LDRS 3000 - Leadership Ethics with Technological University of Dublin

Project Summary

This module provided an introduction to, and overview of, strategic management for honours degree level students. The module provides students with anopportunity to develop an understanding and appreciation of the key concepts, theories and practices in strategic management. Strategic Management is a bigpicture course. It cuts across the whole spectrum of business and management. The centre of attention is the total enterprise – the industry and competitiveenvironment in which it operates, its long-term direction and strategy, its resources and competitive capabilities, and its prospects for success. The moduledemonstrates that good strategy-making and good strategy-execution are the key ingredients of organisation success and the most reliable signs of goodmanagement. The mission of the module is to explore why good strategic management leads to good organisation performance, to present the basic concepts andtools of analysis, and to drill participants in the methods of crafting a well-conceived strategy and executing it competently. Thus, this module exposes students to thekey concepts, theories, practices and perspectives in strategic management, and, in so doing, increases students critical thinking ability.

Project Length

• 6 weeks.

Learning Outcomes

• Confidently recognize and explain major philosophical and behavioral ethical frameworks for
  strategic management and leadership.
• Assess the ethical implications and consequences of a specific strategic decision by a recognized leader/organization
• Strengthen your ability to effectively collaborate in cross-national and virtual teams.

Technology Tools Used

• Zoom
• Canvas
• Brightspace
• MS Teams
• Google Docs
• Canva

Interaction Mode

• Synchronous
• Asynchronous

• Faculty Reflection - Transatlantic Ethical Decision Making Analyses

  Transatlantic Ethical Decision Making Analyses  

  When I told my students in our Leadership Ethics course that I had a project that was going to be good craic (pronounced crack), they looked at me askew. Craic is an Irish word that can be loosely translated as fun. This particular “craic” was a joint project between leadership studies students at DU and logistics and supply chain management students at Technological University of Dublin (TU Dublin). I had a willing partner in this endeavor in Dr. Sharon Feeney, a Senior Lecturer in Strategic Management at TU Dublin.  

  I was fortunate to have met Sharon while on a Fulbright exchange in Ireland in the fall of 2023. Although our COIL endeavor did not materialize until I was back in the States, it was helpful to have had the initial connection and a sense of the specific cultural and pedagogical norms at TU Dublin. When we decided to embark on a COIL project, what my colleague called a “Global Classroom”, we found a potential area of overlap in our curricula in ethical decision making and created a unit on this topic as part of our respective course/module.  

  This collaboration enabled each of us to meet our original learning objectives for the class while also adding a novel experience and allowing students to realize additional learning outcomes related to cross cultural engagement and teaming. We collected a great deal of feedback from students, and they interestingly noted both enjoyment and frustration with the overall experience. The enjoyment was obviously welcome in that students were clearly motivated to engage in this project and appreciated the uniqueness of this experience. We also believe the frustration was indicative of learning as students lamented the difficulty of coordinating across time zones and cultures. However, they successfully produced meaningful analyses which indicated that they were able to overcome these challenges. Our hope is that having this experience as an undergraduate student will be instrumental in their future collaborative work across cultural and national boundaries.  

  As a professor, I am always seeking new ways to innovate in the classroom and COIL proved to be an especially valuable experience for our students. It did require a great deal of planning and preparation and the Internationalization Office at DU were vital in supporting this effort. Even with thorough preparation, there were obviously unanticipated challenges that arose during the class and flexibility was required. A few of the benefits that I realized from this experience included greater student engagement, real world skill building, and cross-cultural collaboration. I also appreciated the opportunity to deepen a professional connection with an international colleague and encourage other faculty to consider incorporating COIL into their own pedagogy.