Duke Management Program (virtual)
Harness diverse perspectives for success
Any business’s knowledge is divided across people – IT, finance, marketing, operations. These diverse perspectives are what allow a company to achieve much more than any one individual. The focus of the Duke Management Program (virtual) is to help you put the diverse expertise of others into action—to motivate and coordinate it. The goal of this program is to give you core insights about how best to organize people.
The Duke Management Program was truly a phenomenal opportunity to engage in thoughtful discussions around topics that affect all professionals within the workplace, not just managers. The professors were incredibly thought-provoking and made me completely change the way I approach situations. I know that I will refer back to the tactics I learned in the program throughout my entire career.
- Alex Bauer, Account Executive, Merchant Sales & Solutions - Americas, Visa.
The Duke Management Program (virtual) will accomplish this goal by focusing on the basic principles you can draw on to analyze and improve performance in organizations. Effective leaders understand the importance of systems for coordinating and motivating people, and organizing and distributing work. We will examine basic principles for designing effective systems.
Who Should Attend?
Professionals of any level whose work is accomplished by guiding and supporting teams and departments in managing projects, processes or cross-functional initiatives.
More About this Program
Through interesting live-virtual class discussions around business case studies, you'll learn to analyze problems from multiple perspectives, evaluate business issues with incomplete data, and present actionable recommendations. You'll gain new insights from the academic concepts presented in virtual interactive exercises, and assignments allow you to practice management principles that you can use immediately at work.
This live-streaming virtual course consists of:
- Four live-virtual sessions lasting 2 hours each
- Sessions held within the span of one work week
- Pre-session readings and questions to address to familiarize yourself with the session topic(s)
- A one-hour orientation session held the week prior to the start of the program
Classes will be held using Zoom video-conferencing, which creates a virtual classroom where you can see the professor and presentation screen, as well as seeing the other participants. Similarly, the professor can see all of the students who engage online during the group session. You’ll be able to communicate with both the professor and your peers through this platform.
To participate in this course you must have a working webcam and microphone, and have downloaded the Zoom Cloud Meeting app onto your laptop.
Before each class session, you will need to do the following:
- View the videos
- Read the case
These pre-class activities take about 2 to 3 hours per session. We ask that these be done before the class session in order to facilitate a richer discussion.
We’ll send you an access link to the Canvas learning platform before the orientation session. You’ll create a OneLink account, after which you’ll link to Fuqua. You'll then have access to the Canvas learning platform. The learning platform supports Google Chrome, Safari and Firefox, but not Internet Explorer.
If you have questions about any of these requirements, call the Duke Executive Education team at +1.919.660.8011 or Toll Free +1.800.372.3932, or email us at execed-info@duke.edu.
Topics
Designing and implementing effective management systems enables you to organize your work, distribute assignments across groups or individuals, coordinate interdependent tasks, and to continue to communicate with and motivate your team in a manner that improves performance. Understanding and drawing from key organizational principles will help this improvement become a reality.
- Incentives and Motivation: We discuss how to facilitate superior performance through the use of pay-for-performance, bonuses, goals, and non-contingent pay systems. Topics include the limitations of pay as a motivator and the fit between compensation and culture.
- Organizational Design and Culture: We focus on diagnosing internal and external issues that confront organizations, and identifying principles for selecting the organizational structure most appropriate for that situation. We then consider how shared values and norms in organizations shape how individuals make sense of each other, work, achievements, and other factors. We discuss the challenges of creating shared culture when people are located in disparate geographies.
- Decision Making and Teams: We consider the effectiveness of individuals and groups in making organizational decisions. We identify group processes that foster diversity of knowledge, avoid disruptive conflict, and harness constructive social influence to achieve superior group outcomes across a range of group tasks. We consider the challenges created by working virtually in teams that are distributed in different locations.
Program Objectives
At the conclusion of the program, you will be able to:
- Identify weak links in a system that tries to use pay-for-performance
- Understand the nature of decision biases and tools to make better individual and team decisions
- Add new tools for building cohesion in a team to you skills toolbox
- Know the basic tradeoffs that underlie organizational design decisions
- Decide when and where to "empower" people to make their own decisions
- Draw on culture as a systematic part of organizational success (instead of a source of cynicism)
Duke Executive Education Program Calendar
Explore our upcoming program offerings.
How to Register
For more information about how to register, please see our detailed instructions.
Sample Schedule
Pre-Class Preparation
Pre-class assignments need to be completed before the class session in order to facilitate active participation and a richer discussion of business strategy and policy. Pre-class preparation should take about 2 to 3 hours per session and will consist of:
- Viewing professors' video lectures
- Reading assigned materials
The slides for class will be available 30 minutes before class and the assessment answers will be available a few hours after the class discussion.
Session 1
Motivation and Incentives
11am - 1:30pm
Topics:
- Pay-for-performance
- The use of goals and targets
- Job design and intrinsic motivation
Session 2
Decision Traps and Decision Tools
11am - 1:30pm
Topics:
- Common traps in decision-making
- Overcoming decision biases through best practices and "nudges"
Session 3
Effective Teams
11am - 1:30pm
Topics:
- The sources of cognitive diversity
- The wisdom of crowds
- Effective processes to harness diversity in teams
Session 4
Organizational Design and Culture
11am - 1:30pm
Topics:
- Tradeoffs in organizational design
- The underpinnings of organizational culture
- Managing virtual teams
Faculty
Aaron C. Kay
Aaron C. Kay is a Professor of Management at Fuqua, and a Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience at Duke University. His research focuses on the relation between motivation, implicit social cognition, and social issues and has received numerous awards. Professor Kay has been named a Fellow of the American Psychological Society as well as the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, and his research is widely covered in national and international news and media outlets.
Jack B. Soll
Jack B. Soll is the Gregory Mario & Jeremy Mario Distinguished Professor of management and organizations at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. Professor Soll’s research focuses on the psychology of judgment and decision making. His current research interests include group decision making, and also the implications of behavioral decision research for public policy. He has published in a number of scholarly journals, including Science, Management Science, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and the Journal of Experimental Psychology.
Frequently Asked Questions
For additional information about our Executive Education programming, please visit our FAQ page.