Course fact sheet for 2011-12, detailed outline to be posted during fall 2011
Sandford Borins
borins@rotman.utoronto.ca
HISTORICAL ENROLLMENT: 20
TARGET AUDIENCE
Students interested in how managers can use narrative (sometimes referred to as story-telling) as an effective mode of personal and organizational communication.
COURSE MISSION
1. to develop the student’s skill in understanding, analyzing, and creating narratives that help communicate, persuade, and lead
2. using the analysis of authored management narratives (biographies, histories, novels, movies) to understand effective and ineffective managerial performance
COURSE SCOPE
The course begins by introducing a conceptual framework based on narratology, the study of narrative in humanistic disciplines such as literature and film studies, as applied to narratives about managers and organizations.
Some of the managerial topics and illustrative narratives to be discussed include: entrepreneurship (Startup.com, The Social Network), managerial ethics (Enron, Inside Job), whistle-blowing (The Insider), front-line innovation (Waiting for Superman), downsizing (The Company Men), and crisis decision making (Thirteen Days, The Fog of War).
The course will also deal with managers’ use of personal and organizational narratives, drawing on examples of contemporary narratives found in the media or on organizational websites. Narrative skills will be enhanced through individual presentations of i) a personal narrative and ii) an organizational narrative.
REQUIRED RESOURCES
Sandford Borins, Governing Fables: Learning from Public Sector Narratives (Information Age Publishing, 2011)
Viewing of selected movies during term (rental or purchase)
COURSE FORMAT
13 regular sessions
EVALUATION AND GRADE DISTRIBUTION
Component, Due Date, and Weight
Class Participation – Ongoing – 15 % weight
Individual presentations (2) – Ongoing – 30 % weight
Group presentation – Ongoing — 15% weight
Final Exam During exam period, 40 % weight
