Syllabus
PLS 494 (Seminar in American Politics, "Theories and Best
Practices for Leadership in the Public Sector.") Spring 2009
Instructors: Craig Curtis (Bradley Hall, room 429)
ph. 677-2492; e-mail: rcc@bradley.edu;
home page: http://hilltop.bradley.edu/~rcc/
Brad
McMillan (Director of the Institute for Principled Leadership in Public Service,
Jobst Hall, room 400), ph. 677-4408, e-mail: bmcmillan@bumail.bradley.edu
Course
meeting times: T TH 1:30 to 2:45,
Instructor
Office hours: Craig Curtis – MW
afternoon, 2 to 3. T TH morning, 9:30 to 11:30. Brad McMillan, T TH 8:30 to noon, 3 to 5 pm.
Texts: Van Wart,
Montgomery. 2007. Leadership
in Public Organizations.
Denhardt, Janet V., and
Robert B. Denhardt. 2007. The
New Public Service: Serving not Steering.
Menzel, Donald. 2006. Ethics Management for Public
Administrators: Building Organizations
of Integrity.
Newell,
Terry, Grant Reeher, and Peter Ronayne. 2007. The Trusted Leader: Building the Relationships that Make Government Work.
Course
Description: This seminar will address
the topic of leadership in two ways: 1) a survey of the current state of the
scholarly literature on leadership in public entities; and, 2) an examination
of successful leaders in practice. The focus will be on the means to lead
public organizations in an ethical, bipartisan way at the national, state, and
local governmental levels. At the end of
the semester, the student will have gained insight
into what seems to work, why it worked, and how to apply that knowledge to organizations
in which they will work in the future.
This course is a senior seminar. As such, it is designed along the lines of a graduate seminar. The purpose is to master advanced material on principled leadership in an interactive learning environment. Collaboration is strongly encouraged, except, of course, that you should not copy each other's essays. There will be few formal lectures, no midterm tests and no final exam. It is assumed that you have read and understood the assigned materials, although you are strongly encouraged to ask questions. The grade will be based on the four review essays, a biography of an ethical leader, and on your in-class work.
Because the learning process is interactive, class participation is essential for the seminar to work. Each of you will be responsible for themselves, but also responsible to each of your peers. You must come to class and must be current with the reading assignments. You must prepare conscientiously when it is your turn to lead the discussion. The material is advanced and may be unfamiliar to some of you. As such, the reading will be difficult at times, and will require your careful attention. Sometimes you will not understand the reading before you get to class, but you likely will understand by the end of class for that day. Come see one of us if you are having problems. If, for some reason, you were not able to read the assignment for a class, please let us know before the class so that we will not call on you that day. There will be no repercussions for occasionally telling us that you are not prepared; however, repeated instances of unpreparedness will result in poor class participation marks.
Grading: The final grade will be based on the following:
1) 4 review essays (approximately 3 to 5 printed pages each), each worth 15% of the final grade.
2) 1 carefully researched biography of an ethical leader (you will be able to choose the object of the research, but we will have veto power) of about 10 to 15 pages in length, worth 20% of the grade.
3) A day in which you will lead the discussion, having primary responsibility for presentation of the reading material for that day, worth 10% of the grade. We will circulate a sign-up sheet.
4) The final 10% will come from your daily contributions to the class discussion. As such, we will take note of attendance.
The final letter grade will be assigned according to
the following scale:
|
A 90-100% |
D 60-69% |
|
B 80-89% |
F below 60% |
|
C 70-79% |
|
Class policies: All students are expected to come to class prepared to discuss the reading material assigned for that day. The nature of this course makes us all very interdependent. If you don't do the work, all of your classmates are adversely affected as a consequence.
The due dates for the papers as listed on the syllabus are important to us. Essays are due in class on the date specified. Late essays will be penalized at the rate of 10% of the grade per day. Please follow smart computer procedures -- disk failure will not serve as a valid excuse for late essays and it is the responsibility of the student to keep files containing the essays. Due dates are subject to change if the needs of the class so indicate; any changes will be made by the instructors in consultation with the class. We assume that you have language skills commensurate with your educational level. Therefore, we will treat poor usage and grammar as evidence of lack of effort, and will grade the essays accordingly.
All assignments may be turned in electronically, either by attaching them as
word files to e-mail or by using the drop box function in
Overview: We will start by building a knowledge base
regarding theories of leadership. After
that, we will take a look at the topic of ethics in public organizations. From there, we will move on to more specific
materials, including two modern books on how best to leader public
organizations.
Week I (1-22) Introduction and Housekeeping Chores
Week II (1-27) Early Approaches, Van Wart, Chapters 1 to 4.
