Studying at York
Social and Ethical Leadership - SPY00172M
- Department: Social Policy and Social Work
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: M
- Academic year of delivery: 2024-25
- See module specification for other years: 2023-24
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Semester 2 2024-25 |
Module aims
The module examines the role and use of organisational and social leadership for ethical purposes, with a particular focus on exploring how it can contribute to public good. The module explores three sets of interrelated themes. In the first part, the module focuses on the notion of leadership, and the main types of leadership, questioning how leadership tends to, and can impact or facilitate organisational and social change. In its second part, the module looks into integrity measures and instruments that organisations can deploy in order to pursue ethical governance, both in terms of their internal integrity as well as their contribution to the wider public good. This part will explore what are some basic integrity measures that organisational leaders can undertake, what these measures can and cannot achieve, and will prompt students to think through how to combine various integrity measures in order to maximise the level of organisational integrity governance. The third part of the module will turn to explore the practice of social leadership, taking a ‘how to’ perspective to mobilising social support and utilising it to effect social change. The focus of this part of the module will be on so-called social entrepreneurs - individuals, social movements and social advocacy organisations whose mission is to provide leadership for public good causes. The focus will be on the analysis of how ‘positive change’ - one that contributes to the defence of or enhancement of public good - happens in real life, and what we, as individuals and potential social entrepreneurs, can do to articulate and mobilise support for and realise such social change.
Module learning outcomes
Upon completion of this module, students will be able to:
1. Compare the various notions of leadership and critically reflect on when and how these various types of leadership can contribute to more ethical organisational governance as well as greater organisational contribution to public good.
2. Explore a range of integrity instruments that organisations can deploy in order to enhance their ethical governance, whether in relation to internal organisational process or contribution to a wider social good, and, drawing on this understanding, propose ‘mixes’ of such integrity instruments that might maximise the intended pursuit of ethical governance.
4. Deploy and effectively use ‘how to’ frameworks for social entrepreneurs for preparing and realising social change.
5. Revise approaches to successful social change management through evaluation of (ongoing) cases in reality, examine why some attempts of social change succeed and others fail and consider how the obtained insights could be used to improve their own social change leadership.
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Module feedback
Feedback and marks are returned to students within the university marking period.
Feedback on the summative assessment will consist of written comments and a marking matrix that indicates where the assessed paper sits with respect to the marking criteria. Students can seek further guidance during the drop-in office hours.
Feedback on the presentation is given verbally during the seminars.
Indicative reading
Ganz, M. (2010). Leading change: Leadership, organization, and social movements. Handbook of leadership theory and practice, 19, 1-10.
Green, D. (2016). How change happens. Oxford University Press.
Lutge, C., & Uhl, M. (2021). Business ethics: an economically informed perspective. Oxford University Press, USA.