Government faces special challenges in retaining and developing excellent leaders
and managers. Compared to business firms, government does not invest as much in
leadership and management development. In 1989, the Volcker Commission proclaimed
a crisis in the federal government, due to the departures and damaged morale of
many senior executives. Yet we also know that many excellent leaders and managers
work in government, and governments at all levels have programs for leadership
development.

Scholars and practitioners in public administration also face the challenge of
deciding how to make use of the elaborate body of researh, theory, and scholarship
on leadership. Most of this material has been developed by researchers and other 
experts in management and industrial/organizational psychology, who devoted little
explicit attention to leadership in government and nonprofit settings. In addition,
this literature ranges from arcane academic research to glib aphorisms and 
anecdotes from practicing managers or purportedly experienced consultants. This 
diversity arises from the problem that there exists no concensus on how to learn
about leadership. The course approaches these challenges for developing leadership
skills for public managers in several ways.

I. Course introduction
II. Perspectives on effective leadership behavior
III. Specific behaviors for managing relations
IV. Participating leadership and delegation
V. Sources of power and influence
VI. Contingency theories of effective leadership
VII. Transformational and cultural leadership
VIII. Strategic leadership by executives
IX. Leading change in organizations
X. Effective, innovative leaders