Syllabus
Sylabus
Annotation
The discipline of management of public services is currently in a fascinating situation of paradigm shifts affecting many aspects of the reality of public organisations. Public institutions have to adapt to the changing environment in order to serve the citizens well in the 21st century.
Most dilemmas stemming from the current paradigm shifts will be investigated in the course. Topics include understanding the nature of the environment in which public organisations operate, measuring human development, the differences between the assumption of managing industrial production and service provision, the differences between hierarchical and self-steering organisations, challenges of understanding human motivation, shifting focus of accountability in the public sector and explaining the concept of meta-governance.
As a response to the challenges of the current world, the course offers Human Learning Systems as an alternative approach to public management based on: Being human, Continuously learning, and Nurturing healthy systems. Students will have the opportunity to compare both traditional and emerging approaches in public management standing on opposite sides of the current paradigm shifts.
Students will improve their understanding of the traditional way of public management, its implicit assumptions, and the level to which these assumptions hold in the reality of 21st century, see the main weaknesses of a traditional way of public management, become familiar with emerging practices in public management, which are promising but usually not in the mainstream yet. They will also become more sensitive to longer-term evolution of the public sector and to recognise prospective trends.
The course is composed of seven usually be-weekly meeting and the grading is based on the combination of active participation, short homework tasks, and contribution to final group discussion.