PPA 240 Fall 2000 Course Syllabus

PPA 240 Syllabus
Public Management
California State University, Sacramento

Professor Robert Waste

FALL 2000

Course Description	Course Objectives	Seminar Format	Assignments
Grades	Reading Materials	Other Materials	Course Outline

Wednesdays: 6:00 - 8:50 pm							Dr. Robert Waste
							278-4944; wasterj@csus.edu
Office Hours: Wednesday 9-12, 1-3, 5-6:00 pm and by appointment							Office: Tahoe Hall, 3036

Course Description

The purpose of this course is to teach students about public organizations and the challenges facing contemporary public managers. We will learn about the evolution of the field of public administration, the way that public organizations differ from private organizations, how the "reinventing government" movement has affected public management and spawned counter-movements, and how public managers interact with other actors and institutions in the political process. There will be a specific focus on state and local government in California.

Note: This course contains several web-based class assignments. It is imperative that each student have daily access to a computer with an Internet connection. This can be accomplished through existing home or work accounts, or by registering for a SacLink account at the CSUS Computer Center (Sequoia Hall 322; phone: 916/278-7337). If students do not have access to a computer at home or at work, there are several open computer labs on campus that can be used, including one that is open 24-hours. These accounts must be established and usable by September 9 in order to participate fully in class assignments. Students without home or office use of basic Internet access and e-mail will need a SacLink account.

Course Objectives

There are three primary objectives:

On the assumption that most students in the class are, or aspire to be, employed in the public sector--many in management positions--we will learn about today's real world challenges of public management. With attention focused on "reinventing government" over the last several years, public agencies are expected to be customer-focused, efficient, productive, and accountable to the taxpayer. Public managers, therefore, are giving increasing attention to changing personnel policies, reallocating resources, reengineering processes, assuring quality, accomplishing cultural change within organizations, and measuring outcomes to account for the value of public services delivered. We will study these trends generally, with specific reference to California state and local government.
I want students to gain an understanding of the place of public organizations in a democratic society and the role of the public manager in the political environment. We will learn about how scholars think about and study organizations, how public organizations differ from private ones, how the fields of public management and public administration evolved to where they are today, and how public managers wrestle with key ethical questions on affirmative action in hiring and promotion, sexual discrimination in the workplace, and "whistle-blowing" in public agencies.
I want this course to contribute toward your successful progress through the PPA program by improving your ability at team-building, and effective presentations skills - including the use of PowerPoint presentations and project management software.

There is one additional course objective: we are experimenting with use of the web during this course. The objective is to familiarize students with forms of electronic communication that will be increasingly important to the workplace and to take advantage of the educational value of these tools.

Seminar Format

This is not a lecture class. If you come expecting to be told what was covered in the readings, you will be disappointed. My job is to select interesting and useful readings, orient you to them by identifying key questions, and guide the discussion. Your job is to read the material, think about it, and come prepared to share your ideas with your classmates. We have the tremendous advantage that many of you, like me, work in the public sector. In our class discussions we will relate, whenever possible, the theories and concepts from the readings to our workday experiences. Those of you who work in public or public-benefit organizations will have the opportunity to construct your assignments around issues of importance to you in your work, culminating in a case study. Those students who are not working in an organization, and who are not sufficiently familiar with an organization, will adopt CSUS, the City of Sacramento, or the Sacramento County Department of Human Assistance (DHA) as their organization. I will help students understand the application of course concepts to CSUS, the City of Sacramento, and to DHA.

I will use a variety of learning strategies to try to keep the course interesting for everyone. Most often we will have class discussions oriented toward issues that you have identified as interesting or important. We will also have group projects, student-led discussions, Internet projects, and mediated interaction using the World Wide Web. We will have three class "sessions" for which we will use the World Wide Web instead of meeting on campus. This is intended as a convenience measure for students as well as an opportunity to learn how new technologies can contribute to learning.

Assignments

The following assignments are due on the dates indicated.

Assignment	Due Date
Every week, beginning week 2, students are required to email me a question that relates to the assigned reading for the week. When assigned (about 4-5 times during the semester), students will be asked to raise their issue to the class and lead a brief class discussion.	by noon on the day of class
Four short papers are required (2-4 pages, double spaced) on weekly reading topics. Students may choose which weeks they want to write these papers, but they are due in class and must address the assigned readings for the week.	at class for the four weeks of your choice
Individual Project: , students will develop a critique of the strategic plan, drawn from a variety of organizations. This will involve a PowerPoint presentation with a minimum of 4 slides.	November 15
Final Paper: A paper of 12-15 pages that is either a case study of an organization's progress in addressing contemporary challenges of public management or a conceptual review and analysis of public management challenges.	December 12 by 6pm
Web Resources Review: Review web resources listed in	Submit with final paper

E-mail Questions - Weekly e-mail questions on readings
and occasional class discussion questions

Due Date: 12:00 noon on the day of class. E-mail to: wasterj@csus.edu

DO NOT USE LISTSERV FOR WEEKLY E-MAIL QUESTIONS.

