Advanced Public Management

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2008:

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

This subject explores the strategies and instruments that public managers use to implement public policy. We will review several key aspects of the management role including: how public managers support the development and implantation of good public policy, how the management role fits within the framework of government and governance in different systems, how questions of responsibility, accountability and performance are defined in the public sector as compared to private enterprise. We will examine the systemic and environmental imperatives which frame the managers experience, including shifts from traditional notions of bureaucracy to a new world of contracting, performance management and partnerships. To understand the manager's perspective we will use a case study method supported by theoretical and evidence-based texts from Australia and elsewhere. The subject will review the Australian public sector reform movements of the 1980s and 1990s, together with cutting edge innovations in several other OECD countries. This will include discussion of the movement from Weberian notions of bureaucratic action to recent European and Australian research on Network Governance. The theoretical themes of the program will focus attention upon rational choice, Third Way and neo-institutionalist accounts. This will also point to the important dimensions of the manager's role such as the authorizing environment in which managers operate, the tools and constraints available in different environments and the value system driving public organizations in the contemporary era. Emphasis will be placed upon developing strong analytical skills, a detailed understanding of accountability issues, and an ability to strategize from a management perspective. The subject will require students to develop their own case study of a public management challenge through research on a current case, together with an analytical treatment of options and dilemmas

A subject reader will be available.

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

• be able to demonstrate competence in critical, creative and theoretical thinking through essay writing, seminar discussion and presentations, conceptualising theoretical problems, forming judgments and arguments from conflicting evidence, and by critical analysis;
• be able to demonstrate proficiency in the application of policy analysis skills to empirical problems;
• be able to demonstrate an understanding of the academic protocols of research and presentation.