Leadership Stories: Literature, Ethics, and Authority
MIT Sloan School of Management's course examines how stories articulate ethical norms around leadership, authority, and professional identity. The syllabus mixes short fiction, novels, plays, feature films, and nonfiction, drawing on past readings from Robert Bolt, Michael Frayn, Timothy Mo, Wole Soyinka, and Thoreau, alongside films such as Hotel Rwanda, Motorcycle Diaries, and Three Kings. Topics range across professionalism, social enterprise, gender and cultural identity, and work-life balance, with material changing from year to year. The course runs as a series of moderated discussions in which students take an active role in shaping the teaching, rather than following a lecture format. Materials are available through MIT OpenCourseWare at no cost, including syllabus, reading lists, and discussion topics, under a Creative Commons license.