John F. Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University
Revised: August 15, 2012
MLD-101: S
, S
,
L
P
S
O
F
2012
Professor Thomas Glynn
Taubman 456
617-496-1911 thomas_glynn@hks.harvard.edu
Section D T/TH 10:10 a.m. - 11:30 p.m. L-230
(Office Hours: Thursday, 9am-10am or by appointment)
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course is intended to equip students with analytic techniques public and non-profit managers and leaders can use to increase the value their organizations create, and to provide opportunities to use these techniques in real-life situations. We do not assume that all students will necessarily become leaders and managers of public or non-profit organizations. We understand that there are many other platforms that can be used to exercise leadership in public life -- including the positions of policy analyst, political advocate, or elected representative of the people. All of these roles, however, require a sophisticated understanding of organizations.
By the end of the course, students should be able to adopt a managerial perspective, make a fairly sophisticated diagnosis of an organization's strategic position, and develop a plan for improving its performance. You will also be well-positioned to take higher level courses in management, leadership, and decision-making focusing in more detail on the particular kinds of instruments managers and leaders may use to improve the performance of organizations they manage.
OURSE
SSISTANTS
Laszlo Palko laszlo_palko@hks13.harvard.edu
650-787-4274
Razvan Orasanu rasvan_orasanu@hks13.harvard.edu 617-583-0367
ACULTY
SSISTANT
ESSICA
C
LANAHAN
jessica_mcclanahan@hks.harvard.edu
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OURSE
EQUIREMENTS
This course is taught by the case method, involving active interaction with real-life situations as a way of helping make certain analytic techniques a part of your cognitive apparatus. Careful preparation of cases, including thinking about the study questions for each case, is therefore crucial. Also, because we have a great deal to discuss, class will begin promptly at 10:10 a.m. Students are expected to be in class and ready to start then. If even one or two students arrive late, this is disruptive and disrespectful to everybody in the classroom who has arrived on time. It is also expected that students will attend all classes. If you need to miss class for some reason other than illness, please email me in advance explaining why you will not be able to attend class.
In class, use of laptops to take notes is fine. However, use of laptops in class to check email, surf the web, use Facebook or Twitter, text, etc. are unprofessional, and disrespectful to everyone in the classroom. All mobile devices must be switched off during class.
GRADED COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Class participation
First Written Assignment
30%
20%
Second Written Assignment 20%
Third Written Assignment 15%
Reading Period Assignment 15%
C
LASS
P
ARTICIPATION
(30%)
For each given class session, the assumption is that each student has prepared the case and is ready to offer a commentary and, as appropriate, a way to address the challenges or problems presented. We will spend no time in class reviewing the facts of the case. I will normally begin each class with a "cold call,” and typically I will make other cold calls as well during class . If, for whatever reason, you have been unable to prepare a case sufficiently and wish not to be cold-called that day, please advise me either by email or by talking with me before class, and I will respect your request.
For many students, the best way to analyze cases is to rely on study groups. You may wish to form and use such groups, and to have discussions of specific cases and general course issues at regular intervals.
Part of the input into students' class participation grades will be a peer evaluation at the end of the semester . Students will be asked to submit a list of up to ten classmates who, in the student evaluator's opinion, contributed the most to the quality of the learning experience of the class.
W
RITTEN PRODUCTS
(70%)
The course also includes four written assignments. Three of them, due October 9, October 23 and
December 6 will be based on the case being discussed in class the day of the assignment.
The last assignment will be due during reading/exam period on December 17. You will be asked to read one of four books and to write an essay about the book you have chosen. Further details below.
All assignments will be anonymous; label your assignments using only your student Exam ID numbers. All assignments are due at the beginning of class.
Under the Kennedy School Academic Code, the assignments for this course are “Type I” assignments. You should work on your assignments alone and write them up alone . Collaborative work has a strong place in organizations, but it is more appropriate for people who have already been students, and are bringing acquired expertise and experience to a workplace situation; where a team is responsible for a joint work product; or (in a school setting) where an assignment is pass-fail. The Kennedy School Academic
Code is available at: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/var/ezp_site/storage/fckeditor/file/pdfs/degree-programs/registrar/academic_code.pdf
3

My performance standard as the instructor is to have all written assignments returned to you, graded and with comments, one week after they have been handed in.
C
OURSE
R
EADINGS
All cases, which are at the core of each class, will be available only in a packet available from the
HKS Course Materials Office. Required readings supplemental to the cases are available on the course website whenever possible, but some are also in the CMO course packet when no online source is available.
I am also old-fashioned enough to believe that books provide a good permanent reminder of a student's encounter with a body of knowledge. The books to follow have been ordered for you at The Coop, and a limited number will also be on reserve at the HKS Library.
Book required for purchase :
Noah J. Goldstein, Steve J. Martin, and Robert B. Cialdini, Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to
Be Persuasive , Free Press, 2008
(And also choose one of the following four for your final assignment)
Kim Cameron & Marc Lavine, Making the Impossible Possible: Leading Extraordinary Performance –
The Rocky Flats Story , Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2006
Steven Kelman, Unleashing Change: A Study of Organizational Transformation in Government . The
Brookings Institution Press, 2005
Scott Snook, Friendly Fire: The Accidental Shootdown of U.S. Black Hawks over Northern Iraq ,
Princeton University Press, 2002
Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer, The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy,
Engagement, and Creativity at Work. Harvard Business Press, 2011
Book recommended for purchase :
Mark Moore, Creating Public Value , Harvard University Press, 1997
Please note about the above:
(l) Cameron & Lavine, Kelman, Snook, and Amabile and Kramer are the alternative reading period assignments. Choose Cameron & Lavine if you would like to read an inspiring story of successful organizational performance in a government context (written by two academics who are at business schools) that you may—or may not!—find too optimistic. Choose Kelman if you are interested in learning more about a topic we have already discussed somewhat in class (organizational change) and/or in seeing an example of the empirical methods you’re learning in other parts of the Core to research about public management. Choose Snook if you'd like to read an example of the application of social psychology/organizational behavior literature (most of it not discussed directly in the course) to a real-life problem, the shootdown of Army helicopters by US planes while flying over empty skies, in nonbattlefield conditions, in northern Iraq in 1994. Due to the nature of the assignment for the Snook book, if you have already read this book (for another course, or any other reason), you should
NOT choose this as your reading period assignment. Choose Amabile and Kramer for a book that emphasizes managing people, is relevant for a firstline supervisor and does an excellent job presenting academic research to a non-academic audience.
