MPA Courses

Key to course scheduling:

F=Fall quarter

W=Winter quarter

Sp=Spring quarter

Su=Summer quarter

A=All quarters

Y=At least once a year

Quarter of course offering may be subject to change without prior notice. Consult the Department for the most current scheduling information.

UNDERGRADUATE COURSES:

4800. Public Administration and Society (4)
The historical and political context of public administration; politics and economics of public bureaucracy; managing governmental organizations; public finance and the national economy; values, ethics, and the public interest; the interface between professional administrators and citizens. Prerequisite for Classified Graduate Standing in the MPA program. (A)

4830. Organization Theory and Human Behavior (4)

Classical and emerging theoretical perspectives of human organizations; organizational design and tomorrow’s organizations; self and organization; environment and planned change; participative goal-setting and organizational effectiveness. Prerequisite for Classified Graduate Standing in the MPA program. (A)

5000. Philosophy of Public Administration (4)

Critical analysis of emerging domestic and global ideas; issues shaping and being shaped by the public sector. Theoretical perspectives on understanding values, ethics, citizenship, public good and the search for democratic administration. Prerequisite for Classified Graduate Standing in the MPA program. Prerequisites: PUAD 4800, 4830. (A)

GRADUATE COURSES:

6762. Group Procedures and Facilitation

Theories of group dynamics; group processes underlying individual, small groups, and planned or indirect organizational change. Interpersonal skills in group facilitation. Lectures, lab. Prerequisite: PUAD 6812.  (Sp)

6763. Advanced Group Process for Organizational Change (4)

Development of team building skills for organizational change, exploration of interpersonal communication, process of goal setting, conflict resolution, application of knowledge and skills to public organizational development. Prerequisite: PUAD 6812.  (F)

6764. Intervention Strategies for Changing Organizations (4)

Facilitator's role in organizational change processes. Relating diagnosis to intervention strategies in planned and indirect organization change; intervention models and case problems. Prerequisite: PUAD 6812.  (W)

6765. Organization Diagnosis and Assessment (4)

Theory and methods of organization diagnosis and assessment; nondirective/directive interview techniques; development of assessment instruments; assessing change capacities; phenomenological and existential analysis of lived-time and space; preparation of diagnostic analysis in development of intervention strategies. Prerequisite: PUAD 6764. (Sp)

6801. Public Policy Formulation and Implementation

Critical analysis of public policy-making processes; interrelationships between policy formulation, execution, evaluation, and revision; models of policy choices; citizen participation in policy-making; administrative responsibility in policy development. Prerequisite: PUAD 4800. (A)

6802. Seminar in Policy Implementation (4)

New course in the Public Policy Development Option. Developing strategies and tactics for identifying and solving implementation problems; implementation as a design, evaluative, and learning process; emphasis on analyzing implementation case studies. Prerequisites: PUAD 4800 and PUAD 6801.

6803. Seminar in Interpretive Policy Analysis (4)

New course in the Public Policy Development Option. Analytic approaches developing in response to hermeneutical, phenomenological, and other developments in the philosophy of science and social science: narrative policy analysis, policy design and framing, analysis of local knowledge. Prerequisites: PUAD 4800 and PUAD 6801.

6806. Policy Design for Sustainable Futures (4)

Foundations for future studies. The future as paradox, learning, democratic process, and interpretation of reality. Forecasting, making policy recommendations, and exploring alternative actions for sustainable futures. Interpretive global transformations and creating the future. Prerequisite: PUAD 6801. (Y)

6808. Seminar in Topics in Public Policy (4)

Different substantive areas of public policy, e.g., immigration policy; race-ethnic policies; science and technology policy, environmental policy; welfare, housing family, and other social policies; comparative public policy. May be repeated once for credit when a different policy area is treated. Prerequisite: PUAD 6801.

