Overview and general information
The main objective of the course is providing a picture of the challenges for managing public organizations, by explaining similarities and differences with the management of private companies.
The program starts with a description of the relevance of public sector, then illustrates the economics and managerial theories about its role in the economy.
The main conceptual effort in the first part of the Course will be devoted to the evolution from traditional (bureaucratic) Public Administration to modern Public Management principles. The second main part of the program is devoted to analyse how the “hard” tools of management are applied to the public sector: strategic planning, performance management, digital innovation and use of data.

Teaching structure
Lectures: 30 hours
Practice (practical activities, seminaries and case studies): 20 hours

Programme at a glance
(1) Course objectives and contents
The program is built around nine core modules, each of which will cover around 1 week:

1. The importance (and economic relevance) of public sector 2. Current trends for public management: an introduction
3. The role of the government in an economy
4. The ‘traditional’ model of Public Administration

5. Public Management: definitions and characteristics
• 5b. Regulation, Contracting and Public Ownership

6. Strategic management for public administrations
7. Financial and Performance Management
8. E-government and digital innovation in public management 9. The use of data for supporting innovation in the public sector

All the lessons will be accompanied by PPT presentations supplied by the teacher, that will be made available through the course’s website hosted in the platform ‘Beep’ (https://beep.metid.polimi.it).
In addition, some lessons will be built around the presentation and discussions of academic papers and business cases; the teacher will provide these materials when necessary.

Student evaluation
Each student will be required to write one assignment about the main topics covered by the Course (including the Case Studies) This activity will constitute the basis for the oral exam, which is hold in February 2017.
The overall final grade will be a function of three main criteria:

• (active) participation to the lessons and teamwork (30%)

• grades obtained in the assignments (50%)

• oral exam (20%)