Skip to content
Skip to main content

About this free course

Become an OU student

Download this course

Share this free course

An introduction to public leadership
An introduction to public leadership

Start this free course now. Just create an account and sign in. Enrol and complete the course for a free statement of participation or digital badge if available.

Week 1: What is public leadership?

Introduction

Welcome to Week 1 of An introduction to public leadership. In this course, you will be exploring the concepts and debates surrounding leadership in ‘the public sphere’. Leadership is seen as important because it is often seen as a primary means of bringing about change and innovation in an organisation. But is this actually the case? And what do we mean by ‘public’ leadership?

In the following video, Mike Lucas interviews Jean Hartley, Professor of Public Leadership at The Open University, who introduces the idea of public leadership. She discusses what defines debates that take place in the public sphere and how these influence the priorities of public services.

In her research, Professor Hartley has focused on several of the distinctive features of public leadership – such as the public service and community context, the relationship of leaders’ work to democratic politics and the importance of a focus on public value. She has authored several key reports that inform government thinking on leadership in the public services, and is an influential voice in debates about change in the local government, health and policing sectors.

Download this video clip.Video player: ou_futurelearn_police_vid_1002.mp4
Copy this transcript to the clipboard
Print this transcript
Show transcript|Hide transcript
 
Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).

Before you start, The Open University would really appreciate a few minutes of your time to tell us about yourself and your expectations of the course. Your input will help to further improve the online learning experience. If you’d like to help, and if you haven’t done so already, please fill in this optional survey [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .