THE TSENG COLLEGE OF EXTENDED LEARNING
______________________________________________________________________
Seminar in Effective Public Sector Management
MPA623A
Class: # 18287
_______________________________________________________________________
KALYAN CHAKRAVARTY
SPRING 2009
March 4 – April 29 2009
Location: DPW Cohort 15
6-9:45p
SYLLABUS
Seminar in Effective Public Sector Management – MPA 623A
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SEMINAR IN EFFECTIVE PUBLIC SECTOR MANAGEMENT
MPA623A
Kalyan Chakravarty
Mar 4 – Apr 29 2009
Location: DPW Cohort 15
6-9:45p
Email: kalyan.chakravarty@csun.edu
Telephone: (818) 677-2435
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course is designed to introduce seminar participants to the effective
functioning and management of organizations in the public sector. The course
will focus on key management issues in public sector organizations, and how to
more effectively function in leadership roles in those organizations.
The participants are encouraged to relate work-life issues to theoretical
perspectives and to bring in examples from their professional experiences to
seminar discussions.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
At the end of the course, the participants will…
1. acquire the knowledge needed to understand the distinctive character and
responsibilities of public sector administration in a diverse democratic society.
2. understand the continuum relationship among needs assessment, strategic
planning, program development, and evaluation, in support of the
organization’s stated missions and goals.
3. recognize the importance of interdependence of strategy formulation and
strategy implementation processes in a public sector organization.
4. be able to conduct a strategic analysis of his/her own organizational unit.
5. enhance ethical reasoning and decision-making skills.
6. learn the elements of organization design in order to assess the role and
impact of structure and culture in organizations.
7. improve leadership capabilities required to manage people, finances and
and information in the complex political public sector environment.
8. develop the skills needed to manage communication and information
networks to help expedite the process of transfer of knowledge in public
sector organizations.
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REQUIRED TEXTS AND COURSE MATERIALS
Texts
o The Effective Local Government Manager, Third Edition,
Edited by Charldean Newell,
International City/County Management Association, 2008 (Required)
o Classic Drucker, Essential Wisdom of Peter Drucker
from the Pages of Harvard Business Review, HBS 2008 (Required)
o Managing Local Government: Cases in Decision Making, Second Edition
Edited by James M Banovetz
ISBN: 0-87326-157-7
International City/County Management Association, 1998 (Required)
o Articles on-line accessed through various reputed Library databases.
COURSE PHILOSOPHY
The stakeholders (participants and the instructor) in this course will be working
towards creating a learning community where a group of people would come
together regularly to learn collaboratively, based upon their common purposes,
interests and values. This community will promote the creation of a learning
culture in which effective decision making and interactions with one another shall
be emphasized. Since the members of a learning community are responsible for
ensuring quality learning, class preparation, attendance and citizenship are of
paramount importance throughout the course.
This course looks at both pieces of the local government manager’s work:
leadership and management, with the emphasis on the manager’s role as
standard bearer for high performance and ethical conduct. It is intended for all
local government managers and all professionals whose aim is one day to serve
as a city, village, town or township manager, as a county manager, as a director
of a council of governments or in one of many other executive positions in local
government.
Each participant must come to class both able and willing to discuss the course
materials and contribute to the learning community. While this may seem little
difficult initially, one of the objectives of this course is to increase your
effectiveness in leading and managing others. Ability to articulate your ideas and
engage in effective dialogue is, in any case, a basic prerequisite of both
leadership and management.
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The following assignments will be evaluated:
Individual Assignments:
Personal and Professional Development Plan (Paper),
Case Analysis/Application Exercises,
Team Assignments:
Team Concept Area Project (Paper and Presentation),
Team Organizational Culture Project (Paper and Presentation),
The key criteria of evaluation will include:
1.
Quality and quantity of your written and oral participation in class.
2.
Degree of INTEGRATION and APPLICATION of the materials we are
covering in your day-to-day experience. This will be evidenced by class
participation, written assignments and oral presentations.
3.
Ability to understand the PROCESS level of human interactions in your
written assignments and in making salient "process observations" on a
regular basis. For example, what are you learning about group dynamics,
the management of team projects, self-managed teams, and the
classroom dynamics?
4.
Growth in self-understanding as revealed in oral and written contributions.
5.
Effectiveness of your contributions to your assigned team’s
performance.
CRITERIA APPLIED IN GRADING WRITTEN WORK
FOUR MOST IMPORTANT CRITERIA (60 points, 15 points each)
DEPTH. Analyze with astute insight, comprehension and intelligence.
SUBSTANCE. Give significant information. Validate, authenticate
consistently
THOROUGHNESS & PROPORTION. Develop a balanced, comprehensive
report
PRECISION. Be exact; include specific examples and details.
