Managing Public Service Organizations (MPSO)

NYU Wagner CORE-GP 1020

Fall 2017

Martha E. Stark, Esq.

Clinical Professor of Practice

Email: martha.stark@nyu.edu

Office: Puck Building, 3040C

Phone: 212-992-8704

Office hours: Tuesday/Wednesday, 2:00pm5:00pm or by appointment

Section 006

Time:

Every Tuesday, 6:45 pm to 9:30 pm; September 5th through December 5th

Location:

Bobst Library, 70 Washington Square South, Room Lower Level 138

Teaching Assistant:

To Be Determined

Assistant Office hours:

To Be Announced

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The goal of Managing Public Service Organizations (MPSO) is to improve your managerial and leadership skills. You have likely already made significant individual contributions to your organizations. Within a few years of graduation, you will be called to manage a group or decide to start or lead an organization. MPSO is a core part of the Wagner curriculum because it is designed to enhance the technical, interpersonal, conceptual, and political skills all graduates need to run effective and efficient departments and organizations embedded in diverse communities and industries. In class, we will engage in a collective analysis of specific problems that leaders and managers facediagnosing, debating, and selecting a strategyto explore how organizations can meet and exceed their performance objectives so that they can best serve the people who need those services.

COURSE MATERIAL

1. GENERAL INFORMATION

NYU Classes http://newclasses.nyu.edu/: Is where you will find the course syllabus, assignments, exercises, surveys, and slides.

If you have not activated your NYU Net ID or have forgotten your password, you can activate or change your password at http://start.nyu.edu.

MPSO Plus: This document provides additional courses and optional readings so that you can explore the topics we cover in more depth.

Some class announcements will also be distributed via e-mail. Thus, it is important that you actively use your NYU e-mail account, or have appropriate forwarding set up on NYU Home at: https://home.nyu.edu/.

2. BOOKS

THIS BOOK MUST BE PURCHASED NEW!!!!!! Rath, Tom, Strengthsfinder 2.0, Gallup Press. ISBN-10: 159562015X. (Available as an e-book.) BOOK MUST BE PURCHASED NEW!!!!!! Hereafter referred to as Strengths.

Bolman, Lee G, and Deal, Terrence E. Reframing Organizations Artistry, Choice and Leadership, 5th Edition, Jossey-Bass, 2013. ISBN-10: 1118573331; ISBN-13: 978- 1118573334 (Available as an e-book.) Hereafter referred to as Reframing.

Miller, Ken We Dont Make Widgets, Overcoming the Myths that Keep Government from Radically Improving, Governing Books, 2006. ISBN-10: 0872894800; ISBN-13: 978-08728948. (Available as an e-book.) Hereafter referred to as Widgets.

Miller, Ken Extreme Government Makeover: Increasing Our Capacity to Do More Good, Governing Books, 2011. ISBN-10: 0983373302; ISBN-13: 978-0983373308. (Available as an e-book.) Hereafter referred to as Extreme. OPTIONAL BUT VERY USEFUL!!!!!

3. COURSEPACK

Here is a link to the coursepack that we will use for the course: http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/access/67869819. There are 15 articles/case studies and access to the Mount Everest simulation included in the coursepack. Total cost for the coursepack is a little less than $80. Wherever possible, I eliminated cases and tried to find cases that are available free of charge.

4. SUBSCRIPTIONS

Subscribe for free to Bob Behns Management Reports at the following website and address: http://thebehnreport.hks.harvard.edu/subscribe. I promised Bob I would increase his readership and thats why you need to subscribe!

All Bob Behn required readings are available at the following link http://thebehnreport.hks.harvard.edu/archive. Hereafter referred to as Behn.

5. OTHER INFORMATION

Electronics (computers, tablets, phones) are generally not allowed during class so please bring your readings, a notebook, pen, etc. Lets discuss this though.

Please refuse to be content to be confusedASK QUESTIONS!

There will be a significant amount of team work. Put aside your skepticism about teams and be open to working in and with teams.

Please try to have a sense of humor and keep an open mind! Also, flexibility. I expect some things will change on the syllabus during the semester.

