Designing, Implementing, and Evaluating a New Core Curriculum Course in Organizational Leadership at

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Designing, Implementing, and Evaluating a New
Core Curriculum Course in Organizational
Leadership at the Virginia Military InstituteA
key Component of the Institutes SACS
Accreditation Quality Enhancement Program (QEP)

• Thomas N. Meriwether, Ph.D.
• Department of Psychology Philosophy
• Virginia Military Institute

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This presentation tells a story

• It is the story of one public four year liberal
  arts military colleges efforts to
• Design,
• Implement, and
• Evaluate the effectiveness
• of a new required core curriculum course about
  character-based leadership.

• Institute Mission
• Superintendents Vision
• SACS Accreditation
• Quality Enhancement Plan
• Core Curriculum Leadership Course
• Assessment
• Lessons Learned

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The story begins at the Virginia Military
InstituteInstitute Mission
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And continues with the Superintendents
visionVision 2039 VMIs Master Plan (2005)
In the final analysis, what makes VMI
distinctive in the world of higher education is
its mission to prepare educated, honorable, and
steadfast leaders.
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Which includes his academic visionVision 2039
VMIs Master Plan (2005)
The heart of the Institutes academic program
is leader development. A major academic goal is
to ensure every cadet is properly prepared for
leadership and citizenship in the 21st century.
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Concurrently we began the Southern Association
of Colleges and Schools (SACS) accreditation
process

• The 20-month process for this 10-year
  reaffirmation began in January 2005.
• Two major components
• Compliance Certification Report
• Quality Enhancement Program (QEP)

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The QEP targeted the core curriculum as the
nucleus of effective citizenship and leadership
This Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) will improve
the Institutes core curriculum with the goal of
providing each student with the nucleus of
effective citizenship and leadership.
September 2006
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The new core curriculum specified eleven academic
program goals, one of which focused on leadership
Goal 2 Leadership and Human
Relationships VMI will graduate students who
possess the ability to influence human behavior
to accomplish organizational goals, recognizing
moral issues and applying ethical considerations
in decision-making.
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A character-based course in leadership was to be
added to the core curriculum for Goal 2
Leadership in Organizations is to be required of
all cadets starting with the Class of 2010. It is
to be a dynamic 3-credit course that emphasizes
effective character-based leadership behaviors,
theories, skills, and attributes in
organizational settings.
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Additionally, five learning outcomes were
specified for the new leadership course

• The course in leadership will prepare graduates
  who can
• Articulate a philosophy of leadership that
  includes a statement of his/her own personal code
  of ethics.
• Identify moral and ethical issues inherent in a
  task to be completed by a group.
• Design a plan of action that takes these issues
  into account and conforms to his/her philosophy
  of leadership.
• Motivate the group to complete the task.
• Evaluate the groups progress and make any
  necessary moral, ethical, or structural revisions
  to the plan.

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Numerous actions were necessary before we could
implement the course
Fall 2007
Spring 2007
6. Pilot the course, fall 2007
1. Complete the assessment plan
7. Develop leadership achievement test
2. Fund and fill three new instructor positions
8. Refine the course
3. Stakeholder focus groups
9. Manage course logistics
4. Preliminary design of course
10. Full-scale implementation, spring semester
2008
5. Academic Board approval of course design
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Our focus groups told us

• Address real issues and practical applications
• Dont make it too theoretical
• Dont just talk about leadership
• Realistic, current case studies
• Applicable for VMI, military, civilian worlds

• Keep it interactive
• Minimize lectures
• Lots of in-class activities
• Exercises, movies, case studies, simulations
• Energetic yet with relaxed atmosphere

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We set about designing the course How you lead
is influenced by who you are and the demands of
the situation
Focus Four Segments
Products

• The Leadership Process
• The Leader
• Power
• Values Ethics
• Traits, motives, characteristics
• Behaviors
• The Followers
• Motivation
• Groups Teams
• The Situation
• Situational factors
• Culture
• Contingency theories
• Change

• Personal philosophy of leadership and code of
  ethics
• Matrix of self-assessment results
• Understanding of personal leadership strengths
  and blind spots
• Personal action plan to increase leadership
  effectiveness

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THE critical design issue How to factor
character into character-based leadership?

