Foreword

Can leadership be taught? If the answer is yes, then a highly interactive flipped classroom may be an ideal environment. Class time is used for case studies, simulations, interactive content, and working on gaining leadership experience individually and within student groups. The flipped classroom format was utilized for our Spring Course in Healthcare and Public Health Leadership. We asked students and ourselves to answer the following guiding questions: How do I define leadership and why is it important? How do I lead and what is my leadership style? How do I work with others? How do I follow and manage my boss? And how will I improve my leadership? The content utilized to answer these questions comes from six textbooks, case materials, interactive content, research, speakers, and practical experience from all of us as students of leadership and organizational behavior.

Leadership is a diverse area of study, and both academic and popular press literature abound with good and bad examples of ideas, knowledge, frameworks, paradigms, etc. about leadership. In order to keep us grounded, I chose the Northouse “Leadership: Theory and Practice” electronic version as a central guiding framework to introduce a comprehensive set of leadership theories. Harvard Business School cases and simulations provided additional content, along with leadership books by Ledlow and Stephens, Rowitz, Manion, Osland and Turner, and Galos. The course syllabus has our references listed, along with a larger group of additional leadership and organizational behavior titles in the reference section. In order to digest a large amount of material, slides were shared with the class ahead of time. Students were asked to write brief reflection papers on chapters within the reading that they would share with each other online and during our class sessions. Both an oral presentation and writing a chapter in our Pressbook were essential elements for learning the material throughout the course.

This Pressbook is a reflection of a diverse group of graduate students from health services, health management, health professions and a diverse group of mid-career professionals engaged in obtaining a Master of Public Health at The Ohio State University College of Public Health, while continuing to work usually more than 40 hours a week. This Pressbook is a gift from the students, TAs, and instructors for all of us. We have captured here (1) our collective learning in the 2018 spring semester, (2) our desire to share our knowledge with the students taking the course next year, and (3) our eagerness to share it with all of you – healthcare and public health friends and colleagues interested in learning about leadership and organizational behavior.