Degree Requirements
Students are required to complete seven 4-unit courses for a total of 28 units of graduate work: four 4-unit core courses (16 units) and three 4-unit elective courses (12 units). Core leadership courses are complemented by a host of electives from communication to public management to business, available throughout USC, so that students can apply leadership to a specific topic or area. The elective courses will be selected from existing graduate classes in consultation with the faculty advisor. The program begins in June and concludes the following summer.
The core classes are offered in an intensive format, which is highly interactive and is designed to accommodate the scheduling demands of working professionals. Each four-unit course meets for eight full days that are scheduled around weekends, typically in two or three blocks per semester, that meet approximately four weeks apart.
REQUIRED CORE COURSES (16 UNITS)
PPD 640 - Leadership Foundations: Competencies and Core Values (Summer)
This course is an intensive introduction to leading through core values and focuses on developing leadership skills at the personal level to build a foundation for leadership at all levels. The class is designed to create a learning environment that helps to initiate the formulation of a professional development plan and develops the skills reflective of practice, bringing clarity to situations of profound uncertainty.
Through a series of self-assessment instruments, learning experiences and leadership case studies, the participants will examine leadership practices; identify effective influence and motivational methods; develop reliable communication strategies; increase negotiation competencies; move away from zero-sum approaches; and improve conflict management capabilities.
PPD 641 - Leading Individuals, Groups, and Teams (Fall)
This course is designed to improve the executive's effectiveness managing people. The class will focus on topics related to improving the participant's leadership skills in creating and leading high-performing teams, departments and organizations and building and maintaining effective partnerships, coalitions, and networks.
Students will utilize a variety of learning designs including role-plays, self-assessment inventories, in-class exercises, case studies, and discussions.
PPD 642 - Strategic Leadership of Organizations (Spring)
This course is designed to provide students with knowledge, skills, and insights into organizational strategy and leadership. Leading strategically involves the establishment of an organizational vision, and the use of leadership processes and measures to develop a strategic direction, in order to mobilize stakeholder support for changes or transformations to achieve organizational purposes.
The class includes material on strategic analysis; performance measurement; organizational structure and networks; organizational learning and change; and connecting the organization to its environment through boards and other mechanisms.
PPD 643 - Leading Transformations Across Sectors (Summer)
This integrative seminar will examine the mechanisms, structures, and processes for leading across organizational sectors and institutional boundaries. The course will teach effective negotiation, planning, communication, and political management skills for leading in non-hierarchical environments. The class will emphasize case studies, negotiation exercises, and simulations to develop skill sets needed for leading the design, management and evaluation of networks, partnerships, collaborations, public-private scenarios, and other multi-sectoral arrangements. The seminar will examine the methods and processes that political, business, civic, and organizational leaders use to transform their communities, cities and/or regions.
Emphasis will be placed on ethical and legal responsibilities, authentic community and stakeholder engagement, advocacy, and cross-sectoral transformation. Drawing on case studies, presentations by leaders on their community transformation efforts and exemplar works in the field, this course will provide participants with the vision, perspective, methods, and strategies necessary to lead transformations.
A portion of the course will be devoted to a review of each participant's professional development plan and the design of learning activities to continue the individual's growth as a leader and as a change agent.
Electives
In addition to the aforementioned 16 required units of core coursework, students are required to take 12 units of electives. Elective courses will be selected in consultation with the faculty advisor based on the student's individual learning goals and development plan.
Students are able to choose from a wide range of electives that SPPD offers each semester that will be applied to a particular area of study. Examples of concentrations that are available include, but are not limited to, public management, urban planning, public policy, nonprofit and/or health management, transportation, and public finance. Elective courses are offered on a weekly or intensive basis.