1. Define authoritarian, laissez faire and democratic leadership styles in the context of organizational management. Then explain how each style affects the productivity of the workgroup, the participation of workers in decision-making, and employee satisfaction. With specific reference to authoritarian and democratic leadership styles, compare the impact on short-term organizational success each style is likely to have, as well as the reasons for those impacts. Is each style likely to have the same kind of impact over the longer term? If not, explain the reasons why.

2. How do managing and leading differ in terms of the sources for their authority? What, according to Chester Barnard, are the critical leadership functions for organizational executives? Why, in modern society, must society’s top leaders, including the President, set a moral tone and example and communicate key societal values and policies.

3. Identify an individual whom you believe has exhibited powerful leadership in public life.  ("Public life" = the overall field in which social, economic and political issues play out.  Public life includes, but is not limited to, the "public sector.  Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, George Washington and Barack Obama are/were in public life--but only Washington and Obama were in the public sector.)

a. Once you have identified your candidate, analyze what you believe are the bases of his or her power, making explicit and logical linkages to one or more of French and Raven's concepts.  Say whether you would characterize your candidate as a hedgehog or a fox, and tell us why.  Then, give an assessment of your chosen leader's commitment to transformation in the spheres in which he or she operates.  What strategies did they pursue to achieve a transformation, what success did they have and what were the reasons they did or did not succeed? 

b. Finally, briefly compare your chosen candidate to James Madison (with whom you should thoroughly familiar from your reading of Collier and Collier).  What were the bases of Madison's power, and was he a hedgehog or a fox? 

4. Identify the four major elements of collective bargaining process, specifying the sequence in which they occur.  Then discuss, using examples, at labor/management dynamics in the public sector can differ from those in the private sector.

5. In what ways was the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 a reaction to perceived deficiencies in the Civil Service Commission model of public personnel management that had been dominant through most of the 20^th Century? What were the new mechanisms established by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 and what did each do?

6. Identify the steps that would be taken in an “ideal” approach to developing an employee training program. What are the reasons that this ideal is rarely achieved? Identify at least three training approaches, giving examples of each. Pick the approach that you believe is the most effective and explain your choice.

7. What are the functions of performance appraisal? Which function do you think is dominant in organizations generally? Which function has dominated in your current or past workplaces? Identify the five types of performance appraisal, and why behavioral anchors might strengthen one or more of these appraisal approaches.