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Course Info for FORG - 308 - 01, Fall 2025
Class number: 3325 Title: Leaderless Organizations Department: Formal Organizations
Career: Undergraduate Component: Seminar Session: Regular
Instructor's Permission Required: Yes Grading Basis: Regular Units: 1.00
Enrollment limited to 19 Current enrollment: 16 Available seats: 3
Start date: Tuesday, September 2, 2025 End date: Wednesday, December 17, 2025 Mode of Instruction: In Person
Schedule: W: 1:30PM-4:10PM, 71VS - SEM Instructor(s): Stringham, Edward
Prerequisite(s): None
Distribution Requirement: Meets Social Sciences Requirement
Course Description:
People form organizations to pursue collective goals and although most formal organizations have people in charge and varying degrees of hierarchy, this is not necessarily the case. The course will study both examples of leaderless organizations in history and modern examples such as digitally autonomous organizations built on blockchain and algorithmically enforced "smart" contracts. Although many intentionally leaderless organizations have encountered challenges that led to their demise, others seem to be flourishing. This reading and discussion intensive course will study the extent to which intentionally leaderless organizations can offer alternatives to or lessons for traditional hierarchical formal organizations.