Critical Issues in Governance: Strategic Leadership

1 Course Unit

What types of leadership and problem-solving have contributed to notable successes in addressing and ameliorating challenges to human well-being ranging from public health in Africa to economic development in Latin America, eldercare services in Asia to carbon emissions in Europe, homelessness in the US to HIV/AIDS in Australia? In these cases, and countless others, the answer relates in part to cross-sector collaboration in the form of two or more organizations working together intentionally across sectors to strategically manage, innovatively leverage their respective human and financial resources, and achieve mutually beneficial, pro-social, and pro-civic outcomes. Drawing on the best inter-disciplinary studies, this course is dedicated to helping students identify, delineate, and promote the conditions under which “boundary-spanning” and “bridge-building” organizational leaders arise, persist, and operate within and across each sector. In addition to classic and contemporary work by social and behavioral scientists who have made notable contributions to the field of public administration or public management, we focus particular attention on the work of scholars and practitioners from across the globe and in many different disciplines (social work, public health, urban design, and others) who are contributing to our basic and applied knowledge about “the built environment”—the concepts and skills needed to build healthy communities and meet such challenges as sudden pandemics, structural inequities, and slow but steady climate change. 1 Course Unit