Case Studies in Leadership Through Literature and Film

This course takes a new approach to the study of leadership by using the creative vehicles of literature and film as business case studies. It recognizes that leader-managers today must develop a complete spectrum of aptitudes, from analytical, strategic, and organizational to the ability for empathy, intuition, imagination, and vision, and that creative works are uniquely suited to teach these aptitudes. They do so by showing personal, social, and business relations in action within nuanced and complex situations. A film like The Aviator (Martin Scorsese), for example, depicts wealthy businessman Howard Hughes struggling to overcome personal, financial, competitive, and strategic pressures, giving students a chance to observe and study these problems in action. Some of the works we study, such as the films The Aviator and Gandhi (Richard Attenborough), and the plays Antigone (Sophocles) and Julius Caesar (Shakespeare), deal specifically with leaders. Others, such as the play A Doll's House (Henrik Ibsen) and the short story The Guest (Albert Camus), provide compelling characters whose actions are readily applicable to leadership challenges today. This course fosters interaction and introspection through its use of weekly opinion papers and biographical presentations on the artists.