Leadership Stories: Literature, Ethics, and Authority

Course Features

• Assignments: activity (no examples)
• Assignments: written (no examples)
• Instructor insights

Course Description

This course explores how we use story to articulate ethical norms. The syllabus consists of short fiction, novels, plays, feature films and some non-fiction. Major topics include leadership and authority, professionalism, the nature of ethical standards, social enterprise, and questions of gender, cultural and individual identity, and work / life balance. Materials vary from year to year, but past readings have included work by Robert Bolt, Michael Frayn, Timothy Mo, Wole Soyinka, H. D. Thoreau, and others; films have included Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hotel Rwanda, The Descendants, Motorcycle Diaries, Three Kings, and others. Draws on various professions and national cultures, and is run as a series of moderated discussions, with students centrally engaged in the teaching process.

Other OCW Versions

OCW has published multiple versions of this subject.

• 15.269B Literature, Ethics and Authority (Fall 2002)

Archived versions:

• 15.269 Literature, Ethics, Authority (Fall 2009)
• 15.269 Literature, Ethics and Authority (Fall 2005)
• 15.269A Literature, Ethics and Authority (Spring 2003)

Course Collections

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Find Courses by Topic

• Business Ethics
• Leadership
• Management
• Literature > Comparative Literature
• Philosophy > Ethics
• Literature > Fiction