BUS 340 – Leadership and Self-Development: From Mythology to Business

This course aims to connect basic principles of leadership with the self-development journey that every human being is – at one point in life – called to pursuit through initiation and adult life in general. Joseph Campbell’s comparative mythology, history and pop culture are the main tools we will use to better understand one person’s lead in life during the first part of the course. Subsequently, we will introduce the challenges of leading people in organizations and how they affect the process of growth in the professional environment. Using articles from Harvard Business Review and other specialized sources, we will explore the differences between leadership and management, the concepts of transformational leadership, change and strategy; while team building exercises and debates will provide useful examples about real life contexts in which leadership must be fully understood in order to be successful in business.

Course Objectives and Learning Outcomes

Below are the course’s learning outcomes, followed by the methods that will be used to assess students’ achievement for each learning outcome. By the end of this course, students will be able to:

• identify charismatic figures that made the History of Leadership (Lectures + Readings);
• summarize connections between Self Development and Leadership using Mythology, Psychology and Business Administration (Mid Term + Final Exams);
• distinguish between concepts of Leadership and Management (Lectures + Readings);
• analyze different kinds of primary sources—text, images, videos and documentaries—for their meaning (Mid Term + Final Exam);
• integrate sources such as lectures, guest speeches, readings, and in-class exercises (Mid Term + Final Exam).