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This course provides a foundation regarding the theory and practice of leadership in organizations, with a focus on public organizations.�� Students will learn about all the major leadership theoretical frameworks and will also focus on an applied action research model that is useful in analyzing and developing oneself and others in organizational settings. To this end, the course starts with the theory behind organizational leadership, especially in the public sector with a quick review of theories labeled as: trait, stratified, transactional, charismatic, transformational, distributed, ethics-based, power-based, culture based, and gender-specific among others. The second half of the course will look at competency-based leadership, with in-depth looks at leader traits, general skills, and functional skill areas related to supervisors, managers, and executives. An extended self-assessment exercise occurs in the second half of the course as well. Students will also choose a theme that they will work on throughout the course as a cutting-edge challenge confronting contemporary leadership. One contemporary theme will be “the challenges of leading in an increasingly virtual world,” and the other will be “the challenges of leading in an increasingly ideologically polarized world.”