The Varieties of Leadership at Novarum Pharmaceuticals

Storytelling is a time-honored way of educating. Case studies attempt to engage students, but arelimited because they do not develop characters or settings. What is needed is a full-length novelwith complex, sympathetic characters and a story grounded in leadership and organizationalbehavior theories. Novarum Pharmaceuticals is such a book.Set in a large U.S. firm, it follows the struggles of an executive vice president trying to launch aninnovative joint venture with a Middle Eastern company. The story proceeds from Nia Stevens’first strategic proposal, through various triumphs and setbacks, to a final crisis in which she mustchoose between what she views as her career and her principles. The main characters reveal a mixof motives and perceptions about each other and doing business in the Middle East. They converge and clash and their actions changeas the story unfolds. Neither a tragedy nor a comedy, the book is a plausible depiction of life within a modern corporation.Novarum Pharmaceuticals embodies all the elements of a novel, but unlike novels this one contains an index that professors andstudents alike can use to tie characters’ actions to theory. The companion instructor’s resource manual provides an extensivediscussion framework for the professor, with background material on the pharmaceutical industry, resumes of the principle characters,questions and suggested answers for every chapter, descriptions of theory and concepts, learning goals for each chapter and abibliography of organization-related fiction.Novarum Pharmaceuticals will make a refreshing supplemental text in many courses in the undergraduate and graduate degreeprograms in business administration, psychology, sociology, organization development, public administration, healthcare managementand educational administration. Immersion in this book gives students a deeper appreciation of the often conflicted nature of workermotivation, better preparing them for navigating their own careers. General business readersinterested in the consequences of questionable ethical behavior and bad leadership will alsofind the book entertaining and useful.