3.0

credits

Average Course Rating

The United States has experienced the most significant failure of its financial system since the Great Depression. Differences in governance and management between the survivors and the others are instructive not only for financial firms, but for government agencies and private companies in other sectors of the economy. This course seeks to present learnings that are potentially relevant to government managers and organizations. The basic lesson, of course, is that low probability events with devastating consequences do happen. Nicolas Nassim Taleb (2007) calls such events “black swans.” He argues that they take place much more frequently than people expect. Managers must take the possibility of black swans into account even when times are good; that’s one factor that distinguishes the survivors from the rest. The federal government and private sector have learned this from Katrina, the massive 2010 Gulf oil spill, homeland security events such as September 11, and the Great Recession that emerged from the financial crisis. All of these occurred within a single decade. Students will be expected to produce a research paper on an approved topic relating to (1) a crosscutting theme of governance and risk management at one or more private companies, (2) government regulation and supervision of risk management at one or more private companies, or (3) a cross-cutting theme of governance and risk management at government agencies. Students will be encouraged to make the course an interactive one and to share their personal knowledge of successes and failures of governance and risk management. The syllabus can be accessed from the Governmental Studies course descriptions webpage.