Independent Study: Organizational Leadership

Argosy University

Ed.D. Organizational Leadership

COURSE SYLLABUS

L7838 Directed

Independent Study: Organizational Leadership

Summer I 2009

5/9/09 to 6/29/09

Meeting dates/times:

Week 1, day TBA, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Week 3, day TBA, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Week 7, day TBA, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Submitted: March 13, 2009

Faculty Information

Faculty Name: William A. Nowlin, Ph.D.

Campus:Chicago

Contact Information:Telephone no.: 708.261.8811

E-mail

Office Hours:By appointment

Short Faculty Bio:Nowlin teaches courses in educational administration, organizational

leadership and business. He has published articles on employee and workplace issues. He holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education (University of Buffalo), Masters of Public Administration (State University of New York, Brockport), and a MS in Organizational Psychology, (Kansas State University) and a BA in Business Administration (State University of New York, Empire). He is a professor at Governors State University (GSU). Nowlin formerly served as Vice President of the U.S. Business School in Prague (Czech Republic), Dean, of the College of Business and Public Administration (GSU) , and Interim Vice President and CEO of the GSU Foundation. He is a former senior consultant with Argosy University, Chicago Campus.

Text/readings

See below in Week 2 Assignment.

Course Description:

This course is completed on a one-to-one basis with a faculty mentor. The Directed Independent Study (DIS) option provides an opportunity for students to carry out a creative research project in an area of their choice that differs from that of the dissertation. The DIS may arise from an in-depth study of some aspect of a recently completed graduate course; an analysis of new ideas, theories or concepts in behavioral sciences; or evaluation of new strategies used in organizational leadership. It can involve the resolution of an isolated educational problem, collection, and interpretation of accumulated data, or a field experience to meet licensing requirements.

Note: Students are generally limited to one Directed Independent Studies course per program of study.

Comment from the Professor. L7838 Directed Independent Studies is one of the few elective courses in the Organizational Leadership Program. For that reason, this section is offered similar to a class in that several students may enroll in it. However, the spirit of the Directed Independent Studies, as described in the course description is retained; each student develops and completes his or her own project, working one-on-one with the faculty mentor.

Course Prerequisites: None

Credit Value: 3

Contact Hours: 45

Technology: PC: As a general guideline students should not have computer specifications less than a Pentium III CPU (500MHz or higher), Windows XP with Service Pack 2, and 512 MB RAM.
MAC: As a general guideline students should not have computer specifications less than a MAC G4 processor, MAC OS X, and 512 MB RAM. Software: Microsoft Office Professional (including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and Outlook), Norton Antivirus, Adobe Acrobat Professional3

Peripherals: Printer

Browser: Courses offered online are best viewed using Microsoft Internet Explorer v5.5/6.0 (PC), v5.2 (MAC), Safari 1.0 (MAC), or Firefox.

Program Outcomes:

1. Leadership in Teams: Given an organizational situation, identify strategies to develop, maintain, motivate, and sustain self-managed teams using concepts, theories and techniques of team leadership.
2. Collaboration in Teams: Given a case study or leadership situation, collect, assimilate, disseminate, and maximize the views of team stakeholders in order to reach defensible goals with minimal conflict.
3. Conflict: Given an organizational situation that requires interpersonal or interdepartmental action, identify situations of conflict, diagnose the impact of both overt and covert behavior, and develop a plan for conflict resolution using evidence-based methods.
4. Ethics: Given an organizational setting, identify ethical and dilemma-resolution practices, and make evidence-based decisions that integrate personal, social, and corporate responsibility.
5. Communication: Communicate orally and in writing to individuals and groups in a concise, clear, organized, and well-supported manner using formats and technology relevant to the organizational context.
6. Motivation: Given a leadership situation, identify workplace commitment theories to incorporate influences and power as a leader to motivate organizational stakeholders.
7. Research: Given an organizational need to evaluate and defend its actions or potential actions, select, analyze, and apply the assessment techniques, research methods, and/or statistical analyses needed to evaluate and defend those actions based on evidence
8. Knowledge and Understanding of the Field: Demonstrate competency in identifying and integrating the major concepts, theoretical perspectives, historical trends, and key figures in the field of organizational leadership.
9. Change: Evaluate the impact of change on organizations, organizational members, and other stakeholders and apply appropriate change models and theories to facilitate successful change.
10. Global diversity: Analyze and evaluate the involvement of diversity in leadership issues, with special attention to the implications of diversity for individuals, organizations, and societies.

Course Competencies and Activities:

The student may form an in-depth study of some aspect of a recently completed graduate course, an analysis of new ideas, theories or concepts in behavioral sciences, or an evaluation of new strategies used in organizational leadership.

The project may involve the resolution of an isolated organizational problem, collection, and interpretation of accumulated data, or a field experience to meet licensing requirements.

The final project may also include one of the following: an applied project, a program evaluation, an analysis and proposal for an organization, a report of a consulting or training project, training, consulting or research proposal, or a comprehensive literature review.

Other options may be considered; a student may propose it and pursue it as approved by the professor.

Weekly Assignments:

Dropbox Assignment 1:

1. Write an autobiography.
2. Submit in Assignment 1 dropbox no later than Friday, May 15 (week 1).
3. Begin work on Assignment 2.

Also, submit the autobiography on the Discussion Board. As you know, the University checks eCollege to determine whether you are attending the course in which you are enrolled.

Dropbox Week 2: Assignment 2:

Write a proposal for your directed independent study.

