We collected some interesting updates from our field of public and political leadership.

PUPOL news and events

• PUPOL Webinar Series: What can cities and communities learn from Covid-19?

Wednesday 24th March 2021 4.00 – 5.30 pm (GMT)

This international webinar will bring together political and civil society leaders from cities at the hotspot of Covid-19, such as Bergamo (Italy), Bristol (UK), London (UK), and Milan (Italy), by sharing insights and by reflecting on the recently published book by Professor Hambleton. We will discuss together how to go beyond Covid-19 and build more equitable, sustainable, and resilient cities for a post-Covid-19 world

Speakers:

• Councillor Dr Bruno Ceccarelli, City Councillor of Milan (Italy)
• Councillor Dr Asher Craig, Deputy Mayor of Bristol (UK)
• Councillor Georgia Gould, Chair of London Councils, Leader of Camden Council, and Ward Councillor Kentish Town (UK)
• Dr Giuseppe Guerini, President of Cooperatives Confederation of Bergamo (Italy)
• Professor Robin Hambleton, Emeritus Professor City Leadership, UWE (UK)
• Moderator: Dr Alessandro Sancino, Director, Citizenship and Governance Strategic Research Area, The Open University and Associate Professor, University of Milan-Bicocca (Italy)

This international webinar is organised by the Citizenship and Governance Strategic Research Area of The Open University in cooperation with the PUPOL International Academic Network

Registeration: [HERE]

 

• PUPOL Early Carrier Network on Tour: the Leiden Leadership Centre

Monday 29th March 2021 9.00 – 10.30 am (CEST)

The event series provides an opportunity for young researchers and their research centres, research groups and young researchers to present their on-going research and professional and educational activities. Our first stop will be the Leiden Leadership Centre, Universiteit Leiden (NL) introduced by Dr. Ben Kuipers, director and Moniek Akerboom MSc., PhD candidate. We will soon provide more details! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and PUPOL website!

 

Research developments

Some exiting readings for this month:

• Hambleton, R. (2020). Cities and communities beyond COVID-19: How local leadership can change our future for the better. Bristol University Press.
• Sotarauta, M., & Beer, A. (Eds.). (2021). Handbook on city and regional leadership. Edward Elgar Publishing.
• Aylott, N., & Bolin, N. (Eds.). (2021). Managing Leader Selection in European Political Parties. Palgrave Macmillan.

The latest issue of the International Journal of Public Leadership (Vol. 17 No. 1):

Special Issue: Public Leadership in Times of Crisis–Viewpoints on Political and Administrative Leadership in Response to COVID-19

• Tim A. Mau, Richard F. Callahan, Frank Ohemeng. “Guest editorial”
• Juraj Nemec. “Government transition in the time of the COVID-19 crisis: Slovak case”
• Rosley Anholon, Milena Pavan Serafim, Wagner Luiz Lourenzani, Iris Bento Silva, Izabela Simon Rampasso. “Leadership in Brazilian public universities: initiatives conducted by three state universities of São Paulo in the context of COVID-19 pandemic”
• Ken Weidner II, Lisa A.T. Nelson. “The role of power-addiction and maladaptive denial in the US federal COVID-19 response”
• Spyros Schismenos, Antoine A. Smith, Garry J. Stevens, Dimitrios Emmanouloudis. “Failure to lead on COVID-19: what went wrong with the United States?”
• Rebecca M. Entress, Jenna Tyler, Staci M. Zavattaro, Abdul-Akeem Sadiq “The need for innovation in deathcare leadership”
• Abdul-Akeem Sadiq, Naim Kapucu, Qian Hu. “Crisis leadership during COVID-19: the role of governors in the United States”
• Jeffrey Glenn, Claire Chaumont, Pablo Villalobos Dintrans. “Public health leadership in the times of COVID-19: a comparative case study of three countries”
• M Aslam Alam “Leading in the shadows: understanding administrative leadership in the context of COVID-19 pandemic management in Bangladesh”
• Michal Plaček, David Špaček, František Ochrana “Public leadership and strategies of Czech municipalities during the COVID-19 pandemic – municipal activism vs municipal passivism”
• Paul Pounder “Responsible leadership and COVID-19: small Island making big waves in cruise tourism”

 

