Teaching
Introduction to Leadership Studies and Ethics
[ Scheduled teaching for fall 2024 ]
Data-driven Analytics for Managerial Leadership
This introductory course equips students with the basics of data programming language and its applications to data-driven managerial leadership research. The class is taught in R software and introduces students to diagnostic tools for creating data structures and applying data analytics. The course covers the fundamentals of data programming including building unique datasets, merging multiple data sources, wrangling processes to clean datasets, and analyzing datasets. Diagnostic tools covered in the course include data transformation, descriptive analysis, plotting, network analysis and visualization, spatial analysis and visualization, data-driven management and ethics. Although it is a skill-based course, students are introduced to academic research that uses data-driven tools to operationalize the theories and concepts using publicly available data sources to apply descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive tools. Additionally, students have an opportunity to work on a research project where they collect and clean their datasets and apply relevant analytic approaches.
Organizational Governance
This course focuses on major perspectives in board governance and their application in different institutional forms, with a particular focus on nonprofit organizations and corporate firms. In this class, we learn three mechanisms of organizational governance, including structural, managerial, and relational mechanisms that shape both intra- and inter-organizational dynamics. We apply theory to practice, refining the relationship among key concepts – board capital, CEO succession and board recruitment, governance practices, compensation and incentives, power dynamics – to provide a practical and theoretical foundation. The course covers a wide range of issues related to organizational behavior, including how organizational decisions are made through the boards, what the structure and function of board governance look like, how they access resources, why they form a particular type of interorganizational relationships, how they are influenced by the external environmental characteristics, and the conditions under which organizational performance is influenced by board governance.
Philanthropy and Resource Development
This course is designed to provide students with theories and empirics of research and practice in philanthropy and resource development. The objective is to give students a basic background in social enterprise, volunteering and giving, resource diversification, financial efficiency, and fundraising strategies, among others. Both intellectual foundations and practical management strategies are covered. It begins with the macro view of the philanthropic landscape in the United States. We review the historical development of philanthropy, followed by legal, political, and economic perspectives to understand the role of philanthropy and nonprofit organizations. Next, we cover resource acquirement from various external stakeholders, including government, foundations and corporations, and individual donors. Finally, we look at issues related to managing financials including improving financial health, assessing financial measures, building revenue portfolios, and developing fundraising strategies.
Principles of Nonprofit Organizations
The course is designed to expand students’ understanding of nonprofit organizations and their implications in economic, legal, and political spheres in relation to government and corporate firms within the U.S. and occasionally across the globe. Although it is primarily focused on the nonprofit field, we also draw insights from the corporate and government sectors. Applications of the material covered in this course include civic engagement, political advocacy, public policy, performance evaluation, funding sources, and human resource management, among others. We begin by reviewing major theories and empirics of the nonprofit sector to explore a variety of managerial leadership issues and building blocks of decision-making that operate in different (and in many times, conflicting) contextual situations. Next, we explore managerial leadership issues at the intersection between politics, markets, and government. Finally, we conclude by assessing the role of managerial tools that can be employed in managing people and finance.
Civil Society
The focus of this course is to explore the state of global civil society in past and current environments. We look at the nature and the functions of voluntary organizations in social life and the key issues around the concepts of civil society in associational life. We discuss a variety of key topics both at the macro level (political regime and national context) and micro-level (organizational and individual context). We begin with a review of the historical foundations of civil society, followed by the major approaches to civil society in the United States and across the globe. Next, we examine the infrastructures, including voluntary associations, philanthropy, state and market, institutional environment, and social capital. Finally, we investigate economic and political dimensions, followed by the intersections of digital technology and civil society in the global world.