NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
ROBERT F. WAGNER GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC SERVICE
Prof. Mindy Tarlow
Spring 2009
Time & Place:
Monday, 6:45-8:25 pm
Room 701, Silver Center
Office Hours: By Appointment
P11.2110 Strategic Management
The great potential for public benefit of public service organizations remains unrealized due,
in large part, to uncertain or conflicting goals, unsuitable organizational structure and inadequate
managerial performance. Much dissatisfaction with public and nonprofit organizations stems less
from disagreements over the ends of public service organizations than the means. Indeed public
service leaders find increasingly that organizational adaptation and maintenance of support are
among the toughest challenges they face. In order to deal effectively with these challenges,
managers need to acquire knowledge and skills in strategic management. These include conceptual
and leadership skills such as the ability to accurately read change in the external environment,
define and redefine organizational purpose, handle the complex trade-offs between demand for
services and resource constraints, maintain the commitment and productivity of employees, and
guide the organization toward continuous improvement of service production and delivery systems
to meet client needs. In other words, managers need deep knowledge of how to think, decide, and
act strategically, both in organizational affairs and in matters affecting their capacity for leadership.
Strategic Management aims to prepare current and future managers of public service
organizations for leadership roles by focusing on the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes needed
to manage public service organizations strategically. This course is required for all students in the
Public and Nonprofit Program's management specialization.
Course objectives. Upon completion of this course students are expected to have 1) a deeper
understanding of the manager's role as leader, strategist, planner, designer of structure, and
creative problem-solver, 2) a good understanding of systems and systemic thinking as key concepts
for strategic management, 3) the ability to identify and analyze critical short term and long term
issues confronting an organization and make recommendations for strategic solutions, 4) the ability
to tailor strategy to promote its implementation, and 5) a good understanding of the role of
leadership in achieving strategic change in public service organizations.
Books and cases available for purchase:
P11.2110 (002)
Spring 09
Kevin P. Kearns, Private Sector Strategies for Social Sector Success: The Guide to
Strategy and Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations, Jossey-Bass, 2000
Reading packet and Case packet available separately at Unique Copy Center (252A
Green Street); other readings available on Blackboard (BB) as noted.
Case packet includes:
C16-88-856.0 -Finding Black Parents: One Church, One Child by Anna Warrock
(Kennedy School of Government)
C16-92-1155.0 - Meeting for a Need: Jerry Abramson and CIty Work in Louisville, Kentucky by
David Kennedy (Kennedy School of Government)
C18-95-1281.0 - Managing Change or Running to Catch Up: CARE USA and Its Mission in
Thailand by Amy Tarr (Kennedy School of Government)
9-694-038 - Habitat for Humanity International by Gary Loveman and Andrew Slavitt
(Harvard Business School)
9-303-007 - The Nature Conservancy by Allen Grossman (Harvard Business School)
9-302-124 - Oxfam America in 2002 by Reynold Levy (Harvard Business School)
9-301-037 - Jumpstart by Allen Grossman (Harvard Business School)
Recommended
Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee, Primal Leadership:
Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence, Harvard Business Press, 2004
J. Gregory Dees, Jed Emerson, and Peter Economy, Strategic Tools for Social
Entrepreneurs: Enhancing the Performance of Your Enterprising Nonprofit, Wiley,
2002
Requirements:
1. Term paper.
 choose an organization to examine for your term paper; brief
organizational overview (Due Feb. 9) .
 short paper (about 5 pages) providing a strategic assessment of
your organization (Due March 30) .
 final paper (5-8 pages) examining the strategic issues facing the
organization, alternative responses, and implementation barriers,
including leadership issues (Due May 12)
2. Two short essays applying course concepts to experience (Due March 2
and May 4)
3. Active involvement in the class.
Grading: Class involvement and participation: 10%.
assessment paper: 20%. Final paper: 40%:
Short essays: 30%. Strategic
Overview of the Course
INTRODUCTION
1
Introduction (Jan. 26)
2
Strategy: key concepts I (Feb. 2)
3
Strategy: key concepts II (Feb. 9)
DEVELOPING AN ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY: ANALYSIS
4
Organizational purpose & strategic environment (Feb. 23)
5
Strategic assessment of the organization (March 2)
6
Developing new strategies (March 9)
7
Collaborative strategies (March 23)
IMPLEMENTING STRATEGY
8
Redesigning work process for purpose and performance (March 30)
9
Engaging the workforce and stakeholders in strategic change (April 6)
10
In-Class Workshop (April 13)
STRATEGY AND LEADERSHIP
11.
12.
13.
Leadership and leadership competencies (April 20)
Strategic leadership I (April 27)
Strategic leadership II (May 4)
COURSE TOPICS AND READINGS
Part I. Introduction
Session 1.
