OLEAD 100HIntroduction to Leadership Honors

3 credits · Organizational Leadership · Penn State

The ability to lead others is increasingly valued in today's world of work, and this course introduces key leadership concepts and practices based on current theory and research from both a social science and humanities perspective to prepare students for either the Bachelor of Science or the Bachelor of Arts as well as serve as a general education social science requirement. Whether or not a person is in a formal position of leadership, introduction to leadership will help students to discover the knowledge and skills necessary for effective leadership. The course will view leadership from an interactional framework that analyzes leadership from the perspective of the leader, the followers, and the situation. In particular, the unit on the leader will introduce traits, behaviors, gender, leadership development, personal strengths, developing leadership skills, creating a vision, addressing ethics, power, influence, and character. The unit on the leader-follower dynamic will introduce the concepts of followership, motivation, job performance, job satisfaction, engagement, embracing diversity and inclusion, listening to out-group members, managing conflict, overcoming obstacles, as well as leading group and teams. The final unit will focus the impact of the situation on leadership and will introduce students to organizational culture and climate, contingency theories of leadership, change, innovation, and will revisit the interactional framework in total to have students reflect on what they have learned. The honors version of this course will explore these topics more in depth through expanded instructional interactions as well as more rigorous assignments.