BMAL 700 DSL Program Orientation

Introduction to doctoral studies, which provides information regarding the Doctor of Strategic Leadership program, the Graduate School of Business, and University resources.

For information regarding prerequisites for this course, please refer to the Academic Course Catalog.

The student pursuing the Doctor of Strategic Leadership (DSL) will gain knowledge and practical experience in the discipline of strategic leadership that can be applied in his/her current and/or future leadership role.

Textbook readings and presentations

Please see weekly schedule below.

Course Requirements Checklist

After reading the Course Syllabus and Student Expectations, the student will complete the related checklist found in the Course Overview.

Discussions (8)

Discussions are collaborative learning experiences. Therefore, the student will create a thread in response to the provided prompt for each discussion. Each thread must be approximately 600 words and demonstrate course-related knowledge. Please see the grading rubric for assignment requirements, which includes additional guidance on word counts.

In addition to the original post, the student will reply to the posts of at least 2 classmates. Each reply must be approximately 250 words.  Each reply must also be unique, not recycling the student’s original post or the student’s other response. Please see the grading rubric for response requirements, which includes additional guidance on word counts.

APA Writing Exercise Assignment

The Liberty University School of Business wants to ensure that the student entering and progressing through the DSL program has a proper understanding of the process and expectations of APA writing, formatting, and style. The School of Business adheres to APA formatting in all its courses.  The purpose of this assignment is to assess and enhance the student’s understanding of APA formatting. 

Strategic leadership is not a term that everyone understands. In this exercise, the student is required to discover, document, and compare and contrast three (3) definitions of strategic leadership from three (3) unique scholarly sources. Using the online Jerry Falwell Library (JFL), the student will draw one definition each from a source found in the following databases: Business Source Complete, ERIC, and a database of his/her choosing (not connected to the other two). The student will limit his/her search to the last five (5) years and select only from sources that are full-text – PDF.

The student will write a 900-word, double-spaced paper in APA format that evaluates the definitions found in these articles. Where are they similar? Where do they differ? Would the student select one as more correct than the others or would he/she draw pieces from two or more of them to write his/her own definition? How would the student explain his/her chosen definition to others? How would the student apply this definition in a work setting?

As part of this project, the student will prepare an annotated bibliography. The bibliography will be structured as follows: APA formatted reference (minimum 250 words per reference) followed by summary of key points, evaluation of the quality of the publication, evaluation of the quality of the author(s), where this fits into the assignment, and the library database in which the student found the article. A traditional APA reference page and the annotated bibliography will be turned in with the associated paper.

Writing at the Doctoral Level Exercise Assignment

Scholarly writing demands the author be purposeful, clear, concise, formal, and objective (without bias). This type of work also requires the author to consider the cognitive level of the article under evaluation. Bloom’s Taxonomy is a well-known and respected structure that is useful for this purpose.

For this exercise, the student will write a 900-word paper, using proper APA format, that clearly discusses three (3) of the six (6) levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy as it relates to Servant Leadership (SL). As an example, does the article demonstrate drawing connections among ideas? This would correspond to the analyze level. Using the JFL, the student will locate and document at least three (3) scholarly articles, one for each level of Bloom’s Taxonomy used. The student will prepare a standard APA reference page.

As part of this project, the student must prepare an annotated bibliography.  The bibliography will be structured as follows: APA formatted reference (minimum 250 words per reference) followed by summary of key points, evaluation of the quality of the publication, evaluation of the quality of the author(s), where this fits into the assignment, and the library database in which the student found the article. A traditional APA reference page and the annotated bibliography will be turned in with the associated paper.

Leadership Project: Leadership Trait Assignment

There is endless debate about which leadership technique works better/best. Clearly, the answer is the one that works best given the people, environment, constraints, etc. However, there is a multitude of bad leadership examples, some of which the student will have read about in Merida the session in which this assignment appears. 

In this 900-word assignment, the student needs to document one (1) negative leadership trait for each of three (3) kings from Merida (through page 131). Each trait and related king should be unique. Since scholarly writing is without bias, the student needs to document his/her choices through two (2) scholarly sources for each trait/king (six (6) total sources) to explain why a given trait is negative. The student must limit his/her literature search to the last five (5) years and select only sources that are full text – PDF.

As part of this project, the student must prepare an annotated bibliography. The bibliography will be structured as follows: APA formatted reference (minimum 250 words per reference) followed by summary of key points, evaluation of the quality of the publication, evaluation of the quality of the author(s), where this fits into the assignment, and the library database in which the student found the article. A traditional APA reference page and the annotated bibliography will be turned in with the associated paper.

Biblical Integration Exercise Assignment

Biblical integration is more than just putting a Bible verse or other religious connection into a project. True integration of this type requires the author to address a topic with God’s character in mind. Looking at life situations and the people involved in this manner should help direct leaders to a better solution than he or she might select on his or her own.

The student will read and respond to the Biblical Integration Case Study provided in the online classroom. The student is required to answer the questions in a 900-word paper written in APA format. This assignment requires the use of six (6) scholarly sources. The student will limit his/her literature search to the last five (5) years and select only sources that are full text – PDF.

As part of this project, the student will prepare an annotated bibliography. The bibliography will be structured as follows: APA formatted reference (minimum 250 words per reference) followed by summary of key points, evaluation of the quality of the publication, evaluation of the quality of the author(s), where this fits into the assignment, and the library database in which the student found the article. A traditional APA reference page and the annotated bibliography will be turned in with the associated paper.

