• Define leadership in light of the range of different theoretical perspectives and concepts presented in the course, including social movements theory, social network theory, intergroup leadership, tempered radicalism, gender and diversity, sexual harassment, and cross-cultural leadership theory.
• Explain clearly the differences between individualistic, leader-centered approaches and relational, leadership-centered approaches to leadership.
• Define, compare and contrast the systems control perspective and the process relational perspective on strategy, management, organization, and leadership
• Define complexity, and explain how concepts such as complex adaptive systems, emergence, and adaptive space complements relational and leadership-centered approaches to leadership.
• Apply the concepts and perspectives covered in the course to analyze a wide range of cases chosen to exemplify the complex mix of strategic, organizational, managerial, and leadership challenges and dilemmas that confront complex organizations and the people who work in them.

This course prepares students for careers as effective managers by exploring the key practical and conceptual tasks and challenges facing complex organizations and the people who work in them. These challenges include organizing work as a series of diverse and challenging projects; managing project portfolios; negotiating work tasks with experts, professionals, and knowledge workers; maintaining integration in very diverse workplaces; and grappling with uncertainty and change. The course stresses that in such contexts, the strategic, organisational and cultural aspects of management practice always intersect and overlap. At the same time, the course explores several theories that link these dynamics tightly together.
 
The course further pursues the notion that management practices rooted in industrial regimes of production increasingly have been superseded in many instances by new management practices that foreground collaboration, leadership, culture and the regulation of identity. The course therefore includes discussion of those aspects of organisational life that are often marginalised in standard texts, including the politics and complexities of managerial decision-making, the personal stresses associated with managerial work, the roles played by ordinary human interaction, relationships, and humour in organizational settings.

• Classic and basic theory

• Discussion, critical reflection, modelling

Course materials consist of a textbook, journal articles, and business cases. All students are responsible for obtaining all course materials and for showing up for class ready to discuss them. The case materials assigned for this course are all available for purchase at the Harvard Business School Publishing.

Indicative Literature:
Tony Watson, Organising and Managing Work. Financial Times/ Prentice Hall; 2 edition (10 Jan 2006).