The Art of Leadership

Aims of this unit

Leaders and managers achieve organisational objectives through the people they lead. This unit aims to enhance students’ ability to understand leadership and develop their own leadership practice, engage, motivate, and develop their people, and, in this process, increase personal and organisational productivity. It also invites students to increase their own self-awareness and to think objectively about their capabilities and personal preferences as leaders and managers. This unit introduces organisational perspectives and theories. This assists students in making informed decisions about the complexity of dealing with people in the workplace.

Why study leadership?

Studying leadership enables you to:
a) Grow as a leader and manager
b) Understand your own behaviour, the behaviour of others and the behaviour of the collective organisation in a work context
c) Create more effective and productive workplace teams and cultures.

The purpose of this unit is to:

Develop a reasoned, coherent and analytical understanding of human behaviour at all three levels - individual, team, and within the organisation as a whole. In the contemporary environment, the ability to lead, manage and develop people is even more critical as we embrace changing environments and priorities, including Industry 4.0. This unit considers the value-adding role that people have. It highlights human processes, leadership and influencing others, group dynamics and organisational culture and change. The unit introduces the fundamental principles of organisational behaviour and leadership by examining psychological theories that provide insight into human behaviour at work. It also presents learning insights into leading, motivating, and developing people.

To gain the most from your studies, AIM Business School encourages you to read widely and integrate your learning with your experiences. This approach will assist you greatly as you approach your assessment tasks, which are designed to apply concepts for your practice as a manager and leader.

Knowledge and Understanding

This unit is designed to provide students with an understanding of:

• The complementary relationships between leadership, management, development, culture, organisational environments and organisational theories.
• Leadership styles, theories and approaches and their applicability to optimise performance outcomes in organisational settings.
• Methods for analysing and improving the performance and productivity of individuals and teams.
• Theories of motivation and contemporary approaches to employee engagement and performance.
• Approaches to analyse and change their own behaviour, competencies and attributes as they relate to their career as a leader.
• How to become an empowered, proactive and authentic leader to influence behaviours at all organisation levels in rapidly changing, disruptive global environments.

Learning Outcomes