DB-FPX8610 is where the DBA program narrows from general business foundations into your chosen specialization — in this case, Organizational Leadership and Development. The course is built around literature analysis and gap-in-practice identification: the same skill you'll need repeatedly through the doctoral project sequence. Get this course right and the later seminar courses (DB-FPX8640, 8650) become much easier. This guide explains the assessments and where academic support for DB-FPX8610 fits.
Course Overview
Leadership Theory and Practice asks you to analyze the literature on leadership styles and theories alongside the more practical aspects of creative thinking and applied leadership. You cultivate literature knowledge from completed research studies, identify gaps between what scholarship recommends and what actually happens in practice using established gap-analysis methods, and investigate a range of leadership project ideas grounded in real-world business problems found in the literature.
Key Assessments
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1Leadership Literature Analysis
A review of current leadership theory and styles literature, establishing the scholarly foundation you'll build your gap analysis on.
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2Evidence for Gap in Practice
You identify and support, with literature evidence, a genuine gap between leadership theory/best practice and what's actually happening in organizations — the seed of your eventual doctoral project topic.
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3Leadership Project Ideas
You investigate and propose a set of leadership-focused project ideas responding to the identified gap, weighing feasibility and scholarly contribution.
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4Creative Thinking Application
A practical application of creative-thinking techniques to a leadership challenge, demonstrating that doctoral leadership work isn't purely theoretical.
How We Help With DB-FPX8610
- Building a literature analysis that's current, scholarly, and specific to leadership theory (not generic management writing)
- Identifying a gap in practice that's specific and evidenced enough to support an actual doctoral project later
- Generating leadership project ideas with realistic scope for a DBA-level applied project
- Connecting creative-thinking frameworks credibly to leadership practice
- APA 7 formatting and literature synthesis quality across all assessments
Common Challenges in This Course
The most consequential mistake in this course is picking a gap in practice that's too broad or too personal-opinion-based — since this gap often becomes the seed of your actual doctoral project topic in DB-FPX8640/8650, vague gaps create real downstream problems. Take the project-idea assessment seriously rather than treating it as a brainstorm exercise; reviewers want to see you're already thinking about feasibility and scholarly contribution, not just generating ideas.
Need Help With DB-FPX8610?
Send us your specific assessment instructions and rubric, and we'll match you with a specialist familiar with this exact course.
Related Courses
DB-FPX8610 FAQ
Not strictly, but it often becomes the working topic that carries into the seminar courses (DB-FPX8640/8650), so it's worth treating seriously rather than as a placeholder.
DB-FPX8420 (Teaching Business in Higher Education), completing the shared foundational cluster before specialization.
A gap analysis specifically contrasts what the literature recommends against what's observed in actual organizational practice — it's diagnostic, not just summary.
Most rubrics expect a small set (often 2-3) with enough detail to compare feasibility, not a long unstructured list.
Not yet — that requirement (RSCH-FPX7860/7864/7868) typically arrives before the seminar courses later in the leadership track.