(2) I haven't assigned a large enough portion of the Moore book to require, in good conscience, that you purchase it. However, this is a great book, filled with wisdom that I would urge you to buy and read cover to cover at your leisure (if any). Because the library can't put enough copies on reserve to give people a chance to read the assigned pages if you don't own the book, I've included photocopies of the
Moore reading in your course packet and on the web.
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MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP MATTER
September 6
STRATEGY
Aravind Eye Hospital
September 11
September 13
September 18
Managing Student Aid in Sweden
Pine Street Inn
Martha Johnson and GSA
PERSONAL AND INTERPERSONAL SKILLS
September 20
September 25
September 27
October 2
Judgment and Decision-making
Providence School Superintendent
PACT – Partners in Health (also a strategy case)
Persuading the Dean: Tying HKS Financial Aid to Public Service?
PERFORMANCE AND PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
October 4
October 9
COMPSTAT
Performance Management in Washington DC (*)
DESIGNING ORGANIZATIONS
October 11
October 16
October 18
October 23
TEAMS
Forest Service
Martha Johnson and GSA: The Sequel
NYC Transit Authority
Logan Airport TSA (*)
October 25
October 30
November 1
November 6
November 8
Desert Survival Exercise (I)
Desert Survival Exercise (II)
Tip of the Iceberg
Managing a Global Team: Global English Lingua Franca
Centers for Disease Control – Team B
CREATING OPERATING CAPACITY INSIDE AN ORGANIZATION
November 13
November 15
Benihana of Tokyo
Production Exercise
CREATING OPERATING CAPACITY ACROSS ORGANIZATIONS
November 20
November 27
November 29
Department of Social Services & La Alianza Hispana
Coventry’s Community Safety Partnership
Parks and Partnership in New York City
MANAGING AND LEADING ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE
December 4
December 6
December 17
British Broadcasting Corporation or OMB Performance Management
Michelle Rhee and the DC Public Schools (*)
FINAL ASSIGNMENT DUE by 5 p.m.(*)
(*) Written assignment due
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September 6 – Aravind Eye Hospital
Required readings
1.
The Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai, India: In Service for Sight (HBS case 593-098)
2.
Grant, Adam. “Employees without a Cause: The Motivational Effects of Prosocial Impact in
Public Service,”
International Public Management Journal 11(1) (Jan. 2008): 48-66.
3.
Bass, Bernard M. and Ronald E. Riggio. “The Transformational Model of Leadership” pp. 3-
9 in Transformational Leadership , 2 nd
edition. 2006. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Questions for Class Discussion:
1.
What does Dr. Venkataswamy need to do right in order to translate his vision for Aravind into reality? What does Aravind do in organizing its production process to accomplish these things? Although this is not the only issue we will discuss, please be prepared to discuss how the use of an “assembly line” makes this operation more efficient.
2.
Can Aravind financially afford to increase the salaries it pays its doctors? If it can, should it?
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September 11 - Managing Student Aid in Sweden
Required readings
1. Managing Student Aid in Sweden (abridged version) (HKS Case Cl6-93-1161.3)
2. Mark H. Moore, Creating Public Value , pp. 13-21, 57-76, 293-300 [Note: pp. 293-300 are not in course reading packet #1 due to copyright restriction. They are available on the course webpage, and in the copies of the book on reserve at the HKS library.] (FRAMEWORK)
Questions for Class Discussion:
1.
How would you characterize Billy Olsson’s overall strategy for CSN during the period described in this case? (What are the major substantive goals he seeks? What is his overall plan for how to realize those goals?)
2.
What, if anything, does a manager gain by developing an overall strategy?
3.
It is 1980, and the government has announced that agencies will be asked to cut back their administrative expenses for several years. What arguments can be made in support of Olsson going along with this policy rather than seeking an exemption? What arguments can be made against it? Without the benefit of hindsight, which do you think would have been a wiser approach for Olsson to have adopted at the time, and why? (NB: Some students will be asked in class to defend the position that Olsson should have resisted cutbacks, while others will be asked to defend the position that he should have accepted them.)
4.
How does Olsson’s strategy fit Moore’s Strategic Triangle?
5.
To what extent does Billy Olsson display elements of a transformational leadership style?
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September 13 – Pine Street Inn
Required Readings
1.
Pine Street Inn, DRAFT CASE – HKS, 2012. (Handout)
2.
Edgar H. Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership, Josey-Bass, 2004. Pp 1-23, 39-61
(FRAMEWORK)
Questions for Class Discussion:
1.
What did the statistical analysis reveal about the prevalence of homelessness across the PSI guest population?
2.
What were the strategy challenges facing Lyndia Downey in expanding the permanent housing mission? Discuss capacity and constituency issues.
3.
