National University of Singapore
NUS Business School
Department of Management and Organisation

BMA5420 Leadership in Asia

Session: Semester 1, 2013/2014
Course Instructor: Dr William Koh
Phone: (O) 65163190; (Hp) 91163126
Office: Mochtar Riady Building, BIZ1, #08-50

Course Objective:

This module aims to look at core concepts of leadership from a cross cultural perspective, with a heavy emphasis on leadership in Asia. We will examine the difference between leadership and management, the cultural context of leadership, personal attributes of the leader using the Big Five Personality Profiling, the many ways that leaders can exercise influence over his/her subordinates.

We then examine the several major leadership models such as transformational leadership, servant leadership, authentic leadership and see how a leadership practitioner needs to adapt these approaches in order to be effective in different parts of Asia.

Course Syllabus:

1. What is leadership? What are the differences between leadership and management?

2. Understanding the organisational environment – The external business environment is fast changing and extremely competitive. We will examine its impact and implications on leadership behaviour.

3. Understanding the organisational environment – The cultural environment within which the organisation operates also impacts upon the way its leaders behave. Culturally, Asia is very different from Europe or the USA or Middle East. The famous GLOBE studies have clearly shown this to be true and how those differences impact leadership effectiveness not just between Asia and the rest of the world, but also within countries in Asia.

We will examine the GLOBE studies in great details, and examine both differences between Asia and the rest of the world, and intra-Asia differences between major Asia countries such as S Korea, Japan, China, India, Malaysia and Singapore.

4. We will examine the usual factors that impact leadership directly, such as personality and values; as well as examine all the usual