Public management | MAPU

Diploma of Advanced Studies (DAS)

Public organisations can be thought of as being caught up in a multi-dimensional force field where the political, managerial, human and ethical dimensions are but the main forces involved. However, seen through the lens of Max Weber’s concepts of public administration, these dimensions would prove most problematic for public sector managers as public organisations should be directed by policy decisions from above, and managers should only concern themselves with operational issues. Alternatively, since the 1960s, numerous models and methodologies have been developed advocating the strategic management of public organisations, almost as if they have the ability to adopt an entrepreneurial outlook. While keeping in mind a backdrop where radical transformations are occurring in public affairs, this module addresses the fundamental structural, cultural, strategic and ethical dimensions of management. Nevertheless, it does this by demonstrating that those dimensions are the results of continually redefined associations between the rational/objective approaches and the contingent/reconstructed approaches used by members of those organisations.