As described by Schein, what is the organizational culture at Pine Street Inn? How does it affect Downey’s strategy for change?
4.
What are the implementation challenges and how would you address them?
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September 18 – Innovation at GSA: Zero Environmental Footprint and the Extreme
Challenge
Required readings (and tasks to complete before class)
1.
"Innovation at GSA: Zero Environmental Footprint and the Extreme Challenge", KSG
Case No 1956.0
.
2.
Watch the accompanying video online at: https://knet.hks.harvard.edu/Administration/Case_Program/Pages/GSA-Final.aspx
(KNET login required; a link to this is also on the MLD-101 online readings page)
Questions for Class Discussion:
1. How does what Martha Johnson did when she came to GSA in terms of a strategy centered around ZEF compare with what we have been discussing in terms of the
"strategic triangle"?
2. Is ZEF a good choice for a central strategic goal for Johnson? Why or why not?
3. Look at the quote in the case where Johnson says she "didn't want to spend weeks at
Hershey, Pennsylvania, in the conference center there, talking about our mission and our goals and so on." Do you agree with her or not? Should Johnson have thought more formally about her strategy before embracing ZEF as her signature goal? Should she have consulted more with career staff about her strategy?
4. What do you like about how Johnson is executing the ZEF goal? What don’t you like?
Would ZEF have a better chance with more disciplined planning?
5. Of high level government leaders, the organization scholars Jeffrey Pressman and
Aaron Wildavsky have written:
“The view from the top is exhilarating. Divorced from the problems of implementation, federal bureau heads, leaders of agencies, and prime ministers in poor countries think great thoughts together. But they have trouble imagining the sequence of events that will bring their paths to fruition. Other men (sic), they believe, will tread the path once they have so brightly lit the way.”
Is it fair to criticize Johnson for acting in the way Pressman and Wildavsky criticize? Is
Johnson guilty of "vision without execution"?
PLEASE NOTE: A year after this case was written, Martha Johnson had to resign because of a widely reported scandal occurring under her watch involving a regional GSA training conference that took place in Las Vegas, included a clown and a mind reader, and was preceded by several “planning” trips to Las Vegas by senior career staff in the GSA San
Francisco region. We will discuss the class today as if this subsequent scandal never took place, but will return to the scandal in a class on October 16 called “Martha Johnson: The
Sequel.”
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September 20 – Judgment and Decision Making
Required reading & tasks (before class)
1.
Complete the Internet survey on decision making. Before submitting the survey, please print out (or otherwise save) your individual answers and bring them to class ; in class, we will discuss average answers for the class as a whole.
2.
Max H. Bazerman & Don Moore, Judgment in Managerial Decision Making, 7 th
Edition
(Wiley, 2009), pp. 1-6
3.
Lord, C. G.; Ross, L.; Lepper, M.R.”Biased assimilation and attitude polarization: The effects of prior theories on subsequently considered evidence.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 37(11): 2098-2109.
4.
Lord, C.G., Lepper, Mark R., and Preston, E. “Considering the Opposite: A Corrective
Strategy for Social Judgment.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 47(6):
1231-1243.
Questions for Class Discussion:
1. Why do we use shortcuts in making decisions? When is "intuition" a good guide to making decisions?
2. When do shortcuts lead to problems in making decisions? What cognitive biases tend to create the worst problems for decisions that leaders and managers make?
3. How easy (or hard) is it to “de-bias” cognitive biases?
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September 25 – Providence School Superintendent
Required readings
1. Winning Hearts and Minds: Reforming the Providence School District (A) [HKS Case
1689.0]
2. Biographical material on Melody Johnson.
3. Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive by Noah J. Goldstein, Steve J. Martin, and Robert B. Cialdini. Please read "ways" numbers 1, 2, 3, 8, 15, 16, 26, 27, 28, 29, 43,
48, 49, 50, and Epilogue.
4. “Principles of Effective Persuasion” HBS note 9-497-059
Questions for Class Discussion
1. What changes need to take place in the operating capacity of the Providence School
District if Melody Johnson is to accomplish her goals?
2. What changes in the behavior of Providence teachers is required in order to bring about such an alteration in organizational capacity?
3. What should Melody Johnson say in her talk to teachers on December 10? Which of the persuasion techniques in Goldstein, Martin, and Cialdini should she use? To what extent, if at all, should she “take the teachers on” and criticize them for not being willing to give up some of their privileges in order the help the children?
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September 27 – Partners in Health: The PACT Project
Required readings
1. Partners in Health: The PACT Project Case, (HBS Case No. N2-608-065)
2.
“Accompaniment as Policy”,
Paul Farmer’s HKS Commencement Address, May 2011.
Questions for Class Discussion
1.
What are the common denominators between Partners in Health Global approach and their domestic approach in Boston at PACT?
2.
How does Dr. Behforouz cope with early setbacks?
3.
What lessons would you carry forward in the management of a small or start up nonprofit?
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October 2 – Persuading the Dean: Tying HKS Financial Aid to Public Service?
Required readings
1. Packet of materials on a) trends in public service post-graduation jobs, b) HKS financial aid, c) proposals to use financial aid to encourage students to take public service jobs, and d) Dean
Ellwood’s professional background and statements on this issue.
(Not in course reading packet. This material is posted on the course website.)
Assignment:
For this class, students will be paired to discuss with the “Dean” the question of whether in the future all HKS financial assistance to MPP students should be in the form of aid contingent on the student working some number of years in a public service job upon graduation (where the student will need to pay the assistance back if s/he does not take a public service job). Further details will be provided before class.
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October 4 – COMPSTAT
Required Readings:
1.
