Leadership

E2025

Business Administration and Leadership

Course

Mandatory

English

Read about the Master Programme and find the Study Regulations at ruc.dk

Registration is through stads selvbetjeningwithin the announced registration period, as you can see on the Studyadministration homepage.

When registering for study activities, please be aware of the potential conflicts between study activities or exam dates. The planning of activities at Roskilde University is based on the recommended study programs which do not overlap. However, if you choose optional courses and/or study plans that goes beyond the recommended study programs, an overlap of lectures or exam dates may occur depending on which courses you choose.

10

Martin Lund Kristensen (malupe@ruc.dk)

Maria Duclos Lindstrøm (marial@ruc.dk)

ISE Registration & Exams (ise-exams@ruc.dk)

U60022GB

Students gain knowledge and insight into theories and perspectives on management that seek to answer current management issues. Through the use of management theory perspectives, students learn to identify and analyse practical organisational and management issues. Knowledge is also acquired of analytical perspectives on companies and management processes in the light of complex and evolving business and organisational conditions, and in relation to the surrounding world. Through critical analysis, empirical evidence is translated into a relevant discussion of management activity. The analytical work must demonstrate analytical and reflective assessment skills by being able to justify the choice of theories and analysis design in order to understand the special characteristics of the chosen organisational situation.

The course introduces, discusses, and applies processual and relational leadership theories. It emphasises current developments in management and leadership and focuses on analysing complex leadership-related situations by incorporating theory and method.

Throughout the course, students will work in groups to select a case study to present for their examination. If preferred, this case can also be used for their semester project.

While the course briefly overviews traditional leadership theories and concepts, it primarily focuses on recent ones. The detailed requirements for theory selection for the exam paper are provided below.

Methods: - Students will learn techniques for studying the complexities of management situations and will apply these methods to a case chosen by their group. Additionally, the course will introduce methods and analytical perspectives related to processual and relational leadership theory.

Topics covered in the course include: - The intellectual history of leadership theory - Epistemological and ontological assumptions of process and relational leadership theory - Complexity leadership - Sensemaking - Paradox leadership - Shared leadership - Purpose-driven leadership - Relational quality in plural forms of leadership - Network leadership and meta-governance - Ethical perspectives on leadership - Learning and leadership in hybrid organisations

Data, materials: - We will discuss cases during the course, but the most comprehensive case will be the one your group analyses in the group synopsis.

Selected journal articles and book chapters will be available on Moodle before the course starts.

Students should be aware that not all syllabus texts can be used as a theoretical framework in the exam paper. Therefore, an updated positive list of theories that can be included in the exam paper's theoretical framework will be prepared.

Lectures, including presentation, dialogue, small exercises and feedback: 40 hours,

Preparation (reading + small exercises): 100 hours, (This means that for each 4-hour lecture you can expect to need 10 hours preparation)

Preparation of group synopsis 100 hours per student. (This means that if you are 4 students in a group, we expect the synopsis to reflect 400 student-hours)

Exam (including preparation): 30 hours.

A total of 270 hours = 10 ects.

This study activity is not part of ISE's evaluation rotation this semester, so it is not evaluated by the ISE Admin (by questionnaire).

The course uses three forms of feedback that support RUC's pedagogical model with a focus on reflective, participant-driven and dialogue-based learning:

Dialogical feedback In the lectures, students are actively involved in professional conversations, where questions, cases and presentations form the basis for dialogue between the teacher and students and between students. This form of feedback supports shared meaning-making and professional reflection.

Peer feedback Students give each other feedback in small groups, e.g. on oral presentations, case analyses or written reflections. The purpose is to strengthen professional immersion, shared responsibility and judgment development through mutual response.

Written reflection feedback In selected teaching sessions, students work with short written reflections on central concepts, themes or their learning. The teacher and/or fellow students provide feedback, focusing on promoting meta-reflection and coherence in the learning process.

In addition, both a writing workshop and a final feedback opportunity linked to the exam project are planned. The details for this course will be presented in the first lecture.

