CL 5043 - Leadership Theories-Current and Historical Perspectives (3)

This course presumes it is important to be familiar with the seminal readings on leadership and is grounded in the mental models and the underlying assumptions about leadership from current and historical perspectives. This course begins with the understanding that all individuals have mental models and working theories of leadership, some of them shaped by the literature as far 350 BC. For example, our western perspective of leadership contain much of what was discussed in 350 BC, with Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, a treatise regarding a leader’s morality, power, and personal doctrine in the service of victory, and in Plato’s 400 BC work, The Republic, an exploration of leadership and justice in the state. The course is specifically designed to provide a fundamental familiarity with the leadership literature historically, using those texts widely considered timeless and essential. Although the literature on leadership is quite voluminous, since some of history’s greatest minds all over the world from the beginning of recorded history have wrestled with issues pertaining to power, authority, and influence, only a few of these texts are considered by scholars as “enduring” pieces of work. Through these texts and moving through time, a framework for understanding our historical and current views of leadership will emerge.