EDUC 126A | URBANST 126A | CSRE 126C | ETHICSOC 79

Ethics and Leadership in Public Service

Winter 2021 | 3-4 units
Mondays & Wednesdays, 4:00-5:20pm PST

Zoom Link:
https://stanford.zoom.us/j/95122544892?pwd=VFIrUlIrZ3FzaFU3Tk0rV1J5cU9ZUT09
Passcode: 979007
Meeting ID: 951 2254 4892

**This course fulfills the Ethical Reasoning Ways of Thinking/Ways of Doing Requirement**

Instructor

Kristy Lobo (she, her)

Senior Program Director, Public Service Leadership and Community Partnerships, Haas Center
klobo@stanford.edu | 650-724-9233

Teaching Assistants

Ada Zhang (they/she)

M.D. Candidate, Stanford Medical School
adazhang@stanford.edu | 971-770-8522

Michele Holtkamp (she, her)

M.S. Candidate, Sustainability Science and Practice
michele1@stanford.edu | 615-513-9360

Rhana Hashemi (she, her)

M.S. Candidate, Community Health and Prevention Research
rhanah@stanford.edu | 310-962-9281

Course Description

This course revolves around the following fundamental questions: Can public service be
ineffective, or worse, cause harm? How do we define and practice leadership in a public service
context?

In this course, we will examine ethical questions that arise in the “doing” of public service work,
whether that work is volunteering, community engaged learning, community organizing, social
entrepreneurship, humanitarian endeavors overseas, or various public service professions.
What motivates people to engage in public service work? Are self-interested motives
problematic? What is the connection between service work and social justice? We will consider

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the history, hazards, responsibilities, and dilemmas of doing public service work, including the
conflicts that can arise in cross-cultural service work.

Doing good well requires certain leadership competencies. We will explore both leadership
theory and practical leadership strategies for making ethical decisions, discussing opposing
views with civility, and motivating people. Through readings, discussions, in-class activities, and
assignments, students will develop a foundation and vision for a future of ethical and effective
service leadership.

This course serves as a gateway for interested students to participate in the Haas Center’s
Public Service Leadership Program. Information about the Public Service Leadership Program
and other Haas Center opportunities will be presented in class.

Learning Objectives

At the end of the course, students will be able to:

 Critically evaluate different motivations and intentions for engaging in public service.
 Critically evaluate different approaches to, and theories of, social change with attention to
the ethical concerns associated with each of them.
 Recognize historical patterns of public service in the United States.
 Engage constructively in discussions on sensitive and complex topics, and in dialogue with
people holding different opinions.
 Demonstrate appreciation of nuance and ambiguity, as well as clarity and precision, in their
thinking and writing about moral problems, concepts, and ideals.
 Reflect on their own ethical decisions and actions, and on their roles as morally responsible
members of the human community.
 Articulate a personal philosophy of ethical and effective service leadership.

Instructor Expectations
The success of our class will depend upon a strong investment in one another’s learning and the
creation of a stimulating and trusting environment to explore and enhance our understanding
of service and leadership, in their diverse forms. Therefore, each member of the class is
expected to maintain consistent class attendance, complete all readings and assignments, and
participate actively by sharing and respectfully questioning perspectives.
Multiple absences will affect your evaluation – this includes absences during the shopping
period. If you miss class, please let the instructor and your assigned TA know in advance or as
soon as possible. To make up for your absence, you will need to watch the recording of the
class you missed and write a 2-page reflection (beyond your reading response) on your
takeaways from the class, focusing on the guiding question(s) for the class session. The
reflection is due the day of the class you are scheduled to miss. If you miss class unexpectedly,
we can negotiate an appropriate deadline.

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This is a difficult and unusual year for all of us. If you find yourself facing additional challenges
that make it difficult for you to keep up with the course work, please let us know so we can
figure out a way to support you.

Class Participation & Attendance (25% of grade)

Punctuality, regular attendance, preparation, oral/chat participation in discussions and
activities, and listening are the required indicators of class participation. We will verify your
attendance in live sessions by checking the Zoom attendance data.
Your active participation in classroom discussions is an important way to dig more deeply into
our readings and think critically about some of the ethics and nuanced challenges of doing
public service in an effective way. It will also be important as a means of demonstrating mutual
support for your fellow classmates as they develop and reflect upon their own service
leadership skills and strategies.
Being a good participant does not mean talking a lot or showing others how much you know.
There will be many ways to participate in this class, and many ways to support a participatory
learning environment for the class. Participation includes speaking as well as creating space for
others and listening to their perspectives actively. Here are some concrete ways to participate
actively.

