In this course we will explore the nature of leadership in public sector organisations from an individual and systemic perspective.  The primary organising framework for the course will be the book “The Practice of Adaptive Leadership” (Heifetz, Grashow & Linsky, 2009), although we will also consider theory and evidence from the leadership literature more broadly. The course begins with distinguishing technical from adaptive challenges. While technical challenges have known solutions, adaptive challenges require changes in values, beliefs and attitudes and usually require collaborative problem definition and resolution. The course will consider such topics as diagnosing the adaptive challenge, assessing the political landscape, interpretation, principles of effective responding to adaptive challenges, managing conflict, building an adaptive culture and personal self-regulatory skills involved in identifying your purpose and engaging with others to bring about effective change. Students will have an opportunity to explore their own practice in the light of these topics through a mix of readings and experiential activities designed to foster self-reflection and practice. Students will be encouraged to apply ideas from the course to their unique personal, organisational and national contexts.

At the end of this course, participants who participate actively in the course should be able to:

• Diagnose the adaptive challenge embedded in real team and organisational leadership dilemmas
• Evaluate and analyse key stakeholder interests
• Generate multiple perspectives and interpretations of leadership dilemmas.
• Design and implement interventions that take into account the authorizing and operational environment.
• Better understand some of the traps that can derail leadership.
• Articulate your own guiding principles for leadership.

1. Critical Review Paper (25%)

2. Presentation (25%)

3. Leadership Challenge Case-Report (50%)

POGO8056 People and Performance in Public Organisations