Hi Susan and Colleagues...
You raise exactly the right question---and my belief is that every
instructor has to make that decision(s). It means thinking through what
one personally believes would have the biggest impact on people for the
next 20 years rather than just passing on someone else's text. Clearly,
Whetten and Cameron would pick their skills set, Quinn would choose
Competing Values Framework, etc. My answer is Level Three
Leadership--by which I mean that unless one refocuses attempts to lead
from Level One (visible behavior--the Skinnerian view) to Level Three
(the basic values, assumptions, beliefs and expectations [VABEs] about
the way the world is or should be) not much will change and managers
will be constantly asking themselves how to motivate others who are
de-engergized by the work they're asked to do. On my seven level
"buy-in" scale, most employees in my experience are middle to lower end.
And it's often because managers focus on "managing at Level One."
Rewards, punishments, coercion, intimidation are all Level One
techniques. So conversations about bonus plans and incentives are stuck
at Level One. (See Alfie Kohn's Punished by Rewards). SO... you're
right what should we be teaching? I assert principles of Level Three
Leadership--and I lay that out (succinctly??) in 400 pages. 8-)
Best wishes and eager to talk more about this.. I also cannot attend AOM
because of teaching assignments... but perhaps at OBTC next time??
Cheers,
Jim
James G. S. Clawson
Johnson & Higgins Professor of Business Administration
Darden GSB, University of Virginia
Box 6550, Charlottesville, VA 22906
100 Darden Boulevard, Charlottesville, VA 22903 USA
Tel: 434 924 7488 Fax: 434 243 7680
Web:
http://faculty.darden.virginia.edu/clawsonj
-----Original Message-----
From: Organizational Behavior Division Listserv
[mailto:
OB@AOMLISTS.pace.edu] On Behalf Of Susan Herman
Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2008 4:27 PM
To:
OB@AOMLISTS.pace.edu
Subject: Continuous curriculum improvement... or, what we teach
I agree with several (including Jim Clawson) who point out that it's
the
interface between theory and practice that's the point of learning.
Several of the respondents have mentioned that we should be reading the
cutting edge stuff. What IS the cutting edge stuff in our field today?
Where should we be going?
Jim says "my hope is that we will all, academics and converted
practitioners alike, try to teach what budding managers can use and
apply
over the next ten-twenty years of their careers and not just our pet
topic." Good. What ARE the things that budding managers can use and
apply looking forward?
I won't be at the Academy (I vastly prefer the intimacy of the OBTC) but
am looking forward to a continuation of this thread about what we teach,
what's relevant today and tomorrow. Thanks for starting it.......
Cheers,
Susan
Susan J. Herman,
Professor School of Management,
Director, Northern Leadership Center
University of Alaska Fairbanks
P.O. Box 756080
Fairbanks, AK 99775-6080
phone: 907-474-1939
fax: 907-474-5219
ffsjh@uaf.edu