Sample Student Syllabus

Integrated Management Curriculum University of Washington 26

Sample Student Syllabus

Integrated Management Sequence

Table of Contents

Course Overview…………………………..…………………………..………………..2

Purpose of the Course…………………………………………………..……………….4

Course Methods…………………………………………………………..……………..5

Course Requirements Part One…………………..………………………..……………7

Course Outline/Syllabus Part One….……………………………………..……………9

Course Requirements Part Two………………..…………………………..………….14

Course Outline/Syllabus Part Two.…………………………………………..………..15

Course Requirements Part Three………………..……………………………..……...18

Course Outline/Syllabus Part Three……..……………………………………..……..19

General Journal Attachment……………….……………………………………..…....23

Performance Measures Journal Attachment ………….…………………………..…...24

Conflict Resolution Journal Attachment …………….……………………………...... 25

Class Participation Attachment………………………………………………………..26

Ways In Which Others Are Contributing to My Learning…………………………….28

MORETOOLS – A Framework For Analyzing Management Dilemmas….………..…30

INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT SEQUENCE

Course Overview

The three-term course prepares public and nonprofit managers to be leaders of

public and not-for-profit institutions who can enhance the capability of these institutions to provide services of value in the community. We will try to prepare you to perform the expected tasks of leaders and also to provide imaginative leadership responses, and be able to lead change.

The course seeks to present a realistic view of effective leadership in government and non-profit organizations. The way those organizations work and interact has been transformed significantly in the last decade. The range of issues and problems requiring action has increased, even as the competition for resources has accelerated and as confidence in government has declined. The pressures of globalization guarantee fresh challenges, with its attendant transformations of the economy, politics, communications, social mobility and equality.

At the same time, the independent sector has risen in prominence and importance, both in the US and around the world. Nonprofit institutions work to develop and sustain civil society, keep the agenda of public concern alive and often supplement or deliver the basic services needed by a social and just order. These institutions perform many of the advocacy functions in society.

Strong leadership is necessary at every level in order to keep up and particularly in order to make a difference. This course will give you the overview of a serious leadership role and introduce you to the needed skills. You may be surprised to find out how much you already know, and how much there is yet to learn about effective leadership. The course presents an integrated view of a leader’s job, and a set of complimentary concepts and frameworks. Each quarter builds upon the other, as well as covering new topics about leadership.

By the time you finish this three-term course, and take the closely related

budgeting course, you should have a broad appreciation of the challenges and a set of tools to help you accurately diagnose problems and opportunities in policy and management and better handle the issues you will face. You should also be in position to make wise choices about the elective courses you need in the masters degree program in order to round out and deepen your skills.

The course will be taught through a series of case studies and complimentary readings. Your learning will depend on your being able to commit the time and attention necessary to fully analyze the cases, your willingness to consider and discuss your analysis, and being able to make practical use of concepts in the readings. To support these objectives activity, you will be asked to provide written assignments in the form of memos, journals reflecting your own possible application of the materials, and occasional team exercises or presentations. Grading will rely primarily on the written assignments, with a requirement for effective class participation

The course is a product of design and research work by at least half a dozen

academics and practitioners over the last several years and draws upon the most proven knowledge available. One faculty member will oversee each term, but the team has and will be working together to ensure continuity and consistency.

A description of the first quarter’s requirements, and the readings and assignments for that quarter are available below.

University of Washington

Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs

Integrated Management Sequence

PURPOSE OF THE COURSE

This first quarter of the Integrated Management Sequence will have you examine the

purpose and role of leadership, and the social and political context in which leaders and their

institutions must function as well as the structure and culture of organizations, and the basics of

developing a strategy for how you will lead and towards what you should lead.

Course Objectives

· Understand how effective leaders are able to make a difference.

· Understand degrees of choice in selecting your leadership role and strategy.

· Learn to think ahead and to integrate the factors that may affect your ability to

make progress.

· Understand major external and internal responsibilities that add up to good

leadership.

· Learn to apply major frameworks that can help you diagnose organizational

problems and exercise leadership on the basis of effective and careful judgment.

· Be able to identify and strengthen organizational culture to support the mission .

· Be able to see the leverage points for making change in or improving the results.

· Better understand the affect of politics and personalities on effectiveness.

· Understand how to develop a practical strategy based on analysis of the situation

and desired outcomes

· Learn to pursue managerial strategies and actions that are likely to improve an

organization and its services

· Using managerial frameworks, diagnose operational problems and develop

strategies for improving capacity and service delivery

· Analyze work flows, bottlenecks, staffing capacities, and implement technologies

that will further the mission

· Develop strategies for utilizing contractors and developing partnerships to create

synergies and efficiencies in public service delivery

· Learn how to develop effective performance and accountability measures that

produce desired results

· Understand how to become an effective change agent for policy issues that affect

agency capacity and mission

· Learn to utilize conflict resolution frameworks and techniques in order to build

consensus for policies and organizational change – a bridge between policy and

implementation

· Develop an understanding and integrate these threads of leadership into practical

strategies that can be used in your career to effectively create public value

COURSE METHODS

Case Discussions

We will approach our study of leadership primarily through discussions of case studies

augmented by analytic and theoretical frameworks described in the readings and in class.

Discussion is the operative word, and preparation and participation by student and instructor will

be the most important ingredients to successful discussions.

