learning outcomes achieved from the previous modules completed by the student, representing a conclusion of their studies (Academic Regulations 2015, p.7). Seven of these modules are foundational and obligatory, with the individual student able to select a further three offered within the wider programme, based on their own interest. The obligatory modules are:
The programme has a practical emphasis; each module concluding with a spoken or written exam in which the participant must identify a specific organisational issue or managerial challenge with which they should engage the themes and content covered.
This represents a deliberate design and pedagogical approach, drawing on the action research tradition and intending to connect participants’ activities in the
organisational and educational contexts, increasing their capacity to act.
An obligatory element of the final project is that the participants must produce their own empirical material from within the organisation, providing the basis for an analysis drawing upon a synthesis of the learning outcomes achieved from the previous modules completed by the student - representing a conclusion of their studies (Academic Regulations 2015, p.7).
”The fundamental premise is that the course of the education should facilitate reflection over actions, behaviour and decisions, with the
1: Personal leadership 1: Leadership and Communication 2: Personal leadership 2: Professional leadership
3: Management and employees 1: Management in dynamic relations 4: Management and employees 2: Management in learning and competence relations
5: Management and organisations 1: Organisation and processes 6: Management and organisations 2: Organisation, control and strategy 7: Final Project
purpose of affecting the participants’ personal managerial practice. The education must therefore be based upon the participants using their own organization as a developmental laboratory for behaviour, actions and decisions during the course of the education.”(Academic Regulations, 2014)
Negotiating the provision of the diploma in leadership for the municipality of Copenhagen
In an attempt to ensure greater organisational coherence22 the municipality of Copenhagen opted in 2014 to change the previous system of sending employees to multiple institutions offering the diploma programme, preferring instead to use a single provider – inviting offers from educational institutions interested in providing this service. The Metropolitan University College (henceforth MUC) was the successful applicant, driven by the Institute for Management and Administration,23 chosen by the municipality of Copenhagen to be the sole supplier of the diploma programme in leadership for the following three years.
Tailoring the LDP
As part of the tendering process for the provision of the diploma programme in the municipality of Copenhagen, there was a detailed negotiation between the MUC and the municipality. The specificities of the agreement between the municipality of Copenhagen and MUC can be considered through closer consideration of the negotiations made between them. These negotiations are recorded in a dialogical document24 developed during the tendering process in which municipal demands for
22 Sourced online
http://www.phmetropol.dk/Om+Metropol/Nyheder+og+Presse/Nyheder/2014/08/samarbejde+med+Koebenhavns+K ommune (accessed 02.01.2016)
23 In Danish: Institut for Ledelse og Forvaltning
24 A copy of this document, dated 05.05.14 was made available by MUC. Therefore the implications of these negotiations would have limited impact on the participants followed in the present study. Nevertheless, they provide a formalisation of existing expectancies towards the education and provide an indication of the increasing municipal coordination of the LDP.
the content and structure of the LDP are responded to by the Metropolitan University College.
This makes the textual negotiation between the municipality and the educational institution visible, and reveals specific demands put in place and how these were to be satisfied by MUC. Besides clarifying budgetary and logistical issues, there are also concrete negotiations concerning the pedagogical structuring of the programme and the content to be included within it. The document reveals that the municipality prioritized an “eclectic approach” to be taken to managerial theory, to which the MUC responds that the Institute for Management Administration had shifted from a
“constructionist foundation” to a more eclectic approach to management, where
“there was no one single truth of good management.“ A presentation of different theoretical approaches is then made to illustrate how they are equipped to meet the demand for eclecticism. The MUC summarises as follows.
”The students gain knowledge in different approaches to the philosophy of science within the research traditions of the social sciences, and associate to different paradigms for understanding and acting managerially.”
Criteria for the specific pedagogical foundation for the LDP are also outlined by the municipality.
”It will be positively received if teaching is arranged so that it promotes the transition between organisation and teaching for each participant. It is therefore desired that teaching includes a before, during and after process cf. Robert Brinkerhoff.”
The Brinkerhoff 40-20-40 model, see (Brinkerhoff & Montesino, 1995), is drawn upon to emphasise the importance of focus on events and activities before, during and after instances of designed development activities, rather than solely on the
coordination of activities within the specific teaching or training sessions. This is intended to increase the degree of transfer of learning outcomes from the LDP into the organisation.
The MUC response to this emphasis on the practical application of the LDP, and ensure the relevance of the content and design of the LDP to the broader agenda of the municipality:
”The desired effect of the education is that the manager- both in their managerial team and together with all the staff- can manage both operations and development and ensure a positioning in alignment with the organizational goals and priorities in a simultaneously strategically goal-oriented and inclusive process with focus on professionalism and steady operations, as well as that these managerial competences can be used in the management of the future organisation as part of the municipality of Copenhagen.”
This underlines the cooperation between the municipality of Copenhagen and MUC in shaping the LDP, tailoring it specifically to the needs of the municipality.
Agenda of Trust
Conditions of the agreement between two parties were that the programme should promote engagement with specific municipal targets and initiatives, encouraging the managers to work with these within the education. Examples of these include a commitment to working towards reducing sickness absenteeism amongst staff, and engaging with the concept of “trust based management” which was central to the municipality of Copenhagen’s wider reforms25 for administration and regulation.
25 For a closer study of trust-based management and the implementation of it in the municipality of Copenhagen, see Tina Øllgård Bentzen’s PhD project “Tillidsbaseret Styring og ledelse I offentlige organisationer – I springet fra ambition til praksis.” (Øllgard Bentzen, 2015)
These reforms were proclaimed to build upon an “agenda of trust.”26 This focuses on reducing bureaucracy, documentation and direct control by assigning a greater degree of trust and responsibility to individual employees, with the goal of freeing resources and enabling staff to concentrate upon their core tasks, thereby providing a better service to citizens.27 The fundamental principle guiding this approach builds on “a calculated risk based on the expectation of increased value.”28 This orientation towards trust based management could be traced discursively in later observations made within the LDP and the study of exam texts, suggesting that this had been faithfully implemented within the education.
The structure and orientation of the LDP towards practice emphasises the need to approach the study of it in a manner capable of focusing on the situated institutional conditions within which participants find themselves. It is necessary to investigate both the educational practices and the local institutional practices within which the participants navigate and the manner in which these are negotiated in local settings.
26The ”Trust Reform” in the municipality of Copenhagen is outlined here: “Tillidsreformen i social forvaltningen.”
Københavns Kommune: http://modernisering.nu/media/613852/tillidsreformen_i_socialforvaltningen.pdf (Accessed 05.01.15)
27 Sourced online: https://medarbejder.kk.dk/artikel/mere-tid-til-borgerne (Accessed 17.05.16)
28 In Danish: ”En besluttet risiko mod forventet merværdi” (Thygesen & Kampmann, 2013)