Welcoming New MBA Students

1
Welcoming New MBA Students

• Kevin Doyle
• Chris Fletcher

2
Context MBA 520

• All new MBA students take our MBA 520 Leadership
  and Ethics in a Global Environment course, even
  transfer students.
• The course
• Reviews paradigms of leadership in global
  environment.
• Introduces and applies principles for ethical
  decision-making in business situations.
• Assesses student's leadership capacities and
  responsibilities in challenging situations.

3
MBA 520 Objectives

• Create awareness and clear understanding of the
  emerging business environment including the
  impact of globalization.
• Provide a forum for discussion whereby students
  and the instructor can share knowledge,
  experience, and applications of the complex
  issues experienced in today's business
  environment.
• Explore management and leadership principles and
  fundamentals in this new and complex environment.

4
MBA 520 Objectives

• Understand the nature of business ethical issues
  and become familiar with several methods of
  resolving moral dilemmas.
• Improve the student's abilities in critical
  strategic thinking and in verbal and written
  communications by utilizing the case method for
  analysis, current event topics, and sharing of
  individual experiences.

5
Discipline Humility Module

• We added a module to this course in Spring 2008,
  focusing on Discipline and Humility.
• The module consists of
• Reading four chapters of the Rule.
• Reading Collins Level 5 Leadership article.
• Writing a short reflective paper.
• Class discussion.

6
Readings from the Rule

• Rule of St. Benedict
• Chapter 2 The Qualities of the Abbot,
• Chapter 3 The counsel of the brothers,
• Chapter 5 Obedience,
• Chapter 7 Humility.
• Heretofore a Hartwick Case in the future RB80.

7
Collins Reading

• Jim Collins, Level 5 Leadership The Triumph of
  Humility and Fierce Resolve, Harvard Business
  Review, 83, No. 7/8 (2005) 136-146.
• Part of Collins Good to Great research.
• Clearly a valid resource for a business course
  and for business students.

8
Reflective Paper Assignment

• We ask the students to
• Compare and contrast Collins Level 5 leaders
  personal humility and professional will and the
  Rule of St. Benedicts humility and obedience.
• Will these values affect your managing style?

9
Class Discussion

• In-class discussion
• What can a text from c600 C.E. tell a modern
  business leader? Is it still relevant? How?
• How easy or difficult was it to read and compare
  to the Collins article?
• What is leadership?
• What was your definition before reading the
  article and the Rule?
• Did it change after reading the article and the
  Rule?

10
Class Discussion

• What is humility?
• What does it look like in the 21st century?
• Do you see any humble leaders in your
  organization? What characteristics do they have?
• Are they effective in their management roles?
• What is discipline?
• How is discipline present in your organization?
• Does discipline in your organization help achieve
  its purpose?
• Do you hold discipline as a value? How do you
  display that?

11
Class Discussion

• What are the points of similarity between the
  leaders Collins studied and the leadership
  described in the Rule?
• What are the conflicts between them?
• What specific insights into leadership have you
  gained from the Rule?
• What makes sense to you that you will carry into
  your professional life?

12
Discussion Observations

• The students relate their own work experience to
  the texts, and identify humble and not-so-humble
  leaders in their organizations.
• Discipline as focus on task while conforming to
  process is a clear business value.
• Humility is a harder concept to accept for a
  middle-manager who needs to make his or her
  contributions known.

13
Results

• All four instructors who have taught the course
  since we proposed this module have found it
  useful and appropriate.
• The discussions have been wide-ranging and
  interesting.

14
Results

• The use of the Rule, a specifically Christian
  text, is not a problem in our diverse school
  which attracts a large proportion of Asian
  students of varied religious commitments,
  primarily Hindu and Muslim.
• The discussion highlights that the values of
  humility and discipline are present in all
  cultures, and valued differently by individuals
  in different situations.
• Humility and discipline are not just Christian or
  Catholic values.

15
Challenges

• Some faculty members in our College of Business
  think this is proselytizing.
• Many could care less.
• We are not teaching the module ourselves.
• One of the monks at Benedictine has observed that
  were really using humility in a different way
  than monks struggle with their whole lives.

16
Conclusions

• The module appears to be worthwhile.
• The module appears to be a permanent part of
  the course.