This module focuses on practical leadership and management skills, understanding power and politics, and learning how to communicate with, negotiate and influence a wide variety of audiences.
Strong leadership, management, and communication are essential skills in the art of public health. This module is designed to give you a strong foundation in theories and practices of leadership and management. You will identify and hone your personal leadership style as a means of being more effective as a leader within your organisation. You will learn about the experiences of key public health figures and what leadership means to them. You will become familiar with the various debates and theories as well as practices in leadership and management, including change management. You will be stretched to reflect critically on the theory and practices of management and leadership from an ethical and public health perspective. You will learn to critically analyse public health policy, strategy, business development, and implementation practices using case studies and work-based examples. Finally, you will learn how to deliver, negotiate, and communicate impactful change and innovation to a wide range of audiences.
The module is specifically designed to give you the confidence and skills to work successfully and effectively within your organisation. The module will begin and end with you as a leader defining your pathway to personal and professional success as a driver in which you develop the levers of influence and change for your organisation and sector. There will be an emphasis throughout this module on navigating power and resources to achieve goals as well as an opportunity to learn important negotiation and networking skills. All of these skills will be framed within strategic management - the process of planning, monitoring, analysing and assessing the needs of your organisation to meet its goals. You will come to appreciate the importance of strategic formulation for operationalising and evaluating your projects and innovations as the key components of the change process.
Aims of the module
This module explores the theories and practices of strategic management and change within the context of the public health sector. It focuses on strategy development and change management for delivering organisational goals. Moreover, effective communication, data collection and organisational culture are seen to be shaped by individual leadership styles - ensuring students understand their role as a leader and manager is more than operationalising processes.