Introduction to the course, instructional material, methods, and
requirements
Session 2. Strategy I: key concepts
Key questions
What is meant by strategy, strategic planning, strategic analysis, and strategic
management? What are the varieties of strategic planning? How does strategic
planning differ from strategic action? What are the main features of a strategic
planning process? How applicable is strategic planning to public and nonprofit
organizations?
Required readings Kearns, 3-49 Henry Mintzberg, "The Fall and Rise of Strategic
Planning," Harvard Business Review, Jan-Feb, 1994:107-114 (BB)
Mark Moore, Creating Public Value: 57-76
Session 3 Strategy: key concepts II
Key questions What is meant by the terms: systems, systems thinking, systems dynamics,
mental models, shared vision, and team learning? What is their relevance to
organization and strategic management?
Required reading
Robert Louis Flood, Rethinking the Fifth Discipline: 13-28, 79-97
Part II. Developing Organizational Strategy: Analysis
Session 4. Organizational purpose & strategic environment
Key questions
What is meant by mandate, mission, and goal? How does an understanding of purpose relate
to organizational change, strategy, and performance? Why is a thorough understanding
of an organizational environment essential to strategic planning, thinking, and acting?
Required readings
Sharon Oster, Strategic Management for Nonprofit Organizations: 17-28 (BB)
Kearns, 50-107 Michael E. Porter, “What Is Strategy?” Harvard Business Review
(November-December, 1996): 61-78 (BB)
Case: Habitat for Humanity International
Session 5. Strategic assessment of the organization
Key questions
Of what value is an assessment of organizational strengths and weakness in strategic
analysis? Why is assessment of technical and operational systems essential? What are
the main tools for assessment?
Required readings
Kearns, 108-131, 218-240
J. Gregory Dees, et al., Strategic Tools for Social Entrepreneurs, 19-43
Case: The Nature Conservancy
Session 6. Developing new strategies
Key questions
How do you move from analysis to strategies, policies, and programs? How do you develop
creative, imaginative solutions to strategic problems? How do managerial behaviors
influence the choices and outcomes?
Required readings
Kearns, 135-217
Case: Managing Change or Running to Catch Up? CARE USA and Its Mission in
Thailand
Session 7. Collaborative Strategies
Key questions
What factors have increased the need for strategic collaboration among public service
organizations? What practices increase the likelihood that strategic collaboration will
succeed?
Required reading
Kearns, 241-267
J. Gregory Dees, et al., Strategic Tools for Social Entrepreneurs, pp. 4569
Case: Finding Black Parents: One Church, One Child
III. Implementing Strategy
Session 8.
Redesigning work process for purpose and performance
Key questions
How do the structural and design components of organizations offer opportunities
for managerial influence and control? What are the main elements of design that are
subject to managerial influence? What are the advantages and limitations of each? To
what extent are the various elements of design substitutable? In what ways do they
interrelate?
Required readings
Kearns, 271-316
Lawrence G. Grebiniak, Making Strategy Work: Leading Effective Execution and
Change, Ch. 1
Robert S. Kaplan and David Norton, “Using the Balanced Scorecard as a Strategic
Management System,” HBR, Jan-Feb., 1996: 75-85 (BB)
Case: Jumpstart
Session 9. Engaging the workforce and stakeholders in strategic change
Key questions
What do managers need to do to engage the work force in strategic change? How can
the social system be effectively related to strategic goals? What are the critical
obstacles that public service managers typically encounter in implementing strategic
change? Which approaches to overcoming them hold the most promise? How do teambased solutions to these problems work, and why do they often succeed?
Required readings
Michael Beer and Russell A. Eisenstat, “The Silent Killers of Strategy
Implementation and Learning,” Sloan Management Review, Summer 2000: 29-40
(BB)
Case: Oxfam America in 2002
Session 10. In-class Workshop
IV. Strategy and Leadership
Session 11. Leadership and leadership competencies
Key questions
What are the requirements for successful leadership of strategic change? What
impact does a manager's personal and interpersonal competencies have on his or her
performance?
Required Readings
Daniel Goleman, “Leadership that Gets Results,” Harvard Business Review, MarchApril, 2000: 78-90 (BB)
Case: Jerry Abramson and CityWork in Louisville
Session 12 Strategic leadership I
Key questions
What are the main elements of influence and persuasion available to a manager and what are
their limits? How do different styles of leadership affect individual and group performance?
How do leaders affect performance standards and quality in their organizations?
Required Reading
Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee, Primal Leadership,
“Reality and the Ideal Vision: Giving Life to the Organization’s Future” (Ch. 10) and
“Creating Sustainable Change” (Ch. 11)
Session 13. Strategic leadership II
Required reading
Kearns, 317-325