21880 Leading People and Change

Warning: The information on this page is indicative. The subject outline for a particular session, location and mode of offering is the authoritative source of all information about the subject for that offering. Required texts, recommended texts and references in particular are likely to change. Students will be provided with a subject outline once they enrol in the subject.

Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.

UTS: Business: Management
Credit points: 6 cp

Subject level:

Postgraduate

Result type: Grade and marks

There are course requisites for this subject. See access conditions.
Anti-requisite(s): 210880 Leading People and Change AND 21722 Leadership, Coaching and Mentoring AND 21800 Management and Organisations

Description

Organisations today operate in dynamic, complex and continuously changing environments that require new forms of leadership. In this subject, students are invited to reimagine leadership as a collaborative endeavour that drives adaptive and responsible change. Students develop capabilities to facilitate individual and collective efforts that enable organisations and their stakeholders to thrive. This includes skills in cultivating inclusive and trusting team environments as well as the foundational knowledge required to lead and facilitate generative and/or transformational change. The subject assists students in increasing their self-awareness in leading others; building their relational and communicative skills, and developing a more systemic and critically reflexive understanding of organizational leadership.

This subject reflects the UTS philosophy as a public university, serving public wellbeing by preparing graduates not merely for professional practice but normative expectations as agents of global citizenship, where social justice (re equity & ecologies) and respect for diversity are defining values. Students develop deeper relational aptitudes and expertise, notably through facilitating change for sustainable futures via stakeholder consultation, dialogic communications and negotiations, emphasising equity. Resistance to change is not seen as an obstacle merely to be overcome by the imposition of authority, but as legitimate opposition calling for democratic dialogue and consensus. Equally defining are a strong focus on developing specific expertise for learning and working effectively in diverse teams – as collaborative teamwork present dynamic and challenging contexts for almost all endeavours, large and small, local and global.

Subject learning objectives (SLOs)

Upon successful completion of this subject students should be able to:

1.	appraise the value of relational approaches in contemporary contexts of leading people and change relative to traditional approaches
2.	critically evaluate the contextual conditions (e.g. team, organisational cultural, stakeholder relations) that influence effective leadership and management practices regarding people, culture and change
3.	effectively communicate context-appropriate strategies for leading people and change
4.	demonstrate a self-reflexive understanding of the application of relational approaches in contemporary contexts of broad accountability for leading people and change

Contribution to the development of graduate attributes

This core management subject contributes to the MBA course by preparing graduates to undertake and implement strategies for responsible and sustainable organisational change, respecting broader stakeholder needs for ethical, moral and indigenous attitudes and values. Students will critically evaluate various models of change, fostering a generative approach which is consistent with the normative expectations regarding social justice, ecological and diversity values embedded in the University’s vision and pedagogical strategies.

This subject contributes to the development of the following graduate attribute(s):

Communicate business information effectively to various stakeholders to achieve desired business outcomes (2.1)
Interact and collaborate with colleagues and stakeholders to work effectively to achieve desired business outcomes (2.2)
Evaluate and apply principles of ethics, sustainability, social responsibility, and Indigenous values, to decision-making in business (3.1)

Teaching and learning strategies

Teaching and learning activities consist of weekly lectures and tutorials – supported by self and team study, involving case studies, lectures, videos, debates and role plays. Students accept responsibility to prepare individually and collaborating within teams toward a series of tutorial activities and assessments. Students are expected to complete online activities and set readings prior to attending classes, that will enhance their ability to engage with others in class discussions. Ongoing formative feedback will be prioritized with students receiving feedback in class from peers and tutors, as well as through online discussions.

An aim of this subject is to help you develop academic and professional language and communication skills in order to succeed at university and in the workplace. To determine your current academic language proficiency, you are required to complete an online language screening task, OPELA (information available at https://www.uts.edu.au/research-and-teaching/learning-and-teaching/enhancing/language-and-learning/about-opela-students) [or a written diagnostic task]. If you receive a Basic grade for OPELA [or the written diagnostic task], you must attend additional Language Development Tutorials (each week from week [3/4] to week [11/12] in order to pass the subject. These tutorials are designed to support you to develop your language and communication skills. Students who do not complete the OPELA and/or do not attend 80% of the Language Development Tutorials will receive a Fail X grade.

