Course 2017-2018 a.y.

Classes: 23 (I sem.)

Instructors:
Class 23: AMELIA COMPAGNI

The course aims at making students aware of the role and relevance that the system of organizations that constitute the public administration fulfils in modern liberal democracies. The course also provides a thorough analysis and reasons for reflecting on the most relevant tools at the disposal of policy-makers and public administrators to design, organize, manage and improve the public sector organizations. The course would like to 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 the system of organizations that constitute the public administration at the international (e.g. UN) and national levels. It explores a series of relevant topics considering different levels of interest: the public sector in its entirety, networks of public sector organizations, and dynamics at play within single organizations. Among the topics the course covers

• The design of the public administration and the main theoretical perspectives for its organization; implications for the relationship between public administrators and politicians and between public administrators and citizens.
• The organizational effectiveness of the public administration and its organizations; challenges and problems in the evaluation of the performance of public sector organizations.
• Choice and decision-making in the public administration; strategic autonomy and space for discretion.
• Organizational culture in the public sector; issues of motivation and accountability.
• Coordination and collaboration between public sector organizations and within organizations; issues of conflict and power.
• Reforms, change and innovation in the public sector; path-dependency and organizational learning.

Frontal lectures are followed by class discussions of case studies and incidences that allow to employ the concepts learnt in class to the understanding and analysis of concrete political phenomena and to the consideration a plurality of viewpoints.

• A partial written exam with open questions about the topics encountered in the first part of the course (35%).
• A final written exam with open questions about the topics encountered in the second part of the course (35%).
• A group project with final presentation at the end of the course (30%).

For attending students

• Slides and material (e.g. case studies) purposefully selected for each class. Selected chapters from textbooks in Organization and Management and Organizational behavior. Selected readings (i.e. scholarly articles).

For non attending students

• Selected chapters from textbooks in Organization and Management and Organizational behavior. 
• Additional readings (i.e. scholarly articles) besides those indicated for attending students.