Case Western Reserve University Professor of Organizational Behavior Diana Bilimoria is attracting a global audience to her expertise on how women and men can achieve their full leadership potential in their workplaces.
Her massive open online course (MOOC), called Women in Leadership: Inspiring Positive Change, begins Friday, May 15. Offered free through the Coursera platform, the course allows enrolled students to participate online from anywhere. It’s a way to experience and learn from concepts Bilimoria has developed through her well-known and highly regarded management research.
Bilimoria is the KeyBank Professor and chair of the Department of Organizational Behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management. Her Coursera offering is the third from the faculty at the management school and eighth overall from Case Western Reserve.
“The course looks at the internal and external forces that shape our identities as leaders and how women and men can learn to understand and use these forces to become inspiring agents of change, whether at work or in the world at large,” she said in a video within Coursera’s course description. To enroll, visit coursera.org/course/womeninleadership.
The course goals are to:
- Enhance understanding of yourself and your leadership identity.
- Gain a deep understanding of the dynamics and experiences of women in organizations.
- Identify and enhance effective leadership practices for yourself and for women in your organization.
- Define your vision of career success and work-life integration, identify necessary skills, resources and networks for career development and create a plan of action to accomplish your goals.
Bilimoria is thrilled about the global reach of this MOOC. “It’s about taking the brand and story of our university to the world,” she said.
Enrollment is already in the thousands, with participants from more than 140 nations. Bilimoria has been contacted by companies wanting to make sure their employees are aware of the opportunity.
There will be weekly videos and readings related to the topics covered. Course participants will be required to reflect on the concepts learned by completing a personal learning journal and undertaking exercises to connect to the experiences of others. They will receive practical guidance and tools to effectively lead through organizational and cultural roadblocks, and developing a leadership vision founded on their core values.
Students will write a culminating paper, including concepts and action assignments completed in the course. This final project will be a peer-reviewed assignment.
“The peer-review process not only allows students to receive feedback from others in the course, but further enforces the concepts by exposing the students to varying viewpoints and insights,” she said.
Bilimoria is a co-author of Women in STEM Careers: International Perspectives on Increasing Workforce Participation, Advancement and Leadership (Edward Elgar, 2014) and Gender Equity in Science and Engineering: Advancing Change in Higher Education (Routledge, 2012).
Her research focuses on gender and diversity in governance and leadership, and organizational transformation. Her studies have helped corporate, educational and nonprofit organizations establish practices that attract and retain a high-performance, diverse workforce.
Her teaching and executive education activities focus on executive leadership and gender, diversity and inclusion in organizations. She received the Weatherhead School of Management Teaching Excellence Award in 2014.