Admission requirements
MPA students
Description
Public sector organizations are often stereotyped as being bureaucratic and incapable of change. In practice, their organizational environment continuously requires public organizations to implement organizational change, for example in response to new policies, managerial reforms, technological innovations and the financial crisis. This course aims to connect the practical issue of organizational change in the public sector with the state of the art research on organizational change. Change management is concerned with the successful implementation of deliberate changes in organizations. Leadership is generally considered to be a crucial factor during organizational change, and concerns the activities and behavior of individuals in bringing about organizational change. This course will focus on the difficulties inherent to organizational change in public organizations, and will outline the central change management approaches and leadership theories. Special attention is given to how the particular environmental and organizational characteristics of public organizations determine the appropriateness of effectiveness of change management and leadership in the public sector.
Course objectives
At the end of this course, the student
*Understands the relevance of organizational change in the public sector, and its central aspects *Is able to understand, evaluate and compare the state-of-the-art academic research on change management and leadership *Has a conceptual understanding of how the particular context of public organizations determines the application of change management and leadership *Is able to apply the key concepts of this course in a systematic analysis of an organizational change process in a public organization *Has developed the ability to stay informed about current leadership developments and trends through online resources and networks
Timetable
On the Public Administration front page of the E-guide you will find links to the website and timetables, uSis and Blackboard.
Mode of instruction
The course will be taught through seminars. Teaching methods are presentations, discussions and a research project involving the analysis of a real life organizational change process.
Course Load
Seminar: 7 × 3 = 21 hours
Self-study = 109 hours
Groupwork on assignment: 10 hours
Total: 140 hours
Assessment method
Written exam (70%) and group assignment (30%). Both the written exam and the group assignment can be retaken if the grade is lower than 5.5.
You can find more information about assessments and the timetable exams on the website.
Details for submitting papers (deadlines) are posted on Blackboard.
On the Public Administration front page of the E-guide you will find links to the website, uSis and Blackboard.
Resit
Students will be permitted to resit an examination if they have taken the first sit and have a mark lower than 5.5 or with permission of the Board of Examiners.
Resit written exam
Students that want to take part in a resit for a written exam, are required to register via uSis. Use the activity number that can be found on the ‘timetable exams’.
Blackboard
To be announced.
Reading list
To be announced.
Registration
Use both uSis and Blackboard to register for every course.
Register for every course and workgroup via uSis. Some courses and workgroups have a limited number of participants, so register on time (before the course starts). In uSis you can access your personal schedule and view your results. Registration in uSis is possible from four weeks before the start of the course.
Also register for every course in Blackboard. Important information about the course is posted here.