Content (topics)

Self-Awareness and Leadership of Self
Relational leadership and tensions with alternative perspectives
Integrative competing values framework.
Fostering generative and transformational change
Developing organisational purpose and cultures via values underpinning publicly accountable approaches to people, culture and change:
- Social justice (ie, dignity and equity)
- Protection of natural ecologies and
- Respect for indigenous values
Stakeholder analysis and perspective
Centrality of teamwork and complexity thinking

Assessment

Assessment task 1: Change Communication Project (Individual)

Objective(s):	This addresses subject learning objective(s): 2 and 3
Weight:	50%
Length:	Group Report to Board: 3000 words +/- 10% (details in Canvas/Assessment 1 and discussed in class). Presentation: each member 3 minutes.
Criteria:	Clarity of Communication – Information is structured and presented clearly drawing onverbal and non-verbal means of professional communication Critical Analysis – Substantive analysis of the business problem and consideration of potentialbarriers, solutions and implications Empathy and Stakeholder Awareness – Ability to consider various stakeholderneeds/perspectives and translate into context-sensitive leadership responses Teamwork – clear evidence through MS Teams or other media of collaboration andconsensus between team members.

Assessment task 2: Leadership Journal (Individual)

Objective(s):	This addresses subject learning objective(s): 1, 2, 3 and 4
Weight:	50%
Length:	2000 words +/- 10% (details in Canvas/Assessment 2 and discussed in class).
Criteria:	Reflexivity - evidence of insights/learning outcomes demonstrating a self-aware, relational andcontext-sensitive understanding of leading people and change Critical analysis – including understanding of systemic factors (e.g. interpersonal, team andorganisational cultural conditions, and stakeholder perspectives) in relation to leadership practice Communication appropriate to purpose and audience

Minimum requirements

Students must achieve at least 50% of the subject’s total marks.

It is a requirement of this subject that all students complete OPELA [or a written diagnostic task]. Students who received a Basic grade in the OPELA [or the written diagnostic task] are required to attend 80% of the Language Development Tutorials in order to pass the subject. Students who do not complete the OPELA and/or do not attend 80% of the Language Development Tutorials will receive a Fail X grade.

References

Weekly readings are set up in Canvas/Reading List - with some readings "required" and others "recommended". Most of these nominated readings are recommended sections in e-books (sometimes an Introduction, maybe a chapter or select few pages). You are NOT expected to read the books in full - BUT the selection of e-books is aimed to encourage you - as a post graduate - to read critically, and in more depth. Please focus your reading on the carefully curated selections in the Canvas WEEKLY Reading List as it will be updated through the session.

Below are some examples only of what is included in the Reading List. What titles suprise you? What might that suggest about the post graduate approach generally, and this MBA from UTS in particular?

Arendt, H. (2018) (2nd edition) The Human Condition. University of Chicago Press.

Bakan, J. (2021) The New Corporation: How "Good" Corporations are Bad for Democracy" New York: Vintage Books.

Benn, S., Edwards, M., and Williams, T. (2019) Organizational Change for Corporate Sustainability. London: Routledge

Bregman, R. (2020) Humankind: A Hopeful History. New York: Penguin

Bushe, G.R. & Marshak, R.J. 2015, Dialogic Organization Development: The Theory and Practice ofTransformational Change, Berret-Koehler Publishers, Oakland, CA.

Bushe, G. R. (2020). The Dynamics of Generative Change. North Vancouver, BC: BMI Publishing.

Commander, S., & Estrin, S. (2022). The Connections World: The Future of Asian Capitalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Farnsworth, W. (2021). The Socratic Method: A Practitioners Handbook. Boston: Godine.

Ferreras, I. (2017) Firms as Political Entities: Saving Democracy through Economic Bicameralism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gerstle, G. (2022) The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Harrison, J., Barney, J. & Freeman, R.E. (2019). The Cambridge Handbook of Stakeholder Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lipscomb, J. (2023) The Women Are Up to Something. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Mazzucato, M., & Collington, R. (2023). The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Businesses, Infantilizes our Governments, and Warps our Economies. London: Allen Lane.

McCabe, D. (2020). Changing Change Management: Strategy. Power and Resistance. New York: Routledge

McGilchrist, I. (2019) The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. Yale University Press.

McGilchrist, I. (2019) Ways of Attending: How Our Divided Brain Constructs the World. Routledge.

Saeidnia, S., & Lang, A. (2017) Hannah Arendt's The Human Condition. Macat.

Schapiro, T. (2021). Feeling Like It: a Theory of Inclination and Will. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Tett, G. (2022) AntroVision: How Anthroplogy Can Explain Bueinss and Life. London: Penguin.

Thompson, D. (2018) Montaigne and the Tolerance of Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Waddel, D. M., Creed, A., Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G. (2019). Organizational Change:Development and Transformation. Melbourne: Cengage Learning.

Wernaart, B. (2021). Ehtics and Business: A Global Introduction.London: Routledge.

Winch, C. (2011) Dimensions of Expertise: A Conceptual Exploration of Vocational Knowledge.

Wolf, M. (2023). The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism. London: Alen Lane.

Ypi, L. (2012). Global Justice & Avant-Garde Political Agency. Oxford: Oxford University Press.