POLITICAL SCIENCE

POLS 310: Public Leadership

Georgia Duerst-Lahti Spring 2008

x 2333 office: MI 205

Office Hours: M, W 1-2, T, Th 11-12

Email duerstgj@beloit.edu

How does one successfully and effectively influence change in the public sector, especially change based upon a vision for the future? To do so would be exercising public leadership. A large industry has arisen around the topic of leaders and leadership, although the public sector lags business and the nonprofit sectors in pursuing the theory and practice of leadership. Designed as a capstone experience for students with a solid foundation in political science, this course explores the topic of public leadership through rigorous scholarly literature based upon social science research and historical thinkers, with theory aimed at practice, as well as a purely practical workshop option for exploring your own leadership. It also tosses in “trade” articles from practitioners attempting to make change and some basic background on public policy, the vehicle for most public change.

COURSE GOALS

Meet the capstone learning needs and goals of political science and international relations students, and have students articulate those needs and goals.

Enable a pre-professional experience, either in the public praxis or extensive and rigorous scholarly writing.

Foster knowledge about public leadership and an understanding of the many challenges facing public leaders.

Develop analytic skills

Polish written, oral, and visual communication skills, commensurate with public professional standards.

Provide a “bonding experience’ for advanced political science and international relations students.

BOOKS

Books for POLS 310 01 Public Leadership. NOTE: In graduate study, no professor will simply “go over” the readings with you, that is the student’s responsibility. Like the rest of your life, each of you will determine the quality of your learning through the quality of you effort. You will reap commensurate rewards.

All Students will read:

Montgomery Van Wart, Dynamics of Leadership in Public Service: Theory and Practice. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe Publishers, 2005.

The Nature of Leadership. John Antonakis, Anna T. Cianciolo, and Robert J. Sternberg, (eds.).Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2004. ACS

Bruce Stinebrickner, (ed), Annual Editions, State and Local Government, 12th ed.. Dubuque, IO: McGraw-Hill/Duskin, 2005. AE

Jerrod Post, (ed.), The Psychological Assessment of Political Leaders: With Profiles of Saddam Hussein and Bill Clinton. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2005.

Barbara Kellerman. Bad Leadership. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2004.

Barbara Kellerman, (ed.), Political Leadership: A Source Book. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1986. (Very hard to find new; don’t even bother. Individual used copies available for purchase online.) Sourcebook

Students will choose ONE:

Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy Process: Theories, Concepts, and Models of Public Policy Making, 2nd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2005. 0-7656-1489-8 [Especially good if you plan graduate studies in public affairs, pubic administration and/or policy whether a general program of in a particular policy area.]

Or

James J. Gosling, Understanding, Informing, and Appraising Public Policy. New York: Pearson Longman, 2004. 0-321-07845-4 [Less of a grad school lit review and resource than Birkland, but more conceptually analytic and much shorter. Covers context of policy making in U.S. with focus on informing, explaining and shaping policy choice.]

Students will choose ONE:

Erwin C. Hargrove, The President as Leader: Appealing to the Better Angels of Our Nature. Lawrence KS: University Pres of Kansas, 1998.
[More conceptual, approach of matching president to historical context. FDR, LBJ, Reagan].

Lance Blakesley, Presidential Leadership: From Eisenhower to Clinton. Chicago: Nelson-Hall Publishers, 1995.
[May be impossible to find. Psychological profiles, situational, contingency and social leadership. Excellent approach to assess the potential of candidates for success as president.]

Barbara Kellerman, The Political Presidency: Practice of Leadership from Kennedy Through Reagan. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984.
(Very hard to find new; don’t even bother. Individual used copies available for purchase online used.) [Classic: On directive leadership and governing. How to make other political elites act; focus inside the system, not electoral.]

Fred I. Greenstein, The Presidential Difference: Leadership Style from FDR to George W. Bush, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press; 2nd edition 2004.
[Mini biographies and analytical summations. Rates presidents in categories: communication, organization, political skill, vision, cognitive style, and emotional intelligence].

Entirely Optional:

Warren Bennis and Joan Goldsmith, Learning to Lead: A workbook on becoming a leader, 3rd ed. New York: Basic Books, 2003. 0-7382-0905-8

ASSIGNMENTS

All students:

Class participation—15%
This is your capstone experience. Participate accordingly. Prove yourself to yourself and your classmates. Use this venue to demonstrate your readiness for the next step of life. Read carefully. Take notes, prepare, get work in on time. Have something relevant to contribute to discussion. Be engaged, courteous, comport yourself as a professional.

Lead day’s readings—5%
Two times, with a partner (or two), prepare and post (by Monday at 4 p.m. the week of your session) 15-20 high quality questions that help your peers, guiding them as they do the day’s reading. We will decide as a group whether or not peers will rate your questions on Moodle. On your day, you and your partner will lead class discussion. You should meet with Georgia on the preceding Tuesday to prepare for this leadership activity.

Presidency Analysis—10%
Select one of the books on presidential leadership. With your team, first determine and share the approach taken by the author, analyzing the advantages and limitations of that approach. Then, by president specify what the author concludes about each president analyzed. One team member will take the lead with other teams in producing a document that illustrates well the comparative findings about each president. (I.e., each books findings for each president compared, with a final “meta analysis” from the four books on each president.) We will discuss the final results, with an eye toward general conclusions about presidential leadership.

Policy Book “teach in”—5%
In a brush with policy, students will pick one of two books on it and teach the other students about the book. How those who have read one book decide to teach the others about it is up to you. We all will cover the models presented by Birkland in chapter 9.

