LEADERSHIP - 2025/6

Module Overview

This research-led module will introduce different approaches to Leadership to students through which many leadership theories will be discussed and taught throughout the module.

The module will provide students an insight of a wide range of leadership practices in the extant literature. The module will cover from the fundamental notions of leadership frameworks/concepts to contemporary views of leadership practices.

The module offers a good number of theories and practices (including adopted real case studies in organisations) to allow students understand how importance the leadership style can make an impact to individual wellbeing as well as organisational performance.

The module will consist of lectures and some seminars, in which students will be given opportunities to present their work and get actively involved in some in-class exercises. 

Module provider

Surrey Business School

Module Leader

ZHENG Yuyan (SBS)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 6

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

NA

Module content

The module can be summarised into the following main areas: 
 
1. Introduction 

• 
  Definition: Ways of Conceptualising Leadership 
  


• 
  Description: Leadership and Management; Leadership and Power; Leadership and Coercion 
  

 
2. Approaches to Leadership 

• 
  Trait Approach 
  


• 
  Skills Approach 
  


• 
  Style Approach 
  


• 
  Situational Approach 
  


• 
  Contingency Theory 
  


• 
  Path-Goal Theory 
  


• 
  LMX Theory 
  

 
 
3. Types of Leadership style 
 

• 
  Transformational Leadership; Transactional Leadership; Servant Leadership; Paternalistic Leadership  
  

 
4. Issues in Leadership Research 
 
For example: Leadership and Creativity; Leadership and Power; Leadership and Trust

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

Individual CW instead of Project. 

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to enabled students to gain knowledge about leadership in organizations and to develop an appreciation and understanding of their personal leadership approach and to identify future development opportunities in the context of leadership. 
Thus the summative assessment consists of:  two summative assessment units of equal weight:

• Group project 


• individual coursework.

Both assessments are due towards the end of the module.

Lecture and seminars inform each assessment and contact hours are used to support students in preparing assessments through knowledge acquisition, inquiry and feedback.  

 
Formative assessment and feedback 
This module adopts an inquiry based approach to feedback where the emphasis is on providing resources to students which allow them to identify their own strengths and weaknesses in order to develop learning strategies which will allow them to improve their performance. These resources include: 

• 
  Seminar time will be spent on discussing the questions/queries that the students may have over the lecture contents/materials; 
  


• 
  A detailed marking scheme which provides guidance on how marks will be awarded for each element of assessment. This marking scheme has benefits for both staff and students; for staff it allows for consistency of marking between markers and for rapid and rigorous marking, for students it makes it absolutely clear what is expected of them. Students will receive a mark for each element of the assignment which they can reference to the marking scheme for details individual feedback; 
  


• 
  Generic feedback will be given to students in class after each of the in-class activities. This could help to explain what students did well and did less well overall. 
  

Module aims

• To provide frameworks, concepts and tools to know how employees are managed by different leadership practices, and the extent to which these leadership practices have made an impact to individual wellbeing and organisational performance
• To develop analytical skill by providing an opportunity to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the practical aspects of leadership approaches used in organisations
• To encourage critical thinking and an awareness of the different competencies and skills that are required for leaders to deal with issues in the workplace

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to be in the form of lectures and seminars.

The module will begin with lecture by the assigned faculty member for teaching frameworks, concepts and ideas of leadership research in the extant literature.

Followed by that, the module will operate on the basis of seminar which involves discussions of lecture materials/case studies. In order to improve student engagement and learning, all students are encouraged to actively participate in all these in-class activities. 

 
Further, in order to invite student’s participation/ active involvement in class, all students are required to read the assigned reading every week before each seminar. The students will be asked relevant questions in class regarding the assigned reading. 
 
In addition, in order to enhance student’s learning experience, a number of real/adopted case studies will be used for discussion in class. For some classes, students will also be given chances to participate in group exercises/activities for practical reason.

This module will also make use of the University’s virtual learning environment to support learning. 

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: MAN3119

Other information

Employability – This module is designed to let students understand how to be a good or an effective leader. This can help prepare them to understand how to be more effective and efficient at work to improve their employability in the market. 

 

Sustainability – This module is to let students further understand the role of a leader to an organizational performance. This is especially important when organizations are in crisis or adverse situations. 

 

Global and Cultural Capabilities – On this module, students will be aware of the knowledge about the cultural and national differences in terms of good leadership criteria. These criteria are considered by the eyes of the followers and there is no one “standard” across all different countries/nations. 

 

Resourcefulness and Resilience – students will be able to learn to different approaches to leadership in order to understand the impact of a good leader to improve on the organizational performance. 

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2025/6 academic year.