• Readings
• Hughes et al on values
• Kohlbergs stages of moral development
• Kidders Right vs. Wrong Why Ethics Matter

• Cases / Film Clips
• Enron
• The killings in Haditha
• Milgrams obedience study
• Randy Pausch The Last Lecture
• Kingdom of Heaven

• Self-Assessments
• The leader integrity scale (Dubrin)
• Ethical climate in organizations (Manning
  Curtis)
• Multifactor leadership questionnaire (Northouse)

• Exercises
• Hughs et als Values Clarification
• Code of Ethics Personal Oath exercise

• Paper
• Leadership philosophy, code of ethics, and
  personal development plan

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To enhance self-awareness and understanding of
preferred leadership style We integrated
self-assessments

• The Leadership Process
• JOHARI Window
• Are you ready for the leadership role? (Dubrin)
• Followership style (Hughes et al)

• The Leader
• Personal power profile (Pierce Newstrom)
• The leader integrity scale (Dubrin)
• Ethical climates in organizations self (Manning
  Curtis)
• Whats my basic personality? (Robbins)
• Whats my Jungian 16-type personality? (Robbins)
• Emotional intelligence (Whetten Cameron)
• Attributional style questionnaire (Seligman)
• Assertiveness scale (Dubrin)
• Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ)

• The Followers
• Motivation to lead (Pierce Newstrom)
• Social motives in the work setting (Manning
  Curtis)
• FIRO-B (Schutz)
• Characteristics of an effective group (Manning
  Curtis)

• The Situation
• Leader Effectiveness Adaptability Description
  (Hersey Blanchard)
• How willing am I to delegate? (Robbins)
• Least Preferred Coworker (Dubrin)
• Locus of control (Whetten Cameron)
• Rosenberg self-esteem scale
• Organizational climate questionnaire (Manning
  Curtis)
• Ethical climates in organizations (Manning
  Curtis)
• Multifactor leadership questionnaire (Northouse)

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and used film clips (and You Tube) as case
studies
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Assessment Planning Was Concurrent With Course
Design

• Learning Outcomes
• Character-Based Leadership Philosophy
• Identify Ethical Issues
• Take Ethical Actions
• Motivate a group
• Evaluate Progress

Concurrent with course design
Leadership Philosophy Paper
Assessment Planning
Leadership Achievement Test
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Challenge Selecting the format for the
leadership philosophy paper

• Preferred way of leading
• Defining traits, motives, and characteristics
• Core values
• Code of ethics
• Responsibility toward group members
• Responsibility toward organization and community
• Responsibility toward leadership development

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The assessment plan was designed to measure the
achievement of the learning outcomes
Learning Outcome 1 Articulate a philosophy of
leadership that includes a statement of his/her
personal code of ethics.
Pretest Posttest Leadership Philosophy Paper
Baseline Comparison Data
End of Course Comparison Data
Day 1 Each student writes a not more than one
page philosophy of leadership statement.
End of Course Each student writes a not more
than one page philosophy of leadership statement.
Goal Inter-rater reliability .9 (Achieved
reliability of .88 during training phase)
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Pre-Post Comparison Philosophy of Leadership and
Code of Ethics
35 Improvement T-test results are significant at
.000
12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03

• Total Points range from 3 12 based on
• Content coverage
• Degree of completeness
• Elaboration

8.03
5.97
Baseline Comparison Data
End of Course Comparison Data

• Three judges, two per paper
• 110 of 151 papers were evaluated (95 confidence)
  by two judges each

Actual Inter-rater reliability .83
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To assess the other four learning objectives, we
designed a 30-item scenario-based leadership
achievement test
Leadership Achievement Test

• Learning Outcome 2 Identify moral and ethical
  issues (3 items)
• Recognizing ethical or moral dilemmas (3)