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TWO SECONDARY CRITERIA (20 points, 10 points each)
PERTINENCE. Preserve relevance throughout.
COHERENCE. Maintain connectedness, cohesion. use of headings, etc.
FOUR ASPECTS OF FORMAT, CORRECTNESS, ETC. (20 points total)
Demonstrate a clear, easy-to-follow style of writing.
Introduce and conclude your reports meaningfully.
Express ideas in a vigorous, absorbing way.
Be concise. Get to the point directly.
Write with accurate grammar and spelling.
Number the pages (but don’t count a title page, if you use one).
Provide one-inch margins all around.
Double space (about 22-25 lines per page).
Staple your reports. (No binders please)
See the “Criteria for Written Work” for further details.
INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS
Personal and Professional Development Plan
(Max. 5 pages, comprises 10% of grade.)
One of the primary objectives of this course is to increase your personal and
professional effectiveness. It is our hope that throughout your career you will
revisit the personal development goals identified in this paper and mark your
progress with a sense of true accomplishment.
The extent to which the concepts and theories presented in this course will have
benefit for you shall depend upon your ability to incorporate that knowledge into
your daily experience. To encourage self-reflection and to enhance the likelihood
of change, please submit a max 5 page paper identifying your personal and
professional vision and identifying areas of personal and professional
development associated with achieving that vision. Take the risk of asking your
peers/family/boss for feedback when identifying both strengths and weaknesses.
This assignment asks you to address the questions:
a) Where do I want to go in my life? ( purpose and personal vision),
b) What are my strengths and learning needs in reaching my goals?, and
c) How will I get there (obstacles, tactics and social support).
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Also, include one page of this paper discussing how you perceive yourself as
ethical in a business environment.
What is your primary ethical perspective? Is this culturally based? Family based?
(In other words, how did you develop it?)
Describe the ethical climate of your current workplace. What is truly valued there
and how do you know this? When have you felt “ethically challenged” in your
workplace and what was your response? If your workplace is not ideal from an
ethical standpoint, describe the environment, which would meet your ideals
ethically and why.
Case Analysis/Application Exercises (comprises 40% of grade)
Throughout the course, there will be two case analyses/application exercises of
20% weightage to each to be prepared in advance of the class. They are
intended to provide an opportunity to actively experience the reality and
complexity of the issues facing practicing local government managers today.
Among other benefits, they would help the participants sharpen their analytical
and problem-solving skills.
Each participant will be required to submit a written report on each case, on
those days scheduled in the timetable, presenting a coherent and defensible
analysis of the situation based on essential management practices learnt. The
report should be an individual effort and anyone attempting to share analyses
and ideas will be penalized. More details shall be provided later in the course.
Punctuality, Attendance and Class Participation (comprises 10% of grade)
You are expected to attend each class meeting. In the unlikely event that you
must miss a meeting, you are accountable for the course material and class
activities missed. Please notify the instructor in advance to make arrangements
to make up this work. Missing class-meetings could result in an adverse effect on
your grade. You must attend at least 80% of the class meetings in order to
receive credit for the course. If you find you are unable to continue in the
course, you must officially withdraw by notifying CSUN Extension in writing. In
the event CSUN is not notified of your withdrawal, you will receive an F for the
course.
Please come to each class prepared to discuss the readings and assignments
and to play an active role in contributing to class discussions. Those making
insightful comments that increase the level of energy and interest in the topics
discussed would definitely make a discernible impact than others. A superior
participation score is given to one who demonstrates the ability to comment upon
the content and the process of our discussions.
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Some questions to help illustrate the preferred mode are:
 Does the group become more energized after this person contributes? Is
this person more focused?
 Does this person listen to others and build upon their ideas?
TEAM ASSIGNMENTS
Team Concept Area Project Paper (20-minute presentation,
max 7pages, comprises 20% of grade)
Participants will form groups of three (triads), and each triad will review a chosen
article (a different one for each triad) of Peter F Drucker, from his landmark
articles published in Harvard Business Review since 1967 onwards. We
recognize the essential wisdom of Drucker is as fruitful today as they ever were.
This is an assignment to reinforce the learning of a few of those priceless ideas
and concepts needed to help heighten our individual and organizational
effectiveness.
Each triad will carry out an in-depth analysis of a few article related (to ensure
they are contextual) management policies and practices of public sector
organizations in general, their implications in public sector management, key
issues or roadblocks faced in the application of those time tested concepts and
reviewing the results achieved thus far. It may be pertinent to share success
stories of a few such local governments across the nation.
