Objectives
Welcome to Leadership and Decision Making. The overall purpose of this course is to increase your effectiveness in coming to decisions and developing leadership in groups. Increasing that effectiveness requires an understanding of one's own strengths and weaknesses when working in a group setting. As a result of that increased effectiveness, it is hoped that you will more successfully interact with your professional community as well as with groups you meet as a part of daily living. The overall purpose of the course will be accomplished via three approaches:
A. Strengthening your theoretical knowledge concerning the dynamics of group leadership;
B. Sharpening your management skills in order to intervene effectively in the decision- making process in groups;
C. Increasing your planning and assessment skills in order to diagnose problems of group functioning as well as to evaluate the effectiveness of your interventions.
We will be using the World Wide Web and Internet to help us accomplish these purposes. Thus the course will be quasi-experimental in nature. I look for your input about what works and what does not, as well as your suggestions about resources on the net , in the library, or elsewhere that will help all of us become more effective group leaders.