Sustainable leadership

The course is a elective programme course given within the Master Programme in Strategic Human Resource Management within the Faculty of Social Sciences. It may also be given as a freestandig course. The course can be part of the following programme: 1) Master's Programme in Strategic Human Resource Management and Labour Relations (S2HRM)

To be eligible for the course, the student must be accepted to the Master Programme in Strategic Human Resource Management and Labour Relations within the Faculty of Social Sciences, alternatively a bachelor's degree in a social science field.

This advanced course in Sustainable leadership aims at providing an in depth understanding of the relationship between strategy, leadership and organizational learning. The course is based on empirical research on how strategy and leadership takes place in practice. In other words, strategy is not something that an organisation has and leader is not something you are, but rather something actors in organisations do.

The course thus treats leadership on the individual, the organizational and the societal level.

The purpose of the course is to be able to understand the “doing” of sustainable leadership in relation to various challenges and strategic problems, not only in terms of environmental sustainability, but also in terms of social and economic values and norms.

The ambition of the course is to prepare students to critically analyse, discuss and evaluate the practices of strategic work and leadership in organisations through reading academic literature and working with cases and real life examples.

Within this course, the participants are given the possibility to develop their theoretical understanding in relation to the central themes of the course. There will be a mixture of lectures, seminars, an empirical investigation and video analyses, providing opportunities for reflection and discussion on the main themes related to the course. The participants will present seminar papers in oral and written form using practical examples.

The course is organized in two sub-courses:

1. Strategy and Leadership Practices (Strategi och ledarskapspraktiker), 7.5 credits
Grading scale: Pass with Distinction (VG), Pass (G) and Fail (U)

2. **Leading Strategic Change**(Ledande strategisk förändring), 7.5 credits
Grading scale: Pass with Distinction (VG), Pass (G) and Fail (U)

On successful completion of the course the student will be able to:

Knowledge and understanding

1. Account for the role of strategy and leadership in various forms of organisations from a practice perspective.
2. Critically account for various theories on leading organizational learning and change.

Competence and skills

3. Discuss, analyse and apply relevant theoretical perspectives on cases of strategy and leadership.
4. Discuss and apply various theories on leading organizational learning and change.

Judgement and approach

5. Discuss, analyse and evaluate strategy and leadership practices, orally and in writing.
6. Discuss, analyze and evaluate organizational learning and change processes.
7. Critically reflect on different perspectives on leading organizational learning and change.
8. Discuss, analyze and evaluate sustainability aspects of organizational learning and change processes and of strategy and leadership practices.

Attendance to seminars and oral presentation of group papers is mandatory. If the student fails to attend any of the seminars, the student will be provided with an alternative assignment. Individual assignments and exams should be written individually. Cooperation in formulating text is not allowed.

Language of instruction: English All lectures, seminars, exercises and tests will be in English.

Forms of teaching used in this course include: group paper presentations, written papers, written examinations, mini-lecture, literature seminars and seminars with compulsory attendance.

Learning outcome 1 will be achieved by studying literature, training in group-work and discussing this in seminars. It will be examined through written examination (Sub-course 1).

Learning outcome 2 will be assessed through an individual written exam, and through literature seminars. (Sub-course 2).

Learning outcome 3 will be achieved through group exercises, role-play sessions, and seminar discussions. It will be examined through group papers and a written examination (Sub-course 1).

Learning outcome 4 will be assessed through the written group papers and individual written exam (Sub-course 2).

Learning outcome 5 will be assessed through participation in the seminars and through the oral presentation of group papers. (Sub-course 1)

Learning outcomes 6, 7 and 8, will be assessed through seminar discussions, an empirical investigation, oral presentations and written group papers. (Sub-course 2).

If a student, who has failed the same examined component twice, wishes to change examiner before the next examination, a written application shall be sent to the department responsible for the course and shall be granted unless there are special reasons to the contrary (Chapter 6, Section 22 of Higher Education Ordinance).

In cases where a course has been discontinued or has undergone major changes, the student shall normally be guaranteed at least three examination occasions (including the ordinary examination) during a period of at least one year from the last time the course was given.

The grading scale comprises: Pass with Distinction (VG), Pass (G) and Fail (U). To obtain Pass for the whole course, the student must have at least Pass for individual written examinations, as well as at least Pass for all other examinations. To obtain Pass with Distinction requires at least Pass with Distinction for the individual written examinations, as well as at least Pass for all other examinations.

It is the department responsible for the course that is to provide evaluations and to have the results processed. The results of the course evaluations are to be made accessible to students. Processed results should be made available no later than eight weeks from the end of course. The results of and possible changes to the course will be shared with students who participated in the evaluation and students who are starting the course.