Professor Ospina Presents Innovative Leadership Approach at International Workshop

On June 21, Professor Sonia Ospina presented a co-authored paper at an international leadership workshop held in Barcelona.

The workshop brought together international thought leaders from the public, nonprofit, and business sectors to discuss unique, innovative approaches to goal-directed networks and how they can improve leadership practice at large. Goal-directed networks are groups of organizations that facilitate the achievement of a common goal, and have become widespread in practice and scholarly research in recent decades.

Professor Ospina presented her co-authored white paper titled What do we know about the study of goal directed networks? Striving for State-of-the-Art via Meta-Synthesis. In the presentation, she proposed a different approach to leadership in the context of network research. She urged scholars to consider the notion of “collective leadership” (versus individual or heroic leadership) when thinking about goal-directed networks.

This innovative leadership approach is core to Leadership in Action at Wagner, which Ospina directs. The initiative brings together members of the NYU Wagner community who study, mobilize, support, and develop effective leadership in public service.

The workshop was organized by the ESADE Business School in Barcelona and the School of Social and Behavioral Science of Tilburg University in the Netherlands.