This course provides substantive instruction in administrative policymaking and implementation. It is usually taken during the first year. Students are introduced to the role and method of administration in meeting policy expectations, resolving issues, responding to new requirements and evaluating performance. The course covers the following topics: organization structure and bureaucracy, management issues and processes, managerial psychology, managing diversity, leadership, strategic planning, interorganizational relations, administrative law, human resource management, labor relations, personnel administration, performance measurement, program evaluation, information management and ethics of public service. Each section of the course uses adifferent aspect of public administration or public management to emphasize these topics. The objectives of the course are achieved by using case studies, simulation exercises, class visitors and practical exercises which complement the assigned readings and class discussions.
Section Description
This course provides an introduction to public management – managing public organizations – and managing the public aspects of nonprofit and private sector organizations. This course examines the context (political and stakeholder environment), purposes (goals and accountability mechanisms), structures (traditional and alternative) of organizations carrying out public objectives, and introduce strategies to diagnose and address management challenges unique to public serving organizations. The course focuses on traditional public sector organizations, government-funded bureaus and agencies that deliver public services directly to citizens, but will also consider other organizations that operate in the public sector (e.g., nonprofits, private firms under contract).
The course begins by examining the backbone of public management – organizations – and ways to describe and evaluate the publicness of organizations. The course then evaluates the context of organizations in depth, paying careful attention to identifying how different environmental factors constrain and enhance the ability of managers to deliver goods and services to citizens. After looking externally, the course then turns internally to examine public purposes and goals, paying particular attention to those designed to increase accountability and manage and measure performance. The last section of the course will investigate the structure of organizations and how the structure of organizations facilitates and or/impedes the ability of organizations to provide for public outcomes, and the varying success of structural reforms (such as decentralization, customer-driven service delivery, and contracting/ outsourcing). This section includes an examination of previous and current efforts to reform public serving organizations, with varying success at meeting public objectives.