Program Spotlight
Are Leaders Born or Made?By Donald Vredenburgh
This colloquial question constitutes an appropriate springboard for students in Management 9302, Developing Managerial Skills, to appraise their leadership behavior. Through self-assessment scales, interpersonal feedback, exposure to leadership concepts, case analyses, and information about practicing leaders, students gain an understanding of how they can enhance their leadership development.
The course complements the required MBA course in organizational behavior and directly addresses three Baruch MBA Learning Goals: (1) Teamwork and Leadership (2) Communication and (3) Ethical Awareness. The course is communication rich, with students making individual oral presentations and participating in formal debates, both of which are evaluated, as well as submitting seven brief individual papers. Ethical leadership receives class attention, and one assignment asks students to analyze ethically a leadership incident from their work experience.
Completing 43 self-assessment scales, the students gain knowledge about their personalities and motives, their self-perceived skills, and their attitudes about leadership-related topics such as communication, teamwork, organizational politics, conflict, change, and organizational culture. Interpersonal feedback about their leadership behavior, from both confidential and known sources, often proves enlightening to them. As a final exam they develop a leadership plan that summarizes their self-assessments and draws short and long-run professional career inferences.
Some topics covered in the course appear particularly appealing to the students. Women and leadership, bad leadership, performance feedback, organizational politics, and delegation often provoke personal interest.
MBA students majoring in organizational behavior/human resource management take Management 9302 as part of their major, but the course attracts many students from other majors who recognize the need to develop their leadership skills for professional success. This functional diversity adds value to the course for all the students. A two credit version, Business 9301 Leadership Assessment and Development, is part of the MBA in Health Care program.
A unique feature of both courses is continuing interaction between students and instructor. The considerable data the course generates suggests research opportunities, and, with Institutional Review Board approval, scale data, institutional data, and longitudinal data provide research opportunities for doctoral students and the instructor. Of course the former students can receive the results of the research.
Are Leaders Born or Made? Class discussion develops the recognition that leaders are made, through experience, but that individuals vary in individual attributes, some of which derive partly genetically, relevant to exercising leadership. Individuals learn leadership skills through experience, but differing abilities and sensibilities determine the amount and pace of learning that fosters leadership skills.
Academic courses can considerably increase leadership learning, but we all need to keep practicing.