Course 2022-2023 a.y.
30341 - MANAGEMENT OF GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS
Course taught in English
Go to class group/s: 23
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The course aims at making students aware of the role and relevance that organizations of public interest fulfill in modern liberal democracies. The course provides an analytical framework for reflecting on the most relevant tools at the disposal of policy-makers and public administrators to design, organize, manage and improve public sector organizations. The course compare and contrast tools employed at a national level with those typical of international contexts.
The course employs the lenses of organization and management theory to analyze organizations of public interest at the international (e.g. UN) and national levels. It explores a series of relevant topics considering different levels of analysis: the public sector in its entirety, networks of organizations, and dynamics at play within single organizations. Among the topics the course covers:
- Organizational design and the main trade-offs in choosing the structure of organizations.
- Organizational mission, strathegy and the environment; issues of stakeholder management (in particular, policy-makers and citizens).
- Organizational effectiveness and performance; challenges and problems in the evaluation of performance of organizations of public interest.
- Organizational culture and its measurement; issues of motivation and accountability.
- Coordination and collaboration between organizations and within organizations.
- Change and innovation in organizations of public interest.
- Understand the main theoretical underpinnings for explaining how organizations proceed, are structured and managed.
- Explain what factors influence the effectiveness and performance of an organization of public interest.
- Comprehend the peculiarities of organizations of public interest vis a vis firms.
- Diagnose the main strengths and weaknesses of an organization based on its design, culture and strategy.
- Analyse and draft a performance measurement system for an organization of public interest.
- Propose projects of innovation and change for the puprose of improving organizational effectiveness.
- Face-to-face lectures
- Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
- Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)
- Group assignments
- Interactive class activities (role playing, business game, simulation, online forum, instant polls)
The course combines face-to-face lectures with class discussions of case studies and incidences, simulations, role-playing and group exercises. These classes allow students to:
- Employ theoretical concepts to understand and analyse concrete cases, taken from the reality of organizations of public interest at the international and national levels.
- Acknowledge a plurality of viewpoints and develop argumentations in support to a specific solution.
The course is complemented by guest speakers' talks. Guest speakers bring to class and share with students their concrete experience of processes of performance management, change or coordination. After these classes, the instructor and the students have a debrief to discuss lessons learnt.
| Continuous assessment | Partial exams | General exam | |
|---|---|---|---|
| x | x | ||
| x |
The evaluation is based on:
|
Method |
What |
To achieve what |
|
|
Partial written exam with closed-ended questions (20%) |
Answers provided for multiple choice questions about the first part of the course |
Ability to recognize basic knowledge and concepts regarding the first part of the course |
|
|
General exam with open-ended questions (40%)
|
Substantiated answers provided to open-ended questions on the entire program of the course |
Ability to describe key concepts and theoretical frameworks
Ability to summarize the main take-home messages of guest lectures and relate them to the abstract concepts explained during the course
Ability to relate concrete case-studies discussed in class to the abstract concepts and theoretical frameworks explained during the course |
|
|
Preparation of an action plan for the project “Help Milan Be Resilient” in collaboration with the Resilient City Unit of the Municipality of Milan |
Ability to understand a collective problem and devise a strategic plan to address it
Ability to envisage and design inter-organizational networks to address a collective problem
Ability to diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of organizations of public interest
Ability to identify KPI to measure the effectiveness of the plan |
The evaluation is based on:
|
Method |
What |
To achieve what |
||||
|
Partial written exam with closed-ended questions (20%) |
Answers provided for multiple choice questions about the first part of the course |
Ability to recognize basic knowledge and concepts regarding the first part of the course |
||||
|
General exam with open-ended questions (40%)
|
Substantiated answers provided to open-ended questions on the entire program of the course |
Ability to describe key concepts and theoretical frameworks
Ability to relate abstract concepts and theoretical frameworks explained during the course to the resolution of concrete cases |
||||
|
Preparation of an organizational analysis report and plan for change |
Ability to diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of organizations of public interest
Ability to propose a change or innovation plan for the improvement of the organization |
The reading material includes:
- Articles drawn from the management, organization and public administration literature.
- Chapters from some books and textbooks including:
- G.C. JONES, Organizational Theory, Design and Change, 2013.
- J. MARTIN, M. FELLENZ, Organizational Behaviour & Management, 2011.
- E. ROGERS, Diffusion of Innovations, 2003, 5th edition.
- Case studies acquired from ECCH or written by the instructors.