Culture, Power, and Leadership: MiM Students Examine Organizational Change

Leadership becomes especially challenging when an organization must change direction, align its people, or navigate competing interests. In Leadership & Organizational Behavior, Professor Kuok Kei (Eddie) Law asks Master in Management (MiM) students to examine these challenges through the case method.

Law holds a Ph.D. from City University of Hong Kong and joined NUCB Business School in 2019 after nine years at the Open University of Hong Kong. His research on knowledge management and human resource management has appeared in international journals including European Management Journal and Work, Employment & Society.

On Day 3, students turned to the relationship between organizational culture and power. Through a two-part case on Lyft’s efforts to align its culture amid a changing workplace landscape, they examined the challenge of steering an organization through strategic and cultural change. The session then shifted to Jack Dorsey and the politics of leadership, exploring how power, legitimacy, and competing interests can influence strategic decisions at the highest levels.

With 90% of class time devoted to participant-centered, case-method learning, the course asks students to do more than identify leadership challenges: they must diagnose the underlying issues, defend their decisions, and consider the consequences for teams and organizations. By engaging with complex cases, students develop the judgment needed to lead when there is no straightforward answer.