ML/CP120 Page 19
ML/CP120 (121): Syllabus Justin A. Irving
Bethel Seminary Office: 651-635-8706
March 28-June 6, 2004 e-mail:
Monday, 8:00-10:00 pm web: http://www.transformationalservant.org/irving.htm
Mod P
Communication and Organizational Leadership
Course Description:
This course is designed to address the essential elements of leadership communication. A model for leadership communication will be presented, and students will be challenged to process a wide range of material related to the foundations of leadership communication, organizational culture, organization conflict, and organizational change.
Because leadership communication is an interdisciplinary subject, special attention will be given to integrating information from The Center for Biblical and Theological Foundations, as well as The Center for Spiritual and Personal Formation.
Learner Outcomes: This course will…
1. Provide a working model for the study of leadership communication
2. Present an overview of the foundational issues supporting the study of leadership communication
3. Examine the relationship between communication theory, leadership theory, and the biblical studies
4. Develop a theology and philosophy of leadership communication
5. Evaluate the essential elements in the development and fostering of a healthy organizational culture
6. Offer a strategy for leading in and through personal and organizational conflict
7. Articulate a vision and process for navigating organizational change
8. Acquaint the student with the extensive resources available in the field of leadership communication
Connections:
Leadership Communication will build on previous coursework, especially ML113—Introduction to Transformational Leadership. In particular, Leadership Communication will address relevant points of connection with leadership theory and the 4-R model. Students will be encouraged to refer back to relevant notes from ML113 as they process through the course material and assignments in Leadership Communication. If the student has not taken ML113, points of reference will be provided in the course.
Required Reading: The following textbooks and articles are required for all students in the course.
Irving, J. (2005) ML/CP120 Course Reader. (Available in Course Documents on Blackboard: http://blackboard.bethel.edu/).
Leas, Speed. (1998). Discover Your Conflict Management Style. Alban Institute Publication.
Nelson, Alan, and Gene Appel. (2000). How to Change Your Church (without killing it). Nashville: Word. ISBN: 0849916607.
Sande, Ken. (2004). The Peacemaker (3rd Edition): A Biblical Guide to Resolving Personal Conflict. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker. ISBN: 0801064856.
Wren, J. Thomas, ed. (1995). The Leader’s Companion: Insights on Leadership Through the Ages. New York: Free Press, 1995. ISBN: 0028740912
Optional Resources: The following resources are optional, but may be helpful in preparation for quiz and course assignments.
Irving, Justin A. (2003). Leadership Communication Instructional CD (Audio lecturers and course content slides). This optional resource may be purchased ($5) in class for review of lecture content; please indicate to the instructor the first session of class if you would like a copy made for you to pick of the second session.
Sande, Ken. (2003). "Basic Principles of Biblical Peacemaking." May be retrieved from http://www.hispeace.org/html/bas.htm (optional; this page, and others on “www.hispeace.org” may help in understanding Sande’s approach to conflict resolution/peacemaking).
Assignments:
Reading Assignments, Web Site visits, and Class Participation
All assignments and class participation assume that reading has been carefully processed and a minimum of 10 leadership communication web sites has been visited.
Ø Reading Assignments and Discussion Forums:
Most sessions will include reading assignments. These assignments are to be completed in a timely manner. All course assessments will assume the timely processing of the course material; additionally, course assessments will be evaluated and graded based on thorough interaction with and citation of this course material.
Ø Web Site Visits:
Please visit a minimum of 10 sites related to the field of leadership communication within the first two weeks of the course. If you need a place to start, “www.google.com” is a good search engine. This assignment is designed to expose you to the many resources available throughout the Internet. Again, course assessments will assume the processing of these web sites in a timely manner.
