As educators, we’re at all times searching for methods to have interaction college students with sensible, real-world functions of enterprise ideas. Technology Z, generally outlined as individuals born between 1996 and 2010, are often called digital natives as a result of they’ve grown up utilizing the Web and different applied sciences (“What’s Gen Z”, 2024). Technology Z has been coined “the Superhero Technology” (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 example, similar to superheroes similar to Clark Kent as Superman and Diana Prince as Surprise Lady have two distinct identities, Technology Z usually has a definite on-line identification and a real-world identification. 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 educational methods to show management kinds: 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 kinds perform, once they’re efficient, and the place they fall brief. This artistic method resonates with college students and helps bridge the hole between theoretical ideas and sensible enterprise functions.
The Project: Exploring Management By Superheroes
On this task, college students are requested to check 5 management kinds—autocratic, democratic, laissez-faire (generally known as free-rein type), transactional, and transformational—with the management qualities of at the least three superheroes. The purpose is to assist college students higher perceive varied management kinds and the way they are often utilized in a enterprise administration context. This task has 4 components:
- Half I: An summary of the 5 management kinds, 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 kinds analyzed in Half I. College students reply these questions: Which management type(s) does the superhero exhibit and why? How does the superhero’s management type affect their group/allies? Are there situations the place the superhero’s management type 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 task, discussing insights gained in regards to the relationship between management kinds, teamwork, and organizational success.
The task encourages college students to have interaction with enterprise ideas in a artistic and relatable approach, utilizing fictional characters as a springboard for deeper dialogue and evaluation.
Making use of Management Fashion to Superheroes
Earlier than diving into the superhero task, college students first want to ascertain a transparent understanding of every management type. I ask them to learn the textbook chapter (Skripak et al., 2023) on administration and management to get a foundational grasp. Subjects on this chapter embody the administration course of, administration kinds, and abilities wanted by administration similar to communication, decision-making, and time-management abilities. After studying this data, college students are then requested to use it to a few superheroes of their selecting. I encourage them to pick out characters from in style 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 might select Iron Man (Tony Stark), who exemplifies autocratic management. Tony’s management type within the early Marvel films is centered on his personal intelligence and imaginative and prescient. He usually makes choices shortly and independently, anticipating others to comply with his lead with out query (Wiyono, n.d.). This may be seen in his resolution to construct Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron (Marvel Studios, 2015), the place his autocratic method results in catastrophic outcomes. Nonetheless, because the collection 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 go well with. One other instance is Captain America (Steve Rogers), a major instance of democratic management. Captain America is thought for his collaborative method, constantly looking for 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 Battle (Marvel Studios, 2016), Steve’s management type fosters loyalty and belief.
Surprise Lady (Diana Prince) is one other attention-grabbing superhero. She combines transformational management with moments of laissez-faire management. Her transformational qualities are clear in her mission to encourage others to battle 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 vital consideration in fashionable enterprise administration contexts.
Utilizing Superheroes to Train Management in Enterprise Contexts
In my expertise, utilizing superheroes to show management in enterprise contexts brings vitality and relevance to the classroom. College students interact extra deeply with the fabric as a result of they’ll see management in motion, even in a fictional setting. Superheroes present a typical cultural reference level, making summary enterprise ideas extra tangible. When college students can determine with the characters, they’re extra prone to perceive and internalize the teachings.
Different educators have additionally discovered this method helpful. Yang (2003) discovered that utilizing comedian books as a instructing software elevated scholar motivation. Equally, a comic book e-book writing task 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 similar to management, ethics, authorized points, decision-making, and motivation in an undergraduate administration course. College students have been capable of determine moral and unethical management traits of superheroes and join superheros’ actions to their very own office experiences.
Reflection and Conclusion
The superhero task affords college students a recent method to discover important enterprise ideas. By analyzing the management kinds of characters like Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and Surprise Lady, college students acquire insights into how completely different approaches to management can succeed or fail in varied enterprise contexts. This task could possibly be modified in a number of methods. Extra various superhero examples, together with characters from completely different cultural backgrounds or lesser-known comics, could possibly 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 could possibly be built-in into the curriculum by including on-line class discussions or an oral presentation about college students’ chosen superheroes. Lastly, a textbook similar to Lead Like a Superhero: What Pop Tradition Icons Can Train Us About Impactful Management (Richard, 2017) could possibly 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 artistic, sensible task helps college students interact with management idea in enterprise contexts in an attractive approach. Whether or not they find yourself combating crime or making a optimistic distinction of their enterprise careers, my hope is that they may keep in mind the teachings discovered from analyzing their favourite superheroes. Superheroes, like enterprise leaders, have multifaceted traits which can be removed from good, 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 Training & Enterprise/Management at Bethel College, St. Paul, MN.
References
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