"Assertive Policing, Plummeting Crime: The NYPD Takes on Crime in New York City"
(Read pp. 5-9, 14-26, and skim the rest of the case)
2.
“Epilogue: Crime Falls, Doubts Arise” [HKS Cases 99-1530.0 & .1]
Questions for Class Discussion:
1.
What, if anything, do you like about the way Maple organizes the COMPSTAT meetings to discuss crime data? What, if anything, do you dislike?
2.
If you believe that COMPSTAT creates pressures to increase police mistreatment of minorities in New York City, what, if anything, can be done to remedy that effect? Are there ways the performance management system should be changed? Should it be abandoned?
3.
Think about the public policy area where performance measurement has had the highest public visibility – using student standardized test scores as performance measures in elementary/secondary education. Based on their use in the management of public schools, what do you see as some potential problems with using performance measures for public organizations? Are there ways to deal with these problems?
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October 9 – Performance Management in Washington, DC
Required Readings:
1.
Mayor Anthony Williams and Performance Management in Washington, DC (HKS Case
1647.0)
2.
Harry P. Hatry, Performance Measurement , pp. 8, 12-18, 59, 119-30 (Urban Institute Press,
1999)
Written Assignment:
Please answer the following questions. Your answers should total no more than 1000 words altogether (excluding the list in question 3 dividing performance measures into inputs/activities, outputs, and outcomes, which you should place on a separate sheet of paper. Also, "1000 words" means 1000 words for all 4 questions in total, not 1000 words for each one of them.).
Your answers to Questions 2 and 4 will count the most, to Question 1 the least.
1.
How does the system of performance measurement in Washington, DC relate to, and promote, the Mayor's strategy for improving life in the city?
2.
Look at line managers’ use of performance measures at the Departments of Motor Vehicles and Consumer & Regulatory Affairs. What do you like (and/or not like) about how these managers used measures? Why? Be specific!
3.
Look at the performance measures in Exhibit 9 involving the following two goals: "Making
Government Work" and "Strengthening Children, Youth, and Families." Which of them would you classify as inputs/workload/activities, which as outputs, and which as outcomes?
(See especially the box on p. 13 of Hatry.)
4.
What are arguments for why outcome measures are preferable to input/output measures?
What are arguments for why input and/or output measures might be acceptable, or even superior to, outcome measures? Under what circumstances are input and/or output measures most appropriate, and when are outcome measures most appropriate?
Please do not put your name on your assignment! Rather, label your assignment with your
HKS EXAM ID number only. Assignment is due at the beginning of class.
In addition, please prepare to discuss the following question in class (not part of the written assignment above):
If you were Mayor Williams, would you be scared as you make performance commitments you may not meet?
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October 11 – Forest Service
Required Readings:
1.
What If We Could Start Over? The US Forest Service Champions “Bottom-up”
Management (A) (HKS Case 1246.0)
2. Henry Mintzberg, Structure in Fives: Designing Effective Organizations (Prentice Hall,
1983), pp. 1-3 and Chapter 2.
3. Peter H. Daly and Michael Watkins. The First 90 Days of Government , Harvard
Business School Press, pp1-15, 37-56, 155-181 (FRAME WORK).
Questions for Class Discussion:
1.
What are the virtues of rules/standard operating procedures (SOP,s) in designing organizations? What are their drawbacks? For each virtue and drawback, be prepared to give an example from your personal work experience, your experience as a student (part of an organization called a university), and/or the situation of the Forest Service in this case.
2.
What are some guidelines for when you might want to rely more heavily on rules, or less heavily on them, in designing an organization? Why are government organizations more likely to be designed in a way that places heavy reliance on rules?
3.
Overall, do you support the efforts of the Forest Service to gain greater freedom to move money more freely across budget categories? Why or why not?
4.
Is there any way to reconcile the demand of the Appropriations Committee for accountability and the desire within the Forest Service for fewer rules?
5.
Using the Daly and Watkins framework (realignment, turnaround, sustaining success, and start up), how would you assess the situation facing each of the case protagonists we have discussed to date, (Dr V, Billy O, Lyndia, Dr B, Bratton, Mayor Williams, Johnson,
Johnson)?
Summary:
This session will also include a summary of material covered to date.
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October 16 – Martha Johnson and GSA: The Sequel
Required Readings (and tasks to complete before class):
1.
Selected summary and background materials and videos posted on the MLD-101 Online
Required Readings webpage. Further details will be provided in advance of class.
2.
Robert Simons, “Management Control in an Age of Empowerment”
Harvard Business
Review , March 1995
Questions for Class Discussion:
1.
If you followed the “GSA conference scandal” in the media at all, what was your reaction at the time? Has your reaction changed at all from taking this course so far? If so, why?
2.
Do you think Johnson’s leadership style as presented in original case had any connection with the behaviors producing the scandal?
3.
Is there anything Johnson should have done differently in leading GSA to reduce the probability of events such as these from having taken place? (Note that the materials suggest planning for this particular event was already well underway before Johnson came to GSA, but assume for the purposes of answering this question that planning for this event started after she arrived.) Should she, or her personal staff, have been reviewing event plans more carefully?
4.
Situations like the GSA scandal contribute to an environment where most government organizations are quite rule-bound compared with many private or nonprofit ones. What can managers do to counteract the negative effects of a very rule-bound environment on organizational performance?
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October 18 – Managing the Underground City:
The NYC Transit Authority Reclaims its Subway Stations
Required Readings:
1.
Managing the Underground City: The NYC Transit Authority Reclaims its Subway Stations
(HKS Cl8-95-1275.0)
2.