1. State a project title.
2. List three learning objectives for the project. Indicate the competencies, skills and knowledge to be gained through completion of the project.
3. Propose a form for the final project. Select an option from the Course Competencies and Activities (above). The final project is your choice. If your preference is not listed above, propose something different. The project is your choice, subject to my agreement.
4. State the significance of your project. How will it contribute to your personal, scholarly or professional development, or how will it make a contribution to your organization, community, profession or discipline?
5. Provide the complete citation of an appropriate book to provide an intellectual and knowledge framework for your project. Or, provide the complete citations, inclusive of web links, of ten journal articles that you will read to inform you about the topics related to organizational leadership and the project.
6. Propose a schedule of readings. Upon the professor’s approval, the readings become the “assigned readings.”
7. Submit in Assignment 2 dropbox no later than Friday, May 22 (week 2).

Argosy University, Chicago records attendance in the first two weeks. Completing of this assignment will indicate “present” in week 2.

Dropbox Assignment 3:

1. Read assigned material.
2. Propose the steps you will take in Weeks 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 to complete your project.
3. Submit in Assignment 3 dropbox no later than Friday, May 29 (week 3).

Dropbox Assignment 4:

1. Read assigned material.
2. Write a review of chapters or articles that you read in weeks 1, 2 and 3.
3. Submit in Assignment 4 dropbox no later than Friday, June 5 (week 4).

Dropbox Assignment 5:

1. Read assigned material.
2. Develop an annotated bibliography of 15 websites that would inform a novice on the topic that is the foundation for your project.
3. Write a report on the status of your project.
4. Submit both B and C in one document in Assignment 5 dropbox no later than June 12 (week 5).

Dropbox Assignment 6:

1. Read assigned material.
2. Write a review of chapters or articles that you read in weeks 4, 5 and 6.
3. Submit in Assignment 6 dropbox no later than Friday, June 19 (week 6).

Dropbox Assignment 7:

1. Read assigned material.
2. Submit Final Project in Assignment 7 dropbox no later than Friday, June 26 (week 7).

Dropbox Assignment 8:

Review and discussion of final project; edit paper if necessary.

Written documents:

Your dropbox papers should be in Microsoft Word 2003 or higher. Follow APA 5th edition style. Your paper should be double-spaced and in 12pt font.

Grading Criteria

Grading ScaleEvaluation and Grading requirements

Grade book and Assignments

A dropbox will be created in eCollege for each assignment. The professor’s evaluation and score for each assignment will be posted in the grade book in eCollege.

The assignments are proposed assignments. If a student believes that different assignments make more academic sense for the project, such may be pursued as approved by the professor.

Library

All resources in Argosy University’s online collection are available through the Internet. The campus librarian will provide students with links, user IDs, and passwords.

Library Resources: Argosy University’s core online collection features nearly 21,000 full-text journals and 23,000 electronic books and other content covering all academic subject areas including Business & Economics, Career & General Education, Computers, Engineering & Applied Science, Humanities, Science, Medicine & Allied Health, and Social & Behavior Sciences. Many titles are directly accessible through the Online Public Access Catalog at http://library.argosy.edu. Detailed descriptions of online resources are located at http://library.argosy.edu/libweb/resources/

In addition to online resources, Argosy University’s onsite collections contain a wealth of subject-specific research materials searchable in the Online Public Access Catalog. Catalog searching is easily limited to individual campus collections. Alternatively, students can search combined collections of all Argosy University Libraries. Students are encouraged to seek research and reference assistance from campus librarians.

Information Literacy: Argosy University’s Information Literacy Tutorial was developed to teach students fundamental and transferable research skills. The tutorial consists of five modules where students learn to select sources appropriate for academic-level research, search periodical indexes and search engines, and evaluate and cite information. In the tutorial, students study concepts and practice them through interactions. At the conclusion of each module, they can test their comprehension and receive immediate feedback. Each module takes less than 20 minutes to complete. Please view the tutorial at http://library.argosy.edu/infolit/

Academic Policies

Academic Dishonesty/Plagiarism: In an effort to foster a spirit of honesty and integrity during the learning process, Argosy University requires that the submission of all course assignments represent the original work produced by that student. All sources must be documented through normal scholarly references/citations and all work must be submitted using the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Edition (2001). Washington DC: American Psychological Association (APA) format. Please refer to Appendix A in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Edition for thesis and paper format. Students are encouraged to purchase this manual (required in some courses) and become familiar with its content as well as consult the Argosy University catalog for further information regarding academic dishonesty and plagiarism.

Scholarly writing: The faculty at Argosy University is dedicated to providing a learning environment that supports scholarly and ethical writing, free from academic dishonesty and plagiarism. This includes the proper and appropriate referencing of all sources. You may be asked to submit your course assignments through “Turnitin,” ( an online resource established to help educators develop writing/research skills and detect potential cases of academic dishonesty. Turnitin compares submitted papers to billions of pages of content and provides a comparison report to your instructor. This comparison detects papers that share common information and duplicative language.

Americans with Disabilities Act Policy

It is the policy of Argosy University to make reasonable accommodations for qualified students with disabilities, in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If a student with disabilities needs accommodations, the student must notify the Director of Student Services. Procedures for documenting student disability and the development of reasonable accommodations will be provided to the student upon request.

Students will be notified by the Director of Student Services when each request for accommodation is approved or denied in writing via a designated form. To receive accommodation in class, it is the student’s responsibility to present the form (at his or her discretion) to the instructor. In an effort to protect student privacy, the Department of Student Services will not discuss the accommodation needs of any student with instructors. Faculty may not make accommodations for individuals who have not been approved in this manner.

The Argosy University Statement Regarding Diversity

The Argosy University provides equitable access through its services and programs to students of any social, geographic and cultural background, regardless of gender, and strives to prepare all candidates to work with and provide services to diverse populations. Argosy demonstrates its commitment to diversity through the development and support of a diverse educational community.

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