PUBH 850 Leadership and Management

The main emphasis of this course is guided by recent events and new trends; public health training increasingly requires new and more advanced information—leadership and management skills drawn from business, industry, education, and government. This course offers skills necessary for students entering the field of  public health management with a specific focus on developing knowledge and skills in the cross-cutting competency domains.

The course provides students with the tools needed to diagnose and solve organizational problems; to influence the actions of individuals, groups, and organizations; and to lead high-performing, successful public service organizations. A key leadership task is to assemble the skills, talents, and resources of individuals and groups into those combinations that best solve the organizational problems at hand. Leaders must manage people, information, and processes to accomplish organizational goals; they must make things happen, and often not under conditions or time frames of their own choosing.

The successful execution of these goals requires leaders to be able to understand what they bring to and need   from their organizations, formulate a mission and strategy, make effective decisions, influence and motivate diverse individuals, apply their own skills and abilities to their teams, optimize the structure of their organization, diagnose problems, and drive organizational  change.

Each class will focus on a particular set of leadership skills. The goal will be to distinguish between effective and ineffective strategies. Students will accomplish this  by discussing key theoretical concepts, analyzing related cases, engaging in exercises, and completing team projects. This course reflects a dual focus on practice and conceptual training. The course packet readings introduce key concepts and useful ways of thinking about common situations in complex organizations. Case studies and  class exercises provide opportunities to apply theories, concepts, and research findings to particular situations, sectors, and fields of interest to the students and  to hone skills in problem definition and problem solving. The written assignments, including the team project, ask students to consolidate their insights and to practice their analytic skills.