Harvard University
Extension School
Management 4100 – Managing Yourself and Others
Course Syllabus Overview – Fall 2014
Course Logistics
Web Conference Component: Tuesdays, 7:40pm-9:40pm on the following dates: September 9,
September 23, October 7, October 28, November 11, November 25, December 9
Mandatory On-Campus Component October 17 (9AM-5PM), 18 (9AM-5PM), and 19th (9AM1PM) on the Harvard campus at 1 Story Street, Room 304.
Instructor:
Michele Jurgens, PhD.
Chair, Master’s Program for Business Ethics & Compliance, New England College of Business &
Finance; Research Fellow, Geneen Institute for Corporate Governance Bentley University
michele.jurgens@necb.edu
Assisting:
Laura Wilcox
heslaura@gmail.com
About the Course
Course Description and Overview
Albert Einstein once said, “ . . . politics is more difficult than physics.” The same might be said of
the practice of management. Managing others may not be complex . . . but it is certainly not easy.
What often appear to be simple, straightforward principles can be deceptively difficult to implement.
Designed for practicing managers, this course focuses on the very practical understanding and
application of management principles. Managing Yourself and Others teaches the fundamentals of
management from different angles – managing oneself, managing organizational life, and managing
others (managing upward, downward, and sideways). Class sessions will be a mix of
presentation/lecture, case and topic discussions, and in-class exercises aimed at demonstrating a
principle in action. Throughout the course we will focus on assessing the peculiarities of
organizational life, understanding strengths and blind spots, recognizing the implications of
behaviors and actions, and developing skills for addressing difficult situations and advancing career
goals and organizational objectives. Management is contextual and requires judgment and students,
like managers, should expect to grapple...