Reflecting the complexity of public leadership, no one theory can explain all organizations in all

contexts and, no one set of insights will resolve the problems you will confront. To be successful,

you will have to apply and integrate available knowledge to the issues and problems you

encounter. Therefore, we will study of variety of approaches, each of which can serve as a

conceptual lens through which you can assess most managerial and leadership challenges. As you gain more lenses to use, the terrain and nature of problems should become more clear and detailed, enabling you to make better judgments about practical goals and actions. The approaches we will present provide diagnostic tools to assess organizational problems and opportunities, and will help you map a path to progress, and build a repertoire of tools for action. This quarter, as with the entire sequence, is about deepening your capacity to make effective judgments.

We have assembled a very strong set of material that we hope you enjoy studying and discussing,

and which we believe, taken as a whole, will add materially to your professional development.

Workload and Expectations: Preparing for Case Discussions

The course will involve you in discussions, usually based on cases assigned, and expecting that

you are able to sensibly incorporate useful concepts from the readings and from previous class

discussions. Therefore, the central requirement for you to gain what you have come here for are:

to be well prepared for discussions, to listen and speak perceptively, to be thoughtful and

constructive in, to plan on full attendance, and to prepare your assignments, whether written or

reading, with care, in detail and on time. Also, plan to consider after each class what lessons you

learned and how those relate to prior sessions and to the work you do or expect to do.

We suggest, based on what previous students have told us:

· Your preparation should entail careful and critical reading of the materials and reflection

upon them prior to class, probably planning on three to five hours per class session. (This

includes time for related readings, consideration of issues, making notes and preparing an

outline on your analysis and recommendations, as described below. Much more time is

required when a written assignment is due or if there is an in-class exercise.)

· Plan to read the assigned case three times with some time between each reading (probably

examining the conceptual readings in between. Reading the case three times quickly will

be far more effective than one slow read trying to absorb all the details at once.)

· Read the required/recommended readings, and any of the recommended readings that

interest you, and make notes on items that may help you with the case, or related lessons.

· As you read the case, particularly the second and third times, make notes about the mission

and objectives, the key actors, problems, and opportunities, and, later, on strategic and

action recommendations. You will be provided a framework to use to assist you.

· Develop a two or three page outline that summarizes your analysis of the problems, and

how to handle the situation. You may be asked, without further notice, to turn in such

outlines in class, so please have your outline with you.

· Review the case (third read) and your notes about it the day before or day of class so that

you are confident and prepared for an effective discussion.

If everyone has done a thorough job in preparing the case and doing the readings, the level

and pace of our discussion will be far more sophisticated, and we will gain much greater insight from each session. We invite and urge everyone to participate, recognizing that in a large class, everyone may not be able to participate every time. (See attachment on participation.)

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Part One: Strategic Management and the Responsibilities of Leadership

To complete the assignments on time and prepare thoroughly for class, you will need to pay close

attention to the course outline below, plan carefully, and work ahead.

Reading: Three assigned texts are available for purchase at the University of Washington Book

Store. You will be using the texts in the other terms as well, so be sure to purchase them.

· Lee Bolman and Terry Deal, Reframing Organizations Second Edition (Jossey Bass, 1997)

· Mark Moore, Creating Public Value (Harvard, 1995)

I will distribute some additional material to you during the course of the term.

Additional required readings, marked with an asterisk (*) in the syllabus below, are available online through the Odegaard Library electronic reserve collection. On the UW Library web site at

http://www.lib.washington.edu, click on “Course Reserves” and search for the class either under

Professor or Course number and title. Under that heading you will find “Electronic Readings” and

the readings will be listed by week. You can access the electronic reserve system from any

University of Washington computer, or there is a program at the University Bookstore that you

can purchase and install at home or on a laptop to allow automatic dial-up access to the system.

You may also be able to access it on line otherwise, depending upon the type of system to which

you have access. There are other ways to access the electronic reserves, so get in any way you

find convenient.

Assignment Deadlines and Grades: While the specific assignments will vary, these policies will

largely be in force for all of the IMS segments. Your grade for this class in the first term will be

based on a combination of two memos, a journal, and class participation. Each memo will be

worth 30% of your grade; the journal another 30% and participation 10%. Memos are due by email or in hard copy by no later than the beginning of class on the due date. (Naturally, we

expect that you will be in attendance and on time on those days, as well as others.) We will

not accept late assignments, unless you and the instructor for the term make other

arrangements in writing and in advance. Any late assignment will, at a minimum, receive a

one-grade penalty, unless you and the instructor explicitly agree otherwise in writing and in

advance. For the fall term, I prefer that you turn in memos and journal assignments by e- mail, but

hard copy is fine. E- mail submissions will usually receive more rapid turnaround for feedback.

Whichever method you select, please be sure my e- mail account or I receive it prior to the start of

class. This course is not available for audit or credit/no credit status, and must be taken for a

grade.

Journals. As explained in more detail in the Journal Attachment, each of you will keep a Journal,

for each quarter, in which you reflect on your work experience in light of the issues we have

discussed in class and what you have seen in the readings. We will ask that you develop your

journal entries around three specific sections of the course—of your choosing, but to hand in the

Journal at the end of the quarter. The Journal overall (3 entries) will count for 30% of your grade.

Memos. For the first quarter, there will be a practice memo and two Memos--all required, which

are noted and guidance provided in the syllabus. Each one is related to a case in the syllabus.

Memos are due by e- mail or in hard copy by the beginning of the class for which the case is

scheduled. Late memos will receive a penalty in the grading, or may not be accepted under some

circumstances. You are expected to be on time and attend the class wherein the memo is due in

order to get credit for the memo. If you are not on time or not in class, the memo grade will be

penalized as above. Each memo should be a cogent piece of analysis and writing, 4-6 pages long