While doing so, they may be required to use a training model as the guide for
their triad, thus ensuring their report or presentation does not turn into a reading
exercise word for word from the article. It is, therefore, important for the triad to
internalize the learnt ideas first before they present around an executive
summary example in a ‘real life’ organizational context. More details shall be
provided later in the course.
Handout
Before your presentation, distribute to the class a one-sheet (two-sided)
summary about the article you have chosen. Headings, if any, may flow from
some of the topics listed in the article, or they could be chronological,
developmental, as you may find appropriate.
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Team Organizational Culture Paper (30-minute presentation, max 10pages,
comprises 20% of grade)
This assignment provides each learning team, groups of 5 or less, an opportunity
to integrate the major concepts that shall be studied by applying them to the
analysis of a work setting. Select an organization in which one of your team
members is currently employed OR a not-for-profit agency in which a team
member has served. It is important to keep the focus of your study to a unit of
the organization you select (e.g. division, department or work team).
The outcome of this field research is a presentation and paper that should be a
thoughtful, in-depth analysis of the culture of the organization that you are
studying. If your team wants to compare two sub-units of an organization that
may represent different subcultures, this is fine. Each team will need to specify
the organization in which it will conduct the analysis and the issue/s that will be
studied no later than week 3 of the course.
Choose an issue or problem to study after you have talked to key members of
the organizations you are considering. There are many possibilities for focus,
including organization satisfaction or commitment, employee turnover,
communication, change efforts, team dynamics and leadership style/transition.
Be sure not to choose an issue which is more appropriate only for marketing,
finance or strategy.
The overall format of the paper, grading and presentation format are as follows:
Background: Do research on the type of organization you have selected and
some of the organizational culture-related problems associated with this type of
organization. In your paper briefly describe the historical development of the
organization (founders, milestones), key players, its apparent strategy, how it is
structured, etc. Include a contextual understanding of the issue/s you have
selected; why is this issue important in this setting right now? You can examine
best practices or research particular cases which demonstrate some problem
areas in this type of organization and how they are managed.
Research methodology: For your study determine what data needs to be
collected and from whom. DESCRIBE YOUR RESEARCH APPROACH.
Carefully assess your sample and consider the effect that your study will have on
the organizational members who participate. For example, if you only use
information from management, you will probably hear their “espoused” theories
rather than their “theories in action”, or, what is really going on.
Be sure that your approach will provide you with the information you need.
Research methods include: interviews, focus groups, questionnaires/surveys,
direct observation, archival data, internet search and personal experiences.
Using multiple methods will elicit a deeper understanding of the issue.
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Research Findings, Speculations, Implications and Recommendations:
This is the most significant part of the presentation. Be sure to include your raw
data and how you analyzed your data in an index of your paper. Tabulate and
report your results before making inferences from them. Given your analysis,
what can you say about the issue you were studying? Present all questionnaire
and/or interview results clearly and graphically. Use your intuition to reach
beyond the "hard findings". Include illustrations, anecdotes, direct quotations,
and behavioral observations to support and enrich your conclusions. Point out
the implications of what you found for the future of the organizational unit.
Your recommendations need to be feasible and directly flow from your analysis.
Provide detailed action steps, if you can, that organization members may want to
take. Who in the organization should be involved in implementing the
recommendations you make? What outcomes do you predict if there is followthrough?
Process: What did the team learn about the process of conducting research
from this project? What would you like to do differently if you were to conduct
this study again?
OVERALL GUIDELINES FOR THE TEAM PROJECTS
1. Key goals
Acquire and share knowledge and skills that enhance success in public sector
management.
Comprehend and appreciate other cultures including global trends.
Better understand the assumptions and values that underlie cultural customs,
Perceive the USA in a cross-cultural context.
2. Criteria
Analyze in depth.
Go far beyond a mere compilation of statistical or encyclopedic data.
Follow all the criteria for course-related written work provided.
Relate to relevant theories, to our course content, to state-of-the-art business
information pertinent for the organization selected.
Organize your report coherently; use headings and sub-headings skillfully.
Document sources and quotations.
Provide a well-organized and thorough Table of Contents, a substantive
Introduction and a Bibliography.
Give a presentation in which every team member must speak.
Team choices of themes/organizations will be recorded in the order received by
the professor. Once a theme or organization has been selected, it may not be
allowed to be duplicated by another team.
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3. Behavioral Emphasis
In this report, focus on the topics assigned in the syllabus (e.g., don’t write
lengthy descriptions of the economic issues that apply to a nation and then
neglect the cultural norms, underlying assumptions, motivations, lifestyle issues,
etc., that pertain). Though you will include non-behavioral information, ensure our
course topics are featured.
