New Wharton class to explore group dynamics, gender roles

In recent years, buzzwords like "learning teams" and "gender sensitivity" have been popping up in corporate boardrooms across the country. Now, they'll be showing up in Wharton classrooms, too, as part of two pilot seminars recently passed by the Management Department that look to explore group dynamics in the workplace environment. Beginning next spring, Management Professor Helene Elting will lead a new seminar on "Gender, Power and Leadership." The course will examine gender differences in corporate culture and the global marketplace, explore the environment for women at Wharton and train both male and female students to communicate well across differences, Elting said. "Although the course is entitled 'gender,' it's meant to be inclusive and deal with issues that affect both men and women," said Management Professor Anne Greenhalgh, who co-developed the curriculum for the courses. "Kellogg [School of Business at Northwestern University] and Harvard Business School have classes like this at the MBA level," Greenhalgh said, noting that the Wharton graduate division recently established a class on leveraging diversity. "But this is cutting edge at the undergraduate level." The idea for the seminar came from two Wharton sophomores on the Wharton Dean's Advisory Board. Another course being offered next fall, entitled Management 240: Group Dynamics, will offer advanced leadership training to Management 100 team advisors who facilitate the learning groups in the service-based class that is required of all Wharton undergraduates. A separate section will be geared for interested students who are not team advisors. According to Management 100 Co-Director Michael London, who will teach a special section of the class, Management 240 was taught in the past by men's basketball coach Fran Dunphy, who used real-life examples from the Quaker basketball team to examine group dynamics. However, London said the team advisors in his section will learn about group dynamics in a different way -- through field projects. "The context of the course will be be Management 100, where the team advisors are members and facilitators," London explained. "And in class there will be this think-tank atmosphere of leaders sharing their problems, frustrations and successes." The new Management 240 section follows a model similar to a course developed in the College of Arts and Sciences to train students as speaking advisors, allowing them to earn credit while learning to help their peers. According to London, the course will feature interactive activities to make students more aware of their own participation in groups and will take a closer look at the way they handle conflict. And in a world which has seen many companies move toward a more team-based corporate structure, London thinks that refining these skills makes sense. "Since so much of your life will be spent in groups, you have to enjoy working in them," he said. "And you have to be effective in a team environment."