View the Multimedia Case “The Problem at the 231st Street Station"*
Questions for Class Discussion:
1. Why do stovepipes arise within organizations? What benefits do they bring? What problems do they cause? Be prepared to give examples from your personal work experience.
2. Assuming no reorganization, how should John Gerst go about maximizing his ability to serve the customers at the 231st Street Station? Is there any way he can gain cooperation from other parts of the Transit Authority in his efforts to get a new turnstile installed at the station?
In particular, how should he deal with his boss, Eddie Howe, given Howe's attitude towards
Gerst's effort to get an additional turnstile at 23lst Street? (Be sure to listen to the interview with Howe in the multimedia case!)
A few things to keep in mind in preparing the case:
1) Read the written case before you do the multimedia case. It will give you important background.
2) The case contains a fair amount of material on bus service and the crossover between subway and bus service. We will NOT discuss these issues in class, and you need not pay attention to these aspects of the case.
3) Some of the people being interviewed in the multimedia case have heavy New York accents, which may create some difficulties for students whose native language is not English. Perhaps the New Yorkers in the class can get together with students whose native language isn't English to watch some of this together. This will have the additional side-benefit of counteracting the stereotype of New Yorkers as uncaring people.
*Accessing and running the Multimedia case
A web-based, multimedia case called "The Problem at 231st Station" accompanies the written case "Managing the Underground
City: The NYC Transit Authority Reclaims its Stations." The case is located online at: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/is/subway/shell/application/index.html
A link will also be available via a link from the MLD-101C course webpage on the HKS Intranet. You will need your HKS
Intranet (KNET) username and password to login.
You can run the program on your own machine or on any HKS Networked computer that is designated for student use. Any machine will need a sound card, speakers, and/or headphones to allow you to hear the video interviews.
Most networked machines on campus are located in the Student Computer Lab in the ground floor of Taubman. Many of the student computers around the school are designated solely for e-mailing, and the program takes a while (approximately one hour) to explore, so please be considerate when deciding where to view the case. Please do not run the program on HKS library computers. The program has not yet been proven over wi-fi connections on campus or elsewhere, so accessing wirelessly is a “use at your own risk” proposition. The program also uses Adobe Flash video, so Apple devices (e.g., iPads) that don’t support Flash will be useless for viewing the multimedia case.
18

October 23 – Logan Airport TSA
Required Readings:
1.
Mina O'Reilly at Logan Airport's TSA (HBS Case 9-409-116)
2.
Perry, James L., Hondeghem, Annie, and Wise, Lois Recascino, “Revisiting the Motivational
Bases of Public Service: Twenty Years of Research and an Agenda for the Future.” Public
Administration Review 70(5) (Sept./Oct. 2010): 681-690..
3.
Grant, Adam M., “Leading with Meaning: Beneficiary Contact, Pro-social Impact, and the
Performance Effects of Transformational Leadership.”
Academy of Management Journal 55(2)
(2012): 458-476.
4.
Watch the brief video news report about a similar security breach at Newark Airport http://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/skelman/MLD101/Video/Newark_TSA_Security_Breach.wmv
Questions for Class Discussion:
1. What are the opportunities for improving the performance of TSA screeners? What are the challenges making it more difficult to do so?
2. What steps should TSA management take to improve the performance of TSA screeners? Be concrete! (In other words, "increase identification with the mission" is not a sufficiently concrete answer.) Make suggestions about specific managerial actions.
3. What should Mina O'Reilly do with Ludo Sanchez? Why? What are the arguments that determine your conclusion? What is the next-best alternative? What are the strongest arguments on its behalf, and why did you choose your preferred approach over the next-best one?
PLEASE NOTE: ( 1) TSA employees are exempt from normal civil service protections found in Title
V of the federal code. The Aviation and Transportation Security Act (Sec 111(d)) states,
"Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Under Secretary of Transportation for Security may employ, appoint, discipline, terminate, and fix the compensation, terms, and conditions of employment of Federal service for such a number of individuals as the Under Secretary determines to be necessary to carry out the screening functions of the Under Secretary under section 44901 of title 49, United States Code." The courts have consistently ruled that TSA has very broad authority under 111(d). TSA employees have due process for terminations to the degree it is granted by the TSA Administrator. Currently there is a review process for terminations.
(2) TSA currently measures performance of screeners in detecting disallowed items in luggage using equipment that projects false images of disallowed items onto luggage that is going through screening, by seeing how often screeners “catch” the disallowed items.
Written Assignment:
Please answer questions 2 and 3 above. 70% of your grade on this assignment will be based on the creativity and realism of your answer to the question about ways to improve screener performance. A smaller number of ideas that have been thought through more is preferable to a larger number of ideas that are mentioned only briefly; alternatively, you could discuss one or two ideas in greater depth, and quickly mention a few others. 30% of your grade will be based on your answer to the second question about how to deal with the Ludo Sanchez issue.
19

Your answer should be no more than 1000 words, and less is fine. "1000 words" means 1000 words for all questions in total, not 1000 words for each one of them. Please do not put your name on your assignment! Rather, label your assignment with your HKS EXAM ID number only. Assignment is due at the beginning of class.
20

October 25 – Desert Survival Exercise (I)
Required Readings:
This class will be based on a video shown in class. You will be asked to try to solve the problem presented in the video first as individuals, then as members of a team.
Questions for Class Discussion:
1. Think about teams/groups you have been involved with a) as a student (group exercises) and b) in your working life (production teams or problem-solving teams). Have your experiences in such teams/groups been predominantly good or predominantly bad? Why?
2. If there have been situations where you have been placed in a group or team but would have preferred to accomplish the task alone, why was that?