Week III (2-03) Charisma to Traits, Van Wart, Chapters 5 to 7.
Week IV (2-10) Skills and Behaviors, Van Wart, Chapters 8 to 10.
Week V (2-17) Developing Leaders, Van Wart, Chapters 11 to end. First essay due on Thursday, 2-19.
Week VI (2-24) Case Study from Prof. McMillan on Tuesday, Thursday, Ethics Management, Menzel, chapter 1.
Week VII (3-03) Constitutions, Codes, and Tools, Menzel, Chapters 2 and 3. Rewrites of first essay due on Thursday, 3-05.
Week VIII (3-10) Ethics at the local, state, federal and international levels, Menzel, Chapters 4 to 6.
Spring Break
Week IX (3-24) 21st Century Challenges, Menzel chapter 7. Second essay due on Tuesday, 3-24. Thursday, Case Study from Prof. McMillan. Choice of subject for the research biography is due.
Week X (3-31) Trust and Democracy, Newell, Reeher, and Ronayne, Section I.
Week XI (4-7) Building Trust within an Organization, Newell, Reeher, and Ronayne, Section II. Tuesday, 4-7, optional annotated bibliography is due.
Week XII (4-14) Building Trust with External Constituencies, Newell, Reeher, and Ronayne, Section III. Third Essay due on Thursday, 4-16.
Week XIII (4-21) Case study from Prof. McMillan on Tuesday. Thursday, Defining the New Public Service, Denhardt and Denhardt, Chapters 1 and 2. Optional rough drafts of research biographies due on 4-23.
Week XIV (4-28) Service and Democratic Theory, Denhardt and Denhardt, Chapters 3 to 6.
Week XV (5-5) Valuing People, not Just Productivity, Denhardt and Denhardt, Chapter 7 to end. Fourth Essay due in class.
Research biographies due Wednesday, May 13, by 11:00 am -- no late papers will be accepted!
The essays: We have assigned four books. For each, you are assigned a brief review essay. The essays themselves need only be 3 to 5 printed pages. You will have the opportunity to redo the first essay after we have made comments on it. Second and successive essays will be final as turned in, although consultation with us before you turn in the essays is encouraged.
Some research beyond the assigned texts may be needed for these
assignments. If you access outside
sources, make sure that you properly document your sources. Please use the APSA citation format. A copy of the APSA style
manual is available in the Political Science Research room, Br. 490, as well
as a pdf file in the resources section in
The focus questions for the essays are as follows:
First Essay
Given what we know about the behaviors exhibited by the best leaders, why are good leaders still so rare? Due date: Thursday, 2-19-09. Rewrites due on 3-05-09.
Second Essay
What is the relationship between ethics in public sector organizations and building democratic traditions in the developing world? Due Date: Tuesday, 3-24-09.
Third Essay
What are the main barriers to building relationships of trust across party lines? What strategies seem to offer the greatest potential for building those “post partisan” relationships? Due Date: Thursday, 4-16-09.
Fourth Essay
What are the new ethical challenges presented by the adoption of the new public service? How should these challenges be met? Due Date: Tuesday, 5-5-09.
The Research Biography:
You are required to write a 10 to 15 page research biography paper on a public
sector leader that you believe to be ethical and effective, subject to our
approval. The focus should be on this
person’s ethics in office. This paper is
due in Dr. Curtis’s office on or before Wednesday, May 13, 2009, at 11:00 am.
We will gladly read and comment upon rough drafts received at or before our
April 23rd class meeting. Please note that a rough draft is not a
hurriedly thrown together stream of consciousness. It is a polished draft
submitted for substantive comment. It must be typed and virtually
complete. All sources referenced must be fully referenced (this means
include a bibliography) using the APSA style.
An APSA Style Manual is available in the Political Science Resource
Room, Br. 490. We will not be tolerant of blatant grammatical or spelling
errors. Rough drafts without a full bibliography or in which the grammar
and usage are not at the college level will be returned without substantive
comment, and final drafts that suffer from either of these shortcomings will
not receive a passing grade. Good
leaders work hard and take pride in their work.
Leading the class
discussion: Each of you is required to lead the discussion
for one class session. Please sign up early for a date to lead the
discussion. Please remember that these are your friends. The
seminar environment is a forgiving environment and we will not let you
founder. It is expected by all your classmates that you will prepare
carefully for your day in the sun. If you sign up to lead the discussion
for a particular date, you must meet that obligation. If you do not meet
an obligation to lead the discussion, it is possible that there will be no
opportunity to make up that work by leading the discussion another day.
Of course you may trade days freely, but we must be notified of such changes in
advance.