Teaching 21st-century leadership in nonprofit management programs

Why does leadership of nonprofit organizations require a different approach than leading private sector firms? This chapter opens with a discussion of how and why voluntary sector leadership differs from historic models that are based on command and control. It presents three theoretical frameworks instructors can use to teach leadership in pluralistic contexts. It then relates these models to content areas from the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council’s curricular guidelines, focusing on the graduate-level topics outlined in section 12.0 Leadership, Management, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. It identifies relevant teaching resources and applications for each topic. The chapter concludes with a discussion of pedagogy. Its central theme is that the integration of values, autonomy, inclusivity, reciprocity, and equity into processes that are inherently relational, developmental, and co-creative reflects the fundamental difference between conventional and pluralistic notions of leadership.