Description of the assignment: After reading all material for the week, send me an e-mail, by noon Wednesday, with a question on something the material made you think about. About 4-5 times during the semester, each student will be assigned in advance to raise their issue to the class and lead a short discussion. I do not expect you to have answers or to have done any additional research on those weeks. I do expect you to have thought about why the issue is important and how one might go about getting answers. Examples: how does the concept of "customer" apply to regulatory agencies? is satisfying customers the same as achieving the public interest?Goals and objectives: To ensure that you read and think about the material and to help me direct the class discussion to topics that you have found interesting.

Short Papers -- Four papers on weekly readings (2-4 pages, double-spaced)

Due Date: Any four class sessions--at the start of class

Description of the assignment: You may pick the four weeks according to your interest in the topic or your schedule, but don't leave them all for the end! I have included sample questions under the reading assignment for each week. You may address any of these questions or another topic that the readings raise in your mind. The paper is NOT to be a summary of the readings. It is to be an analysis, or a personal reaction to the readings, e.g. do you agree? do the authors over-simplify? does this concept apply to a variety of situations? have you observed these concepts in your organization? The paper does not have to include formal citations from readings. It does need to be well-organized, well-written, proofread.
Goals and objectives: The purpose of the papers is to get you to apply the concepts in the readings to the organization that will be your focus over the course of the semester. The papers should help you be well along toward thinking about and writing the final paper by the latter part of the semester. I also want to make sure that a subgroup of students (those who have chosen to write a paper in a given week) is really prepared to contribute to class discussion. So, on the week that you turn in a paper, please be prepared to talk about the readings, even more than you usually may!

Individual Project

Due Date: Week 12 (November 15)

Description of the assignment: Students will examine a set of public agency strategic plans that are posted on the web, and strategic plans for their own organizations, if available. Students will develop a critique of one of the plans, indicating (1) what are the relative strengths and weaknesses of the plan, (2) how well does the plan incorporate performance measures for outcomes, (3) whether and how the plan positions the organization to change, and (4) any other comments the student wishes to add. All students are to read at least two strategic plan and make comparative comments about both plans.

Groups may choose from the following strategic plans, and may include any other plans on the web of which they are aware:

Goals and objectives: The assignment is an opportunity to work with some of the concepts on organizational change, accountability, and performance measurement.

Final Paper--12-15 pages, double-spaced

Due Date: Finals Week, Dec. 12 (or earlier) on night of class, 5:15 - 7:15 PM

Description of the assignment: You may choose either of two topics for your final paper.

TOPIC 1:
With reference to your organization, or another organization, write a case study that describes how the organization and its leaders are dealing with contemporary issues of public management. This paper should build upon the four papers you wrote earlier in the class and should address issues such as leadership, accountability, reframing the citizen-government relationship, performance measurement, organizational culture, organizational change, reengineering, political management, ethics, defining and creating public value, etc. The number of issues addressed and the specific topics are your choice. The paper must, however, describe the organization's condition and performance in select areas with respect to the norms and expectations presented by authors we have read. It should be a fairly comprehensive (rather than narrowly focused on one issue) assessment of how the organization is doing in meeting today's challenges.

TOPIC 2:
The reform of government has received considerable attention in the 1990s. With reference to a broad spectrum of the course readings, please write a 12-15 page, double spaced paper that addresses the following topics:

� why interest in reform is high at this time
� how contemporary reform movements compare to one another and to traditional approaches to public management
� what you see as some of the most important developments in contemporary public management theory
� identify what you think are two or three of the most important challenges facing contemporary public managers (e.g. accountability, developing performance measures, transforming organizational culture, restructuring organizations, managing within the political environment, promoting organizational learning, improving customer service, recruiting and rewarding effective staff and/or leaders, dealing with ethical issues, obtaining resources, or others you identify) and support your choices
� for the specific items you identified, describe what you think are the prospects for reform in these key areas, the major obstacles to success, and the tools that public managers have to successfully meet these challenges

Attributes of successful papers (for either topic):

Clear statement of your paper topic--good introductory paragraph
Substantive discussion of the challenges of public management that demonstrates a solid understanding of a broad spectrum of course readings
Evidence of integrative thinking, e.g. that you have considered readings in light of one another
Willingness to analyze various authors' viewpoints, take a position, and support it, rather than summarizing various viewpoints
Well-organized presentation, with logical progression of ideas, clear headings, and conclusion that relates back to the introduction
Clear, concise, grammatically correct writing style, without typographical errors
Conform to the requirements of 12-15 double-spaced pages, font no larger than 12-point, normal margins (about 1 inch).
Formal citations and bibliography are not required unless you are using material from outside of course readings (not necessary).