NB: Teams will be asked to prepare a debriefing regarding team processes between today's class and the next one. You should try to leave time as soon after today's class as possible -- lunch together, or a meeting in the afternoon -- to discuss team processes while they are still fresh in your minds (though you may actually want to write your team's brief debriefing report, discussed in the Questions for Class Discussion for next class, later).
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October 30 – Desert Survival Exercise (II)
Required Readings:
1. Stasser, Garold, and Titus, William. “Hidden Profiles: A Brief History.” Psychological
Inquiry 14(3&4) (2003): 304-313.
2. Fragale, Alison R., “The Power of Powerless Speech: The Effects of Speech Style and Task
Interdependence on Status Conferral,”
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision
Processes 101 (2006): pp. 243-261.
3. Hackman, Richard, “Why Teams Don’t Work” in R. S. Tindale et al., (Eds.)
Theory and
Research on Small Groups . New York: Plenum.
Questions for Class Discussion:
1. What can prevent information held by one group member from getting shared with the group, even if it is valuable? Do you think this problem occurred in your team?
2. Do you think that demographic diversity – racial, gender, functional/professional, international, age – is generally good for team performance, or not? Why?
3. Are there feature(s) of the Desert Survival Exercise that make this a task where teams are more likely than many teams to perform well? Are there feature(s) that make this a more difficult task than usual for a team?
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November 1 – Tip of the Iceberg: Global English Lingua Franca Simulation
This class will consist of a 20-minute, in-class, computer-based exercise simulating the experience of a globally dispersed team communicating and collaborating across national and language boundaries. The exercise will be followed by an extensive debriefing. Class will meet
(at the usual time) in the HKS Student Computer Lab on the ground floor of the Taubman
Building. You do not need to bring your laptop to class.
Required readings
1. Brief introductory material (to be provided as a handout)
2. Armstrong, D. J., & Cole, P. “Managing distances and differences in geographically distributed work groups.” Pp. 167-189 in P. J. Hinds & S. Kiesler (eds.), Distributed work .
2002. MIT Press.
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November 6 – Managing a Global Team: Greg James at Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Required readings
1.
Managing a Global Team: Greg James at Sun Microsystems, Inc. (A) (HBS case 9-409-003)
2.
Earley, P. C., & Mosakowski, E. (2004). Cultural Intelligence. Harvard Business Review ,
82(10), 139-146.
3.
Billig, Machael and Henri Tajfel, “Social Categorization and Similarity in Intergroup
Behaviour.”
European Journal of Social Psychology 3(1) (1973): 27-52.
(NOTE: Please skim bottom of p. 37 to bottom of p. 47 (the “Results” section), read the rest.)
Optional Exercise
Test your “CQ” using “Quick CQ Self Assessment Tool” at the following link: http://www.culturalq.com/selfassessgo.html
Note: Answer the Quick CQ Self Assessment questions and then continue down the page to interpret your responses and read additional reflection questions.
Questions for Class Discussion:
1. How well has James managed his global team?
2. Who is responsible for the HS Holding crisis?
3. What role did diversity play on this team?
4. What should James do in the short and long term?
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November 8 – Centers for Disease Control - Team B
Required Readings:
1.
Keeping an Open Mind in an Emergency: CDC experiments with ‘Team B’
(HKS Case 1895.0) and the case sequel (HKS Case 1895.1)
2.
Asch, S.E. 1963, "Effects of Group Pressure Upon the Modification and Distortion of
Judgments" in Groups, Leadership and Men , ed. H. Guetzkow, Russell & Russell, New
York, pp. 177-190.
3.
Nemeth, Charlan, “Differential Contributions of Majority and Minority Influence,”
Psychological Review 93:1 (1986), pp. 23–32.
4.
Porter, Roger, Presidential Decision Making: The Economic Policy Board . Cambridge
University Press (1980). Pp. 235-243
Questions for Class Discussion:
1.
What are some of the possible problems to which a Team B at the CDC can be seen as a solution?
2.
How might a Team B be used so as best to cope with these problems, if the goal is to improve the ability of the working team ("Team A") to do its work?
3.
What do you think of the idea of using Team B as an alternate source of information and opinions for a higher-level CDC decision maker (such as Director Gerberding)?
4.
Are you surprised that the focus of the purpose of Team B shifted to transparency and public involvement over time? Do you like this change of emphasis?
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November 13 - Benihana of Tokyo
Required Readings:
1.
Benihana of Tokyo (HBS case 9-673-057)
2.
“Big Med,” Atul Gawande, MD., The New Yorker. August 13 and 20, 2012 (Handout).
Questions for Class Discussion:
1.
What operational challenges does a restaurant face in being successful in the marketplace?
What are some alternate possible ways to meet those operating challenges?
2.
What is Benihana's operating strategy for meeting these challenges? What do you think of it?
3.
How does Benihana keep its labor costs to 10 -12% of gross sales, compared to 35 – 40 % for a typical full service restaurant (Exhibit 1)? Is this likely to create a problem in terms of the customer's experience? Why or why not?
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November 15 – Production Exercise
Required Readings:
1. Davis and Heineke, Operations Management , pp. 213-220 (“definitions”); p. 222
(“bottlenecks”); pp.152-155 (“Process Selection”); 414-415 (“Assembly Line Balancing”);
276-287 (“Defining Quality”)
NOTE: This class will involve an in-class exercise, to be presented in class. These pages are good background reading for this exercise and for subsequent classes on operations management.
Definition:
Process – any step or series of steps that are involved in the conversion or transformation of inputs into outputs.*
* Source: Davis, Aquilano, and Chase, Fundamentals of Operations Management , 3 rd edition, 1999.
