combination of face-to-face and online sessions).

 

Teaching format The central teaching activities in the course are the reflective sessions in small groups, working with the students’ own real life business challenges. This is supported by texts, video lectures, and a few topical plenary sessions. 
 
Face-to-face reflective sessions In groups of four, students work in so-called reflective teams to reflect on and help each other engage with their own, specific business challenge, and become more aware of the process of reflection. 

 

Online reflective sessions Between face-to-face reflective sessions, the students participate in online reflective Face-to-face reflective sessions

 

Online reflective sessions

The online sessions consist of asynchronous (forum based) interactions. Before each session and in the manner of the face-to-face sessions, the students are expected to upload 1/2 - 1 pre-session descriptions, indicating their current challenge and what they need to work with. Each student should calculate to spend around 30 minutes producing this pre-session description. 

 
During the online reflective session, each student comments and reflects upon 2 other students’ cases. The facilitator comments on all students descriptions. The session closes by all students formulating their current reflections and take-aways from the session, including formulating a relevant experiment to try out until next time, documented in the uploaded post-session action plan. 
 


Pre-session description: Before each session (including the first), the students upload (a maximum of) 2 pages, describing the current status of their business challenge, recent experiments or relevant contextual changes since last session. This pre-session description is further brought into the session and used for work in the reflective team. 
 
Post-session action plan: Following each reflective session, the student uploads another ½ page describing decided upon actions (the post-session action plan) to be taken to further explore the challenge. During the next reflective session, the results from these actions are fed into the presession description. The string of texts pre- and post-sessions thus serves as vital inputs to and outputs from the reflective team sessions along the course. No less important, the texts also acts as progressive data points for the student when preparing the written synopsis and going into the oral exam.
 

time, documented in a post-session part of the preliminary document.
Description of the teaching methods
The course is structured in sessions, where each session is focusing on a specific topic. The course has diverse teaching methods using lectures, cases, readings and discussions. The class meetings are interactive and require ongoing engagement of the students.
Feedback during the teaching period
The feedback
Feedback is given to the student together with the grade when written and oral exams have been evaluated.

The evaluation
At the evaluation unit at CBS’s Economic & Analysis department we ask you to evaluate the overall course. In other words if there has been exercise classes and lectures the evaluation should include both. We evaluate every course and faculty to secure and strengthen the professional level of the offered course.
Student workload
Lectures 24 hours
Preparation + Exam 58,5 hours
Last updated on 06-05-2020