6809. Seminar in Public Program Evaluation (4)

Assessment of policy impact and effectiveness; analysis of program objectives; methods of evaluation; developing action oriented evaluation processes; administration of evaluation systems. Prerequisite: PUAD 6801. (Y)

6811. Human Organizations and Social Realities (4)

Post-modernist approaches to the understanding of organizational realities, including phenomenological, critical, feminist, and other interpretive approaches; subjective, intersubjective, contextual, historical influences; organizational socialization and personality growth, personal and organizational value development and human effectiveness. Prerequisite: PUAD 4800, PUAD 4830, and Stat 1000 (or its equivalent.) (A)

6812. Changing Human Organizations (4)

Application of interpretive, critical, and postmodern theories to changing organizations; uses of meaning-centered, experientially-grounded theories for understanding organizational cultures; personal praxis in changing organizations. Prerequisites: PUAD 6811. (A)

6815. Ethics and Administrative Responsibility (4)

Ethical dimensions of the public service; value dilemmas, administrative ethics and accountability, responsibility in making public choices, whistle-blowing, the public interest; equality and equity in democracy. Prerequisite: PUAD 6801 and 6811. (Y)

6830. Information Management in Public Organizations (4)

Critical examination of the significance of information management concepts, tools, and technologies for public organizations; their implications for policy formulation, analysis, evaluation, organizational change, budgeting, decision making, knowledge management, and client services. Prerequisite: PUAD 4830, and STAT 1000 (or its equivalent.) (Y)

6831. Research Methods in Public Administration I (4)

Theory and methods of interpretive research in the public sector. Emphasis on meaning-centered and inductive modes of data gathering and analysis, including interviews, participant observation, ethnographic methods, and the development of grounded theory. Issues in case study presentation and field research narratives. Prerequisites: PUAD 4800, 4830, 5000. (A)

6832. Research Methods in Public Administration II (4)

Positivistic research methods; uses of quantitative and computer analysis; application of quantitative approaches to organizational improvement, policy research, and decision making; implementation of research design; examination of the logic underlying application of quantitative methods and statistical techniques. Prerequisites: PUAD 4800, 4830, 5000 and STAT 1000 (or its equivalent.)  (A)

6840. Seminar in Public Finance Administration (4)

Budgetary process in public policy formation and administrative control; strategic principles of fiscal policy in attaining public goals; public revenues, sources, incident, and effect of principal taxes; inter-governmental aspects of revenue problems; grants-in-aid. Prerequisite; PUAD 6801. (Y)

6842. Governmental Budgeting (4)

Governmental budgeting as political and social processes; administrative control at federal, state, local levels; central budget agencies and budget offices in operating agencies; budgets as planning, policy-making and management instruments; executive-legislative relationships. Prerequisite: PUAD 6801. (Y)

6846. Governmental Accounting and Fiscal Management (4)

Understanding basic accounting procedures, basic governmental accounting and fiscal reporting concepts; fund accounting; integrated roles of accounting, budgeting, financial reporting and fiscal management. Prerequisite: PUAD 6801. (Y)

6847. Strategic Approaches in Public Finance and Budgeting (4)

Strategies and tactics for developing innovative approaches for financing public goods and services. Critical evaluation of public sector efforts to acquire financial and budgetary resources. Public sector managers as entrepreneurs. Prerequisites: PUAD 6801 and PUAD 6842.

6850. Human Resource Management in the Public Sector (4)

Development of public service concepts and institutions; assessment of public personnel methods and organization; interaction with other management functions, and with the executive and legislative processes; influence of social and political values upon public service concepts. Prerequisite: PUAD 6811. (Y)

6851. Work and Organizations of the Future (4)

Critical assessment of the nature of work and traditional human resource practices in public organizations. Empowering and involving employees. Diversity, trust, and mutualism. Relationships among information technologies, the organization, employees, and citizens. Creating the organization of the future. Prerequisites: PUAD 6811. (Y)

6854. Seminar in Public Labor Relations (4)

History and present status of public labor relations; changing concepts and their implications for existing institutions, processes and values in public personnel systems, dispute resolution, cooperative labor management committees, and other current issues. Prerequisites: PUAD 4830, PUAD 6801. (Y)

6864. Managing Public Organizations (4)

The responsibilities of the public sector manager; differences between private and public sector management; short versus long-term management in the public sector. Critical examination of the public managers as strategic leaders. Prerequisites: PUAD 6801.

6865. Administration of the Metropolitan Region (4)

Description and evaluation of urban, suburban and regional institutional arrangements for providing and delivering public goods and services. Origins of and description of institutional arrangements and critical evaluation of prospects for improving the effectiveness of metropolitan government and governance.  Prerequisites: PUAD 6801.

6866. Approaches to Urban and Regional Problem-Solving (4)

Urban and regional environments as a source of public problems, including such issues as employment, transportation, citizen participation. Comparative study of efforts to improve the quality urban and regional life. Prerequisite: PUAD 6801.

6868. Land-Use Planning for Administrators (4)