21728 Public Sector Management

Subject level: Postgraduate

Handbook description

This subject introduces students to the theory and practice of public sector management. It explores the competing theories about management in the public sector, and examines practical management skills in the public sector in light of these competing theories.

Subject objectives/outcomes

On successful completion of this subject students should be able to:

1. Understand the conceptual and theoretical basis of the market-based, economic rationalist, new managerialist, customer service, social capital paradigms of public sector management.
2. Evaluate the appropriateness of contemporary public sector managerialist practice by assessing the value and relevance of business-derived 'scientific' and 'rational' management models.
3. Demonstrate knowledge and skills in a range of public sector management techniques by evaluating the relative merits of contemporary practices and examining the challenges facing managers within a political environment.
4. Demonstrate skills in written and oral presentation through the critical analysis of ideas and concepts of public sector management.

Contribution to graduate profile

The public sector, like business, has adopted many managerialist techniques in recent years and increasingly there is little to differentiate management practices in the two sectors. Public-private partnerships within a market-based model are now typical of public sector management. This subject provides students with an opportunity to develop knowledge, competencies and values in relation to the wide range of public sector management approaches. Particularly, the current informant theoretical and conceptual paradigms derived from neoclassical economic thinking, business managerialism, customer service and ideas of social capital are explored. How these management practices are relevant and possible within the political context is also examined. The focus of the subject is on understanding the theoretical and conceptual frameworks of managerial practice and to examine these both academically and in a real life or simulated public sector organisation context.

Teaching and learning strategies

Lectures, discussion groups, case studies and intelligence gathering assignments will be used to cover the major issues relating to this subject. Lecture and other teaching material and subject information will be available at UTS Online. In addition the lecturer will be available for individual consultation face-to-face or online throughout the semester.

Content

• Profiling the skills and attributes of a modern public sector manager
• Understanding the key global factors, issues and events, which have stimulated change to public sector management over the last two decades
• The market-based model of public sector management
• Managerialism
• Alternative themes in public sector management: social capital
• Practising public sector management
• Competition, Privatisation and Corporatisation
• Financial Management
• Customer service, citizen participation and e-government
• Performance monitoring, accountability and evaluation
• Managing in the public interest
• Contemporary issues in public sector management.

Assessment

Recommended text(s)

Book of Readings

Indicative references

Alaba, R. 1994. Inside Bureaucratic Power. Hale and Ironmonger, Sydney

Alford, J. 1993. 'Towards a New Public Management Model: Beyond "Managerialism" and Its Critics'. Australian Journal of Public Administration (AJPA), 52, 2, 135-148

Allison, G. 1980. 'Public and Private Management: Are They Fundamentally Alike in All Unimportant Respects'. in Shafritz J. and Hyde, A. (eds) Classics of Public Administration (Third Edition). Brooks/Cole. Pacific Grove, California. 457-475

Argy, F. 1998. Australia at the Crossroad - Radical free market or a progressive liberalism. Allen and Unwin. St. Leonards, Australia

Aucoin, P. 1995. the new public management CANADA in Comparative Perspective. Institute for Research on Public Policy. Ottawa

Barrett, G. 2000. 'John Howard: Yesterday's economic manager? in Singleton, G. (ed). The Howard Government. University of New South Wales Press, Sydney. 127-137

Barzelay, M. 1992. Breaking Through Bureaucracy. University of California Press. Berkeley

Boston, J. 1996. 'Origins and Destinations: New Zealand's Model' in Weller, P. and Davis, G. (eds). New Ideas, Better Government. Allen and Unwin. St. Leonards, Australia., 107-131

Boston, J. and Uhr, J. 1996. 'Reshaping the mechanics of government'. in Castles, F., Gerritsen, R., and Vowles, J. (Eds). The Great Experiment. Allen and Unwin. St. Leonards, Australia. 48-67

Botsman, P. 1999. 'The public-private frontier: the land of OZ'. In Drache, D. and Sullivan, T. (eds). Health Reform. Public Success Private Failure. Routledge. London. 105-126

Chapman, R. 1997. 'The end of the British civil service' in Barberis, P. (ed). The Civil Service in an Era of Change. Dartmouth. Aldershot. 23-37

Clegg, S. 1989. Frameworks of Power. Sage. London

Considine, M. 1994. Public Policy A Critical Approach. Macmillan. South Melbourne

Davis, G., Weller, P., Lewis, C., (eds). 1993. Corporate Management in Australian Government. (2nd ed.). Macmillan. Melbourne.

Ferlie, E. Ashburner, L., Fitzgerald, L. and Pettigrew, A. 1996. The new public management in action. Oxford University Press. Oxford.

Giddens, A. 2000. The Third Way and its Critics. Polity Press. Cambridge, UK

Hood, C. 1998. The Art of the State. Culture, Rhetoric and Public Management. Clarendon Press. Oxford

Laffin, M. and Painter, M. 1995. (eds.). Reform and Reversal: Lessons from the Coalition Government on New South Wales 1988 – 1995. Macmillan Education, South Melbourne

Lindblom, C. 1959. 'The Science of Muddling Through'. Public Administration Review 19, 2. 79-88

Lindblom, C. 1979. 'Still Muddling, Not Yet Through. Public Administration Review 39, 6. 517-526

Lindquist, E. and White, G. 1994. 'Streams, springs, and stones: Ontario public service reform in the 1980s and the 1990s' in Canadian Public Administration. Vol 37 (2) (Summer). 267-301

Lynn, L. Jr. 1996. Public Management as Art, Science and Profession. Chatham House Publishers, New Jersey

Osborne D. and Gaebler, T. 1992. Reinventing Government. Addison-Wesley. Reading, MA

Pollitt, C. 1993. Managerialism and the Public Services (second edition). Blackwell. Oxford

Simon, H. 1957. Administrative Behaviour: a study of decision-making processes in administrative organisation. (2nd Edition). MacMillan. New York

Simon, H. 1964. 'On the Concept of Organizational Goal'. Administrative Science Quarterly. 9,1, June. 1-22

Taylor, F. W. 1912. 'Scientific Management'. reprinted in Shafritz, J. and Hyde, A. 1992, Classics of Public Administration. Brooks/Cole. Pacific Grove, California. 29-32.