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November 20 – DSS and La Alianza Hispana
Required Readings:
1.
High Stakes and Frightening Lapses: DSS, La Alianza Hispana and the Public-Private
Question in Child Protection Work (A) (HKS C16-94-1265.0)
Questions for Class Discussion:
1.
Should DSS be contracting out this service to La Alianza or running it in-house? (In thinking about your answer, use facts from the case up to but not including the revelations about the
Ventura family.)
2.
Think back to the Aravind case at the beginning of the semester. Should Aravind have been making its lenses in-house, or should they have contracted for them?
3.
Should government contract out (a) prison operation, (b) benefits determination for welfare recipients, (c) operation of the student loan data center, (d) operation of campsites in national parks, (e) conducting a study of the costs and benefits of regulating cotton dust in textile plants for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration?
4.
What general principles for when government should or should not outsource service production do you draw from your answers to Questions 1-3?
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November 27 – Coventry’s Community Safety Partnership
Required Readings:
1.
“Going it Together: Coventry’s Community Safety Partnership” (HKS Case CR16-06-
1831.0)
2.
Eugene Bardach, Getting Agencies to Work Together (Brookings, 1998), pp. 1-6, 15-17, and
Chapter 5. [NB: The expression “ICC” Bardach uses in Chapter 5 stands for “Interagency
Collaboration Capacity.”]
Questions for Class Discussion:
1. Why is it difficult to get agencies to work together on common problems that cross organizational boundaries?
2. What are some of the assets those interested in promoting interorganizational collaboration have available to try to promote such collaboration? Give examples from the case of how some of these assets were used to promote partnership working for community safety in
Coventry. Are there approaches to promoting partnership working that Coventry could have used but didn't?
3. To what extent is the Coventry CDRP basically an effort to extend the resources available to traditional kinds of police work through assistance from other agencies, and to what extent does it represent a new approach to crime and disorder reduction?
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November 29 - Parks and Partnership in NYC
Required Readings:
1.
Parks and Partnership in NYC: Adrian Benepe’s Challenge(A) (HKS C16-04-1743.0)
Questions for Class Discussion:
PLEASE NOTE: The “B” case (which we do not read for class) discusses a new stage in the partnership between the Central Park Conservancy and New York City. This was a formal agreement whereby the City turned over most of the actual day-to-day management of the
Central Park to the Conservancy. We will be talking about this decision as part of class, and the questions below relating to whether there should be a contract and, if so, what provisions it should have, refer to this agreement to turn Central Park day-to-day management over to the
Conservancy.
1.
What do you see as advantages, compared to the Park Department managing the Park, of giving management of Central Park to the Central Park Conservancy? Disadvantages?
2.
How is the Central Parks Conservancy arrangement similar to a contract with a for-profit firm for mowing the grass at a park, cleaning the trash, or running food concessions, and how is it different?
3.
Should the Parks Department sign a formal contract with the Conservancy regarding their management of Central Park (with provisions going beyond simply granting them responsibility for park management)? Why or why not? If there is a more detailed contract, what should it cover?
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December 4 – Improving Government Performance from OMB
Required Readings:
1.
Shelley Metzenbaum and Improving Government Performance from OMB, DRAFT CASE,
HKS, 2012 (Handout)
Questions for Class Discussion:
1.
What does Metzenbaum inherit when she walks in the door at OMB in 2009? What levers does she have?
2.
As a skillful indirect manager and leader, what innovative technologies does Metzenbaum develop to improve government performance across the entire federal government?
3.
What are the lessons from the HUD-VA Homeless Veterans effort that could be applied to other situations in the federal government?
Summary:
This session will also include a summary of the course.
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December 4 – British Broadcasting Corp. (ALTERNATE)
Required Readings:
1.
British Broadcasting Corp. (A): One BBC and British Broadcasting Corp. (B): Making It
Happen [HBS cases 303075-PDF-ENG & 303076-PDF-ENG]
2.
Lester Coch and John R. P. French, "Overcoming Resistance to Change," Human Relations ,
1948, Vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 512-532.
3.
Jonathan L. Freedman and Scott C. Fraser, “Compliance Without Pressure: The Foot-in-the-
Door Technique,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 1966, Vol. 4, pp.195-202
Questions for Class Discussion:
1.
What is Greg Dyke's agenda for change at the BBC? Should he continue the separation of programming and commissioning begun under John Birt or not?
2.
How is Greg Dyke's approach to change management similar to that recommended by Coch and French? How is it different?
3.
Why might "small wins" be an important part of change management leadership?
4.
A senior executive is quoted in the A case (p. 13) as stating: "The BBC is a huge, potent force for good. It is like a shining city on a hill. Our problem has been that...(employees) lose sight of the beauty of the city. ...We want to restore to people the larger view of what they are part of."
What do you think of Greg Dyke's approach to doing this?
5.
What do you like about how Greg Dyke approached this change effort? How, if at all, would you have approached the change effort differently? How do you evaluate the degree of success of this change effort as of the end of the case?
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December 6 – Michelle Rhee (ALTERNATE)
Required Readings:
1.
Michelle Rhee and the Washington D.C. Public Schools (HKS Case No 1957.0)
2.
View the Video Interviews posted on-line here: https://knet.hks.harvard.edu/Administration/Case_Program/Pages/Rhee.aspx
(
KNET login required; a link to this is also on the MLD-101 online readings page)
Questions for Class Discussion:
1.
Should Rhee have adopted the approach Coch and French recommend for bringing about organizational change? Why or why not?
2.