The student should recall that doctoral-level writing expects him/her to not form an opinion and then find evidence to support his/her position, but rather that he/she weighs the evidence and respond accordingly. This requires considering at least two views of a situation.

Leadership Project: Formal Leadership Assignment

The student has read four (4) new chapters in the course text (pages 132 – 221) prior to completing this assignment. In this assignment, the student is required to write an APA formatted, 900-word paper that expands on a theme from one of the chapters. The student must support his/her research with five (5) scholarly sources. He/she must limit his/her literature search to the last five (5) years and select only sources that are full text – PDF.

As part of this project, the student must prepare an annotated bibliography. A traditional APA reference page and the annotated bibliography will be turned in with the associated paper.

Plagiarism Exercise Assignment

The student is assuming the role of teacher in this exercise. A student submitted a paper in response to an assignment in his/her class. A second student has come to the teacher indicating he is aware the first student plagiarized on this assignment.  The teacher asks a few questions to get a better understanding of the accusations, and the teacher commits to investigating this charge. The student (assuming the role of the teacher) will find the “submitted” paper in the module in which this assignment appears in Canvas. The research done by the teacher shows the first highlighted area was copied from Masciarelli and the second from Frisch & Green.

Assignment (two separate elements):

The student will mark up the paper using proper APA methodology including needed plagiarism corrections. How should the highlighted sections have been documented?  The student will submit a corrected copy (using Track Changes, All Markup, Show Markup, Balloons, Show All Revisions Inline). Also, the student will use MS Word comments to add supporting documentation where needed.

Additionally, the student will write a 900 word, APA structured (no abstract required) double-spaced summary of his/her investigation. Did the student plagiarize? Presume the teacher did not know the outcome going into the investigation. What evidence would have helped the teacher make the determination? The student will provide examples of evidence in his/her response. How would the teacher confront this student about the plagiarism? For the purposes of this scenario, it must be presumed that this is an online course. What would the teacher say to the student? As part of the teacher’s response to the student, there must be at least two (2) recommended resources provided to help guide the student to an improved product.

Time Management Exercise Assignment

At this point in the course, the student probably has developed some living patterns that include his/her school workload. Perhaps the student has cut out social time or a second job. Maybe a spouse or someone else close has taken on some additional responsibility to help the student better prioritize his/her time. Regardless of the changes made to date, and others that will follow, success in this program depends in part on how the student manages his/her time.

The student will prepare a time audit. This assignment will be challenging, but helpful, as it will require the student to keep track of his/her time in 30-minute increments. All it takes is a little discipline. The student need not stop in the middle of something to record his/her time – he/she can simply wait until he/she has finished the activity to record the event and time spent. However, he/she must not wait until the end of the day to fill out your log sheets. That would somewhat diminish the point of the assignment, as the whole point is to record activities and times as close to the time period as possible. The student will also need to assess each time/activity as to your effectiveness in completing the task and/or staying focused.

The student must not obsess with this assignment. Perfection is not required, only completion of this audit and the related narrative, recording the approximate time periods of daily activities (both typical and atypical).

Again, only the student and the professor will see your results (unless you wish to share with your classmates).

To complete the audit, the student will do the following:

• Audit how he/she uses time for five (5) consecutive days (Monday-Friday or Tuesday-Saturday), in 30-minute increments
• Use the Microsoft Excel Log (tab for each day) to keep track of his/her activities.
• While recording approximate time periods is allowed, the student must try to record the times as close to the time period each occurred.
• The student must complete the log to include an assessment of time spent and/or effectiveness in completing the noted task(s), noting any comments or observations (see next instruction).
• At the end of each day, the student will complete an approximately 150-word summary of all the day’s activities with a focus on special events.
• The student will do this each day for five (5) days in one (1) submission.  The sheet has a tab for each of the five (5) days. The narrative should be written in a MS Word document. All five (5) days should be combined into one document. The student must just be certain each day is properly identified.
• The student will craft a narrative (600 words) to submit with his/her time log that addresses how he/she believes the DSL program will affect/is affecting his/her current work/life balance. The student should address how he/she plans to integrate the workload of the DSL into his/her current work/life balance noting any identified challenges or opportunities.

Leadership Final Project Assignment

Merida has provided deep insight into 1 and 2 Kings. This insight is more than just stories about historical events. The depth comes from the people involved. The text covered a full range of personalities from murderous villains to others who were completely sold out for God. People in leadership today have to deal with a full range of personalities as well (hoping the true villains are a distinct minority).

The student is to write a 1,700-word document, double-spaced, APA-formatted paper. In his/her paper, the student will evaluate three (3) current leadership styles in light of what he/she has read in Merida. Where did the student find examples of each of those styles in the text? Where was the student effective in the biblical setting? What different leadership style might have been more effective (biblical character attempted style A – what the student is writing about – but would have made more progress with style B)? In what settings or situations might the style the student is evaluating work well today? The student must support his/her research with eight (8) scholarly sources. The student must limit his/her literature search to the last five (5) years and select only sources that are full text – PDF.

As part of this project, the student must prepare an annotated bibliography. The bibliography will be structured as follows: APA formatted reference (minimum 250 words per reference) followed by summary of key points, evaluation of the quality of the publication, evaluation of the quality of the author(s), where this fits into the assignment, and the library database in which the student found the article. A traditional APA reference page and the annotated bibliography will be turned in with the associated paper.

Quizzes (8)

The student will complete 8 quizzes. Each quiz will contain 10 multiple choice and true/false questions. The student will have 30 minutes to complete each quiz.