Course Coordinators: Sara Louise Muhr, Department of Organization (IOA) & Sverre Spoelstra, Department of Business Humanities and Law (BHL)

Faculty

Assistant Professor Nicole Ferry
Department of Management, Society and Communication

Associate Professor Eric Guthey
Department of Management, Society and Communication

Professor Sara Louise Muhr
Department of Organization

Associate Professor Minna Paunova
Department of Management, Society and Communication

Associate Professor Sverre Spoelstra
Department of Business Humanities and Law

Prerequisites

The participants are expected to submit a 5-page description of their full PhD project one week before the course. The student papers will be discussed in small groups in a feedback session during the course. The students are therefore required to read each other’s papers before the course starts.

Content and objectives of the PhD course:

This course offers an overview of current debates and themes in the field of leadership studies, including a broad range of perspectives, ranging from transformational, shared, and distributed leadership, leadership and ethics, discursive leadership studies, critical perspectives, and leadership development, among others. In particular, the course aims to focus on existing and potential interfaces, connections, and frictions between leadership studies and other fields within organization studies. 

The course will be divided into 2 themes a day, that is, 8 themes in total plus feedback sessions discussing the students’ projects and a final session on the future of leadership studies:

Teaching style

The course is organized as a 5-day on-site learning experience. The pedagogy includes teacher and student presentations, break-out sessions, “PhD troubleshooting” sessions (a half-day session focused on the specific problems or challenges that the participants encounter in their PhD work in relation to the topic of leadership) and intensive reading and discussion of texts. The pedagogical approach reflects that a productive learning experience is co-created; hence, students will be invited to mobilize their knowledge (their PhD research) in relation to not just the texts but also in relation to their colleagues’ work. This interactive learning experience is complemented by concise input and guidance of debates by faculty.

Learning objectives

After the course, the student is expected to be able to

• Engage with the field of leadership studies, acknowledging the variety of methodological and theoretical approaches, and formulate a valid research contribution to it.
• Critically discuss current issues in the field of leadership studies, particularly concerning the intersection between leadership and organization studies.
• Advance their PhD significantly within a deeper sense of the overall leadership research terrain

Workload:

Preliminary Schedule

Literature for the themes:

Theme 1: Overview and history of leadership studies

Fairhurst, Gail T. 2011. “Discursive Approaches to Leadership.” In The SAGE Handbook of Leadership, 495–507. London: SAGE. http://students.aiu.edu/submissions/profiles/resources/onlineBook/Y6K2k8_SAGE_Handbook_of_Leadership.pdf

Theme 2: Shared, distributed, complexity & relational leadership

Denis, Jean-Louis, Ann Langley, and Viviane Sergi. 2012. “Leadership in the Plural.” Academy of Management Annals 6 (1): 211–83.

Ospina SM, Foldy EG, Fairhurst GT, et al. (2020) Collective dimensions of leadership: Connecting theory and method. Human Relations 73(4). SAGE Publications Sage UK: London, England: 441–463.

Uhl-Bien M and Arena M (2018) Leadership for organizational adaptability: A theoretical synthesis and integrative framework. The Leadership Quarterly 29(1). Elsevier: 89–104.

Uhl-Bien, M. (2006) Relational Leadership Theory: Exploring the Social Processes of Leadership and Organizing. The Leadership Quarterly, 17, 654-676

Theme 3: Leadership and identity

DeRue, D. Scott, and Susan J Ashford. 2010. “Who Will Lead and Who Will Follow? A Social Process of Leadership Identity Construction in Organizations.” Academy of Management Review 35 (4): 627–47.

Lord, Robert G, and Rosalie J Hall. 2005. “Identity, Deep Structure and the Development of Leadership Skill.” The Leadership Quarterly 16: 591–615.

Nicholson, Helen, and Brigid Carroll. 2013. “Identity Undoing and Power Relations in Leadership Development.” Human Relations 66 (9): 1225–48. doi:10.1177/0018726712469548.

Theme 4: Leadership & technology

Harms, Peter D. and G. Han (2019) Algorithmic leadership: The future is now. Journal of Leadership Studies 12(4): 74-75.

Spoelstra, Sverre and Nick Butler (working paper), The ethics of algorithmic leadership and the game of business.

Stark, D., & Pais, I. (2020). Algorithmic management in the platform economy. Sociologica, 14(3), 47-72.

Theme 5: Leadership & responsibility

Friedman, M. (1970) The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/1970/09/13/archives/a-friedman-doctrine-the-social-responsibility-of-business-is-to.html

Maak, T., & Pless, N. M. (2006). Responsible leadership in a stakeholder society–a relational perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 66(1), 99-115.

Spoelstra, S. (2022) 'Leadership and the stings of command', ephemera, 22(1): 155-172.

Theme 6: Diversity, inclusion & leadership

Luthra, P. & Muhr, S.L. (2024). Leading through Bias: 5 Essential Skills to Block Bias and Improve Inclusion at Work. London: Pelgrave.

Theme 7: Power, status and leadership

Fiske, S. T., & Berdahl, J. (2007). Social power. In A. W. Kruglanski & E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles (2nd ed., pp. 678–692). The Guilford Press.

Anderson, C., & Brown, C. E. (2010). The functions and dysfunctions of hierarchy. Research in organizational behavior, 30, 55-89.

Paunova, M. (2017). Who gets to lead the multinational team? An updated status characteristics perspective. Human Relations, 70(7), 883-907.

Lonati, S., & Van Vugt, M. (2024). Ecology, culture and leadership: Theoretical integration and review. The Leadership Quarterly, 35(1), 101749.

Theme 8: Leadership development

Blithe, S. J. (2019). “I always knew I was a little girly”: The gendering of skills in management training. Management Learning, 50(5), 517–533. 

Ferry, N., & Guthey, E. (2020). Start ‘Em Early: Pastoral Power and the Confessional Culture of Leadership Development in the US University. Journal of Business Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-020-04565-7

Vernon, F. (2014). The paradox of structured autonomy. Other Education, 3(2), 22–44.

Vongswasdi, P., Leroy, H., Claeys, J., Anisman-Razin, M., & Van Dierendonck, D. (2023). Beyond Developing Leaders: Toward a Multinarrative Understanding of the Value of Leadership Development Programs. Academy of Management Learning & Education, amle.2021.0231. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2021.0231

Note: In case we receive more registrations for the course than we have seats, CBS PhD students will have first priority. Remaining seats will be filled on a first come first serve.