Insegnamento a.a. 2018-2019

1. The first lectures of the course sets the context of the international organizations, clarifying the notion of International Institution and categorizing the main actors of the international cooperation and development industry (IIs and INGOs) in “families”. The focus then shifts on the analysis of the United Nations system, composed of different kind of organizations and with strongly specific governance systems, both at the level of single organizations and of the UN system as a whole. To this extent, the case study of WHO is presented and discussed with the purpose of letting participants understand the complexity of governance that regulate the functioning of a UN system specialized agency.
2. The following lectures address the challenges of the interactions between the UN system and the corporate sector, focusing also on development cooperation: this part of the course approaches the main strategic frameworks and declarations that ld and lead the IIs’ intervention (Millennium Development Goals, Paris Declaration, Agenda 2030) and offer an overview of the main issues related to interagency coordination and management of field projects. This allows participants to appreciate the specificities of project cycle management in the development industry. Furthermore, a specific lecture is focused on the management of organizations’ profile (stakeholder, communication, resource mobilization and branding).
3. The focus of the course then expands to include the International Financial Institutions (IMF, World Bank, Regional Development Banks) as well as the other relevant families of IIs and INGOs. An overview of the managerial reforms, tools and systems in IIs then is provided: the main management functions, such as financial management, HR management, stakeholders management, profile management and branding, field operations’ management, management control, performance measurement- here is taken into consideration, with regards to both the activity of IIs and INGOs.
4. Lastly, the course addresses the growingly important issues of ethics and accountability for mission driven organizations and their executives.

Understand the complexity and richness of the UN system as a whole, distinguish roles and governance, functioning and operational mechanisms of Funds, Programmes and Specialized Agencies, as well as of International Non Governmental Organizations, and other private and public-private global actors.

• Identify different families of IOs and elaborate on their peculiarities in terms of operational and institutional nature.
• Make comparisons between UN system organizations, other IIs and INGOs in terms of operating and governance mechanisms.
• Deal with governance and management issues across the field of International Organizations.
• Understand the current challenges and open issues of the managerial reforms in IIs and INGOs.
• Appreciate the complexity and the need for a tailored approach to management in IIs and INGOs.
• Identify and apply the strategic frameworks and distinctive features of management in development cooperation.
• Understand how IIs and INGOs operate on the field.
• Identify and address the main issues of Ethics and Accountability from an IOs standpoint.

• Face-to-face lectures
• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
• Interactive class activities (role playing, business game, simulation, online forum, instant polls)

This course is heavily case-study based. One of the objectives of the course is to make students able to develop and apply their critical thinking in relation to management reforms and tools in IIs and INGOs.

Students regularly attending classes are expected to read materials and business cases in advance; the respect of this “golden rule” will determine their ability to follow discussions and presentations held in class. This is a highly participatory and business case-based course. Therefore, class attendance is strongly encouraged.

Students attending less than 75% of the classes will be considered as "non-attending".

For students regularly attending the course in class, final grade for this course is based on a midterm exam and a final exam, both composed of multiple-choice questions only, based on the contents of the lectures and discussions in class, presentations and all the mandatory readings indicated in this syllabus. Further readings will not be assessed.

For students not regularly attending the course in class (less than 75% of attendance)  final grade for this course is based on final written examination (100%) composed of open-ended as well as multiple choice questions, based on mandatory readings, presentations and further readings listed in this syllabus and uploaded on the e-learning.

• Mandatory readings: E. MISSONI, D. ALESANI, Management of International Organizations, Routledge, 2014.
• Further readings: articles and other materials uploaded on the e-learning platform with the syllabus and during the course.

• Mandatory readings: E. MISSONI, D. ALESANI, Management of International Organizations, Routledge, 2014.
• Articles and other materials uploaded on the e-learning platform with the syllabus and during the course.