Lecture 1: Introduction to the course Lecture 2: The historical development of management theory, epistemology and ontology Lecture 3: Leadership in complexity: Paradoxes, agility, and sensemaking Lecture 4: “Getting started on your exam assignment” seminar Lecture 5: Shared and collective forms of leadership Lecture 6: Leadership with purpose: Stakeholders, ethics and recognition Lecture 7: Network leadership and meta-governance Lecture 8: Learning and leadership in hybrid organisations Lecture 9: Ethics in relational leadership: Co-creation, responsibility, and mutuality in leadership processes Lecture 10: Feedback session

• Students gain knowledge and insight into theories and perspectives on management that seek to answer current management issues. Through the use of management theory perspectives, students learn to identify and analyse practical organisational and management issues. Knowledge is also acquired of analytical perspectives on companies and management processes in the light of complex and evolving business and organisational conditions, and in relation to the surrounding world.

• Through critical analysis, empirical evidence is translated into a relevant discussion of management activity. The analytical work must demonstrate analytical and reflective assessment skills by being able to justify the choice of theories and analysis design in order to understand the special characteristics of the chosen organisational situation.

Oral group exam based on a product written by a group.

Permitted group size: 2-6 students.

The character limit of the written product is:
For 2 students: maximum 24,000 characters, including spaces.
For 3 students: maximum 24,000 characters, including spaces.
For 4 students: maximum 24,000 characters, including spaces.
For 5 students: maximum 24,000 characters, including spaces.
For 6 students: maximum 24,000 characters, including spaces.
The character limits include the cover, table of contents, bibliography, figures and other illustrations, but exclude any appendices.

Time allowed for exam including time used for assessment is for:
2 students: 30 minutes.
3 students: 35 minutes.
4 students: 40 minutes.
5 students: 45 minutes.
6 students: 50 minutes.

The assessment is individual and based on the student's individual performance.
The assessment is an overall assessment of the written product(s) and the subsequent oral examination..

Permitted support and preparation materials at the oral exam: All.

Assessment: 7-point grading scale.
Moderation: External examiner.

Samme som ordinær eksamen / same form as ordinary exam

The exam paper must focus on a specific case that reflects specific aspects of leadership in an organisational situation. The situation should be discussed using relevant concepts from the course literature on processual and relational leadership theory. The leadership theories must be chosen from the course literature, and only theories on the positive list can be used in the theoretical framework. The exam paper can be related to the group's semester project.

In the exam paper, the students must: 1) Introduce the knowledge problem by building a theoretical and practical argument that shows the relevance of the chosen situation and formulate a problem statement 2) Reflect on the choice of 1-2 recent relevant leadership theories concerning the self-selected problem statement and discuss the theories in the context of the specific leadership situation. A positive list will be prepared indicating which course texts can be included in this theoretical framework. Reflect on the strengths/weaknesses of the theories concerning the chosen problem statement. 3) Reflect on the choice of methodological design regarding the self-selected problem formulation, including clearly relating how the chosen theoretical framework impacts the method design. 4) Conduct a systematic analysis of the chosen case based on relevant concepts from the course syllabus on processual and relational leadership theory and the use of an analytical method. 5) Discuss the exam assignment's results and their practical implications for leadership and organisations.

The assessment emphasises that the students demonstrate knowledge, skills and competencies specified in the course learning objectives.

Specifically: • To identify and analyse practical organisational and leadership issues using the course's concepts, theories and perspectives. • To translate empirical data into a relevant analysis and discussion of leadership activity through critical analysis. • To demonstrate analytical and reflective abilities by being able to justify the choice of theories and analytical design to understand the special characteristics of the chosen leadership situation.

In this exam, the use of generative AI (GenAI) tools is allowed as per the university's guidelines for the use of AI. Specifically, the following points must be observed: • When using GenAI tools, you must include a description of the purpose of using GenAI and which GenAI are used and how they have used. The description is assessed the same way as other methodology sections regarding the use of relevant literature, course’s general learning objectives, and assessment criteria. • Text copied from GenAI chats must be quoted the same way as citations from other texts. The citations and your demonstrated ability to interpret, evaluate and critically assess them is part of the overall assessment of the exam. Please consider including the prompt in a footnote to the citation if you find it relevant to demonstrate your description and analysis of the subject matter. • Ordinary spell checking and other language suggestions as known from Word or other word processing programs are allowed without declaration.