Goals and objectives: (1) To engage in integrative thinking about a broad range of topics covered in class and in the readings; (2) to come to some personal understanding of how they might apply either to a real-world situation or in theory; and (3) to demonstrate your ability to write a thoughtful and coherent paper. If written on your own organization, the paper should give you greater insight into your work environment.

Web-site Resources -- Written review of five sites

Due Date: With Final Paper

Description of the assignment: Over the course of the semester, review some of the web sites listed in the Resources section of the course overview. Write up a review of five of the sites, indicating whether and how they could be useful to you in school, work, or just for general interest. The written product should be about 2-3 pages and can be e-mailed or electronically submitted.
Goals and objectives: To introduce students to the variety of web resources available in the field of public administration and public management, and to get students thinking about how to use information to help with their own interests.

Grades

Class attendance and participation (including weekly
e-mail questions)

I consider enrolling in this class a commitment to me and to your student colleagues to attend the class. We all benefit from everyone's contributions. It is not okay to miss class for any but the most unavoidable of reasons. Excessive absences jeopardizes successful completion of the course. In addition to "seat time", the quality of your participation in class discussions will be reflected in your grade. For the three class sessions conducted via the web, electronic communications will count as class participation

15%

Class discussion questions

10%

Four short papers

30%

Group project

15%

Internet Resources Review

5%

Final Paper

25%

Papers and group assignments will be graded according to the following standards:

A

Outstanding achievement: clear purpose, thorough understanding of relevant material, original points well -supported with evidence or persuasive argument, well-organized, well-written, few or no typographical errors.

B

Good performance: topic and purpose is well-stated, points well-supported, well-organized, well-written, few or no typographical errors.

C

Many aspects of assignment covered, but lacking originality, clarity, thoroughness, persuasiveness, or writing quality.

D

Missed the point or the assignment in either form or substance.

Reading Materials

Required Texts:

David Osborne and Peter Blast, Banishing Bureaucracy: The Five Strategies for Reinventing Government, 1996, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. (Paperback).

Mark Moore, Creating Public Value: Strategic Management in Government, 1995, Harvard University Press (Paperback).

Gareth Morgan, Images of Organization, 1997, Sage Publications (Paperback).

"Readings in Public Management" - set of readings for purchase from Bookstore

Other Materials

Each student needs an e-mail account and Internet access.

Course Outline, Readings, and Assignment Schedule

Part I

Governance: Government and Citizens in a Democratic Society

Week 1: August 30 Introduction and course objectives

Having Some Fun/Skills You Can Use: Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

Recommended Reading: Steven Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

Week 2: Sept 6 The reinventing government movement & critiques of reinvention

Having Some Fun/Skills You Can Use: "Pattern Recognition" & the 'Architecture' of Scholarly Arguments

Recommended Reading:

David Osborne & Ted Gaebler, Reinventing Government. (1993).

Required Reading:

David Osborne and Peter Blast, Banishing Bureaucracy. (1996).

Peter Drucker, " Really Reinventing Government," Atlantic Monthly (Feb. 1995).

Gary Zajac & Ali Al-Kazemi, "Reinventing Government & Redefining Leadership." Public Productivity and Management Review (1997).

Week 3: Sept 13 New directions of public management (I): Goals, results and innovation

Having Some Fun/Skills You Can Use: Merton, "Learned Disabilities," & Vertical vs. Horizontal Communication

Required Reading:

Bob Behn, "Do Goals Help Create Innovative Organizations?" (1999)

Jim Collins, "Turning Goals into Results: The Power of Catalytic Mechanisms," Harvard Business Review (1999).

Week 4: Sept 20 New directions for public management (II): Community-oriented policing, & creating new market space & public value through organizational reengineering

Having Some Fun/Skills You Can Use: Downsian Types of Bureaucratic Personalities

Guest Practitioner on Community Policing

Required Reading:

W. Cahn Kim & Renee Mauborgne, "Creating New Market Space: A Systematic Approach to Value Innovation Can Help Companies Break Out of the Pack," Harvard Business Review (1999).

Gerasimos Gianikas & John Davis, "Reinventing or Repackaging Public Services: The Case of Community Oriented Policing." Public Administration Review (1998).

Mark Moore, Creating Public Value: Strategic Management in Government (Harvard 1995). Chapter 6, pp. 193-238.

Week 5: Sept 27 New directions for public management-continued Web class period

Required Reading:

Mark Moore, Creating Public Value: Strategic Management in Government (Harvard 1995). Skim Chapters 1-5, and read carefully Chapter 7, pp. 239-292.

