RESPRO Project: Shaping the Future of Responsible Leadership

Responsible leadership is an important component in all areas of work. It comprises of ethical and strategic perspectives on leadership, and feeds into, among other things, enhanced well-being at work, improved business outcomes, stronger stakeholder relations and strengthened organizational commitment, to mention few.

Responsible leadership can affect everyone, since everyone has or will face a variety of leadership outcomes in working field. RESPRO (Responsible leadership – Developing people skills in project management education in European HEI’s) is a project that focuses on producing new course modules for project management studies.

It’s a project of New Ways of Promoting Performance (NWPP) research group in Turku University of Applied Science, led by Universidad Politècnica de Valéncia. NWPP research group develops and studies well-being at work and leadership in the changing world of work.

Based on interviews and surveys conducted early in the project, it is known that there is a need for the development of responsible leadership.

This international project collaborates with four European universities, besides Spanish, there is Latvian and Austrian universities. The international nature of a project allows the core competences of higher education institutions in the partner countries to be highlighted and brought together.

The project seamlessly combines project management, well-being at work from positive psychology perspectives. Based on interviews and surveys conducted early in the project, it is known that there is a need for the development of responsible leadership, as this important aspect of project management is not currently addressed enough.

Where are we now?

The focus of the RESPRO project is to develop project management training from a people management skills perspective. It will identify already existing best practices in responsible management and integrate the principles of responsible management into education.

The project will produce courses aimed at enabling project management studies to include knowledge of human management skills. The Easy Accessible Short Courses (EAS) is a package that focuses on responsible leadership that supports occupational well-being.

 

 

Currently, the project is already at the stage where the main outputs of the project (courses and e-simulation game) are in the testing phase. The final feedback is currently being collected before the course can be launched as a complete package.

The aim of the project is that in the future, new educational components will enhance project managers’ knowledge of responsible leadership, promoting well-being at work and improving communication and interpersonal skills in general. The aim is to internationalize the RESPRO project courses.

Intensive week in Spain

Now RESPRO is having an intensive week in Spain. Five project management students from each of the main project partners – Finland, Austria, Latvia and Spain – have been selected for a project product testing trip to Valencia, Spain. The students have been selected based on a motivation letter.

During the intensive week, the students will test the course in practice and provide feedback for finalization. During the week, students will also be able to test an e-simulation game produced by the project.

If you want to learn more about the project or follow the progress of the intensive week, check these out: https://respro.webs.upv.es

Instagram: @resproproject_erasmus

 

Authors

Sanni-Sisko Koistinen
Occupational Therapy Student
Turku University of Applied Science

Marion Karppi
Senior Lecturer and Research Group Leader
New Ways of Promoting Performance research group

 

 

Photos:

Photo 1 by Dora Shimazaki on Pexels.com
Photo 2 by Austin Distel on Unsplash