Description
International organizations can play an important role in world politics. But how do these organizations work? How do they become independent and legitimate actors? How do they manage a multinational staff? This course looks inside international organizations by focusing on their administrative bodies, that is, on international bureaucracies such as the European Commission or the United Nations Secretariat.
The course tackles a set of fundamental challenges faced by international administrations: gaining autonomy and legitimacy from member states, building expertise, ensuring that staff is representative in terms of nationality and gender, and managing staff with different ethnic, cultural and educational backgrounds. It also looks at how these organizations innovate and reform themselves.
The course combines the discussion of organizational challenges with the application of these issues to a number of real-world cases, ranging from diversity management in the International Monetary Fund and organizational reform in the World Health Organization to how the European Commission deals with Brexit.
Course objectives
By the end of the course, students will have:
Knowledge and understanding of key theories and concepts relating to the management of international organizations and networks.
Advanced knowledge and understanding of the distinctive nature and challenges of governance and management in an international and multi-level setting.
Ability to identify and apply relevant theories to analyze real-world cases within international administrations.
Ability to prescribe solutions to management problems in international administrative contexts based on in-depth organizational analysis.
Ability to present results of research and case analyses to managers and relevant policy-makers.
Awareness of the challenges of working in a multinational environment, including in leadership positions.
Labour market
In the course, students develop three main types of skills relevant for the labour market: analysis skills, advisory skills and presentation skills.
Timetable
On the right side of programme front page of the E-guide you will find links to the website and timetables, uSis and Blackboard.
Mode of instruction
The course consists of seminars, group work and self-study. Attendance during the seminars is compulsory.
Course Load
Total course load: 140 hours
Of which:
Seminars 7 x 3 hours = 21 hours
Further structured study (work in groups on cases): 15 hours
Self-study: 104 hours
Assessment method
Oral presentation done in groups (20 % of total grade).
Written policy brief prepared in groups (20 % of total grade).
Individual paper (60 % of total grade).
Blackboard
All course information is made available on Blackboard.
Reading list
To be announced on Blackboard.
Registration
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 there.
Contact
Dr. J. Christensen j.christensen@fgga.leidenuniv.nl