last update 12/14/06  

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Important Information 
BMA516 Leading Teams W2006

OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE

• Discover ways to link theory about group behavior to the action skills of team leadership.
• Gain a clearer sense about the nature of the leadership challenges in groups.
• Enhance one's ability to diagnose  group behavior.
• Strengthen one's intuition and encourage greater sensitivity about what is happening to you in your group life.

TEXTS

• J. Richard Hackman,  Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances, Harvard Business School Press, 2002 Amazon http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/2996.html

• Leigh l. Thompson.  Making the Team: A Guide for Managers, second edition, Prentice Hall,  2004.

THE ORGANIZING SCHEMA

• The Schedule provides topics covered by date, including readings, class preparation, downloads,  and the due dates for deliverables. 
• We will form subgroups in which much of the learning in the class will occur.
• Your Participation and Attendance is critical for the class to work.
• Shared Inquiry. During most classes and until the later part of the semester,  we will discuss the readings using a methodology called Shared Inquiry. Each subgroup has responsibility for the leadership of two periods of shared inquiry. Everyone in the class is expected to post online (Submit Shared Inquiry )at least one question for each assigned shared inquiry except the week your group has the  assigned responsibility to conduct the shared inquiry.  When it is your group's turn to lead the shared inquiry, your group picks the five best questions from those submitted by the rest of the class. If the questions chosen are good ones, we should easily spend about half the class period  discussing our answers. If your question is selected, you receive one bonus point toward your final grade. This is a reward for  writing  good questions. 
• The second  half of some shared inquiry sessions  finds us working on bridging theory and practice in sessions that are the responsibility of the prof. 
• In the last part of the semester, after we have finished reading and discussing the two books in shared inquiry, each subgroup is responsible for designing and conducting a full class. See: Group Learning Activity.
• Guidelines (summary) explain more specifically the formal requirements for this course.  For written work see: Writing. 
• There may be changes week-by-week to the schedule of classroom activities.  Review the Schedule weekly. You are responsible for keeping up with any changes that are made to course requirements throughout the semester. Use the Bulletin Board for your bookmark. Announcements and notification of changes in schedule are found there. Additions to the bulletin board  are noted by date on the course Homepage.  In some cases, a broadcast  email may suggest that you  check the schedule and/or bulletin board, so check your email regularly. I will  use your UMKC email address. See: Email registry. 
• You'll  provide  a grade for your fellow classmates and they, you. Peer Assessment Form. See On Sharing Part of the Grade with Others.
• Review Techno Stuff
• Office hours  are by appointment. Meeting with me just before class  is sometimes awkward as I'm sometimes making last minute class preparations.  My goal is 24 hour turnaround for e or voice mail. I prefer talking by phone or using  voice mail rather than writing long email. Call me at home, 913-722-6275, if you can't reach me at my office, 816-235-2345.

GRADE, DELIVERABLES, DATES

• There is no grading curve in this course. I use +/- grading. Since this is an elective course, I  assume you really want to be here, and this will show in you commitment to learn.  UMKC policy prohibits publicly posting grades. They are available online. Let me know anytime during the course if you'd like to know your grade status.  I use +/- grading. UMKC and Bloch have attendance and grading policies. Find and read copies. No changes will be made to final grades after they are submitted to Academic Records at the end of the semester. The only exceptions are if you have made prior arrangements with me to take an "incomplete" for the semester or I have made an error in calculating your grade. Of course, you may always appeal any instructor's grade if you believe "capricious grading" occurred by following Bloch and UMKC guidelines for appeal

OTHER IMPORTANT STUFF 

• Special Notes: disabilities, weather and class cancellation, withdraw, academic honesty, grade appeal
• International Students and Cross Cultural Learning 
• On Writing
• Website and Email
• Techno Stuf
• Plagiarism