• Learning Outcome 3 Design an ethical action
  plan (2 items)
• Doing the right thing (2)

• Learning Outcome 5 Evaluate the groups
  progress (2 items)
• 360-degree feedback (1)
• Peer evaluation (1)

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Scenario-based achievement testcontinued
Learning outcome 4 Motivate a group to complete
the assigned task ... (23 items)

• Focus the leader
• Personality (3)
• Emotional intelligence (1)
• Assertiveness (1)
• Self-esteem (1)
• Attribution style (1)
• Gender differences (1)
• Trustworthiness (1)

• Focus the followers
• Equity theory (1)
• Expectancy theory
• (2)
• Goal-setting (1)
• X-Y (1)
• Learned needs (1)

• Focus the situation
• Group stages (1)
• Situational leadership (3)
• Organizational culture (1)
• Strategic leadership (1)
• Transformational leadership (1)

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Here is an example of a scenario-based question
to correctly identify a moral dilemma

• Sample Identify moral and ethical issues (LO
  2).
• You wish to go with friends to The Palms (a local
  pub) while on restriction as a cadet. Going to
  The Palms technically violates the Cadet Oath to
  obey all legal orders of the Constituted
  Authorities of the Institute and to discharge all
  of my duties as a Cadet with regularity and
  fidelity. Does this situation reflect a moral or
  ethical issue?
• Yes
• No
• Insufficient information

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Here is an example of a scenario-based
leadership question to correctly motivate a group
Sample Motivate a group (LO 4)

• Jack works for you. He started off at work with a
  great deal of enthusiasm. Recently he seems to be
  more assertive with you and his attitude is less
  positive than it once was. While his work skills
  have increased from when he first started he is
  not yet an expert as he is still learning some of
  the ropes. He recently suffered some set backs,
  and his commitment is beginning to wane. To best
  motivate Jack, you should attempt which of the
  following?
• Explain decisions and allow opportunity for
  clarification.
• Provide specific instructions and supervise
  closely.
• Ask Jack to share his ideas and facilitate the
  making of decisions.
• Turn over responsibility for decision making and
  implementation to Jack.

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Leadership Achievement Test ResultsFor Learning
Outcomes 2-5
Overall Improvement 33
Improvement 44
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Leadership Achievement Test ResultsFor Learning
Outcome 3 Motivate a Group
Overall Improvement 44
Improvement 26
Improvement 40
Improvement 67
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What did we learn from an item analysis of the
Leadership Achievement Test?

• General findings
• Situational awareness needs improvement across
  the board
• OK to model ethical behavior but theres
  reluctance to report others violations.
• Where did they perform exceptionally well?
• Recognizing ethical situations
• Emotional intelligence
• Assertiveness
• Gaining trust
• Needs and valence
• X-Y
• Culture

• Where do we need to do significantly better?
• Translating knowledge into application
• Identifying sources of interpersonal conflict
• How self-esteem affects the leadership process
• Anticipating interpersonal conflict
• Gender differences
• Motivating the high n-ach
• Goal setting
• Style adaptability
• Transformational leadership
• Performance evaluations

Add more items modify others
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After one complete semester of implementation,
what can we say we learned?

• Start
• Enhance situational awareness
• Common testing but how many tests?
• Integrate assigned student projects into schedule
• More in-class activities
• Revise learning outcomes
• New text Primis On-Line Text centered on Hughes
  et al Leadership with supplements

• Stop
• Over-reliance on lecture
• Electronic reserve
• Continue
• Student paper Leadership Philosophy, Code of
  Ethics, Action Plan
• Program and learning outcome evaluation but
  expand and modify
• Values ethics segment is working well
• Self-assessments but fewer
• Capstone speaker(s)

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Thank You
How you lead (leadership style) is influenced by
who you are (self-awareness) and the demands of
the situation (situational awareness)
Thomas N. Meriwether, Ph.D. / Colonel Professor
/ Department of Psychology Philosophy /
Virginia Military Institute