Calls for Papers

International Journal of Public Leadership Vol. 18, No. 2, 2022: Public Leadership in Times of Crisis—The Intersection of Political and Administrative Leadership Responding to Crisis

Guest Editors: Tim A. Mau (University of Guelph, Canada tmau@uoguelph.ca) and Frank Ohemeng (Concordia University, Canada frank.ohemeng@concordia.ca)

For this special issue, we are looking for more in-depth, theoretically-oriented research papers or case studies that focus on how politicians, public servants and civil society actors provide leadership in response to a wide range of crises—be it political (e.g. responding to and preparing for Brexit), social and economic (e.g., famine or drought in Africa or an Asian tsunami), or health-related (e.g. the COVID-19 pandemic, the global SARS crisis, or the avian flu). As we know, in crisis situations, leadership in varied forms and addressing myriad questions is critical (Boin et al. 2018; Hartley, 2018). Having said that, we are especially interested in research studies that focus specifically on the interface between political and administrative leaders responding to such crises, since this an important area of public leadership research that has hitherto been neglected (Hartley, 2018).

Again, as an internationally-focused journal, we would like to capture a truly global perspective (Comfort et al., 2010) regarding various forms of public leadership during crises in this special issue, particularly from those parts of the world—namely Africa and Asia—that at present do not figure as prominently in the public leadership literature. Submissions can be country-specific, as well as comparative, examining examples of public sector leadership in two or more jurisdictions.

Manuscripts could address any of the following as well as other related questions that will contribute to our understanding of either public leadership in the broadest sense, which includes political, administrative or civic leadership (’t Hart and Tummers, 2019), or strategy and governance (Roberts, 2020) in times of crisis:

1. What is the nature of the relationship between political and administrative leaders during crisis situations? Does the power shift from the politicians to various administrative leaders during a crisis because of an increased emphasis on the need for evidence-based decision-making?
2. The public administration literature points to a shift to more shared and collaborative forms of leadership as a result of the shift to the new public management and new public governance paradigms. Does the need for shared leadership—between political, administrative and civic leaders—take on even greater importance in a crisis?
3. Do crises provide more opportunities for innovative leadership by public servants at all levels?
4. How do frontline public servants or street-level bureaucrats and their superiors provide leadership during a crisis? Does the nature of administrative leadership change during a crisis?
5. Are charismatic administrative leaders more effective at motivating and inspiring public sector employees during times of crisis than other types of leaders?
6. Are there best practices of leadership development in crisis management that can be applied in every situation?
7. How can administrative leaders use foresight to conceptualise and understand future crisis events?
8. What leadership lessons can be learned from the crisis situation in question and how can political and administrative leaders both learn and prepare for future crises?

We welcome manuscripts between 6,000 and 8,500 words that report on any type of quantitative or qualitative research undertaken by the author(s) involving the construction and/or testing of a model or framework or the presentation and analysis of survey or interview data. We would also be interested in case studies of administrative leadership in times of crisis; these cases would describe actual interventions or experiences of administrative leaders within public sector organizations.

Those authors who are interested in being considered for publication in this special issue of the journal should submit their papers using the ScholarOne Manuscript submission system (https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ijpl) by August 1, 2021. The deadline for final acceptance of manuscripts is February 7, 2022.

References

• Boin, Arjen, Paul ’t Hart, Eric Stern and Bengt Sundelius (2017). The Politics of Crisis Management: Public Leadership Under Pressure. Cambridge University Press.
• Comfort, Louise, Arjen Boin, and Chris Demchak (2010). Designing Resilience: Preparing for Extreme Events. University of Pittsburgh Press.
• Hartley, Jean (2018). “Ten propositions about public leadership, ”International Journal of Public Leadership,  14 Issue: 4, pp.202-217,  https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPL-09-2018-0048.
• Roberts, Alasdair (2020) Strategies for Governing: Reinventing Public Administration for a Dangerous Century, Cornell University Press.
• ’t Hart, Paul and Lars Tummers (2019). Understanding Public Leadership. Red Globe Press.

Please send Rudolf Metz (rudolf.metz@uni-corvinus.hu) news about events, conferences, special issues, jobs, research funds, your new publications, and other relevant writings. We will share this information in our monthly newsletter and on our Facebook site.

Deadline for the next newsletter: March 20, 2021