“I don’t believe in the warm and fuzzy stuff. I don’t believe in collaboration, because it hasn’t worked. I don’t care about hurting the adults’ feelings. I care about getting kids the education they deserve. This is an emergency. It is not a time to be polite.”
– Michelle Rhee, quoted in Class Warfare by Steven Brill
Do you agree or disagree with the thoughts Rhee expresses here? Why?
3.
Rhee’s first major action as superintendent was to close 15% of DC school buildings. Do you agree with her decision to choose this as her first major step? Why? If you disagree, what would you have done instead as the first major action -- and what would you have been trying to accomplish by the action you recommend?
4.
Are there steps Rhee could/should realistically have taken to reduce opposition to her ideas among teachers and/or parents? Would these likely have advanced her organizational change agenda or not?
5.
In the case, one Washington school Parent-Teacher Association leader is quoted as saying, “Rhee and her people are not from D.C. They don’t understand us.” How, if at all, should Michelle Rhee’s profile as an outsider have changed the way she set about the process of change management?
PLEASE NOTE: In your spring term econometrics class, you will revisit this case to examine the substance of the “impact” assessment tool as a performance measure. In preparing this case for our class, you should read the discussion of “impact” and the union’s reaction, but we will not discuss to what extent this was a good performance measure.
Written assignment
Please answer questions 1, 3, and 4 above. The answers to each question will count about equally, and it is acceptable to answer the questions as one essay, though you should be sure to deal with the material presented in each question. NB: Your answer to question 4 may, if you choose, discuss issues raised in question 5.
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Your answer should be no more than 1000 words, and less is fine. "1000 words" means 1000 words for all questions in total, not 1000 words for each one of them. Please do not put your name on your assignment! Rather, label your assignment with your HKS EXAM ID number only. Assignment is due at the beginning of class.
Reading Period Assignment
Choose one of the four books. Your response to these questions should be around 4-5 pages, double-spaced. This assignment will be due by 5 p.m. on Monday, December 17 th
. (Note the separate, earlier deadline for Part 1 of the Friendly Fire choice.) Please label your assignments with your HKS Exam ID and also prominently with the name of the book.
Assignment for Making the Impossible Possible:
1) Discuss how points made in this book complement issues/themes we discussed during the semester in the (diverse) areas of leadership, contracting, and project management.
2) Discuss how themes or points made in the book would have added to our understanding of four classes from the course.
3) What (if any) are the arguments the authors make that you find most convincing, and what (if any) those about which you are most skeptical? Do you believe that the
"abundance" approach the authors present towards developing "positive deviance" in organizational performance is generally a realistic one or not? Why or why not?
Assignment for Unleashing Change:
1) What are the three arguments/insights in this book that you found most unexpected or surprising? Why were they surprising or unexpected to you? What are the strengths and/or the limitations of the arguments the book makes on their behalf?
2) Take some change in practice at the Kennedy School that you would like to see occur, involving the curriculum or any feature of the organization of the School. Based on the arguments of this book, provide Dean Ellwood with a plan for how to go about trying to implement the change you propose.
Assignment for Friendly Fire :
This assignment has two parts. The first part is due by 5 p.m. on Monday, December 10 th .
The 2 nd
part is due by 5 p.m. on December 17th.
Part One:
Read Ch. 1-2 only (DO NOT BEGIN THE REST OF THE BOOK). Then prepare a onepage (maximum) response to the following question:
Given what you know about how large organizations work, do you have any ideas for what might explain the shooting down of the Black Hawk helicopters? What specific aspects of the shootdown of the Black Hawks appear most puzzling to you?
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PLEASE NOTE: This first assignment is designed to help you prepare a better answer to the second part of the assignment and to increase your interest in the argument the rest of the book will make. By reflecting on the puzzles the chapter raises before you read the answers the author gives to the puzzles, you will, I think, better appreciate the contributions organization theory can make to helping you figure out puzzling practical problems.
Your answer to Part One will “count” only negligibly towards your grade for the whole assignment. A good answer to this question will mainly get reflected in a better answer you will be able to prepare for the second part of the assignment. If you read beyond Chapter 2 for this part of the assignment, you won’t learn as much from this assignment as you will by holding off reading the rest of the book until after this first part is due. Reading beyond will also not help you for this part of the assignment, because no credit will be given for getting the “right” answers, and will probably hurt your ability to give a good answer to the second part of the assignment.
Part Two:
Read the rest of the book. Prepare a response (maximum 5 pages, but don’t feel you need to use up the maximum space allowed) to the following questions:
1) In your personal view, what are the three insights from the theories about organizational behavior Snook presents to explain the shootdown of the Black Hawks that most helped you and/or that you least expected? Why? Of these insights, what single one would you most like to see incorporated into MLD-101?
2) Briefly discuss five situations (at least three from the cases this semester and at least two based on experiences you have had as a member of an organization) where insights from organization theory found in Friendly Fire but not discussed in MLD-101 would help you understand better what was going on in the situation and/or help you figure out what interventions might make the situation turn out better?
Assignment for The Progress Principle :
1) What are the three arguments/insights in this book that you found most unexpected or surprising? Why were they surprising or unexpected to you? What are the strengths and/or the limitations of the arguments the book makes on their behalf?
2) Discuss how ideas in this book might have been helpful to Martha Johnson in leading
GSA, to Mina Reilly as a manager at TSA, to Greg Dyke in leading the BBC, and to at least one other manager in another case we discussed this semester.
3) Think of your experiences in a job (or jobs) before you came to the Kennedy School. In what ways did your supervisor apply or not apply ideas appearing in this book, and what were the impacts of the supervisor’s behavior on you and/or others with whom you worked.
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