4. Task and Content
Research on such underlying issues as:
Individualism
Future Orientation
Power Distance.
In-Group Collectivism
Gender Egalitarianism
Performance Orientation
Assertiveness
Humane Orientation
Uncertainty Avoidance.
And describe how those underlying issues get manifested in such areas as:
Mores.
Folkways and Customs
Religions
Rituals and rites
Subcultures
Treatment of minorities
Organizational culture
Ethics
Family life
Women in society
Communication patterns
Motivational dynamics
Attitudes toward
Change
Taboos
Ethnic groups
Education
Leadership styles
Politics
Grading Summary
Your final grade will be based upon the following:
10%
40%
20%
20%
10%
Personal and Professional Development Plan (Individual Assignment)
Case Analyses/Application Exercises (2) (Individual Class Assignment)
Concept Area Project: Paper and Presentation (Team Assignment)
Organizational Culture: Paper and Presentation (Team Assignment)
Punctuality, Attendance and Class participation
Grading Scale:
90-100 = A- to A
80-89 = B- to B+
70-79 = C- to C+
60-69 = D- to D+
Below 60 = F
Letter grades will be given for final course
grade. Any grade less than a C will not count
toward completion of the program.
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Papers received after the beginning of class on the day that they are due will be
considered late and shall be appropriately penalized. Please turn in one hard
copy of each assignment and email one copy to me.
Please remember that failing to provide citations for the words or thoughts of
another is considered plagiarism. Citations must be provided for direct quotes as
well as paraphrases.
Note:
The reading and homework schedule is subject to change at the discretion of the
instructor. Should any changes be necessary, every effort will be made to
communicate them quickly to current participants. It is the participant’s
responsibility to ensure he or she has the current schedule.
Confidentiality of class discussions must be respected by all the students.
You will be expected to read all assignments before class and be prepared to
participate during the lecture portion each week. The book contains information
critical to the class. Assigned readings will be supplemented with supporting
lectures.
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MPA623A SPRING2009 - TIMETABLE
SESSIONS
1 (3/4)
TOPICS, TASKS, READINGS
Housekeeping; Course Introduction; Syllabus Review;
Clarifying Mutual Expectations;
The Profession of Local Government Manager
Understanding the Role of Local Government Managers
Practices for Effective Local Government Management
Readings: Chapter 1, pgs 1-15,
Appendix B, pgs 237-239
2 (3/11)
Establish PresentationTeams/Triads
Personal and Professional Development Plan Paper (Individual
Assignment) due at the start of the class
Achieving Effective Community Leadership;
Role of Power and Politics in Public Administration;
Enhancing the Governing Body’s Effectiveness;
Dual Responsibilities: Networking with Citizens/Groups and Orienting
Staff/Organization: Importance of Transparency and Responsiveness to
help shape the Policy Agenda
Readings: Chapter 2, pgs 21-54,
Chapter 3, pgs 57-78
Structured Guidelines for the Team Assignments
3 (3/18)
C Case: Principles under pressure
Environmental Scanning:
The General Environment, The Local County/City Environment and
The Internal Environment (Staff & Organization)
Philosophy and Purpose of Strategic Planning: Strategic Inputs,
Strategic Actions and Strategic Outcomes
Readings: Chapter 4, pgs 83-110
Case: Efficiency, Effectiveness and Patronage
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MPA623A SPRING2009 - TIMETABLE
SESSIONS
4 (3/25)
TOPICS, TASKS, READINGS
Essential Management Practices:
Human Resource Management, Financial Management and Budget
Development and Management of Information Infrastructure
Readings: Chapter 5, pgs 113-149
Preparatory Work for the Team Assignments: An Update
5 (4/1)
Case: Redesigning the Budget Process
Policy Implementation, Productivity and Program Evaluation:
Agenda Setting; Policy Formulation;
Readings: Chapter 6, pgs 153-176
Concept Area Project Paper (Team Assignment)
due at the start of the class
Triad Presentations and Discussions: Concept Area Project
20 minutes each
Case Analysis/Application Exercise 1:
Replacing the Police Chief
6 (4/15)
Triad Presentations and Discussions: Concept Area Project - contd.
7 (4/22)
Policy Implementation, Productivity and Program Evaluation:
Program Implementation; Performance Measures and Evaluation
Readings: Chapter 6, pgs 153-176
Preparatory Work for Team Presentations
8 (4/29)
Case Analysis/Application Exercise 2:
Developing a Purchasing System
Organizational Culture Paper (Team Assignment)
due at the start of the class
Team Presentations: Organizational Culture in Public Sector
30 minutes each
Wrap up
1
The timetable is subject to change.
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