Understanding Public Leadership

A new edition of a popular textbook that provides a systematic and up-to-date introduction to the different approaches to understanding leadership in the public sector. This text draws together a wide range of enduring and cutting-edge scholarship to provide a clear and concise overview of the area. Written by two of the field's leading experts, it uses real-world case studies to unpack the dilemmas and complexities facing leaders in contemporary democracies. Now streamlined to further help students navigate this widely debated area, this is the ideal text for undergraduate and postgraduate modules on leadership on public administration and management courses. Moreover, with its balance between theory and applicability it is also a valuable resource for training courses for public sector professionals. New to this Edition: - Streamlined chapter structures and improved pedagogical features that are even more useful for students - A new co-author bringing added insights from organizational science and quantitative methodologies - Revised to address the most up-to-date developments in thinking about leadership in the 21st century

This is the best single-source guide to leadership development in the public sector. It offers a wealth of advice for teachers, students, trainers, human resource officers, and established leaders. The all-original chapters include discussions of leadership frameworks, competencies for public leaders for the "new governance," and strategies for senior leaders in government.The book's wide-ranging coverage includes in-depth discussions of specific approaches to learning methods such as action learning and social artistry, as well as presentations of leader development models such as transformational stewardship and global leadership. The contributors present experiences from real-world leadership development programs, and the book situates leader development within the current trends of networks, collaboration, and boundary-crossing work in the public sector.

'Leadership' is routinely admired, vilified, ridiculed, invoked, trivialised, explained and speculated about in the media and in everyday conversation. Despite all this talk, there is surprisingly little consensus about how to answer basic questions about the nature, place, role and impact of leadership in contemporary society. This book brings together academics from a broad array of social science disciplines who are interested in contemporary understandings of leadership in the public domain. Their work on political, administrative and civil society leadership represents a stock-take of what we need to know and offers original examples of what we do know about public leadership. Although this volume connects scholars living in, and mostly working on, public leadership in Australia and New Zealand, their contributions have a much broader scope and relevance.

Most leadership literature stems from and focuses on the private sector, emphasizing personal qualities that bind leaders and followers to a shared purpose. As the authors of New Public Leadership argue, if these shared purposes do not build trust and legitimacy in public institutions, such traditional leadership tropes fall short of the standard demanded by contemporary public servants.? For twenty years the authors have been developing a leadership education and training framework specifically designed to encourage public service professionals to ‘lead from where they sit.’ This book presents that comprehensive, integrated, and practical leadership framework, grounded in the uniqueness of public legal missions, culture, history and values. The authors explore three key elements of leadership success: 1) an understanding of our public service context, including the history, the values and the institutions that comprise our leadership setting, 2) a set of tools designed to help leaders initiate collective action in wicked challenge settings, and 3) tools to support sound judgment, enabling leaders to do the right thing in the right circumstances for the right reasons. The authors further provide readers with a basic understanding of democratic institutions, encouraging them to work within and across multiple vertical and horizontal systems of authority.? The book is organized into four sections, each of which is accompanied by a Master Case that provides the reader with an opportunity to apply the principles and leadership tools discussed in the text to practice. To further reinforce the practice-centered approach to leadership knowledge and skills, the authors have developed an accompanying EMERGE Leadership Handbook, complete with exercises, available online.? Written specifically with the practicing public manager in mind, this book arms public servants with a large repertoire of leadership skills, designed to accommodate changing public values and conflicting priorities at all levels of our public organizations.

Drawn from the results of five seminars this unique book looks at the four areas of: public sector reform; essential features for public leaders; public leadership in action; and the outline of a public leadership approach for the future. It seeks to give public leadership a firm foothold within the study of leadership in general.

The forces of globalization are shifting our world, including the public sector, away from hierarchy and command and control toward one of collaboration and networks. The way public leadership is thought about and practiced must be, and is being, transformed. This volume in the "Transformational Trends in Governance & Democracy" series explores what the shift looks like and also offers guidance on what it should look like. Specifically, the book focuses on the role of "career leaders" - those in public service - who are agents of change not only in their own organizations, but also in their communities and policy domains. These leaders work in network settings, making connections and collaborating to create public value and advance the common good. Featuring the insights of an authoritative group of contributors, the volume offers a mix of scholarship, from philosophical discussions to conceptual models to empirical studies that, taken together, will help inform the transformation of public leadership that is already underway.

An ideal resource for students and professionals, this comprehensive reader offers a diverse collection of the foremost writings on leadership and management in the public and nonprofit sectors. The book includes previously published essays, articles and extracts from leading books and periodicals, framed and vetted by author and professor James L. Perry. The anthology covers a wide range of topics, offering a third sector perspective on the general leadership questions essential to any manager--principles and practices of leadership, organizational change, corporate culture, communication, efficiency, ethics--as well as issues unique to public and nonprofit organizations--understanding leadership roles in the nonprofit world, founder vs. ED relationships, board leadership, alternative and collaborative leadership, strategic management, sustainability, and the future of leadership. Praise for The Jossey-Bass Reader on Nonprofit and Public Leadership: "The Jossey-Bass Reader on Nonprofit and Public Leadership is the most comprehensive collection of essays on leadership available. It should be required reading for all of those who teach, practice and are students of the art and science of leadership." ?Stephen E. Condrey, University of Georgia "This collection of short and readable pieces will be very valuable for students and practitioners of public and nonprofit leadership." ?Michael O'Neill, professor of nonprofit management, School of Business and Professional Studies, University of San Francisco "James Perry has provided a very valuable tool for nonprofit and public sector leaders. This collection represents the very best lessons for leaders, from John Gardner to Kouzes and Posner. The clear structuring and framing of the articles makes this a perfect handbook for nonprofit and public sector leaders of all types." ?Ronald E. Riggio, Henry R. Kravis Professor of Leadership and Organizational Psychology Director, Kravis Leadership Institute, Claremont McKenna College "Jim Perry brings together in a single volume much of the best writing on leadership theory and leadership 'doing.' For anyone interested in the attributes and practice of leadership, this is the book, looking back at what's been proven effective and forward to what's needed in the next generation of leaders." ?Timothy L. Seiler, director, The Fund Raising School, The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, Indianapolis, Indiana

From small, local associations to national social movements, this work demonstrates how we can make more meaningful assertions about what leaders do and how they do it to better push for systemic social change.