TEACHING PROJECTS

On this page I describe some of the teaching projects I am currently involved in.

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Discovering Leadership Through Film

In October 2010, I'll be launching a new 20 point, 20-week course for third year undergraduates at Coventry University. Entitled, Discovering Leadership Through Film, this course offers an introduction to leadership and, in particular, a social constructionist approach to leadership. As the title suggests, the course draws heavily on film and does something quite new. My colleagues, Suki Manak and Brenda Hollyoak, and I will be screening ten leadership films in their entirety and providing streaming versions of these films for groups of students to analyse in depth outside of the class. The ten films we're going to screen are:

  • Gladiator
  • Erin Brockovich
  • The Mist
  • The Life of Brian
  • Spartacus
  • Ikiru
  • The Motorcycle Diaries
  • Henry V (1989)
  • Chicken Run
  • Gandhi

In addition, we will give students access (hopefully streamed) to Aliens, The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Battell Fought at Agincourt in France, The Great Escape and Mother India for comparative analysis against films 6 to 9 in the bulleted list. Devoting about 15% of class time to showing complete films is a little controversial. We justify if on two main grounds. First, because we are trying to tease out students' own definitions and understanding of leadership, we need a platform to discuss leadership where they do not have privileged knowledge. This allows full engagement and discussion of leadership where differing interpretations of people, events and behaviour inform students about their own position. Second, we believe that behaviour is complex and is formed by a myriad of interweaving factors and influences. Viewing short leadership examples (e.g. film clips) biases students towards immediate and observable factors and denies historical and tacit factors. 

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Jon's Light Lunches

These are a series of lunchtime seminars at Coventry University designed to introduce people to the world of academic management research. Anyone and everyone is welcome. Click here for more details.

  • What is Management Research? (14th May 2009) PPT
  • PhD: Why? Me? How? (27th May 2009) PPT
  • The Rankings Game: What Research Outputs Should I Be Trying to Get? (16th June 2009) PPT
  • Should I Go to Conferences? (29th June 2009) PPT 
  • Should I Review for Journals and Conferences? (22nd September 2009) PPT 
  • What Should a Management Academic’s CV Look Like? (7th October 2009) PPT 
  • Constructing Your First Research Project (5th November 2009) PPT
  • Writing Your First (Journal) Paper (24th November 2009) PPT

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Blue Sky Thinking

For several years now, I have been taking digital photographs of the sky at various times of the day and night and in differing weather conditions. This has produced a bank of images that I use in workshops and classrooms to achieve two things. The first use is to stimulate people’s creativity. The images help people find new ideas, find solutions to difficult situations, think outside of the box, and envision different futures. The second use is to help people reflect. This has been particularly successful in the classroom to help students think about how to maximise the benefits they get from their courses and also how their qualifications will fit into the rest of their lives. For example, I have been running these sessions at Cranfield University, where I help their doctoral students think about the route through their DBAs.

  
  

If you would like to find out more about this project, please go to the project’s website at www.skypictures.co.uk where you can see examples of the images, learn more about how the images are used, and have the opportunity to buy images as computer wallpaper or for illustrating your work.

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Moving Images

This project is gathering together expert opinion and experience on how to teach management related subjects with films and television. Working with Julie Charlesworth (Open University) and Pauline Leonard (Southampton University) we are commissioning articles from some of the leading experts in the field. I'm delighted to say that we have agreed a deal with Information Age Publishers for the publication of the book. Chapters are flying in now and we hope to publish in 2009. Contributors include:

  • Véronique Ambrosini, Cardiff University
  • Emma Bell, Bath University
  • Jon Billsberry, Coventry University
  • Joe Champoux, University of New Mexico
  • Julie Charlesworth, The Open University
  • Nardine Collier, Cranfield University
  • Mark Easterby-Smith, Lancaster University
  • Andrés Fortino, Polytechnic Institute of New York University
  • Peter Galvin, Curtin University of Technology
  • Troy Hendrickson, Curtin University of Technology
  • Pauline Leonard, Southampton University
  • Stephen Sloane, St. Mary's College of California
  • Janet Sutherland, Curtin University of Technology
  • Richard Thorpe, Leeds University
  • Craig Webber, Southampton University
  • Thomaz Wood, Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo

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Management Education Under the Knife

This project looks at the current state of management education and wonders how it would look differently if it were modelled on the way we teach doctors. What would we teach? How would we teach it? What would be the implications for faculty? In looking at these issues, I hope to inform the debate about whether management is a profession or an art, and also to see whether there are more effective ways of developing managers. In the first outcome of the project, Sharon Williams (Warwick University Medical School) put together a symposium for BAM that sketched out the main issues (please click here for the flyer). Four excellent speakers, Matthew Cooke (Warwick University Medical School), Ben Hardy (Cambridge University), Fiona Patterson (City University) and Ann Esain (Cardiff University) all spoke to a packed room. Following the symposium, Sharon and I received offers to develop the ideas further and it looks as if we will be putting a book together.

On the 30th June 2009, we had the pleasure of devoting a BAM Organisational Psychology SIG seminar on the project. It was hosted at Warwick University Medical School and again attracted a room full of interested people. In addition to Matthew and Ann who spoke at BAM, the other speakers were Lynne Caley (Warwick University Medical School), Lucy Ambrose (Warwick University Medical School) and Sophia Christie, Chief Executive of Birmingham East and North PCT. One of the more memorable lines from the session came from Ben, "the kidney doesn't do something different because you talk to it".

The project's next outing was at the Academy of Management in Chicago when Ben, Ros and Ann spoke. As with our previous outings, we attracted a very large audience and ignited much debate. 

We are now moving forward with a book proposal and we would like to hear from anyone who would be interested in contributing. Please email Sharon or me to express an interest and to find out more.

The members of the project include:

  • Richard Adams, Cranfield University & AIM
  • Lucy Ambrose, Warwick University
  • Véronique Ambrosini, Cardiff University
  • Jon Billsberry, Coventry University
  • Sophia Christie, Birmingham East and North PCT
  • Claire Collins, Henley Business School, Reading University
  • Matthew Cooke, Warwick University
  • Ann Esain, Cardiff University
  • Ben Hardy, Cambridge University
  • Lynne Caley, Warwick University
  • Dawn Marie Naylor, Warwick University
  • Fiona Patterson, City University
  • Ros Searle, The Open University
  • Robin Wensley, Warwick University 
  • Sharon Williams, Warwick University

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