ADS 740 Course Overview

The ADS 740 course titled, 'Leadership in a Global Society' was structured to help students develop a perspective of the challenges that exist in the global village and the scope that leaders have in being effective change agents with a visionary mindset and a mission to further the cause of equity, diversity, and social justice within the larger political, social, economic and cultural context.

Students had opportunities to reflect on their personal leadership profile and draw up a map of leadership skills they would want to strengthen, drawing from the insights of reputed authors and leadership development practitioners like Thomas Friedman, Kevin Cashman, James Kouzes, and Barry Posner.

To understand leadership from a global perspective, students were introduced to case studies from Thailand on the King's philosophy for sustainability, Mechai Pattana's Bamboo School, and global progress initiatives on the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

The assignments for this course were an autobiography that each student wrote that helped them reflect on their personal and professional journey thus far, there were individual presentations on the leadership lessons from Cashman's Leadership from the inside out: Becoming a leader for life, Kouzes & Posner's, Learning leadership: The five fundamentals of becoming an exemplary leader, Friedman's, Thank you for being late: An optimist's guide to thriving in the age of accelerations. There was also a collaborative assignment where students worked in pairs to culturally profile a country in terms of its living standards, lifestyle, global market for international investments, and education. This was the first course where we were also beginning to learn the APA 7 standards that are essential for academic writing.

The Ph.D. standards that were addressed through this course were thus:

Standard 1: 

Program completers understand and demonstrate the capacity to promote a visionary mindset, and continuously develop, advocate for, and enact a mission, and core values that are shared with and supported by organizational stakeholders.

Standard 2:

Program completers understand and demonstrate a capacity to advocate for, nurture, and sustain a creative and caring culture consistent with the mission of the organization and embracing of equity, diversity, inclusion, and social justice.

Standard 6:

Program completers understand and demonstrate a capacity to appreciate, respond to, and influence the larger political, social, economic, legal, and cultural contexts through their research, analysis, and evaluation of procedures and policies and empower others to join in the process with them.

Standard 7:

Program completers understand and demonstrate the capacity to cultivate relationships with members of the business, civic, and policy community in support of their advocacy for the organization and larger community needs.