PA 513: Administrative Ethics and Values
Explores values, ethics, and morality in public sector administration. It considers such concepts and issues as the following: personal and professional values and roles; the myth of value neutrality; the public interest; values, ethics, and change; value trade-offs; ethical ambiguities; ethical codes, fiscal ethics, and ethics and administrative discretion.
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PA 518: Leading Public Organizations
Course seeks to develop an understanding of the essential ingredients of leading public organizations, including creating a vision, developing support for the vision, and transforming the vision into an organizational legacy. It focuses on the distinctive role responsibilities of the leader as an agent of the organization within the larger community setting, thus distinguishing the course from other leadership classes that focus on either an individual or organizational perspective. As part of this larger external focus, participants acquire the knowledge and skills to undertake inter-jurisdictional and strategic planning, conflict management, to work with the media, and to develop and implement collaborative agreements.
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PA 533: Public Policy: Origins and Process
Drawing on the general concept of the policy cycle, this course explores the central actors, processes, and issues associated with the formation of public policy. The course gives particular weight to interaction among the three branches of government, interest groups, and the private sector. Tensions between technocratic and political approaches to policy development also receive attention, as do intergovernmental concerns.
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PA 534: Administrative Law and Policy Implementation
When policies receive the formal status of laws, they acquire a special significance for the executive and judicial branches. This course examines the process of policy implementation through the use of administrative discretion and the rule-making process. Delegation of legislative power, judicial review, informal adjudication, and the role of the administrative law judge are emphasized. The limits of discretionary authority are explored. Students address the theoretical, practical, and ethical issues in implementation, giving particular attention to the relationship between stated goals and actual outcomes.
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PA 540: Administrative Theory and Behavior
Managing organizational systems to accomplish purposeful outcomes. Attention is given to how formal structures and informal processes influence organizational goals in public and nonprofit environments. This includes theories of organizational, group, and individual behavior, such as organizational design, power and authority, leadership, teamwork, communications, work design, and motivation. Emphasis is on managers and managing in public purpose organizations by reviewing major theories and their application and effective use.
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PA 552: Analytic Methods in Public Administration II
A continuation and expansion of topics covered in PA 551, focusing on analytic methods used in research and evaluation of public sector policies, systems, and programs. Topics to be covered may include: qualitative and quantitative applications in research design and data collection; statistical modeling, forecasting, program evaluation, and other areas of applied research.
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PA 583: Advanced Budgeting Concepts and Techniques
Investigates how budgeting can be used to review, analyze, and establish public policy and administrative accountability. Students learn how to: 1) design the best budget system to fit various political environments; 2)review the effectiveness and efficiency of programs through budget analyses; and 3)use the budget to clarify public policy issues and establish management accountability for performance. The mechanics of public budgeting will also be discussed in detail, including developing a budget calendar, making fund balance estimates, balancing revenues and expenditures, and monitoring the approved budget.
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PA 590: Human Resource Management in the Public Sector
Administration and management of human resource systems in public sector and nonprofit organizations. Focus is on the underlying values of human resource management, related public policies, structural patterns, and the functional areas of HRM systems. Specific attention will be directed to the strategic roles of human resource management in day-to-day operations, merit system concepts and practices, position and wage classification systems, methods of securing a qualified labor force, and labor relations. Legal requirements in each of these areas will be examined. Emphasis will be on learning by doing through use of skill-building exercises, simulation and analysis of case materials, review of relevant case law, administrative rulemaking, and current literature.
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