This course will provide students with an opportunity to reflect upon and improve their management and leadership of people in public organisations. The course is based upon looking at public and nonprofit organisations at four levels: the personal, the interpersonal, the team and the organisation. We will explore topics such as managing yourself, decision making, motivating self and others, power and influence, effective communication, working in teams, managing conflict and organisational change. Our approach will be inherently practical, with the conceptual material supporting real changes in management practice and opportunities to practice different ways of behaving when managing people. A key theme running through the course will be the need for modern managers and leaders to recognise, manage and integrate key tensions in their management activities and career. In addition to conceptual material to help develop and support critical thinking, a key component of the course is self-reflection upon one's own approach to management both through online discussion and components of the assessment.

At the end of the course, students who actively participate in this course will have:

1. Acquired a variety of conceptual frameworks and perspectives for organising their thinking about critical issues affecting people and performance in public organisations (concepts)
2. Developed an enhanced appreciation of their own role and style in shaping people and performance in public organisations. (self-knowledge)
3. Improved communication, negotiation, motivation and persuasion skills to more effectively manage by building learning, trust, respect and motivation. (management skills)
4. Extensively applied critical thinking to people and performance management issues leading to an enhanced capacity to critically evaluate management ‘how-to' information in the light of well-researched theories and empirical findings regarding people management. (critical thinking)
5. Applied the course concepts to their own people management challenges and interests. (application)

Delivery Mode:

Intensive/on campus