Unit 3: Strategic and ethical leadership
Leadership and Team Dynamics notes · PTU syllabus (MBA 935-18)
On this page
Unit summary
Senior leaders design the context in which everyone else works. This unit covers the leader as social architect — creating vision and strategic direction, shaping culture and values, designing a learning organisation — leading change, and the spiritual foundations of personal effectiveness.
After this unit you can
- Explain how leaders create vision and strategic direction
- Explain how leaders shape culture and values
- Explain the design of a learning organisation and leading change
- Explain the spiritual foundations of personal effectiveness
PTU syllabus topics
- The leader as social architect — creating vision and strategic direction
- shaping culture and values
- designing a learning organisation
- leading change
- spiritual foundations of personal effectiveness
Vision
Where we are going
Culture and values
What we stand for
Learning organisation
Continuous improvement
Leading change
Mobilising people
Topic 1
The leader as social architect
- Social architect (Daft): the leader designs the organisation's purpose, culture, structure and systems — the "architecture" within which people work.
Topic 2
Creating vision and strategic direction
- Vision: an attractive, ideal future that is credible yet not readily attainable; it links present and future, energises people, gives meaning and sets standards of excellence.
- 1Vision
Where we want to go
- 2Mission
Core purpose and values
- 3Strategy
How we will get there
- 4Implementation
Structure, systems, actions
Example
Infosys's founders' vision of a globally respected company with values of client value, leadership by example, integrity, fairness and excellence (C-LIFE) guided decades of decisions.
Topic 3
Shaping culture and values
- Culture: shared values, assumptions and norms that guide behaviour.
- How leaders shape culture (Schein): what they pay attention to and measure, reactions to crises, role-modelling, allocation of rewards, criteria for recruitment and promotion, ceremonies, stories and symbols.
- Adaptive cultures value change and stakeholders; values-based leadership aligns personal and organisational values.
Topic 4
Designing a learning organisation
A learning organisation (Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline, 1990) continuously expands its capacity to create its future.
Personal mastery
Continual personal growth
Mental models
Surfacing and testing assumptions
Shared vision
Common picture of the future
Team learning
Dialogue and collective thinking
Systems thinking
Seeing wholes and interrelationships — the fifth discipline
- Single-loop vs double-loop learning (Argyris): correcting errors within existing rules vs questioning the rules themselves.
- Leader's role: create psychological safety, encourage experimentation, share information, build systems for knowledge sharing, learn from failure.
Topic 5
Leading change
- 1
Establish urgency
- 2
Form a guiding coalition
- 3
Develop vision and strategy
- 4
Communicate the vision
- 5
Empower broad-based action
- 6
Generate short-term wins
- 7
Consolidate gains
- 8
Anchor changes in culture
- Leading creativity and innovation: idea champions, skunkworks, tolerance for failure.
- Managing resistance: communication, participation, support, negotiation.
Topic 6
Spiritual foundations of personal effectiveness
- Spiritual leadership (Fry): vision, hope and faith, and altruistic love create a sense of calling and membership for leader and followers.
- Personal effectiveness: self-awareness, mindfulness, purpose, integrity, emotional balance, service orientation; Indian ethos — nishkama karma, sthitaprajna (steady mind), servant leadership.
- Benefits: resilience, ethical decisions, meaningful work, employee well-being.
Key terms
- Social architect
- Leader who designs organisational context
- Vision
- Attractive, ideal future for the organisation
- Adaptive culture
- Culture that values change and stakeholders
- Psychological safety
- Belief that one can speak up without punishment
- Spiritual leadership
- Leadership through vision, hope and altruistic love
Quick revision
- Leader as social architect.
- Vision features; vision–mission–strategy–implementation.
- Schein's culture-embedding mechanisms; adaptive culture.
- Learning organisation (Senge) and leader's role; Kotter's change steps.
- Spiritual leadership (Fry); personal effectiveness; Indian ethos.
Important exam questions
Practice questions written to the PTU exam pattern for this unit's syllabus: short answers (Section A style) and long answers (Sections B and C style).
Short-answer questions
- Q1.What is meant by the leader as social architect?
- Q2.State three features of a good vision.
- Q3.Name three ways leaders shape culture.
- Q4.What is psychological safety?
- Q5.List Kotter's eight steps.
- Q6.What is spiritual leadership?
Long-answer questions
- Q1.Explain how leaders create vision and strategic direction.
- Q2.Discuss the leader's role in shaping culture and values.
- Q3.Explain how leaders design a learning organisation and lead change.
- Q4.Discuss the spiritual foundations of personal effectiveness.
Stuck on this unit?
Message SBS on WhatsApp for help with Leadership and Team Dynamics, or to ask about studying MBA at Synetic.