As educators, we’re always looking for ways to engage students with practical, real-world applications of business concepts. Generation Z, commonly defined as people born between 1996 and 2010, are known as digital natives because they have grown up using the Internet and other technologies (“What is Gen Z”, 2024). Generation Z has been coined “the Superhero Generation” (Luttrell & McGrath, 2021, p. xvii) because of their fascination with superheroes and the ways their generational cohort mimics the superheroes they have grown up watching. For instance, just like superheroes such as Clark Kent as Superman and Diana Prince as Wonder Woman have two distinct identities, Generation Z often has a distinct online identity and a real-world identity. For example, it is common to build an avatar when playing video games.
In my college-level Fundamentals of Business course, I’ve found success using unconventional but effective instructional strategies to teach leadership styles: superheroes. By examining the leadership traits of iconic characters like Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and Wonder Woman, students understand how different leadership styles function, when they’re effective, and where they fall short. This creative approach resonates with students and helps bridge the gap between theoretical concepts and practical business applications.
The Assignment: Exploring Leadership Through Superheroes
In this assignment, students are asked to compare five leadership styles—autocratic, democratic, laissez-faire (sometimes called free-rein style), transactional, and transformational—with the leadership qualities of at least three superheroes. The goal is to help students better understand various leadership styles and how they can be applied in a business management context. This assignment has four parts:
- Part I: An overview of the five leadership styles, where students understand, define, and analyze key characteristics.
- Part II: A detailed comparison of three superheroes and how their leadership traits align with the leadership styles analyzed in Part I. Students answer these questions: Which leadership style(s) does the superhero exhibit and why? How does the superhero’s leadership style impact their team/allies? Are there instances where the superhero’s leadership style is particularly effective or ineffective?
- Part III: Students synthesize their findings by comparing the superheroes’ leadership approaches to a business management context.
- Part IV: Conclusion and Reflection: Students reflect on key takeaways from the assignment, discussing insights gained about the relationship between leadership styles, teamwork, and organizational success.
The assignment encourages students to engage with business concepts in a creative and relatable way, using fictional characters as a springboard for deeper discussion and analysis.
Applying Leadership Style to Superheroes
Before diving into the superhero assignment, students first need to establish a clear understanding of each leadership style. I ask them to read the textbook chapter (Skripak et al., 2023) on management and leadership to get a foundational grasp. Topics in this chapter include the management process, management styles, and skills needed by management such as communication, decision-making, and time-management skills. After reading this information, students are then asked to apply it to three superheroes of their choosing. I encourage them to select characters from popular culture—whether from comic books, films, or television—so they can connect leadership concepts to characters they already know and admire.
For example, students may choose Iron Man (Tony Stark), who exemplifies autocratic leadership. Tony’s leadership style in the early Marvel movies is centered on his own intelligence and vision. He often makes decisions quickly and independently, expecting others to follow his lead without question (Wiyono, n.d.). This can be seen in his decision to build Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron (Marvel Studios, 2015), where his autocratic approach leads to catastrophic results. However, as the series progresses, Tony begins to exhibit transformational leadership qualities, particularly when he mentors Spider-Man, inspiring him to be more than just a hero in a suit. Another example is Captain America (Steve Rogers), a prime example of democratic leadership. Captain America is known for his collaborative approach, consistently seeking input from his team before making decisions. Whether it’s rallying the Avengers to take on Loki in The Avengers (Marvel Studios, 2012) or negotiating with the Sokovia Accords in Captain America: Civil War (Marvel Studios, 2016), Steve’s leadership style fosters loyalty and trust.
Wonder Woman (Diana Prince) is another interesting superhero. She combines transformational leadership with moments of laissez-faire leadership. Her transformational qualities are clear in her mission to inspire others to fight for justice and peace, seen throughout Wonder Woman (Warner Bros., 2017). Yet, at times, she allows her team members to take the lead, trusting them to make decisions independently. This balance between collaboration and autonomy is an important consideration in modern business management contexts.
Using Superheroes to Teach Leadership in Business Contexts
In my experience, using superheroes to teach leadership in business contexts brings energy and relevance to the classroom. Students engage more deeply with the material because they can see leadership in action, even in a fictional setting. Superheroes provide a common cultural reference point, making abstract business concepts more tangible. When students can identify with the characters, they are more likely to understand and internalize the lessons.
Other educators have also found this approach useful. Yang (2003) found that using comic books as a teaching tool increased student motivation. Similarly, a comic book writing assignment was given in an eighth grade advanced mathematics class. One of the students wrote a comic book titled The Adventures of Supercow and Frost that depicted superheroes protecting their city from a sunbeam by finding the area of an irregular polygon (Reilly, 2024). Burton (2008) studied the use of superhero films, specifically the X-Men the Movie (Singer, 2000) as a pedagogical method of understanding course concepts such as leadership, ethics, legal issues, decision-making, and motivation in an undergraduate management course. Students were able to identify ethical and unethical leadership traits of superheroes and connect superheros’ actions to their own workplace experiences.
Reflection and Conclusion
The superhero assignment offers students a fresh way to explore essential business concepts. By analyzing the leadership styles of characters like Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and Wonder Woman, students gain insights into how different approaches to leadership can succeed or fail in various business contexts. This assignment could be modified in several ways. More diverse superhero examples, including characters from different cultural backgrounds or lesser-known comics, could be integrated to broaden students’ perspectives. For example, Marvel Comics Black Panther, also known as T’Challa, is the superhero king of Wakanda, a fictional African nation (“Black Panther,” 2024). Additionally, a collaborative element could be integrated into the curriculum by adding online class discussions or an oral presentation about students’ chosen superheroes. Finally, a textbook such as Lead Like a Superhero: What Pop Culture Icons Can Teach Us About Impactful Leadership (Richard, 2017) could be added to the course to give students more information about the characteristics of various superheroes and how they emulate leadership characteristics.
This creative, practical assignment helps students engage with leadership theory in business contexts in an engaging way. Whether they end up fighting crime or making a positive difference in their business careers, my hope is that they will remember the lessons learned from analyzing their favorite superheroes. Superheroes, like business leaders, have multifaceted characteristics that are far from perfect, and this exploration of their characteristics helps students develop a more nuanced understanding of leadership in business contexts.
Molly J. Wickam, MBA, PhD., is a Professor of Education & Business/Leadership at Bethel University, St. Paul, MN.
References
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Burton, C.H. (2008). Superhero as metaphor: Using creative pedagogies to engage. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 2(2), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2008.020207
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McKinsey & Company. (2024). What is Gen Z? https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-gen-z
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Skripak, S. J. & Poff, R. (2023). Fundamentals of business. https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/fundamentals-of-business
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Yang. G. (2003). Strengths of comics in education. https://www.geneyang.com/comicsedu/strengths.html