Ø Leadership Communication Assessments
1. Quiz – Leadership Communication Pyramid
This quiz will be focused around the reading and presentations up to day two of the class: (a) Wren, chapter 55, (b) Part I the Course Reader (a reading guide is provided in Blackboard and within this syllabus), (c) Presentation #1: Introduction to the Leadership Communication Pyramid, and (d) Presentation #2: The Foundation of Leadership Communication.
2. Paper #1 – Organizational Culture
Based on the course reading, course presentations, and your personal research of an organization, please evaluate the identity and culture of a church or non-profit ministry. Your evaluation must include three parts—Analysis, Evaluation, and Recommendations.
Analysis
This phase of analysis is for information gathering. In this portion of your paper, you will need to provide a concise overview of the organization’s identity and culture. At a minimum, please identify or address the following items related the organization: 1) What are the organization’s purpose, mission, strategy, values, and vision? 2) Is there continuity or discontinuity between the organization’s spoken or public identity and the actual cultural ethos of the organization? 3) How does the organization organize its leadership and personnel, and what is the relationship between the organization’s governance and program areas? And 4) who in the organization is responsible for defining the organization’s identity and culture, and who in the organization is responsible for communicating the organization’s identity and culture (please consider communication both inside and outside the organization noting the “Roles” in the 4-R model).
You may gather this information in anyway you deem helpful, however, the following items must be utilized in the process of your analysis. First, design a questionnaire to be used in an interview with a leader in the organization. This questionnaire should seek to access the information noted in the above paragraph. You may use this questionnaire with as many people as you would like, but it must at least be used in an interview with a leader in the organization who is well acquainted with the core identity and culture of the organization (i.e. elder, board member, pastor, ministry head, executive director, etc…). Please attach this questionnaire as an appendix to your paper. Second, please gather essential printed/ published material that will assist you in your analysis (i.e., key documents from the organization, brochures, web pages, etc…). You will not need to turn these in, but please list the items you referenced in your bibliography.
Evaluation
Once you have provided a sufficient analysis of the organization’s identity and culture, please evaluate your findings based on your course reading, course presentations, and your personal observations. At a minimum, please address the following considerations in your evaluation: 1) Has the organization adequately defined its organizational culture and identity? Does the organization have a biblically consistent and theologically informed understanding of their purpose, mission, strategy, values, and vision as an organization? 2) Has the organization adequately communicated this identity and culture both inside and outside of the organization? Has the organization utilized methods consistent with current communication theory? 3) Are there any oversights, gapping holes, or unanswered questions related the organization’s culture and identity? What has led to these oversights, or what has led to the organization’s thoroughness in addressing these issues? And 4) what is the leadership ethos of the organization? Has the organization developed a transformational or transactional culture? What are the factors that have led to this cultural ethos?
Recommendations
Based on your analysis and evaluation of the organization, please develop a set of conclusions and recommendations for improving the organization’s identity and culture. Please base these conclusions and recommendations on your course reading, course presentations, and your personal observation and experience.
Your recommendations may be written up in any form, but they should be thorough enough to provide clear and insightful direction to the current leadership of the organization. Please assert your recommendations, providing support and rationale for these conclusions and recommendations. If no recommendations are offered (this would be very rare) please provide a thorough rationale for why you see no, or very little, room for improvement of the organizational culture.
Appendix & Bibliography
Please be sure to include your organizational culture questionnaire as an appendix. Also, be sure to cite your sources and include a bibliography of all materials referenced.
3. Paper #2 – Organizational Conflict
This paper is designed to provide you with an opportunity to carefully reflect on your personal conflict style and use of resolution strategies. Your reflection must include these two sections—Conflict Style and Resolution Strategies.
