PSM - Public Service Management Course Descriptions

Covers the analytical techniques that public and non-profit managers use to increase the value their organizations produce. Topics include: planning, decision making, leadership, organizational behavior, and resource management. The course will also cover performance management, human resource practices, technology management, and ethics in public service.

Covers the methods, terminology, and processes associated with the management of financial resources at the federal, state, and local levels. Topics include the politics of budgeting, budget reform, budget structure, cash and debt management, government accounting, tax evaluation, and financial reporting. Students will examine and evaluate a variety of budgets and financial reports.

Covers the basic elements of how to find, synthesize, and interpret different types of data, both quantitative and qualitative. The course will provide an introduction to the use of statistical software such as Microsoft Excel, and SPSS. By the end of the course, students will be able to create a simple database, run basic statistical analysis, and prepare and analyze univariate and multivariate regressions.

Prerequisites

Students complete 400 hours of professional-level work in a government agency or non-profit organization.

Introduces public policy and many of the important issues in its formulation and implementation. Also covers the ways in which academics and practitioners evaluate the effectiveness of public policies. Topics covered include approaches to governance, and the politics, ethics, economic, and sociology of attempts to mobilize public power around an area of concern. Students apply what is learned to models of policy making and analysis.

Focuses on reading policy critically, and on understanding the assumptions that underlie policies at the point of their formulation and execution. The course also covers the trade-offs and political compromises in policy history that may affect the ways in which political adversaries frame or publicly portray policies and target populations.

Teaches the basic economic models that underlie most economic discussions of public policy and that are common knowledge to those in the field. Examines how scarce resources are allocated within or in lieu of markets.

Covers methods and principles of effective communication in public service. Students learn about strategic communication and about writing press releases, policy memos, grant applications, and testimony.

This course covers what sustainability and sustainable development mean for urban and urbanizing areas. Topics covered include land-use, environmental justice, greening initiatives, quality of life, urban geography, environmental psychology and behavior, transportation systems, and related topics.

This course examines cities and the impact of policy making on urban youth. Topics covered include public space, community organizing, the influence of the street, the growth and demise of urban landscape, education, justice, nutrition.

Focuses on the structure and processes of governments in the US and the US political system. Covers constitutional theory, federalism and the role of the media, the president, and the Congress. Examines the role of political participation. Also examines the history, theories, concepts, and practice of public administration in the US.

Covers the application of economic analysis to urban policy problems. It describes the economic forces that led to the rise of cities and urban areas, the economic functions they serve and the role of local government in addressing urban problems. The course will look at leading problems, the economics behind them, and how economic analysis helps in understanding alternative policy solutions.

The course focuses on the knowledge and practical skills that public managers need in managing employees. Topics include managing teams, discrimination and labor law, working with unions, motivating employees, privatization, recruitment, the aging workforce, and performance evaluations. Particular emphasis is given to developing human resources practices that support core organizational objectives.

Looks at the background and context of environmental politics and policy. Examines the rise of environmental issues to prominence, and offers a detailed analysis of key environmental concerns, as well as the current structures and policies designed to resolve problems.

Examines the actors and institutions of city government, political behavior, and the process of urban development. Focuses on the major aspects of urban politics: how the politics, demographic and socioeconomic environments of US cities are changing. Examines changes in population, political power, political culture, public policies and moral issues in cities.

This course covers the techniques and methods used in public administration for evaluating the effectiveness of programs and policies. Topics covered may include: performance measures, cost-benefit analysis, cost-effectiveness and efficiency analysis, surveys and working with survey data, case study, experimental design, present value analysis, and indexes.

The course prepares students for PSM B1620: Advanced Quantitative Methods. It focuses on the knowledge and practical skills that public managers need in working with data and basic methods of quantitative analysis. The course will cover descriptive statistics, inferential statistics and math models with management applications. Specific topics include: measures of central tendency and variation, probability distributions, estimation, rations, percentages, and randomness.

This course assumes that leadership can be learned through the practice of skills, through guided reflection and discussion, and through observation and analysis of everyday leaders in everyday situations. By the end of the course, students will understand models and theories of leadership and leadership development learn to identify leadership skills in themselves and in others, and understand how leadership operates in different professional settings and context.

The Capstone course requires students to apply what they have learned in other courses to the analysis and evaluation of real-world problems. Course is taken during the last semester of the PSM program. Alternatively, students may choose to write a thesis.