 In our remote learning context, you can participate orally and/or in the chat in large group
and breakout discussions/activities. If you would like to make a comment / ask a question
anonymously, you can send a private message to Kristy or any of the TAs. Keeping your
video on allows you to show and others to see your interest in what is being said, helps us
absorb what you’re saying when you speak, and contributes to participatory learning and
community-building in our class; please let us know if circumstances prevent you from
keeping your video on.
 Ask a question or make a comment that shows you are interested in what another person
says or encourages another person to elaborate on something they have said.
 Make a comment that draws a link between a classmate’s comment and a text, or between
two classmates’ contributions.
 Contribute something that builds on what someone else has said, being explicit about the
connection.
 Make a comment that draws out a recurring theme in the discussion.
 Share a resource (e.g., reading, website, video) that is not covered in the syllabus but adds
new information or a new perspective to our learning.
 Create space for someone who has not yet spoken to contribute to the conversation.
 Use body language to show interest in what different speakers are saying.
 Volunteer to moderate Q&A with a guest speaker.

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Assignments

1. Reading responses and comments (40% of grade)

By 6pm PST each Sunday and by 6pm PST each Tuesday, please submit on Canvas a brief
response (approx. 200 words) to the readings for Monday and Wednesday respectively,
addressing your key takeaways, how they relate to your service experiences, and at least
one related question that you would like to discuss with your classmates. In addition, please
submit a brief comment on one of your peer’s responses; if two comments have already
been submitted for a particular post, please find another post to comment on.
2. Leader Interview (10% of grade)
Interview someone whose public service leadership you admire. Prepare a reflection
(approx. 3 pages) describing what you learned and how you feel you can (or cannot) apply
what you learned in your own life.
3. Final Assignment (2 parts totaling 25% of grade)
Part I. Ethical and Effective Service Leadership Philosophy (15% of grade)
Describe the philosophy of leadership (values, style, approach, etc.) that you hope to
embody in current/future service efforts. Use this as an opportunity to synthesize what you
have taken from all the readings, discussions, activities, and assignments of this course.
Approx. 4 pages.
Part II. PSLP Proposal / Case Study / Funding Proposal (10% of grade)
Option A. If you plan to participate in the Public Service Leadership Program, create a
proposal (approx. 3 pages) in which you identify your public service focus area, outline the
courses you wish to take, and think through the practicum (Cardinal Quarter or Cardinal
Commitment) you wish to engage in.
Option B. Create a case study (approx. 3 pages) about a service leadership challenge you
have faced that relates to at least one of the frameworks we’ve studied in class (e.g. five
ethical standards, four leadership frames, the Principles of Ethical and Effective Service)
Option C. Create a proposal (approx. 3 pages) for financial support that will allow you to
start your own or join an organization in the year after you graduate from Stanford.

Course Privacy Statement

The course recordings available through Canvas are exclusively for personal use, and you may
not post recordings on the internet or otherwise distribute them. These policies protect the
privacy rights of instructors, students, and guest speakers, and the intellectual property rights
of the university.

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 Course Outline

Part I: Why We Serve

January 11: Introduction / Exploring the meaning(s) of “service”

What are the course expectations? What does it mean to "do" service? What are our
predispositions towards different types of service?

***Please complete this Service Profile so we can learn more about you and match you with an
appropriate TA***

January 13: Motivations and Reasons to Serve

What are the various motivations people have to do or give service?

 Principles of Ethical and Effective Service

 Pathways of Public Service
 Marshall Ganz (2007), “Telling Your Public Story: Self, Us, Now”
 Conrad Milhaupt (2020), “On purpose”

January 18: MLK Day – No Class

January 20: Philosophical and Religious Perspectives: Justice or Charity?

What is the connection between justice and service? What is the connection between charity
and service? Does service arise out of altruism or obligation?

 Mike Martin (1994), Preface and Chapter 5: Mixed Motives in Virtuous Giving
 Will Kymlicka (2001), “Altruism in philosophical and ethical traditions: Two views”
 Judith Shklar (1990), “Misfortune and injustice” in The Faces of Injustice

January 25: Making Ethical Decisions

What are frameworks for making ethical and effective decisions?

 Resources from Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University
 Lee Bolman & Terrence Deal (1997), Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and
Leadership (p. 280-293+)

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January 27: Identity and Public Service
How do the various aspects of personal identity shape our approaches to public service? How
can we ethically engage with individuals and communities different from our own to pursue the
public good?

 Beverly Tatum (2017), Chapter 2: The Complexity of Identity in “Why are all the black kids
sitting together in the cafeteria” and other conversations about race
 Kimberlé Crenshaw (2015), “Why Intersectionality Can’t Wait”
 Watch the short documentary or read the paper on Cultural Humility by Melanie Tervalon
 Ann Bishop (2015), Becoming an Ally: Breaking the Cycle of Oppression in People (p. 87-107)
 Ibram Kendi (2020), “The difference between being “not racist” and antiracist” (TED Talk)

Part II: How We Serve

February 1: Leadership Theory

How do we define leadership?

 Paul Schmitz (2012), Everyone Leads (p. 63-112)

 Taiaiake Alfred (2009), Peace, Power, Righteousness: An Indigenous Manifesto (p. 89-95)
 Jeffrey Pfeffer (2015), “Why the Leadership Industry Has Failed”

February 3: Leadership Application

How do we practice leadership?

