SIPA: School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University

SIPA U6002x Governance and Public Management in Developing Countries: A Practice Perspective 3 pts. Government institutions shape the formulation and implementation of public policies. How these institutions are organized and managed and, crucially, how they interact with their broader governance environment can determine policy outcomes. A canon of public management approaches to improve organizational effectiveness has evolved in advanced industrialized countries. How well do these universal principles and techniques fit with institutional problems confronted by developing countries? This course will explore public management in less developed -- both middle income and fragile, low-capacity - environments. It will ground the discussion in theoretical thinking about organizations, economics and politics but will emphasize practice, providing students with a perspective on tackling problems under real-world conditions. Where appropriate, the course will reflect on the experience of international development assistance agencies in promoting institutional development. The developing country focus notwithstanding, the course will deconstruct the global public management revolution that has swept the developed world, as this has been the template for much of the advice offered to poor countries over the last several decades. The course will employ lectures, case studies, as well as team simulation and role-playing exercises that provide students with the opportunity to walk in the shoes of on-the-ground public management practitioners and policy makers. The aim is to expose students to the wide range of institutional development issues which occupy a broad swath of multi- and bi-lateral as well as non-profit development assistance organizations in poor and middle income countries. While students will frequently be required to think and behave as though they were operating in the real world of applied development, they should not expect to be trained in specific management skills or to learn the intricacies of how to manage. SIPA: MIA- Management. SIPA: MPA- Management.

SIPA U6003x Analysis of Public Sector Organizations 3 pts. This course develops a framework for understanding organizational performance, with a focus on public sector managerial settings. Topics covered include decision-making, the design of tasks and careers, the evolution of modern bureaucracies, public versus private ownership, and agency reform. The analytical approaches include game theory, behavioral economics, and the theory of incentives and contracts. Some examples will be drawn from American political institutions, but the goal is for students to acquire analytical skills that will be broadly applicable. While the course would be appropriate for all MIA and MPA students, it will likely be of particular interest to students with academic backgrounds in political science or economics. SIPA: MIA- Management. SIPA: MPA- Management. SIPA: USP- Urban Policy Track.

SIPA U6005x Effective Management in the Public Service 3 pts. This course serves as an introduction to management in government and in the non-profit and private organizations that contract with and/or partner with government to provide public services. Lectures, cases, discussions and group projects focus on an array of management tools that help managers implement public policy and deliver critical services. While many examples come from the instructor's experience in New York City and US state and federal agencies, numerous comparative cases and projects from Asia, Latin America and Europe are used to discover best practices, common challenges and the impact of culture on organization behavior. The course will be valuable to those expecting a career in large, complex organizations, either as a manager or a policy advisor. A laboratory section focuses on assigned readings and case studies, provides more opportunities for student discussions and brings in prominent guest speakers from all three sectors. SIPA: MIA- Management. SIPA: MPA- Management.

SIPA U6006x and y Strategic Thinking and Planning for General Managers 3 pts.Not offered in 2012-2013. This course has two primary objectives: (1) to introduce and apply analytic frameworks used in formulating and implementing strategies at the general manager level, and (2) to integrate managerial skills acquired in other courses and through personal job experiences. Specifically, as a result of the course, participants should be able to: analyze complex industry and organizational situations from an executive or general management point of view, utilizing a comprehensive strategic framework;develop and/or identify potential alternative strategies for pursuing organizational mission and vision;assess the implications of strategic options, including potential for achieving competitive advantage and for effective implementation;prepare plans for executing strategies successfully within realistic economic, market, and temporal parameters, andmake, support analytically, and communicate clearly strategic decisions from an executive leadership perspective. Over the semester, the course considers questions of Mission and Vision (What areas, activities, or business[es] should we be in?) and questions of Strategy and Operations (How can we perform or compete effectively in this area?). It covers both strategy formulation (What should our strategy be?) as well as strategy implementation (What do we need to do to make this strategy work?). The course also addresses several additional issues that are critical to the strategic management process (e.g., designing planning systems, managing contention). The course emphasizes the multiple, related requirements of the leader/manager's job: analysis, creativity, and action, and will utilize cases from for-profit, not-for-profit, and government/NGO sectors in both US and international contexts. Students should have familiarity with financial accounting (reading basic financial statements and understanding financial terminology) and basic corporate finance (cash flow, time value of money, payback, IRR, etc.). SIPA: MIA- Management. SIPA: MPA- Management.

SIPA U6008y Fostering Innovation & Driving Improvement in the Public & Non-Profit Sectors This course is designed to introduce students to the field of public sector and non-profit management and to provide students with tools, frameworks, and approaches that are effective in promoting performance improvement. Continued downward budgetary pressure coupled with increasing public expectations of service quality has created a constraint-ridden operating environment for the public and non-profit sectors. In spite of such challenges, opportunities for fostering innovation and driving improvement abound. The key is in understanding where to look for opportunities, how to leverage assets and resources already in-place, and indentifying what skills and abilities are required of leaders (and staff) to be effective agents of change and improvement in their organizations. The course will cover subject matter critical for all students considering careers in the public and non-profit sectors as well as those interested in effecting organizational, strategic, and operational change. SIPA: MIA- Management. SIPA: MPA- Management. SIPA: USP- Urban Policy Track.

SIPA U6010y Enterprise Strategy for Leaders This course trains managers or analysts to look outward to the environment and inward to the enterprise's resources and capabilities and operating policies. As such, we describe aenterprise's strategy as the formulation of "competitive strategy", "corporate strategy" and "organizational strategy". Competitive strategy involves identifying structurally attractive industries and developing the most attractive position within that industry, where attractiveness is driven by absolute conditions combined with the resources and capabilities the firm brings to that position. Businesses create value by operating in positions within industries that, by virtue of the characteristics of industry, the position and the firm, are defensible from the encroachment of competitors and deterioration of the environment as a whole. Corporate strategy focuses on the management and understanding of multi-product, multi-location and multi-business firms. Although we devote limited time to the topic, organizational strategy involves developing policies within each functional area of the business unit that are integrative and consistent with the firm's plan for creating value The main orientation of the course is on for profit firms. Understanding the perspective of business is critical for allocentric policy making. The concepts will be translated to a non for profit setting as opportunities for connections arise and we will cover a non for profit case near the end of the term. Also, the concepts presented in the course carry over well to the social enterprise space. SIPA: MIA- Management. SIPA: MPA- Management. SIPA: Management.