How does governance differ from public administration? What are the implications of the rise of governance for public service organization and delivery?

Project description
Module DescriptionPublic services make up a significant part of most national economies where entrepreneurs, business and social enterprises play an increasingly important role alongside other public bodies and regulators. The current UK coalition government brings to the fore new questions about public spending, the role of public services, the balance and relationships between public and private sectors and the future of a Big Society. Meeting the challenges of contemporary public service organisation and delivery requires the development of specialist managerial knowledge and skills. This module aims to provide students with an understanding of the key management challenges facing public services across the world, but with particular focus on the UK. The module addresses this aim by examining management themes that have important implications for contemporary public service organisation and delivery.

Module Aims:Introduce students to the different sectors and organisations in which public services managers operate
Provide students with knowledge of the changing socio-political context, operational constitution and working practices of public services managers
Introduce students to the major dimensions of public service management, including theory of public management & governance, performance management, human resources management, organisational learning, quality improvement, managing professionals
Learning Objectives
& Outcomes:Knowledge and understanding

With specific reference to the organisation and management of public services, this module develops a knowledge and understanding of:

The management and development of people in organisations
The management of resources and operation
The development, management and exploitation of information systems and their impact upon organisations
A range of contemporary and pervasive business and management issues, including business innovation, creativity, knowledge management, sustainability, values and norms

Intellectual skills

This module develops:

The ability to create, evaluate and access a range of options, together with the capacity to apply ideas and knowledge to a range of business and other situations.
The cognitive skills of critical thinking, analysis and synthesis, including the ability to identify assumptions, evaluate statements in terms of evidence, to detect false logic or reasoning, to identify implicit values, and to determine terms adequately and to generalise appropriately.

Professional practical skills

This module develops:

Qualitative skills including the ability to work with case studies
The effective use of information and communication technology (ICT) skills for business applications.
Self-awareness, openness and sensitivity to diversity in terms of people, cultures, business and management issues.

Transferable (key) skills

This module develops:

Effective oral and written communication skills in a range of traditional and electronic media.
Learning and developing an appetitive for reflective, adaptive and collaborative learning.

The essay questions have been design to give you flexibility and discretion. It is recognised that some students will have experience of working in certain public services, and others may have particular career aspirations in these areas. The assessment has therefore been designed to give you a choice of topic areas and management issues to explore. Students are encouraged to use seminars and tutorials to discuss and plan their assessment.

Essays should be no more than 3000 words in length and should conform to Nottingham University Business School requirements. Essays to be submitted by 2pm, 13th May 2015.

The primary text for the module is:

Flynn, N. (2012) Public Sector Management (sixth edition), London: Sage

Suggested journals:

British Journal of Management
Public Administration
Public Administration Review
Policy and Politics
Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory
Journal of Social Policy
Social Policy and Administration
Social Policy and Society
Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory
Public Money and Management
International Journal of Public Sector Management
International Journal of Public Administration

LECTURE REFERENCES

Public sector management – Flynn, Norman 2012 core reading for public services management

Esping- Anderson, G. (1990) The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press
Lawton, A., and Rose, A., (1994) Organisation and Management in the Public Sector (2nd ed). London: Pitman Publishing
Pettigrew, Andrew, Ewan Ferlie, and Lorna McKee (1992) “Shaping strategic change?The case of the NHS in the 1980s.” Public Money & Management 12(3): 27-31.

Griffiths, R. (1983) NHS Management Inquiry. London: DHSS.
Dunleavy, P. and Christopher H. (1993) From old public administration to new public management Public Money and Management 14 (3): 916.
Haynes, Philip. Managing complexity in the public services. McGraw-Hill International, 2003.
Hood, Christopher. “A public management for all seasons?.” Public administration 69.1 (1991): 3-19.

Hughes, Owen E. Public management and administration: An introduction. New York: Palgrave, 1998.
Mintzberg (1993) Structure in Fives: Designing effective organizations. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall
Osborne, S.P. and Mclaughlin, K. (2002) The New Public Management in Context in McLaughlin, K., Osborne, S.P and Ferlie, E. New Public Management: Current Trends and Future Prospects. London: Routledge

Ferlie, E., Freeman, G., McDonnell, J., Petsoulas, C., & Rundle-Smith, S. (2006). Introducing Choice in the public services: some supply-side issues. Public Money and Management, 26(1), 63-72.
Hartley, J. (2005). Innovation in governance and public services: Past and present. Public money and management, 25(1), 27-34.
Le Grand, J. (1991). Quasi-markets and social policy. The Economic Journal, 1256-1267.
Propper et al., (2004) Does competition between hospitals improve the quality of care. Journal of Public Economics 88: 1247-72
Propper et al., (2008) Competition and quality: evidence from the NHS Internal Market 1991-9. Economic Journal 118(525): 38-170
Walker, R. M., Brewer, G. A., Boyne, G. A., & Avellaneda, C. N. (2011). Market orientation and public service performance: new public management gone mad?. Public Administration Review, 71(5), 707-717.

Governance: a very short introduction – Mark Bevir 2012

The new public governance? Emerging perspectives on the theory and practice of public governance – S.P. Osborne
From public administration to public sector management: understanding contemporary change in British public services – Stephen Ackroyd 1995

A PUBLIC MANAGEMENT FOR ALL SEASONS? 1991

New public management is dead-long live digital-era governance. 2006, Journal of Public Administration Research & Theory

Public management and Governance, A. G. Bovaird, Elke Loffler Understanding public management and governance