STATEMENT OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

As members of the NYU Wagner community, we are all expected to adhere to high standards of intellectual and academic integrity. Please read: http://wagner.nyu.edu/students/policies.

DISABILITIES

It is University policy that no qualified person be excluded from, or discriminated against, by any University-sponsored program or activity, with a legal mandate for equal inclusion coming primarily from the Federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The Henry and Lucy Moses Center for Students with Disabilities (CSD) exists to facilitate equal access for students with disabilities at NYU.

CSD assists students with disabilities in their efforts to obtain reasonable accommodations (adjustments to policy, practice, and programs that level the playing field for students with disabilities and provide equal access) for participation in University programs and activities.

If you need a reasonable accommodation, please visit the Center's website or contact Robyn Weiss at 212.998.4975 or rew8@nyu.edu.

RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS

There are several religious holidays coming up. I know that this might result in your having to miss class. None of the major holidays fall on Tuesday this year when our class meets. Nonetheless, I will try to structure any important in class activities around the upcoming holidays. If youre going to miss class, please let me know. So that you stay abreast of the material, the easiest thing to do is to ask a fellow classmate to record audio/video the lecture via mobile phone or other recording device and more generally to update you about the missed class. If for some reason this cannot work, or if several students will be missing a given class, I can try to arrange to have the class recorded.

I am aware of the upcoming holidays listed below. Please let me know if I have missed any holidays that you celebrate and I will make sure to include them.

Eid al-Adha (Islamic) Friday, September 1*

Rosh Hashanah (Jewish) Thursday-Friday, September 21* 22

Muharram New Year (Islamic) Thursday, September 21*

Yom Kippur (Jewish) Saturday, September 30*

Sukkot (Jewish) Thursday-Friday, October 5*-6

Shemini Atzeret (Jewish) Thursday, October 12*

Simchat Torah (Jewish) Friday, October 13*

Diwali (Hindu) Thursday, October 19

Birth of Bah'u'llh (Bahai) Sunday, November 12

Hanukkah (Jewish) Wednesday-Wednesday, December 13* 20

* Begins at sundown on the prior day.

DISCLAIMER

While I have made every attempt to provide a syllabus that is complete and accurate, circumstances and events may make it necessary for me to modify the syllabus during the semester. I appreciate your willingness to be flexible about that possibility.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES AND SKILL DEVELOPMENT

The course combines conceptual and experiential approaches and is divided into eight sections: (1) setting goals, (2) knowing thyself, (3) designing, aligning, and structuring organizationsthe structural frame, (4) interpersonal dynamics and motivationthe human resource frame, (5) team process and effectiveness, (6) power, influence, and negotiationthe political frame, (7) understanding culturethe symbolic frame, and (8) bringing it all together, congruence and frame analyses, ethics, managing and measuring performance and leading change.

Readings will introduce key concepts and useful ways of thinking about common situations in complex organizations. Case studies, exercises, and in-class discussions provide opportunities to apply theories, concepts, and research findings to situations so that you can hone your managerial and leadership skills. The written assignments require you to consolidate your insight and practice your analytical and communication skills.

There are three learning objectives that cut across each class:

Learning objective

Supporting Skillset

1

Analytical thinking

a. Identify, analyze, and address underlying problems and opportunities

b. Recognize and analyze complex relationships

c. Reframe the way you approach people and situations

2

Leveraging diversity

a. Identify, understand, and use different types of diversity

b. Explore how to create, participate in, and coach diverse teams

c. Develop skills to address the challenges and opportunities of diversity

3

Communication

a. Recognize the importance of clear communication with stakeholders

b. Prepare effective, clear, organized written reports and presentations

c. Conduct effective meetings and facilitate group/team discussions

CLASS TEAMS

You will be assigned to/choose teams early in the semester. The teams will likely work together the entire semester. At the start of each class, you will have the opportunity to discuss and debate issues including the case analysis and recommendations before the class discussion in which you may be called on without warning. You are expected to do all the assigned readings on your own before class.

ASSESSMENT AND GRADING POLICY

Individual assessment1. Contribution to disc