Part II

Organizations: Arenas for Managing the Public Enterprise

Week 6: Oct 4 The meaning of organizations (part 1)

Having Some Fun/Skills You Can Use: General Systems Theory & A Brush-Up on Classical Mgt. Theory

Required Reading:

Gareth Morgan, Images of Organization (Sage 1997). Chapters 1 & 2.

Week 7: Oct 11 The meaning of organizations (part 2)

Having Some Fun/Skills You Can Use: The Environment or Ecology of Public Organizations

Required Reading:

Gareth Morgan, Images of Organization (Sage 1997). Chapters 3-7.

Week 8: Oct 18 Organizational Change Web class period

Having Some Fun/Skills You Can Use: The Life Cycle of Public Organizations

Required Reading:

Gareth Morgan, Images of Organization (Sage 1997). Chapters 8-11.

Mark Moore, Creating Public Value: Strategic Management in Government (Harvard 1995). The Conclusion section to Chapter 7, pp. 293-309.

Part III

Practice: Contemporary Challenges of Public Management

Week 9: Oct 25 Accountability

Having Some Fun/Skills You Can Use: Project Management Software

Week 10: Nov 1 Performance Measurement & Performance Contracting

Having Some Fun/Skills You Can Use: Counting on the fingers of one hand: Measurement that is Quantitative, Qualitative, Process-Oriented, Product-Oriented & Encourages Growth & Stretching.

Required Reading:

David Ammons, "Overcoming the Inadequacies of Performance Measurement in Local Government," Public Administration Review (1995).

Robert Behn, & Peter Kant, "Strategies for Avoiding the Pitfalls of Performance Contracting," Public Productivity and Management Review (1999).

Week 11: Nov 8 Privatization, Reengineering, and TQM Web class period

Guest practitioner on TQM

Required Reading:

Appa Rao Korunkonda, John Wilson & T. M. Rajkumar, "Beyond Teams & Empowerment: A Counterpoint to Two Common Precepts in TQM," Advanced Management Journal (1999).

Robert Digler, Randall Moffett & Linda Struyk, "Privatization in America's Largest Cities," Public Administration Review (1997).

Week 12: Nov 15 Leadership versus Entrepreneurship versus Management

Required Reading: Four Public Agency Strategic Plans - available on the web. (See Individual Projects for Week 12, explained above).

Having Some Fun/Skills You Can Use: Types of Leaders & the "Big Rocks" Leadership Theory

Week 13: Nov 22 (Thanksgiving-no class)

Week 14: Nov. 29 Civil Service and Personnel Management

Guest Practitioner on Civil Service Reform

Required Reading: 1999 Report of the California Little Hoover Commission - available on the web at: http://www.lhc.ca.gov

Week 15: Dec 6 Ethics and Public Management

Having Some Fun/Skills You Can Use: Strategies & Interventions for Problem Employees

Week 16: Final Papers Due DEC 13 by 5:15 - 7:15 PM. Course Conclusion.

BACK

Class attendance and participation (including weekly e-mail questions) I consider enrolling in this class a commitment to me and to your student colleagues to attend the class. We all benefit from everyone's contributions. It is not okay to miss class for any but the most unavoidable of reasons. Excessive absences jeopardizes successful completion of the course. In addition to "seat time", the quality of your participation in class discussions will be reflected in your grade. For the three class sessions conducted via the web, electronic communications will count as class participation	15%
Class discussion questions	10%
Four short papers	30%
Group project	15%
Internet Resources Review	5%
Final Paper	25%

A	Outstanding achievement: clear purpose, thorough understanding of relevant material, original points well -supported with evidence or persuasive argument, well-organized, well-written, few or no typographical errors.
B	Good performance: topic and purpose is well-stated, points well-supported, well-organized, well-written, few or no typographical errors.
C	Many aspects of assignment covered, but lacking originality, clarity, thoroughness, persuasiveness, or writing quality.
D	Missed the point or the assignment in either form or substance.

Course Description

Course Objectives

Seminar Format

Assignments

E-mail Questions - Weekly e-mail questions on readings and occasional class discussion questions

Short Papers -- Four papers on weekly readings (2-4 pages, double-spaced)

Individual Project

Final Paper--12-15 pages, double-spaced

Web-site Resources -- Written review of five sites

Grades

Reading Materials

Other Materials

Course Outline, Readings, and Assignment Schedule

Part I

Governance: Government and Citizens in a Democratic Society

Part II

Organizations: Arenas for Managing the Public Enterprise

Part III

Practice: Contemporary Challenges of Public Management

E-mail Questions - Weekly e-mail questions on readings
and occasional class discussion questions