Taking an Interdisciplinary Approach to Completing Your Organizational

Leadership Education

The study of organizational leadership reaches beyond the simple definitions offered up
by the various scholars in the halls of the academy – or various practitioners in the field
of business. Despite our best attempts, leadership remains an art form that isn’t easy to
quantify or pin down to a clear set of principles or practices.

In most cases, traditional business degrees generally focus on business-related

disciplines such as finance, marketing, advertising, supply chain management,
economics (etc.), typically with a clear focus on the technical aspects of each of those
fields. These disciplines, along with the field of management, are generally discussed
objectively – with only lip service (at best) given to the notion of the “art” of leadership.
Likewise, traditional business degrees generally do not consider the integrated nature of
what you have learned – across your business coursework; across your entire academic
career; and across the rich set of life experiences you have accumulated thus far.

On the other hand, there is a new focus in the field of organizational studies that seems
to be gaining momentum; the field of leadership studies. Generally students in degree
programs that stress the importance of organizational leadership (such as ASU Online’s
BA in Organizational Leadership, for example) experience a number of “leadership”
oriented courses that focus on some of the softer skills associated with leadership –
and/or offer up assessments to help you gain some perspective into what might be some
of your own leadership qualities – and how you might work to improve on, or leverage,
those strengths.

That’s not to say that the more technical aspects of management are ignored.
Enlightened leaders in organizations are familiar with both the leadership and the
management aspects of their jobs. They also have a firm grasp of the discipline-specific
knowledge and skills that may apply to their own roles and goals (finance, supply chain,
marketing, etc.). Throughout your learning history (organizational leadership
coursework, other courses you may have taken, other significant work and life
experiences), you have gained valuable skills, knowledge, and perspective. So, how do
you put that all together? How do you really get the most “bang for your buck” when it
comes to your hard-earned college education? How can it make a difference in your
life?

Your OGL 498 Pro-Seminar experience is designed to help you with this! The
underlying themes in the pro-seminar are reflection, connection, integration, and
lasting meaning. You’ll start that process by constructing a mosaic of your accumulated
learning and experience; taking a systematic and thoughtful look back at your
significant learning experiences; and developing an organizational scheme that will
allow you to effectively integrate what you have learned; creating bridges between your
various domains of hard-earned knowledge and expertise – in a way that creates a
“whole that is greater than the sum of the individual parts.”
Here
ere you will be developing integrative connecti
connections
ons with respect to your learning. You’ll
begin the process of consciously abstracting what you learn and systematically
practicing more lateral approaches to thinking and analysis. In doing so, you’ll gain an
appreciation for multiple approaches to fram
framing
ing problems or opportunities, and you’ll
be creating a structure that will allow you to more effectively apply what it is that you
have been learning! And isn’t that really what learning should be all about?

One powerful analogy would be moving from a ““patchwork”

patchwork” of knowledge and skills to a
full “mosaic” that stitches together not only what you have learned in an organized
fashion, but also represents your vision for your future. Yourr very being, or sense of
“self” is, in reality, composed of many different beliefs, ideas, experiences, skills,
perspectives, and areas of knowledge – already a mosaic of sorts, with your academic
history and learning comprising one dimension.

Consider this photo-mosaic

mosaic (made by Robert Silvers - http://www.photomosaic.com/ )
where the picture of the Mona Lisa on the left is really composed of many little pictures.
The picture on the right is a detailed look at what’s in one tiny piece of the complete
picture – if you were to look really closely!

Pretty cool, huh? You can check out the site for many other examples of cool mosaic
pictures, but the point here is that your learning (and your life) is a mosaic of pieces
from which you can construct an overover-arching
arching “vision” that can be projected. To put it
in perspective, each of the classes you have taken here at ASU are just a small
smal series of
“pictures” in the larger picture of the degree and your understanding of organizational
leadership. And, of course, your degree is one small picture of who you are and what
you offer the world.

Throughout this pro-seminar experience, I hope to help you construct your mosaic!

In OGL 498 Pro-Seminar I, you’ll start that integrative process. Against the backdrop of
Bolman and Deal’s Organizational Frames concept, you’ll start to develop a mosaic of
your past learning and development; you’ll reflect on your key learnings; you’ll develop
an e-portfolio that will serve as both a developmental tool and a way to showcase your
achievements; and you’ll practice organizational analysis using a multi-frame approach.

In OGL 498 Pro-Seminar II, you’ll begin draw on your past experiences and your own
unique personal interests and characteristics to create a life design specific to you and
your own vision of meaningful work, and work-life balance.

I’m glad you’re here, and thank you for joining me! ☺

Cheers,

Dave Thomas