Practicum Students

Practicum—50% Goals & Midterm work 25%, final work 25%
The entire experience will be judged by the quality of your professional comportment. (We can discuss what this entails). Element of the grading include:

Quality of learning goals, both their form and content

Midterm update, the presentation, nature of compiled materials (public accountability, thoroughness, and quality).

Midterm update report for supervisors (site, course, FACS as appropriate)

Midterm reflection on learning goals for supervisor

The final “product” for professional writing, public accountability record keeping, quality as document for future work.

Final reflection on learning goals

Leader analysis—15%
More details will follow. Must analyze leadership context, key players. Final report: You’re a consultant who makes recommendations based upon the analysis you provide. (May or may not give supervisor this report).

Thesis Students

Thesis—50%
Write your thesis. 40 points for the draft. 10 points for the final.

Resource discovery and analysis—10%
As a team, meet and decide how to cover resources that inform about and show the products of the “leadership industry”. Such resources may be a compendium of centers that study leadership, directories of practitioners who train about leadership, free-standing websites dedicated to advancing leaderships, foundations that support particular types of leadership, review essays covering several key books on leadership or key authors on leadership, and the like. Think carefully about how to best show us and others the range of resources available to those interested in public leadership. HINT: you may want to work with reference librarian, Chris Nelson.

Leader Shadow—5%
Shadow one public leader for one day. Before going to shadow, lay out an analytic framework for what you hope to observe and find information about. The approach should include direct questions of the leader and his/her organization members-- (please, please, please prepare carefully and ask questions with tact and consideration)--background research, and participant observation. BE PREPARED for analysis. After the shadow experience, submit a report of your findings. Include also a final summary of what you learned personally.

CLASS SCHEDULE

NOTE: Tuesday varies: sometimes all students there for whole time, more often optional workshop 9-10 a.m., all students for 2nd hour; sometime individual meetings.

January

17 Introductions, Getting Started

For Tuesday, What do you want from this course? Why? What do you want to know, understand? What do you want to “finish” at this stage of your life long learning? What do you want to improve in personal comportment?

Also, copies of your resume to class on Tuesday, enough for everyone in the class, me, and FACS.

19 Studying Leadership

ACS Parts I & II

Annual Editions, AE Unit 2 ( Part 1 optional)

24 All meet; Getting real

Settle practica, honors; set workshop teams

Annual Editions Unit 2 Part A

26 Leading the Public: Introduction

Van Wart-Preface-Chap2, Appendix AB

Sourcebook I

31 Workshop: Yourself as leader

Bennis and Goldsmith, Preface, 1. Do exercises

Practicum Students: Set up Lead Analysis

February

2 Schools of leadership

ACS III; Van Wart 9-12

Moodle forum:
Friday, February 3, by 11 p.m., answer one question below, creating a distinctive thread.

What is leadership? Find definitions in any readings, (i.e., look ahead in the course, especially in areas of particular interest to you), give source for definition and ponder the adequacies and consequences of the definitions.

What are the essential elements of leadership? Identify elements (give sources)

What drives interest in leadership, and what are the implications for the public sector?

Tuesday, February 7, by 8 a.m., comment on at least on thread for each of the other two questions, (i.e., enter the form and engage the ideas of your classmates at least once for each question). Read entire forum over for class.

7 Workshop: Yourself As Leader

Bennis and Goldsmith, 2 & 3

All: Open discussion from Moodle forum

What are the elements of leadership? How do these elements construct leadership? Why focus upon these elements?

9 On the Psychology of Leadership

Post, Parts I & II

Sourcebook II

14 Workshop: More on Knowing Yourself As a Leader

Bennis and Goldsmith 4; Kiersy instrument

All students: Presidency Project Approach of each book

Touch base on thesis or practicum

16 Comparing Clinton and Saddam

Post, Parts III & IV

AE Unit 2, Parts B & C

17 Due: Thesis Students—Post Leadership Industry Resources by 4 p.m.

All students peruse and prepare for Tuesday.

21 Workshop: Vision and Its Communication

Bennis and Goldsmith, 5

All attend: Resource presentations and discussion

23 Due Presidency Project

What do we know about presidential leadership?

28 Workshop: Trust, Integrity

Bennis and Goldsmith, 6

Due: All students: The (nested) leadership context

(Practicum analysis, shadow leader’s nested context)

March

2 Bringing in Praxis

AE Units 4&5

BREAK

14 DUE: Midterm Practicum Reflections

16 Bring in More Praxis

AE 6 & 7 (Students on your own)

21 Workshop: Intention Through Action

Bennis and Goldsmith 7

23 Policy: DUE

Present Birkland and Gosling

All discuss Birkland Chapter 8

28 Due: Draft papers, preliminary leadership analysis

Individual meetings and/or practice honors presentations

30 Theories Applied to Public Leadership

Van Wart 3-8; Sourcebook V

April

4 Culture, Gender, Ethics

ACS 11-13; Sourcebook VI

6 Bad Leadership Is

Bad Leadership Part I;

Sourcebook IV

Presentations

11 Bad Leadership:Cases

Bad Leadership, Part 2

Presentations

13 Springday

18 Bad Leadership Gets Better?

Bad Leadership, Part 3

Sourcebook VII

Presentations

20 No class. Work on papers, Leadership analysis

25 Presentations

26 DUE: Post Leadership Analysis by 10 a.m. Read them for tomorrow.

27 Conclusions on Leadership

ACS 14; Van Wart 13-14

Present Leadership Analysis. Class discussion.

DUE: Shadow reports.

May

2 Final Papers Due (Prefer final exam time instead?)

Evaluations and close out.

At group’s discretion, final exam at Georgia’s house.