This course is designed to explore significant developments and themes in the field of public management. This course serves the needs of those who wish to learn how public, private, and non-profit sectors as well as general citizens work together in producing ‘public goods.’ Traditional public administration and management literature has mainly focused on the role of government agencies in public affairs, but with increasing external pressure and changing environment, co-production of public good and using business strategies in public organizations are increasingly an unavoidable trend. We explore the proposition that more opened and collective engagement can make governance more legitimate, fair, and effective by examining many innovations in governance that range from neighborhood to national scale, in the United States, Europe, Latin America and East Asia as well as Vietnam. These 'real world' cases range across many issues. This course will expose students to management theories and frameworks as well as strategies, tools and heuristics for managing public organizations in their current environment.
This course in Public Management is built on lectures and students' contribution through class discussion, case works, small group breakout sessions, and problem-solving discussions. Individual students will practice analytical skills and writing skills, including how to write clear concise reflection papers. The objective of this course is for students to gain an overview of both issues and practices related to public management while acquiring skills for working in small groups. Detailed course objectives are:
- Provide students with a clear understanding of the characteristics of public management;
- Enhance student's understanding of core competences required to comprehend public organizations' environment and strategically manage their stakeholders and their operations;
- Increase students' awareness and expertise of managerial strategies, tools and practices they may enact to reach public organization's objectives and to improve their performances;
- Enable students to develop their skills and techniques needed to be successful public managers;
- Provide students with comparative methods & the examples of best practices.
