PUBLIC MANAGEMENT

The course aims to introduce both the basic tools of public management (personnel management, the budget, purchases of goods and services, strategic and operational planning) and knowledge related to the functioning of Public Administrations (PA) and their main characteristics. The set of knowledge and specific skills related to "soft skills" (relational, communicative, teamwork support skills) is an essential part of building a set of cognitive assets that can, in principle, allow the student to enter. in a more direct and concrete way, within the figure and mission of the public manager. Particular attention will be paid to the need for students to become fully aware of the consequences of digital transformation processes on the various areas of PA management. At the end of the course, therefore, students will have acquired a more solid knowledge of the fundamentals of public management, of the main tools available to the manager as well as a more solid awareness of the skills necessary for the effective management of the institutional units of PA.

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On the basis of the so-called "Dublin descriptors", the expected learning outcomes can be declined as follows. A first expected result refers to the construction of the set of technical knowledge and to the ability to understand the administrative and organizational context in which the various activities related to public management are set upon. The evaluation of these skills is relatively simple, but at the same time essential for the development of activities capable of ensuring the approach or, hopefully, the full achievement of more ambitious results. A second, possible outcome focuses on increasing students' ability and familiarity with the use of knowledge and skills acquired in administrative areas within which full awareness of how much the different aspects of managing a public institution are united and deeply intertwined. This awareness constitutes the main pillar around which to build an autonomous problem-solving capacity. A third learning result to be pursued focuses on the development of attitudes / behaviors by students (thanks to the acquisition of a good technical and cultural background related to public management) which can facilitate the definition of judgments, assessments, points of view capable to bring out the social role of the manager with sufficient clarity. A fourth result is in the area of ​​those competences capable of translating judgments, evaluations, points of view (referred to in the previous point) in an effective and fully comprehensible way towards the team to which the manager does belong and / or external stakeholders . The development of communication skills as a tool for the concrete management of a public administration, to be observed and stimulated especially in group work during the course, must be "handed over" to students, emphasizing the role of these skills as an essential element of a participatory management practice. A fifth outcome of the course, always following the thread of Dublin descriptors, can be referred to the construction of an autonomous learning ability. This is perhaps the most delicate and complex result to be built (and also to be verified) with the students. It is very important to "engage" the course participants explicitly, underlining in traditional form (in the classroom or with distance learning), through assignments and in group work how being able to independently strengthen one's learning ability constitutes the basis for in-depth study and constant expansion of one's knowledge and skills.

The course first deals with the issues of defining the perimeter of public activities, their functions and specificities, the underlying theories, the prevailing organizational models. Much of the training course focuses, however, on the various areas of the operational management of a public administration: from strategic planning and programming of activities to budget management, from personnel management (starting with the construction of one's team) to that of the acquisition of the inputs (technologies and skills normally external to the AAPP) necessary for the generation of the final products and services, from the management of the performance cycle (including issues relating to the measurement of activities) to that of risk management. Across-the-board attention will also be paid to the consequences of digital transformation processes on the characteristics of public management in the concrete different environments just sketched above. Whenever appropriate, possible contacts and common themes with other second semester courses will be emphasized.

Cucciniello, M., Fattore, G., Longo, F., Ricciuti, E., Turrini, A. (2018) Management Pubblico, Milan, Egea. Chapters 1-11 and 17-20. Giovannini, E. (2017) L'utopia sostenibile, Bari, Laterza. Slides on individual parts of the program will be made available by the teacher.

The training course will include traditional lesson activities (in particular within the part of the course that will take place in e-learning format) as well as in-depth analysis through individual and group exercises (in the "physical" classroom). During the course some case studies regarding specific administrations will be built and analyzed in order to offer students greater concreteness and "operational representation" of the knowledge and skills conveyed. More in particular, in the first weeks of the course, two well-identified administrations (e.g., a ministry and a municipality) will be selected.These two administrations will be used as a constant reference in the development of the course.

There are four ways through which the performance of students is verified and evaluated: 1. a brief written assignment at the end of the second week of the course (10% of total grade); 2. an interim exam (not compulsory) in written form, based on the contents of the first half of the course. Students are expected to answer to three short essays in an hour and a half time. The interim exam, scheduled for the 6th week of the course, accounts for 30% of the overall student grade; 3. a class presentation made by student groups in the eleventh week of the course on topics agreed with the teacher; (30% of the overall grade); 4. a final exam, in written form, based on the topics dealt with in the first and second part of the course. Students have to answer, in three hours time, to six short essays. The final exam accounts for 60% of the overall grade. Students who have done and passed the interim exam, will have to answer to three short essays, in an hour and a half time, based on the topics of the second part of the course; in this case the final exam will account for 30% of the overall grade; These four ways of evaluating the performance of students are consistent with the results expected from the delivery of the course. Indeed, they are finalized to verify both technical knowledge and full awareness of the complex context of daily administrative life. Furthermore, they seem to allow the teacher to gain more solid knowledge on communication skills typical of a public manager in her/his social environment and on the possible, new capacity of students to learn how to strengthen their autonomous capacity of building up and improving both skills and managerial capacity.

The assignment of a master's degree thesis is subject to passing the exam.

Within the area dedicated to reference books there is an indication of a monograph especially dedicated to sustainability issues. This inclusion is motivated by the need for students to learn the contents of the course while keeping in mind that the context in which public administrations (and their managers) will be called upon to move in the coming years is, first and foremost, that of the pursuit of sustainability objectives.