Leadership and Society

Welcome to the course Ethics in Public Policy! This course will help you learn about the role that ethical, moral, and cultural principles play when lawmakers and public officials formulate and execute public policy. This course draws upon classical writings in political theory and contemporary cases on ethical dilemmas in public policymaking. It will enable you to debate various ethics themes such as justice, equality, fairness, individual liberty, free enterprise, charity, human rights, and minimising harm to others. It will also help you grasp how these themes integrate into various decision-making models, such as the utilitarian approach, fairness and justice approach, and rights approach. This course will help you examine these models in a real-life context to help balance competing interests to make the best decision. In this course, you will gain an in-depth understanding of the challenges that stand at the crossroads between moral and practical decision-making as a real-life practitioner. You will find answers to questions such as if tolerance is a virtue in public policies that risk challenging constitutional norms, what could be the ethical implications of state violence in the name of national interest, and if it would be a good ethical policy to building dams to generate electricity for more people by displacing the inhabitants of that area. With the help of case studies, this course will help you dive deep into the dilemmas faced by the policymakers (both elected and appointed). It will also help you find some middle-ground that is morally just and optimizes social purpose.

Welcome to the Essence of Leadership course! By the end of this course, you will have a thorough understanding of the foundations for leaders, present or future. You will learn about the basic principles and their applications in different contexts. You will gain exposure to different leadership styles and practices of various leaders, past and present. The course orients you to the conceptual and theoretical considerations on the subject with its practical dimension with examples drawn from different domains of life from the recent developments. You will analyze how leadership is intimately linked to the process of obtaining solutions to potential social problems which is not achievable through individual action. You will examine global leadership traits, local-level leadership, and leadership portrayed in popular films that exhibit the different leadership perspectives and their central role in restoring order to otherwise chaotic situations. This course provides a broad base and conduit to learners wishing to pursue a master’s degree program in Public Policy or related degrees in Business Administration or International Affairs.   This course is designed for learners with some work experience in public or private organizations. The knowledge you gain from this course will help you advance to leadership positions in your careers or move to jobs that require leadership insights which are necessary for most intermediate and advanced job positions.    To succeed in this course, you should have prior experience working in teams, and have a basic understanding of management or leadership. Above all, be interested in these topics.