Session Type: Interactive Roundtable Accepted by MIG(s): Time Allotted: 75 Description: Mid-career MBA students thousands of miles apart experienced the same classroom assignment: a guided exploration of values. In a video-taped (and translated!) follow-on activity, students discussed their perceptions of dominant values in choices made by their counterparts' decisions. The videos were shared, for an enhanced and rich learning experience. Abstract: In St. Petersburg, Russia and in the San Gabriel Valley of southern California, MBA students in these very different settings were guided into a significant assignment: the exploration of core individual values which shape daily decisions and related actions. In both universities, the MBA students participating in the activity were mid-career professionals at the middle management or senior management level of responsibility in a variety of organizations. The values exploration activity (featured in November 2006 in a workshop at the Chicago meeting of the International Leadership Association) was built on ideas in the book Good Work (Gardner, Csikszentimihalyi & Damon, 2001).
The literature of leadership study and practice is replete with references to the power and essential nature of values and shared values. "Leaders must engage their constituents in a dialogue about values. A common understanding of values comes about through that dialogue; it emerges from a process, not a pronouncement" (Kouzes & Posner, 2002, p. 81). The students had the classroom experience of exploring a list of core values drawn from three sources, and were asked to identify their own most significant and guiding values––first individually and then collectively. Classroom discussion considered the meaning of values, their power in shaping individual and organizational life, recognition of similarities and differences in terms of perceptions of dominant and less-relevant values, and reflection on ways the values align with action. A foundation for excellence in organizational leadership is established with this first step of the multi-activity project to be described in the paper.
After completing the classroom activity with her/his own MBA students, each professor then gathered a subset of the students for a video-taped discussion: What did the students think their counterparts, in the other country, would identify as the principal guiding values for life and work? Why did they perceive these choices would be made by the managers/graduate students in the other country?
Actual values priorities from students in the other country were then shared, and a rich conversation resulted. The video documentation of this enhanced and continued values exploration was translated to be shared between the Russian and American classrooms. The implications students discussed have the potential to affect mindsets and transform thinking about "the other". Mutual appreciation and understanding across cultures, nations, and language are anticipated as a long term goal of this work.
Carol Sawyer, College of Business and Public Management, University of La Verne
Bio: A frequent presenter at international conferences, Dr. Sawyer's teaching is centered in the learning entry point concepts of Dr. Howard Gardenr of Harvard University. She has been honored at her university in Southern California as only one of five Distinguished Professors. Her research interests focus on the use of the arts to teach management, working effectively with mid-career managers who are also graduate students, and women in leadership. She teaches graduate courses in leadership, management, change and conflict and organizational theory and design.
Andrey Zamulin, School of Management, St. Petersburg State University
Bio: Dr. Zamulin teaches courses in leadership, communication, negotiations, and conflict. In addition, he has an active consulting practice supporting both Russian and international firms on issues related to organizational behavior and human resource management. His academic background includes graduate work in psychology.
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