 James Kouzes & Barry Posner (2006), Student Leadership Planner

 Reardon et al. (1998), “Leadership Styles for the Five Stages of Radical Change”
 Amy Edmondson (2020), “How to lead in a crisis” (TED Talk)

February 8: How change happens

What does it look like to change a system from within versus from the outside? How do different
approaches to change interact?

 Randy Stoecker (2016), “Ways of Thinking About Change” (p. 80-90) in Liberating Service-
Learning and the Rest of Higher Education Civic Engagement
 Ronald Heifetz & Marty Linsky (2002), Chapters 1 and 2 in Leadership on the Line: Staying
Alive Through the Dangers of Leading
 Debra Meyerson (2003), Chapters 1 and 9 in Tempered Radicals: How Everyday Leaders
Inspire Change at Work

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February 10: Activism and Movements
What makes activism and social movements ethical and effective? How does this look in the age
of social media?

 Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963), “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”

 Saul Alinsky (1971), Rules for Radicals, Prologue and Chapter 2: Means and Ends
 Tiago Forte (2018), “Emergent Strategy” (summary of book by Adrienne Maree Brown)
 Stanford Students for the Liberation of All People (2020), “Disorientation Guide”

February 15: Presidents’ Day – No Class

February 17: Civil Discourse

How do we disagree in an agreeable way?

 Elizabeth Bernstein (2020), “Worried About a Difficult Conversation? Here’s Advice from a
Hostage Negotiator”
 Rob Willer (2020), “How Can I Convince You?”
 Rob Willer (2020), “How to Bridge Political Divides”

***Leader Interview due Wednesday, February 17 by 4pm PST***

February 22: The Nonprofit Sector or the Non-Profit Industrial Complex?

What makes nonprofit organizations ethical and effective?

 Dan Pallotta (2013), The way we think about charity is dead wrong (TED Talk)
 Paul Kivel (2007), “Social Service or Social Change?” in The Revolution Will Not Be Funded:
Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex
 Sigal Samuel (2020), “Racial justice groups have never had so much cash. It’s actually hard
to spend it.”
 Vu (2020), “Have nonprofit and philanthropy become the “white moderate” that Dr. King
warned us about?”

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February 24: Social Entrepreneurship and Impact Investing
What are the strengths and limitations of these emerging approaches?

 Roger Martin and Sally Osberg (2007), “Social Entrepreneurship: The Case for Definition”
 Marshall Ganz, Tamara Kay, & Jason Spicer (2018), “Social Enterprise Is Not Social Change”
 Malachi Garza (2019), “Experiments in Cannabis for the Collective”
 Stanford Earth (2020), “The Relationship Coffee Model”
 Kevin Peterson (2017), “Impact Investing: Your money doing good in the world – and your
wallet” (TED Talk)

March 1: Collective Impact

What do asset-based service and collective leadership look like?

 John Kretzmann and John McNight (1993), Introduction in Building Communities from the
Inside Out
 John Kania & Mark Kramer (2011), “Collective Impact”
 Tom Wolff (2016), “Ten Places Where Collective Impact Gets It Wrong”
 Peter Senge, Hal Hamilton, and John Kania (2015), “The Dawn of System Leadership”

March 3: Community Engaged Scholarship

How do we use research to address community needs and interests?

 Eve Tuck (2009), “Suspending Damage: A Letter to Communities”

 Linda Tuhiwai Smith (1999), Chapter 2 in Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and
Indigenous Peoples

Part III: Where We Serve

March 8: Public Service in our local context

What responsibility does Stanford have to the local community? How does the local community
benefit from being Stanford’s neighbor; how is it harmed?

 Kim-Mai Cutler (2015), “East of Palo Alto’s Eden: Race and the Creation of Silicon Valley”
 Watch short film/read report “2.6 Sq. Miles: Stories of Challenges & Hope in East Palo Alto”
 SJSU Human Rights Institute (2020), “Silicon Valley Pain Index”
 Fighting the Stanford Savior Complex

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March 10: Public service at the national level
What ethical questions arise when doing service at a national level?

 Reading TBD

March 15: International service

What do we, as individuals, owe the “global poor”? As Americans, or Stanford graduates? What
ethical dilemmas or problems can arise when doing service abroad?

 Peter Singer (2015), “The Logic of Effective Altruism”

 Courtney Martin (2016), “The Reductive Seduction of Other People’s Problems”
 Partners In Health (2019), “On Rounds with Dr. Paul Farmer”
 Sam Dubal (2012), “Renouncing Paul Farmer: A Desperate Plea for Radical Political
Medicine”

Part IV: Developing a Philosophy of Ethical and Effective Service Leadership

March 17: Final reflections and next steps

What are our key takeaways from the course?

 Anand Giridharadas (2018), Chapter 1: But How is the World Changed? in Winners Take All:
The Elite Charade of Changing the World
 William Deresiewicz (2009), “Solitude and Leadership”

***Final Assignment (2 parts) due Monday, March 22 by 4:00pm PST***