Building a Leadership Repertoire across Time and Space: Lessons from Comparative Cases

Building a Leadership Repertoire across Time and Space: Lessons from Comparative Cases Abstract The case method of instruction in professional graduate programs has been used for decades. Initiated first in graduate... [ view full abstract ]

Building a Leadership Repertoire across Time and Space: Lessons from Comparative Cases

Abstract
The case method of instruction in professional graduate programs has been used for decades. Initiated first in graduate programs in business administration, the method has now become quite common in programs in public affairs. One subject particularly amenable to the case method is leadership. However, given the very nature of case teaching and analysis, cases are only rarely used as data for theoretical and conceptual development. (One major exception is Mark Moore’s book, Creating Public Value.) In this paper I develop the concept of a leadership repertoire and use cases from a number of different country and policy environments to describe the concept of a leadership repertoire and how one may be developed by senior managers in government. Using a number of different cases I try to show that one’s repertoire can be developed experientially through exposure to different policy and management challenges. However, the real test of the repertoire occurs when the senior manager is exposed to challenges that do not perfectly replicate the leadership cases presented in the rarefied classroom setting. The “method” I use is a hypothetical senior public manager from an unidentified country who is exposed to a series of challenges across time (approximately 40 years) and space—about five different countries. As a thought experiment I imagine how this hypothetical senior manager develops a leadership repertoire experientially by confronting “facts on the ground”—the cases—and the choice dilemmas that are faced by dissimilar country and policy environments. The objective, in other words, is to simulate the development of a leadership repertoire that, by virtue of the dissimilar environments is sufficiently robust. Countries include the United States, China, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Singapore. Policy areas include corrections, education, public health and crime.