As educators, we’re at all times on the lookout for methods to interact college students with sensible, real-world functions of enterprise ideas. Era Z, generally outlined as folks born between 1996 and 2010, are often known as digital natives as a result of they’ve grown up utilizing the Web and different applied sciences (“What’s Gen Z”, 2024). Era Z has been coined “the Superhero Era” (Luttrell & McGrath, 2021, p. xvii) due to their fascination with superheroes and the methods their generational cohort mimics the superheroes they’ve grown up watching. As an illustration, identical to superheroes comparable to Clark Kent as Superman and Diana Prince as Surprise Lady have two distinct identities, Era Z usually has a definite on-line id and a real-world id. For instance, it is not uncommon to construct an avatar when taking part in video video games.
In my college-level Fundamentals of Enterprise course, I’ve discovered success utilizing unconventional however efficient tutorial methods to show management types: superheroes. By inspecting the management traits of iconic characters like Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and Surprise Lady, college students perceive how completely different management types perform, once they’re efficient, and the place they fall quick. This inventive strategy resonates with college students and helps bridge the hole between theoretical ideas and sensible enterprise functions.
The Task: Exploring Management By Superheroes
On this project, college students are requested to check 5 management types—autocratic, democratic, laissez-faire (generally referred to as free-rein fashion), transactional, and transformational—with the management qualities of at the very least three superheroes. The objective is to assist college students higher perceive varied management types and the way they are often utilized in a enterprise administration context. This project has 4 components:
- Half I: An outline of the 5 management types, the place college students perceive, outline, and analyze key traits.
- Half II: An in depth comparability of three superheroes and the way their management traits align with the management types analyzed in Half I. College students reply these questions: Which management fashion(s) does the superhero exhibit and why? How does the superhero’s management fashion impression their group/allies? Are there cases the place the superhero’s management fashion is especially efficient or ineffective?
- Half III: College students synthesize their findings by evaluating the superheroes’ management approaches to a enterprise administration context.
- Half IV: Conclusion and Reflection: College students replicate on key takeaways from the project, discussing insights gained concerning the relationship between management types, teamwork, and organizational success.
The project encourages college students to interact with enterprise ideas in a inventive and relatable approach, utilizing fictional characters as a springboard for deeper dialogue and evaluation.
Making use of Management Model to Superheroes
Earlier than diving into the superhero project, college students first want to determine a transparent understanding of every management fashion. I ask them to learn the textbook chapter (Skripak et al., 2023) on administration and management to get a foundational grasp. Matters on this chapter embody the administration course of, administration types, and abilities wanted by administration comparable to communication, decision-making, and time-management abilities. After studying this info, college students are then requested to use it to a few superheroes of their selecting. I encourage them to pick out characters from fashionable tradition—whether or not from comedian books, movies, or tv—to allow them to join management ideas to characters they already know and admire.
For instance, college students could select Iron Man (Tony Stark), who exemplifies autocratic management. Tony’s management fashion within the early Marvel films is centered on his personal intelligence and imaginative and prescient. He usually makes choices rapidly and independently, anticipating others to observe his lead with out query (Wiyono, n.d.). This may be seen in his determination to construct Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron (Marvel Studios, 2015), the place his autocratic strategy results in catastrophic outcomes. Nevertheless, because the sequence progresses, Tony begins to exhibit transformational management qualities, notably when he mentors Spider-Man, inspiring him to be greater than only a hero in a swimsuit. One other instance is Captain America (Steve Rogers), a main instance of democratic management. Captain America is thought for his collaborative strategy, constantly in search of enter from his group earlier than making choices. Whether or not it’s rallying the Avengers to tackle Loki in The Avengers (Marvel Studios, 2012) or negotiating with the Sokovia Accords in Captain America: Civil Conflict (Marvel Studios, 2016), Steve’s management fashion fosters loyalty and belief.
Surprise Lady (Diana Prince) is one other fascinating superhero. She combines transformational management with moments of laissez-faire management. Her transformational qualities are clear in her mission to encourage others to struggle for justice and peace, seen all through Surprise Lady (Warner Bros., 2017). But, at occasions, she permits her group members to take the lead, trusting them to make choices independently. This stability between collaboration and autonomy is a crucial consideration in trendy enterprise administration contexts.
Utilizing Superheroes to Train Management in Enterprise Contexts
In my expertise, utilizing superheroes to show management in enterprise contexts brings power and relevance to the classroom. College students have interaction extra deeply with the fabric as a result of they will see management in motion, even in a fictional setting. Superheroes present a standard cultural reference level, making summary enterprise ideas extra tangible. When college students can establish with the characters, they’re extra more likely to perceive and internalize the teachings.
Different educators have additionally discovered this strategy helpful. Yang (2003) discovered that utilizing comedian books as a educating instrument elevated pupil motivation. Equally, a comic book e book writing project was given in an eighth grade superior arithmetic class. One of many college students wrote a comic book e book titled The Adventures of Supercow and Frost that depicted superheroes defending their metropolis from a sunbeam by discovering the realm of an irregular polygon (Reilly, 2024). Burton (2008) studied using superhero movies, particularly the X-Males the Film (Singer, 2000) as a pedagogical methodology of understanding course ideas comparable to management, ethics, authorized points, decision-making, and motivation in an undergraduate administration course. College students have been capable of establish moral and unethical management traits of superheroes and join superheros’ actions to their very own office experiences.
Reflection and Conclusion
The superhero project provides college students a recent solution to discover important enterprise ideas. By analyzing the management types of characters like Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and Surprise Lady, college students achieve insights into how completely different approaches to management can succeed or fail in varied enterprise contexts. This project might be modified in a number of methods. Extra numerous superhero examples, together with characters from completely different cultural backgrounds or lesser-known comics, might be built-in to broaden college students’ views. For instance, Marvel Comics Black Panther, often known as T’Challa, is the superhero king of Wakanda, a fictional African nation (“Black Panther,” 2024). Moreover, a collaborative component might be built-in into the curriculum by including on-line class discussions or an oral presentation about college students’ chosen superheroes. Lastly, a textbook comparable to Lead Like a Superhero: What Pop Tradition Icons Can Train Us About Impactful Management (Richard, 2017) might be added to the course to present college students extra details about the traits of varied superheroes and the way they emulate management traits.
This inventive, sensible project helps college students have interaction with management concept in enterprise contexts in a fascinating approach. Whether or not they find yourself combating crime or making a constructive distinction of their enterprise careers, my hope is that they are going to bear in mind the teachings realized from analyzing their favourite superheroes. Superheroes, like enterprise leaders, have multifaceted traits which are removed from excellent, and this exploration of their traits helps college students develop a extra nuanced understanding of management in enterprise contexts.
Molly J. Wickam, MBA, PhD., is a Professor of Schooling & Enterprise/Management at Bethel College, St. Paul, MN.
References
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