Short course description
Successfully managing public organizations and employees has always been crucial for good public service delivery. However, in times of – for instance – societal, socio-cultural, economic, and technological changes, public organizations and their managers need to adjust their management strategies so that good public service delivery persists. In this course, we identify changes that are relevant to public service provision in various contexts (e.g., educational, health and security sector), and discuss what these changes mean to successful management of public organizations and employees from a macro, meso and micro perspective.   

Learning goals:

1. Be able to explain the relationship between the institutional environment (macro), the management of public organizations (meso) and the functioning of individual employees (micro) in the context of societal challenges. (understanding)
2. Analyzing how the management of public organizations can respond to societal challenges in order to make public services future-proof. (analyze)
3. Designing a social media product to give public organizations management tools to future-proof their services in the light of societal challenges. (synthesis)

    

The course is organized as follows:
Day 1 (Macro): Public Management in a Societal Context: a work and personnel perspective

• Morning: We identify and discuss contextual changes that challenge the management of public sector organizations and what these challenges imply for managing work and personnel.
• Afternoon: Together with Wouter Vandenabeele, we discuss the institutional context of public organization and how it shapes the management of public organizations in general and work and personnel in particular.

 
Day 2 (Meso): Management of Public Sector Organizations

• Morning: Together with Bert George, we discuss how strategic management (in general and subsequently with a focus on human resource management) can contribute to public service delivery in times of changes/a challenging environment.
• Afternoon: Together with Eva Knies, we discuss how people management can contribute to public service delivery in times of changes/a challenging environment.

Day 3 (Micro): Managing Public Servants

• Morning: We discuss specific management approaches that take into account these specificities of public servants. Together with Sandra Groeneveld, we will zoom in on diversity management.
• Afternoon: We will conclude the course by looking at your final assignments together with a communications advisor. Among other things, we will look at which channel is suitable for which message and how to deal with reactions to your media statements.