Leadership in the Public Sector

Lecture 1. Course overview

* Course expectation

* Course introduction

* Course requirement

Lecture 2. Challenges in leadership

Required readings:

* Heifetz, R., (1994). Leadership Without Easy Answers, Chapter 2: To lead or mislead.

* Williams, D. (2005). Real Leadership, Chapter 2: Diagnosis: Determine principal challenge.

Leadership, authority, and power

Required readings:

* Heifetz, R., (1994). Leadership Without Easy Answers, Chapter 3: The roots of autonomy.

* Barnard, The Functions of the Executive, pp. 215-234.

* Milgram, S. (1974). The Dilemma of Obedience in Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View, pp.1-12.

Lecture 3. Political operation as leadership

Required readings:

* Heifetz, R., (1994). Leadership Without Easy Answers, Chapter 4: Mobilizing adaptive work; Chapter 5: Applying power.

* Moore, M. (1995) "Advocacy, Negotiation, and Leadership: The techniques of political management" Creating Public Value: Strategic Management in Government, Harvard University Press. Cambridge Massachusetts.

Leadership for Change

Case: Global Food Program in the Global Food Crisis, HBS Case 9-709-024.

Required readings:

* Ostroff, F. (2006) "Change Management in Government", Harvard Business Review, May, pp. 141-146.

* Williams, D. (2005). Real Leadership, Chapter 5: The transition challenge: Moving from one system value to another; Chapter 7: The creative challenge: Doing what has never been done before.

* Heifetz, R., (1994). Leadership Without Easy Answers, Chapter 6: On a razor's edge; Chapter 7: Falling off the edge.

* Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Leadership for Change: Enduring Skills for Change Masters, HBS Note 9-304-062

Lecture 4. Managing change (Cont.)

Case: Management Principles and Public School in Washington, DC: Choice of the Superintendent.

Required readings:

* Kotter, J. (2007). "Managing change: Why Transformational Efforts Fail?, Harvard Business Review. Jan. pp. 96-103.

* Vaill, (2002) "Visionary Leadership", in Allan R. Cohen (Ed.), The Portable MBA in Management, pp. 12-37.

* Day and Schoemaker, (2004) "Driving Through the Fog: Managing at the Edge". Long Range Planning 37, pp. 127–142.

* Rogers and Roethlisberger (1991), "Barriers and Gateways to Communication", Harvard Business Review, Nov-Dec., pp. 105-111.

Building Learning Organizations

Required readings:

* Williams, D. (2005). Real Leadership, Chapter 4: The development challenge: Cultivating the latent capability needed to progress.

* Senge, P. (1990) "The Leader's New Work: Building Learning Organizations", Sloan Management Review, Vol. 7, Fall.

* Garvin, A. D. (1993). "Building a Learning Organization", Harvard Business Review, Jul-Aug., pp. 78-91.

* Argyris, Putnam and Smith, (1985). Theories of Action, Action Science: Concepts, Methods, and Skills for Research and Intervention, pp. 80-102.

* Garvin, Edmondson, and Gino (2008). "Is Yours a Learning Organization?", Harvard Business Review, Mar., pp. 109-116.

Essay outline due

Lecture 5. Organizational culture I

Case: Children Hospital, HBS Case 9-302-050

Required readings:

* Schein, E., (2004). Organizational Culture and Leadership, pp. 1-23.

* Pfeffer, J and Veiga, F., (1999). "Putting People First for Organizational Success". Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 13, 2, pp. 37-48.

* Weick and Sutcliffe. (2007). "Organizational Culture: Institutionalizing Mindfulness", in Managing the Unexpected: Resilient Performance in an Age of Uncertainty, pp.109-160. Jossey Bass.

Organizational culture II

Case: Vision and Strategy: Paul O'Neill at ALCOA and OMB. HKS case C16-92-1134.0.

Required readings:

* Schein, E., "On Dialogue, Culture, and Organizational Learning", Organization Dynamics, pp. 40-51.

* Edmondson, (2008). "The Competitive Imperative of Learning", Harvard Business Review, Jul.-Aug., pp. 60-67.

* O'Toole, J., and Bennis, W., (2009). "What's Needed Next: A Culture of Candor", Harvard Business Review, Jun., pp. 54-61.

* Anita Tucker, Amy Edmondson, "Why Hospitals Don't Learn from Failures: Organizational and Psychological Dynamics That Inhibit System Change." California Management Review 45, no. 2, Winter 2003.

Lecture 6. Leadership in crisis

Case: Mass Port: The Aftermath of 9/11.

Required readings:

* Williams, D. (2005). Real Leadership, Chapter 3: The activist challenge: Calling attention to a contradiction in values; Chapter 8: The crisis challenge: Leading in a period of extreme danger.

* Heifetz, Grashow, and Linsky (2009). "Leadership in Permanent Crisis", Harvard Business Review, Jul.–Aug., pp. 62-69.

* Williams, D. (2005). Real Leadership, Chapter 6: The maintenance challenge: Protecting and sustaining what is essential during hard times.

Lecture 7. Inspirational Leadership

Inspiring people: Inspiring people to general purposes

Case: Winning the Heart and Mind: Reforming the Public School System,HKS Case C15-03-1690.0.

Required readings:

* Berlew, E. D. (1995) "Inspiring other people: Inspiring everyone to general purposes" in Kouzes Posner, The Leadership Challenge, Jossey-Bass Publisher, San Francisco, pp. 121-150

* Principles of Effective Persuasion, HBS note 9-497-059.

* Heifetz, R., (1994). Leadership Without Easy Answers, Chapter 8: Creative deviance on the frontline; Chapter 10: Assassination.

Decision making

Case: The Last Mission of the Columbia, HBS case 9-304-090

Required readings:

* Gladwell, M. (2005). Chapter 3, The Warren Harding Error: Why We Fall for Tall, Dark, and Handsome, pp. 72-98) in Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Little Brown.

* Davenport, H. T. (2009) "Make Better Decisions, Harvard Business Review, Nov., pp 117-123.

* Hammond, Keeney, and Raiffa (2006) 'The Hidden Traps in Decision Making", Harvard Business Review, Jan., pp. 118-126.

* Charan, R. (2006). "Conquering a Culture of Indecision", Harvard Business Review, Jan., pp 108-117.

* Jonah Lehrer (2009), "How We Decide", Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, pp 1-27.

* Zimmerman and Lerner (2010), "Decisions, Decisions", Government Executive Magazine, 29 September.

Lecture 8. The servant leader

Required readings:

* Neuschel, R., (2005) "The Concept of the Servant Leader", in The Servant Leader: Unleashing the Power of Your People, pp. 95-99.

* Caroll, A., (2005). "Servant Leadership", Nonprofit World Newsletter, Vol. 23. No. 3, May-Jun., pp. 28-20.

* Ramsey, R. "What is a Servant Leader", pp. 3-5.

* Covey, S., "Servant Leadership: Using your voice to serve others". Leadership Excellence.

Class summary

Final essay submission