Time Schedule:
Laura E Evans
PB AF 511
Seattle Campus
Examines broad aspects of organizational life and orients students to key internal and external challenges and opportunities of managing public and nonprofit organizations. Main topics include organizational mission, values, communication, culture, organizational environment and the policy process, legislative-executive relations, interest group advocacy, and media relations.
Class description
This course is the first sequence of core management courses at the Evans School designed to equip students with strategies and tools to accomplish critical objectives and tasks in a variety of public service positions. The autumn course covers skills for managing the political and policy contexts within which public and nonprofit organizations operate. Main topics include organizational mission, values, communication, culture, organizational environment and the policy process, policy formulation, adoption, and implementation; communicating and negotiating conflicts, and leading teams and groups.
In this course, we will study managerial strategy by discussing specific case studies of how managers address challenges in working with external stakeholders, as well as general readings on what managers do and how public and nonprofit organizations work in the context of democratic governance. The readings provide analytical frameworks that illuminate the cases. We will give particular attention to the responsibilities and challenges of diagnosing problems and developing solutions in turbulent and rapidly changing political environments in a globalizing world.
Student learning goals
Situate yourself within an organization or a policy environment;
Understand and learn to practice leadership and management;
Map key characteristics, such as vision, mission, stakeholders, structures, and leverage points;
Develop a repertoire of options, strategies, and tactics for responsible and effective action in different settings; and
Communicate your ideas to others.
General method of instruction
Class meetings involve large and small group discussions about the assigned cases and readings.
Recommended preparation
Class assignments and grading
The main component of the class assignments are two memos, a final group project and class participation. Each memo is 20% of the course grade. The group project is 30% of the course grade and class participation is 25% of the course grade.