Conflict Style
Based on your course reading, course presentations, The Conflict Inventory, and personal reflection, provide a personal history of your conflict style. At a minimum, please consider the following items: 1) Past — Describe your conflict style in the past. What has been your “default” conflict style, or what conflict style has been most natural for you in the past? Please reflect on some examples of how conflict was handled in your life; these examples may be from personal or professional settings. What factors have contributed to the conflict style you have adopted? Please consider family upbringing, personal experience, individual personality, etc…. 2) Present — Describe your present conflict style. What is your current style for handling conflict? What is a current situation or relationship you are engaged in that is forcing you to think about your personal conflict style? How do the foundational issues of one’s life (Christ, Capacity [Big Five, DICE+1, EQ], Competencies, & Context) related to your conflict style? 3) Future — Describe your personal goals for your style of conflict management. What conflict style do you wish to nurture in your life? What does the Bible have to say about our style of engaging in conflict? How may you grow toward a healthier and more biblical style of conflict engagement?
Resolution Strategies
Once you have reflected on your personal conflict style history, please reflect on how you may implement a strategy of conflict resolution. Again, base your reflections and conclusions on your course reading, course presentations, The Conflict Inventory, and personal experience. Please address the following: 1) What are the essential components of a conflict strategy? 2) What are some examples of how conflict was resolved in the Bible? Please develop some principles for conflict resolution from these biblical texts. 3) May these principles and strategies be applied in both individual and organizational contexts? What may differ between these two settings? 4) How will a person’s relationship with God and one’s personal capacity affect his or her ability to engage in healthy conflict resolution—both individual and organizational?
Bibliography
Be sure to cite your sources and include a bibliography of all materials referenced.
4. Group Presentation – Organizational Change Case Study
Assignment Overview: Based on your course reading, course presentations, and your personal research of the organizational change process, please design an Organizational Change Plan that will be submitted in the form of a PowerPoint presentation and presented with 2-3 classmates toward the end of our course. You will have two case study options. The first option will be to design an Organizational Change Plan for the described fictional organizational case study listed below. The second option will be for you to design an Organizational Change Plan for an existing organization you have contact with (this may be a church, a nonprofit organization, or a significant ministry or program within a church or nonprofit organization). Please be sure to address each of the categories listed in the option of your choice.
Format Overview: Please format your presentation as if you were an organizational consultant presenting your Organizational Change Plan to the organizational leaders of the community for whom you are designing the plan. Because this is a course dealing with communication, this assignment provides a place for you to refine your presentation preparation skills by designing a PowerPoint presentation. Your presentation must include many of the same features of a quality academic paper (e.g., substantive content, in-depth interaction with the course reading and literature of the field, etc.), but will also be assessed for the quality and creativity of the presentation. While there is not an assigned number of slides, you should design your presentation for a 25-minute consultative presentation time slot. Be sure to pay attention to issues of presentation organization and flow. Also, be sure to demonstrate that your Organizational Change Plan is grounded in the literature of the field and be sure to cite your sources with either footnotes or endnotes that are included on the presentation slides. Please e-mail your PPT file to the instructor () with a list of all of the members of your presentation team at least 30 minutes prior to the beginning of the class session in which you will be presenting.
OPTION A – Fictional Case Study
You have just entered into a new ministry setting as a leader. The ministry site (church, non-profit organization, or key ministry of the church or organization) you have come to is marked by the following characteristics. First, the ministry is defined by a transactional ethos and culture. Second, the ministry is very top-down in its decision-making and ministry implementation. And third, there is a lack of involvement by the general membership as participants in the ministry of the organization; because of this, there is an expectation that the professional ministry staff will do the work of ministry.
In light of this transactional, top-down, non-participatory environment, you have been given the task of designing an Organizational Change Plan that will be utilized in the process of transitioning the organization into a transformational environment that is marked by a team-based approach to ministry.
Working within these parameters, please describe in further detail the following items: Current Situation, Desired Change, and Detailed Change Plan.
Description of Current Situation
Describe the key factors surrounding the current situation for the ministry. Further, please address in detail the reasons why the current situation is in need of change.
Description of Desired Change
After addressing the ministry’s current situation, please clearly articulate the desired change to be pursued. What makes this change necessary? What makes this change desirable?